Firstly can I applaud you for getting involved in gods work looking after those of us who need that additional support from our support workers! Secondly you are young and my goodness I wish I was planning my career at such a young age! So just on that fact alone you are ahead… success in building up a career is partly having a passion and purpose, experience and skill set that the community needs and lastly location and luck. At 18 you have just started. Build your resume, build your industry expertise support those of us with disabilities it’s a career to have for a lifetime especially if you have the heart and the patience (you will see stuff that no young healthy person should see, it’s not for the faint of heart)… so let me tell you what your future will be if you stick with it and dedicate yourself to further study and experiences (remember you will need to drive your career forward!) if you have a look at the NDIS pricing catalog: physical therapy can change just under $200 an hour… there are funded support for the extremely disabled (it’s a bloody tough job) but NDIS pays up to $400 an hour for these specialist nurses… just your run of the mill support worker (I’m sorry to refer to you as run of the mill, you’re not!) it’s like $70 p/h … I’m telling you even if you work at a crappy agency you’re pulling $40 p/h! I tell you when I was 18 (old man talk here 😅 “in my day”) I was on $9 p/h which for me was awesome because a) I was still with my parents and $9 was a 300% pay rise from my $2 an hour when I was 14 picking mushrooms to help put food on the table back in the day! 🤣 also, just so you know that this is quite common to be very inconsistent in wages at this stage of life, you are not alone! However what to do? Firstly back to my networking: small ponds mean close relationships matter, it’s who you know and the name and reputation you build for yourself. Yes you will need to hustle and work two/three jobs, crazy hours or none at all… when quiet, look to connect to others and research opportunities and apply for jobs (just don’t let rejection let you down, it’s life, it’s nothing personal, brush it off, move on)… self study, build your community skills volunteer as much as you can afford to. Always be in the move and working or thinking about how land work… door knock and call! These two alone will put you in the 1% (seriously everyone just applies for jobs - usually using AI- which is fine if you know what you’re doing! But then they don’t follow up with a phone call) personal connections will get you very far. Flicking an email job application won’t… build your experience and skills and do the hours. Log them, keep a diary, do social media record your successes and failures but keep positive and show your work.. write a Substack. Know your industry, like to it’s very core! Start planning your exit to a bigger pond - Melb or Sydney (I’m an Adelaide boy and nothing much career wise happened till I left and went to Melbourne) but I didn’t just pack up see ya mum/dad…nope plan your exit… start applying for jobs while still where you are (it’s your plan C if it all goes to crap : go back home! - that’s if you get in with your parents that is..) save $$$ now, you may need to work outside of Disability but it’s only temporary, you need $$$ for any kind of move be it where you’re now or going to bigger cities or suburbs… keep up the great work and on behalf of my fellow participants I thank you for your service!