Your Classmates

My career

"Everything - from working in a small wealth management firm to secretarial/business admin things for my dad and in addition to my two businesses - homemade cookies and a sleep therapy business. I have many different interests and many different types of work/jobs to keep life interesting. I'm not sure where I want to go in the future but I'm getting a feel for different industries."

My advice for graduates

It's definitely who you know. Networking and attending those career fairs and building relationships with directors/partners and HR people is so important. Make sure you follow that 'dull' line in applying for internships and graduate roles because if you don't plan your life properly, you might feel you're achieving nothing while while your friends are working and enjoying their life. Plan your life and talk to lots of people - especially older ones - about their careers.

My student days

"As a student, I was terrible. My best memories were meeting friends at uni for lunch and also (excuse the lameness) the networking and career events because it's during those times you can dress up in nice suits and feel kind of important for a day. I miss the lifestyle. Uni was the only thing I had to concentrate on and there was a lot of time to enjoy myself. Now, there are a lot more responsibilities and less time. "

My career

"If you'd asked me to describe my ideal career back in 1975, when I finished my commerce degree, it probably wouldn't have looked anything like the one I ended up with. It wouldn't have wended through so many government departments and bureaus and commissions in Canberra with a lengthy stopover at the Australian National University. It wouldnít have featured more 'doing' than 'leading' roles. It certainly wouldn't have had so many new beginnings and mountainous learning curves. And yet there is almost nothing about it that I would now change. My current job as a program evaluator in the United Nations Secretariat brought me to New York nearly three years ago. It was the biggest of my new beginnings - newly widowed in a city I didn't know and a complex, challenging organisation - but also the best of them. Everything about my previous experience, from agricultural economics, competition policy and research evaluation to working with undergraduate economics students, is helpful here. Who would have thought it?"

My advice for graduates

"New beginnings are risky, but if they build on the foundations of earlier experience the rewards can be huge, both personally and professionally. Of course it is easier to attempt something new if you have a safety net - perhaps a job that will wait for you if the new one doesnít work - but you will always be surprised by the insights that the knowledge and skills gained in one area can bring to another. One other thing. I was one of those students (and for a long time one of those employees) who was seen and not heard a lot of the time. But once I began working with students and leading research teams, I found out just how exciting it is to have students or team members who are engaged, brave, curious, questioning and even demanding and critical. Don't hide! "

My student days

For me, the best thing about the Melbourne University commerce experience was the people. Few people since have influenced my thinking as powerfully as some of the teachers and students I encountered there. Back then, the economics course was structured differently. Students were selected for the honours group after first year and took a separate honours unit for the next three years. As a small group - just 25 or so - we benefited from access to the faculty's best-known and most accomplished economists. Some of the students were special too. My honours group included Jenny Macklin, who would later become Australia's Deputy Prime Minister, and Professor Judith Sloan. Others also gained distinction. Of course the downsides of the small group were visibility (nowhere to hid!) and comparisons with the stand-outs, but the upsides were precious and enduring. Some of the friends I made at Melbourne have now been in my life for almost four decades.

My career

When I finished my course in 1985 I was offered a position as teacher librarian at Echuca High School. At the time the State Education Department considered Echuca as a remote location and I remember that at the time, I didn't think I would consider it. After 27 years of living in the area and travelling back and forth to Melbourne for work and family reasons, Echuca does not seem remote at all - it is a fantastic part of Victoria and I am so glad that I made the decision to take up the offer. I worked for the Education department until 1995, mainly as teacher librarian, which was a wonderful profession and one I thoroughly enjoyed.

My advice for graduates

I can't really thank my previous manager enough for seeing something in me and providing numerous training and leadership opportunities within the service that would allow me to work towards the senior role I now have. Through her encouragement and mentoring she enabled me to feel confident and comfortable within the local government environment. I am also glad I experienced life as a teacher - these skills were very useful but I think it wasn't until I moved to Local Government I could really step up and take on more responsibility and find out that public libraries were my passion. I am so glad that I chose to do a course that enabled me to specialise in the librarianship field as well as education. I think my advice is be open to challenges, seek further training and mentoring.

My student days

My student days were relatively smooth. I was quiet and struggled a bit with first year tutorials, they were a bit 'out there' and we did spend a few of them in the pub. Also spent a lot of time drinking hot chocolates in the 88 Cafe and was addicted to Wagon Wheels. I loved studying in the law library as legal studies was my other major. I loved old buildings on the corner of Grattan St where most of my librarianship classes were conducted. I still can't believe it took four years to learn to catalogue! But I loved the passion of the tutors, particularly Stella Lees, Faye Nicholson, Allan Thomas and Angela Bridgeland. And my legal studies lecturers were wonderful too! It has been great keeping in touch with a few students from my course, one of them has been working with me for nine years.

My career

After graduating in 1980, I spent two years working as an economist in the building and construction industry. In 1982 I commenced a job as a tutor in economics at the (then) Chisholm Institute of Technology. I returned to the real world in 1987 and commenced two rewarding years working as a project officer at the Automotive Industry Authority. In 1990, at the request of an old colleague, I returned to academia as a lecturer at Victoria University. I have been there ever since. In 2001, after much procrastination, I commenced a PhD at RMIT University and later transferred to Monash University and graduated in 2009 (specialisation: financial economics). My time studying towards a PhD were among the happiest years of my professional career.

My advice for graduates

During your university career, read the newspapers and any technical/consultant reports you can get your hands on. Textbooks can only take you so far, though they provide a valuable background.

My student days

I guess that I was only mediocre as a student. The teaching staff were very good, but I guess that at that stage, I didn't have so much perspective. In the 1970s, Cold Chisel were the band and Khe Sanh was the anthem! And after 30 odd years, I still have my 1970s lecture notes! I returned to do a masters degree in 1985. I enjoyed my experience imensley. I miss most the structured, orderly way that I lived as a student (fair dinkum!)

My career

I've recently joined PricewaterhouseCoopers as a consultant in their Sustainability and Climate Change advisory team. The kind of work we do differs greatly depending on the type of project but it usually involves a lot of research, reading, data processing and powerpoint slides! But we do get to work with big clients and assist them in their sustainability journey.
This is a 180 degree change from my previous job at Global Environment Centre (GEC), a non-profit environmental NGO here in Malaysia. A typical day there could involve site visits to rivers, tree planting, facilitating workshops and trainings on waste management or designing educational materials. Needless to say it was way more fun and I would say it felt more rewarding working with schools, communities and the government.

My advice for graduates

I think it's important to do what you enjoy doing most. For me, I've always wanted to work in the environmental field and never had a knack for business or finance. I majored in Marine Biology and Geography (which was a rarity for most Asian students) and was able to learn about the natural world which is what I loved most.

I had to stay optimistic that there would be a job out there for me although many Asian parents would say that there is no career prospects in the environmental field.
I came back to Malaysia and was persistent in finding the right job and after three months I landed my first job at GEC.

It pays to stay true to what you want to do in life and my advice to a fresh graduate would be to pursue your dream job and never make it about the money. I feel that having a great working experience is much more important than how much you're getting paid.

My student days

I was in Trinity College before joining the University of Melbourne so in that sense I was quite familiar with the uni grounds when we started first year. I feel that gave me a 'leg-up' when it came to getting to classes on different ends of the campus and knowing where all the libraries were.

What I miss most about being a student is just having spare time in-between classes or off-days to just relax. It really is true that you should enjoy your student days because there'll never be another time in your life just like it!

My career

I'm currently a clincal tutor with the University of Melbourne - helping on the other side of the same course I'd graduated from.

It's a very varied workload, which is what crave. I can be found chasing research subjects for elusive data, trying to impart clinical skills to students while managing members of the public and basking in my colleagues' brilliance at research seminars.

My advice for graduates

Have a goal. Identify the skills you most enjoy using and shape your job to allow you to do as much of that as possible. Find someone whose work you admire and seek to work closely with them. Stay curious, read widely, and have conversations with people that challenge you.

The best way to get the measure of your profession is to seek out a wide range of perspectives. Throw yourself out there. For the most part, people are happy to share experiences and advice.

My student days

It was a relatively small cohort and we took all our classes together. Our friendships were forged in the fires of a demanding masters program. As a student I would delve deeply into the bits that fascinated me but be distressingly vacant about the rest of it. I relied on friends for deadlines and exam dates because I was notoriously oblivious to them.

One of the best memories I have is playing soccer in the late spring sun during lunch break. I get misty-eyed now walking through those same gardens where we sat and shared our dreams and unashamedly showed just how uncoordinated most of us were.

I miss the fact that it was completely reasonable to have all obligations end at 3pm on a weekday. I miss the long hours spent in comiseration as we separately pursued the same goal. I miss the intoxicating feeling of meeting new friends you know will soon be family.