Karen Cavu  ·  Founder & Lead Coach, Eklektos

EKLEKTOS

choose your future
from the Greek 🇬🇷 εκλεκτός — chosen, select, the best of its kind

Nobody hands you a syllabus for your career. I unpack the hidden curriculum of career development: the unwritten rules of hiring, progression and professional life that everyone is expected to know and almost no one is taught.

technē — method, expertise

Career development isn't rocket science. It isn't intuitive either.

Most people I work with land in one of two places: they know what they're supposed to do but can't work out how to apply it to their own situation, or they genuinely don't know what they're supposed to do, when, or how, because nobody ever taught them the rules everyone else seems to have absorbed by osmosis.

Either way, the fix isn't more generic advice. It's someone who can name the unwritten rule out loud and walk you through applying it.

That's the work of Eklektos, a career development and capability practice founded on Aristotle's five forms of knowledge and my doctoral research into sustainable career development learning. My undergraduate thesis compared heroism in Homer and Virgil, so the classics-degree-turned-career-coach pipeline has, in hindsight, always been on the cards. Decoding things other people find opaque is sort of my whole deal.

With nearly two decades across government, industry, health, and higher education, I've led career and capability initiatives from frontline delivery through to institutional strategy and curriculum design across six Australian universities and TAFEs. My background spans classics and ancient history, adult education, human resource management, and career development, including a Master of Education specialising in Educational Leadership and Indigenous Pedagogies.

I've lived and worked in seven countries and married into a Chinese/Pasifika family, so working out the unwritten rules of a room you weren't raised in is something I've done personally, long before I did it professionally. After two decades inside institutions, I'm now building Eklektos full-time, bringing everything I learned directly to organisations and individuals.

Karen Cavu, Founder and Lead Coach of Eklektos

at a glance

+Nearly two decades across higher education, government, industry and private practice
+PhD candidate researching professional identity and career development learning for early-career researchers
+Career education and coaching across six Australian universities and TAFEs, including senior faculty-level roles
+Five years leading a university-wide career program for early and emerging researchers
+National program delivery from frontline career coaching to government career initiatives
+Implemented a First-Year Advising Program for 7,500 students at a sandstone university
+Lived and worked in seven countries, married into a Chinese/Pasifika family
Registered Career Development Practitioner (CICA) Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) Certified Leadership Coach (The Forton Group)
technē — who I work with

The people I do this with

My clients share one thing in common: they're capable, often highly capable, but the career development piece wasn't something anyone sat down and taught them. I work with individuals and institutions across:

PhD researchers and candidates
Early and emerging researchers
Mid-career professionals seeking a reset
Return-to-work parents
International students and graduates
Universities and research institutions
Government agencies
Corporates and NFPs
epistēmē — scholarly knowledge

A method built on five forms of knowledge

Aristotle named five distinct ways of knowing. Eklektos uses them as a deliberate progression: from raw technical skill through to the kind of wisdom that lets you choose your own path with confidence.

technē
method expertise

Knowing the craft

The practical skills and tools of career management: CVs, applications, interviews, networks. The starting point, not the destination.

epistēmē
scholarly knowledge

Knowing the evidence

What the research actually says about career development, labour markets, and transition, not received wisdom or recycled LinkedIn advice.

nous
interpretive insight

Knowing the room

Reading what's actually happening in a given organisation, panel, or conversation: the unwritten rules underneath the stated process.

phronēsis
practical judgement

Knowing what to do

Applying all of the above to a specific decision, in a specific context, at a specific moment. The judgement that turns knowledge into action.

sophia
reflective wisdom

Knowing yourself

The endpoint: a client who no longer needs me, who can navigate their next transition, and the one after that, on their own terms.

phronēsis — practical judgement

How we might work together

01

1:1 Career Coaching

Structured, evidence-based coaching for researchers and professionals navigating transition: academic-to-industry moves, role redefinition, post-PhD planning, or career re-direction. Delivered individually or at cohort scale for institutional clients.

02

Training & Facilitation

Workshops, keynotes, and facilitated sessions on career development, researcher employability, and professional identity, for conferences, universities, and corporate audiences including rooms with high levels of expertise and seniority.

03

Curriculum & Module Development

Online and in-person curriculum design for career development learning programs, built on research-backed frameworks and designed to scale across cohorts and institutions. Self-paced, moderated, or blended.

nous — interpretive insight

Workshop and session topics

Available as standalone sessions, series, or embedded within existing programs. All sessions can be adapted for online or face-to-face delivery.

For researchers and doctoral candidates

Career planning from the first stage of your PhD
How to set yourself up for success and gather the data you need
Career confident in the final stage of your PhD
Too many deadlines and not enough planning? Let's flip the script
Applying the research process to your own career
Your career pathway is your final research question. What evidence have you gathered?
Professional branding and profiles for researchers
Promoting your value without selling anything
Research impact and communication
Stakeholder mapping, network mapping, and translating outcomes
Mapping your career odyssey
The career ladder is now a lattice. What options should you plan for?

For professionals and broader audiences

Taking the awkward out of networking
How introverts make the best networkers: know your purpose, map your plan
Two phone calls that change everything
Discovery calls with recruiters, and informational interviews with potential colleagues
Before you write your job application
The actions that only a few know about that make all the difference
The hidden job market and hidden curriculum of job search
Levelling the playing field for the under-represented
Managing up and leading from the side
How to lead and gain influence when you're not the boss
What should I do next?
How to stop outsourcing your most important decisions and take control of your journey
Managing professional placements and mastering internships
How to prepare to impress
How effective are you really?
Maximise your impact by levelling up your skill translation
sophia — reflective wisdom

The eudaimonic career framework

Most career advice optimises for one thing: getting hired. My doctoral research takes a wider view. Eudaimonia, the classical Greek idea of human flourishing applied to career design, asks a different question. A genuinely sustainable career is not just a job you can get. It is a fit between who you are, what you do, and the world you do it in, sustained over time and not just at the point of hire.

micro
Person-career fit: does this work suit who you actually are, not just what you're qualified for?
meso
Person-career-community fit: does this career connect you to the people and communities that matter to you?
macro
Person-career-global impact: does this work let you contribute to something beyond yourself?
sophia — reflective wisdom

Ready to choose your future?

Whether you're an individual navigating a transition, or an organisation looking for career coaching, training, or curriculum development, I'd like to hear what you're working through.

Karen Cavu, Founder & Lead Coach, Eklektos
eklektoscoach@gmail.com
linkedin.com/in/karencavu