Dare to Ask | Making participants' lives a bit easier

In this insightful interview, Haydan shares his journey from diverse career paths, including mining, culinary arts, retail, and disability support worker to his current role as a Employment Support Officer at Castle. He highlights the rewarding aspect of his job, where he can apply skills gained from past experiences to positively impact others. Haydan discusses how working in disability support has transformed his perspective, emphasizing the abilities and determination of individuals with disabilities rather than focusing on limitations. He advocates for a shift in mindset towards recognizing and valuing people's skills and passions, advocating for more inclusive employment opportunities.

Complete video transcript below: 

Haydan: - So my name's Haydan, I'm an employment support officer at Castle.

Interviewer: What did you do before your current role?

 Haydan: So with Castle I was disability support worker. I've done plenty of things in the past as well. So I've been, I worked in the mines. I was a chef for 15 years. I did a lot of retail stuff. And yeah, so I try to bring those skills into this new job.

Interviewer: What are the most rewarding parts of your job?

Haydan: So I guess over the years I have had a lot of people that have sort of mentored me and helped me along the way and I've sort of built up a lot of skills. Then when I went to fell into this into this role before, it sort of started feeling rewarding that I could transfer that learning that I've had before into people that really, really appreciate it, really take it to heart and that's a really rewarding part.

Interviewer: Has working in disability changed you?

Haydan: I used to see people doing the disability support and just go, you know, I'd take my hat off to them, but I could never do it. And it wasn't until that opportunity came where I'm just like, oh, you know, am I going to be able to be that person to do this job? And then, yeah, it wasn't really me changing. It was the guys changing me who I was working with and changing my perspective on what disability is. And they're just as able and probably more determined. I think we just need to rip up that disability tag when it comes to employment and just say, you know, what are they able to do? Because, you know, we figure out what your abilities are, not what your disabilities are. Like, you know, what are you good at? What are your passions? Because there's employment out there for it.

Find out what employment opportunities are out there, get in touch