no sunday blues debuts ‘In The Room’ career series to support senior women in Melbourne’s creative industries

This week 30 senior women from Melbourne’s creative, PR, strategy and marketing industries gathered at Free Studio for the launch of In The Room, a new intimate career series created by no sunday blues in collaboration with Coach Kat.

no sunday blues is a recruitment agency, built on the belief that recruitment in the creative industries deserves a smarter, more human approach. It has come together with Coach Kat, who is a career strategist specialising in the creative industries.

The event, titled Career Strategy & Self Advocacy, brought together professionals across agency and in-house disciplines with 7+ years’ experience. Built to create space for the conversations women in the industry don’t always get to have, what came through clearly is that visibility, confidence and selectivity aren’t soft skills, they’re career strategy.

no sunday blues opened with a state-of-play briefing drawing on real-time feedback from attendees, revealing a sharpening disconnect between how agencies recruit and how today’s creative talent actually wants to be seen and assessed. Key themes included the limits of traditional recruitment processes, the undervaluing of visibility and personal brand in hiring decisions, and a growing demand for skills-based, human-centred approaches to attracting senior creatives.

Co-founder of no sunday blues Mikhaila Warburton noted a tangible shift in how women are thinking about opportunity: “Saying no isn’t seen as a risk anymore, it’s a strategy. When you’re clear on what you want, you can turn down the wrong roles and create space for the work that actually moves you forward.”

Co-founder Charlotte Flood on confidence: “Imposter syndrome doesn’t disappear. The difference is the women who move forward keep putting the reps in anyway. Confidence isn’t something you wait for, it’s something you build through action.”

Co-founder Steph Graham on the longer game: “Careers aren’t linear, especially in creative industries. What stood out is that tenacity matters, the ability to ride those waves and keep backing yourself even when things feel uncertain.”

A panel of agency leaders added frank, on-the-record perspective, including Ellena Mills-Stainer, Chief Design Officer at Howatson+Company, Ashleigh McInnes, Owner of Papermill Agency and Jess Hay, Managing Director of The Property Agency Melbourne.

The findings reflect a broader conversation across the Australian creative industry about how agencies attract, value and retain senior talent.

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