The client
The Careers with STEM magazines are produced for a global audience by Refraction Media and are brilliant. Usually included in the magazine are posters, quizzes and links to a vast array of website content (such as videos). The goal is to help students discover the careers of the future.Â
Each year they deliver four magazines across each of the STEM disciplines, plus special editions, like Data Science, Engineering and Cybersecurity. As of November 2021, they’ve published 20 editions and distributed 1.3 million free magazines to students across the USA, Australia and New Zealand.Â
While 75% of future jobs will require STEM skills, just 16% of high-school graduates are enrolling in STEM degrees in Australia. Many of the careers of the future will combine STEM skills with other areas. This is the reason behind the fun articles called ‘STEM + X’. Like Technology + Fashion = 3D-printed clothes. Maths + Sport = footy statistician. To find your STEM + X career pathway and more, visit CareerswithSTEM.com.
The need
With magazines published all year round and extensive web content, plus other bespoke projects, Refraction Media need an army of science writers they can rely on. Some of their writers are on staff and others are employed through contracts and commissions.Â
Our solution
 To produce these articles, Claire:
- Interviewed spokespeople. Their areas of expertise can be anything loosely related to STEM. Claire has spoken with graduates in their first jobs after high school and senior executives: engineers, coders, mathematicians, IT professionals, environmental scientists and everything in between.
- Read background information about the area of STEM or the application, for example, the organisations the spokespeople work for.
- Drafted articles considering the style and audience, including specific pieces of information requested by the Editor.
- Managed feedback and edits with the key spokespeople.
- Proofread and worked with the magazine editor.
The article is amazing! Love your flair for making my work sound good. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share my story, to me making a difference to even one person is worth it.
See the careers with STEM stories
The articles written by Innovate Communicate are available on the Careers with STEM website and in the digital and physical magazines (available through Issuu). Some are provided here.
A day in the life of an ethical hacker with CBA
Trying to think like a hacker and playing Dungeons & Dragons is all in a day’s work (and play) for CBA grad Rhiannon Nee-Salvador.
Medical robots: from wearables to insideables
Breaking computers, radios and remote-controlled cars might seem like a sure-fire way to annoy your family, right? Luckily, Samy Movassaghi, a telecommunication and computer science expert at CSIRO, has a very easygoing family. Now she’s designing medical robots to track the health of hospital patients from the inside.
Space Systems Engineer with Defence Science
Monique Hollick is hooked on space. She was always interested in how things work and at high school she was good at maths and physics, so decided to explore opportunities in science and engineering. Now, as a space systems engineer, she works with two satellites…
Edmond Buzby, catching criminals with Digital Forensics
Edmond Buzby is just like the forensics heroes in TV shows like Bones or CSI, only he searches for digital evidence of crimes, collecting and preserving anything he finds for police and the legal system.
Avalon Martinkus, Quantitative Analyst with QUT
Businesses are looking for maths experts like Avalon Martinkus to help them assess the risk of climate change.
Three minutes with innovators from IMPACT7
Why did a brain surgeon, an engineer and a materials scientist visit an old meat marketplace?
To share how they’re making the world a better place and to seek help doing it, of course.
How to land a science role in the resource sector
Images of open-cut mines or trucks laden with sand may not make you think of science and technology but Australia operates some of the safest, most efficient and environmentally focused mines in the world.
From sailing to security, Sean Bly found a cyber career
Sometimes career decisions are made in the strangest places. Sean Bly was in Italy, on holiday from his sail coach job, when he saw an ad for a degree in networks and security.Â
Maths + creativity: Character Rigger, Cara Gately
Cara applies mathematics every day, incorporating concepts like Euler angles and quaternion numbers to calculate rotations and orientations of items in virtual space. She also codes in Python and C++ languages.
Daniel Butler, Hydrodynamicist with Defence
Daniel Butler took his childhood love of Lego, aeroplane models and puzzles and turned it into a career. He’s now a hydrodynamicist working on the Navy’s $90 billion future submarine and frigate programs with the Department of Defence Science and Technology.
Cyber Crime Fighter Shishira Skanda with Deloitte
Ongoing ‘healthy competition’ with her brother was the reason Shishira Skanda first tried computer games. Once she discovered she could make computers do things through coding, she was hooked.
Engineers creating cutting-edge tech for the defence industry
The defence industry is one of Australia’s biggest employers of engineers – developing cutting-edge technology away from the frontline. Future submarines, Joint Strike Fighter jets and Hawkei armoured vehicles are just some of the exciting defence projects in Australia right now – and engineers are in high demand to make them happen.
