USYD Business School Alumni - where are they now?
As university students, we can often grow anxious of our career trajectory and become highly frustrated by a lack of direction. In effort to ease such anxieties, the SUBS team recently spoke with 4 alumni, as they shared their experiences and words of advice for current students.
Conrad Chang
Head of Strategy & Growth at Hearing Australia; Bachelor of Economics, Master of Commerce
Experience
What I enjoy most about my position as Head of Strategy at Hearing Australia is working with the CEO, board of directors and senior executives to form our corporate strategy for the next 12 months as well as the next 5 to 10 years. Essentially this is asking the questions ‘where are we now?’, ‘where do we need to be?’ and ‘how will we place ourselves in the marketplace?’ Other questions could be ‘what is technology going to be like in x years?’ or even ‘what is a post-Covid world going to look like?’.
Challenge
One of the biggest challenges I faced was in consulting. It was a high stress environment where the bottom 20% get kicked out. What I learned is that you have to be resilient, both mentally and physically, and also sure of who you are as a person. Being able to say ‘I know who I am, I know what I want, and I am okay with that’ is important. It’s not about weathering the storms - it’s about how quickly you can pick yourself up.
There are 3 tips I’d give to aspiring student going into the workplace:
1) Rather than asking yourself what you want to do or what company you wish to work for, assess what problems you want to solve.
2) Be very prepared and 'put together' when job hunting. Good preparation is the key to being confident, knowing how to present yourself and, overall, coming across as prepared, polished and differentiated from other candidates.
3) Be open to the fact that you will have multiple careers throughout your lifetime.
Molly Tierney
Human Resources Consultant at the University of Sydney; Bachelor of Commerce (Liberal Studies)(2012-15), Masters of Labour Law and Relations (2017-20)
Experience
Human resources, and practitioners in general, really do benefit from a diverse background of experiences. While I was still studying, I was fortunate to have an internship at Starlight Children’s Foundation. I then progressed my career into Travelport and more professional roles. The skills that you can take from each experience in a diverse background is incredibly valuable. For example, at IKEA, it was quite blue-collar compared to a non-for-profit such as Starlight. I had to wear steel cap boots and a high-vis vest. I never imagined that this was where HR could take me, and I was really able to build upon myself through these different experiences.
Challenge
It has always been a challenge to get my head around the risk appetite related to HR. Especially while I was working with SCA, being a media company, there was always extra media attention on the back of what you do. This has been a learning curve for me because I only ever thought that my work would have remained in the workplace.
Charlie Marriot
Product Manager at Atlassian; Master of Management (2014-15)
Experience
I work on a product called Jira Service Management, which is essentially a ticketing tool. For example, you might have a problem with Uber and so you’ll raise a request and say ‘Hey, my Uber driver stole my wallet’, and then on the other side of that interaction, you create a ticket from this and then it goes to an agent, and this agent helps you resolve your request that you come up with. A product manager’s job is to essentially prioritize what the team is working on. Amongst other things, you need a strategy that you're pursuing, a vision you want to reach for the product, and you need goals that you're going to benchmark your team against to know whether you're achieving that vision and that strategy.
Time at USYD?
I think the catalyst for me doing my Master of Management was realising, coming out of completing a Bachelor of Business at UTS, it’s just pretty challenging having only that as it's such a common degree and you get so many people coming through it. The challenge is how do you differentiate yourself from the whole market of other graduates with a very similar or the same degree as yourself, which this master’s degree achieved.
My advice would be to cast the net wide. I think people often want an internship and immediately go to like the PWC’s and KPMG’s of the world. But the reality is that they get about 10,000 applicants for graduate roles at KPMG and they take about 300 people or something like that so it's really competitive to get into these some of these companies. You go and do an internship to learn those soft skills and you don't need to be at KPMG to do that. There are lots of workplaces where you can go and pick these things up. So cast your net wide and think about other small businesses and different industries that that you might not necessarily thought you'd be interested in.
Sylvia Preda
Executive Director of Funds Management & Wealth at Commonwealth Bank; Bachelor of Commerce (Hons I, University Medal) and Bachelor of Laws (Hons I) (1996 –2002).
Experience
I have responsibility for our Australian fund management client base, which includes superannuation funds, private equity and connecting investors of financial capital with projects. One of the really rewarding things is dealing with superannuation clients, helping them create an adequate return on their investment to ensure their long-term financial wellbeing. There are so many emerging asset classes as well as already defined ones like equities or infrastructure where Australia has really been a leader and working within this has been exciting.
Time at USYD?
That continual learning mindset, being curious, that’s one of the great things about university. There is the structured learning but then there's the opportunity to interact more broadly with people outside of your immediate subject, within the broader faculty and across campus as well. That’s what really helped me created a lifelong learning mentality which has stuck with me throughout my career. I really enjoyed the opportunity at university to make some great friendships which I hold to this day. Sydney is such an excellent institution, the people you meet there as well as the activities and social clubs that are offered really form the basis of university life which is what I thoroughly enjoyed (and also spending a fair amount of time at the Quad and Wentworth bar!). I would’ve loved the opportunity to do exchange. It wasn’t commonplace at the time, butI’ve found that getting a global perspective is so important. The world is an increasingly interconnected space, so get out there!
Have an interesting idea or opinion you hope to share with thousands of readers? Express your interest in contributing an article by getting in touch with William, Arasa and Charis at publications@subsoc.com.au
As university students, we can often grow anxious of our career trajectory and become highly frustrated by a lack of direction. In effort to ease such anxieties, the SUBS team recently spoke with 4 alumni, as they shared their experiences and words of advice for current students.
Conrad Chang
Head of Strategy & Growth at Hearing Australia; Bachelor of Economics, Master of Commerce
Experience
What I enjoy most about my position as Head of Strategy at Hearing Australia is working with the CEO, board of directors and senior executives to form our corporate strategy for the next 12 months as well as the next 5 to 10 years. Essentially this is asking the questions ‘where are we now?’, ‘where do we need to be?’ and ‘how will we place ourselves in the marketplace?’ Other questions could be ‘what is technology going to be like in x years?’ or even ‘what is a post-Covid world going to look like?’.
Challenge
One of the biggest challenges I faced was in consulting. It was a high stress environment where the bottom 20% get kicked out. What I learned is that you have to be resilient, both mentally and physically, and also sure of who you are as a person. Being able to say ‘I know who I am, I know what I want, and I am okay with that’ is important. It’s not about weathering the storms - it’s about how quickly you can pick yourself up.
There are 3 tips I’d give to aspiring student going into the workplace:
1) Rather than asking yourself what you want to do or what company you wish to work for, assess what problems you want to solve.
2) Be very prepared and 'put together' when job hunting. Good preparation is the key to being confident, knowing how to present yourself and, overall, coming across as prepared, polished and differentiated from other candidates.
3) Be open to the fact that you will have multiple careers throughout your lifetime.
Molly Tierney
Human Resources Consultant at the University of Sydney; Bachelor of Commerce (Liberal Studies)(2012-15), Masters of Labour Law and Relations (2017-20)
Experience
Human resources, and practitioners in general, really do benefit from a diverse background of experiences. While I was still studying, I was fortunate to have an internship at Starlight Children’s Foundation. I then progressed my career into Travelport and more professional roles. The skills that you can take from each experience in a diverse background is incredibly valuable. For example, at IKEA, it was quite blue-collar compared to a non-for-profit such as Starlight. I had to wear steel cap boots and a high-vis vest. I never imagined that this was where HR could take me, and I was really able to build upon myself through these different experiences.
Challenge
It has always been a challenge to get my head around the risk appetite related to HR. Especially while I was working with SCA, being a media company, there was always extra media attention on the back of what you do. This has been a learning curve for me because I only ever thought that my work would have remained in the workplace.
Charlie Marriot
Product Manager at Atlassian; Master of Management (2014-15)
Experience
I work on a product called Jira Service Management, which is essentially a ticketing tool. For example, you might have a problem with Uber and so you’ll raise a request and say ‘Hey, my Uber driver stole my wallet’, and then on the other side of that interaction, you create a ticket from this and then it goes to an agent, and this agent helps you resolve your request that you come up with. A product manager’s job is to essentially prioritize what the team is working on. Amongst other things, you need a strategy that you're pursuing, a vision you want to reach for the product, and you need goals that you're going to benchmark your team against to know whether you're achieving that vision and that strategy.
Time at USYD?
I think the catalyst for me doing my Master of Management was realising, coming out of completing a Bachelor of Business at UTS, it’s just pretty challenging having only that as it's such a common degree and you get so many people coming through it. The challenge is how do you differentiate yourself from the whole market of other graduates with a very similar or the same degree as yourself, which this master’s degree achieved.
My advice would be to cast the net wide. I think people often want an internship and immediately go to like the PWC’s and KPMG’s of the world. But the reality is that they get about 10,000 applicants for graduate roles at KPMG and they take about 300 people or something like that so it's really competitive to get into these some of these companies. You go and do an internship to learn those soft skills and you don't need to be at KPMG to do that. There are lots of workplaces where you can go and pick these things up. So cast your net wide and think about other small businesses and different industries that that you might not necessarily thought you'd be interested in.
Sylvia Preda
Executive Director of Funds Management & Wealth at Commonwealth Bank; Bachelor of Commerce (Hons I, University Medal) and Bachelor of Laws (Hons I) (1996 –2002).
Experience
I have responsibility for our Australian fund management client base, which includes superannuation funds, private equity and connecting investors of financial capital with projects. One of the really rewarding things is dealing with superannuation clients, helping them create an adequate return on their investment to ensure their long-term financial wellbeing. There are so many emerging asset classes as well as already defined ones like equities or infrastructure where Australia has really been a leader and working within this has been exciting.
Time at USYD?
That continual learning mindset, being curious, that’s one of the great things about university. There is the structured learning but then there's the opportunity to interact more broadly with people outside of your immediate subject, within the broader faculty and across campus as well. That’s what really helped me created a lifelong learning mentality which has stuck with me throughout my career. I really enjoyed the opportunity at university to make some great friendships which I hold to this day. Sydney is such an excellent institution, the people you meet there as well as the activities and social clubs that are offered really form the basis of university life which is what I thoroughly enjoyed (and also spending a fair amount of time at the Quad and Wentworth bar!). I would’ve loved the opportunity to do exchange. It wasn’t commonplace at the time, butI’ve found that getting a global perspective is so important. The world is an increasingly interconnected space, so get out there!
Have an interesting idea or opinion you hope to share with thousands of readers? Express your interest in contributing an article by getting in touch with William, Arasa and Charis at publications@subsoc.com.au
