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This paper aims to explore the themes and nature of sentiment of Twitter content that discussed the Australian bushfire disaster 2019–2020 and its associated wildlife devastation, with considerations for the future of Australia’s tourism industry.

A large, qualitative data set consisting of all publicly available Twitter posts during the period of the Australian bushfires from December 2019 to March 2020 that mentioned the bushfires and wildlife are explored.

The devastation of wildlife through the Australian bushfire disaster elicited emotionally charged Twitter content from both Australian and overseas users. Positive sentiment focused on offering support to areas impacted by wildlife devastation. Negative sentiment concentrated on linking the Australian bushfires disaster to global discussions surrounding the climate emergency, and a perceived lack of political action.

Despite the intensity of media attention directed towards the Australian bushfires disaster 2019–2020, there has been little scholarly research exploring social media content specifically focused on the wildlife devastation and its association with, and implications for, the tourism industry.

Flatter organisational structures and nonlinear career trajectories mean intrinsic value and subjective career success are increasingly important for motivating, guiding and rewarding contemporary workers. While objective measures of career success have been well explored, more research is needed to understand the dimensions of subjective career success, their relative importance to graduates and potential variations by personal factors. This is critical for supporting graduates’ transition into work and for organisations to attract and retain graduates amid global talent shortages.

Building on assertions of the power to understand how what one seeks in a career affects career achievement, this study investigated the importance and achievement of subjective career success among 324 recent graduates from two Australian universities.

Results include a notable emphasis on financial security and work-life balance, particularly among mature individuals, underscoring the value of adaptable work arrangements. Results suggest shifting priorities, with reduced importance placed on opportunities for innovation and assisting others, potentially indicating a move from collective to more individualised goals. Distinct graduate profiles emerged, showcasing diverse priorities and achievements in subjective career success, spanning from “humanistic” to “self-made” success.

Results underscore the significance of higher education embedding program-wide career development plans across the curriculum, including value-based assessments, labour market analyses and career planning and review processes. Comprehensively supporting students in career development will empower them to explore, understand and actively pursue their career goals in alignment with their values and motivations, enhancing their person-organisation fit, career satisfaction and organisational commitment.

The ability to working effectively with others (WEWO) is critical yet industry continues to lament deficiencies in new graduates. Progress in developing this highly valued skill in undergraduates is impeded by a lack of conceptual clarity and evidence of how best to measure it, and a tendency to adopt an outcomes-focused, rather than process-oriented, approach. This paper aims to investigate undergraduate perceptions of how well a stand-alone employability skill development programme, operating in an Australian Business Faculty, is fostering the WEWO skill set and which pedagogical practices are considered to add most value.

The study examines undergraduate perceptions using data gathered from a skills audit of 799 business undergraduates from all four sequential units within the skills programme. Undergraduates rated and described their development against an established framework of WEWO behaviours.

Findings indicate that, overall, skill development is rated highly among the undergraduates although the behaviours of conflict resolution, social intelligence and influencing others were rated less highly than others within the skill set. The importance of class activities and assessment items, including the use of virtual learning tools were identified by students as critical to the development of WEWO behaviours.

The study highlights the important role of constructive alignment, sequential skill development, consistency of delivery and ensuring student “buy-in” to education practitioners in their efforts to meet industry expectations of graduates who can WEWO.