When most people pivot careers, they move across town. Pamela Naidoo-Ameglio moved countries. Then industries. Then fields of expertise entirely.

She shifted from diamond mines in South Africa to copper operations in rural New South Wales. Then, from underground geology to running Australia’s only nuclear reactor – a role she was offered with zero nuclear experience and accepted anyway.

“At first I thought, oh, have they got the right person?” she says on the latest season of FW’s award-winning podcast Too Much: The Switch. “But when I understood what they were looking for, I realised just how much I could bring across.”

And she brought it in her own way.

Across Pamela’s 25-year career, she’s often been told she’s “too quiet”. Not assertive enough. The wrong fit for the image of leadership that male-dominated industries had spent decades building. At first, she took on this feedback, and turned up the volume. But this took its toll.

Eighteen-year-old Pamela at university, and 25 years later – leading the country’s only nuclear reactor at ANSTO

“When I was trying to be something I was not, it was really draining,” she tells host Briana Blackett. “But if I was being who I was, I was comfortable in my skin, I was confident, I was able to achieve what I wanted to — and more importantly, connect with people in a very authentic way.”

Eventually, she stopped trying to fix something that wasn’t broken.

“Too quiet? Well, that’s actually something I’m proud of,” she says. “I am a listener. As a scientist, I learn more by listening than by the sound of my own voice.”

There’s also power in being quiet, as Pamela points out. “People are going to listen when you speak up.”

Her first career pivot was very much driven by observation – not bravado. She was working as a geologist in an underground mine, at the site of a recent fatality.

“Overnight there had been a fall of ground and a miner had died,” she says. “It was the job of the geologist to actually map the rock formations to understand what caused this fatality. And having to do that really drove home to me how important people are.”

Pamela turned her focus away from the purely technical, as a geologist, to connecting with and leading people and teams in mining. And she brought others along with her. 

“Experiment. Learn something new and put it into effect. And if that feels right, amplify it until you’re ready to take that bigger step and make the change.”

“I was able to set up Women in Mining in South Africa, a network encouraging women to join mining and then to remain in it, in a very supportive environment,” she says. “I’d realised that you need to create your own opportunities for finding those interesting roles, the work experience and the things you would like to do.”

After 20 years in mining – including leadership roles with Rio Tinto that took her from South Africa to Australia – Pamela had done all she’d set out to do. But she took her time recalibrating for what was to come.

“I spent the next four years doing very different roles to acquire the skills I thought I needed to move into another technology-based industry,” she says. And that curiosity led her to running hackathons, international research collaborations and Eureka prizes.

Then, Australia’s Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) asked her to run the nation’s only research reactor. She was an outsider, leading experts who knew far more about nuclear science.

“I was really excited because I’m definitely a bit of a nerd,” she says.

“I loved the science and the technology. And being able to take the experience I had in implementing new technologies in mining that were focused around keeping people safe… I jumped at the opportunity.”

True to form, in an entirely new field, quiet curiosity led her further than loud confidence ever could have. Pamela listened, learned and succeeded. For women considering a career pivot, she advises taking small steps at first.

“Experiment. Learn something new and put it into effect. And if that feels right, amplify it until you’re ready to take that bigger step and make the change.”