Business As Usual

Week 8, as I’m sure many university students know, is crunch time. I have two assignments due by Friday this week, with a combined total word count of 5000.

Unfortunately, during these weeks, your regular commitments don’t ease up either, and I’ve had to employ many late-night coffee binges to ensure that I’m in a good place with my workload.

Tuesday kicked off as all Tuesday’s do, with my internship at Monash Business School. The internship, running from 9-5, involves assisting with the many jobs around the office. Luckily for me, these aren’t limited to photocopying and other dull activities; I’ve had a hand in helping out with the Instagram account for the school and heaps of other cool stuff like that!

I’ve really enjoyed my time so far at the internship because I feel like it has really challenged my time management skills and provided me with a range of great experiences.

After my internship it’s off to Liquorland, to do my regular 6 - 9.15pm Tuesday shift. I love my job because I enjoy the interaction with customers and the satisfaction I get when I help them pick the right bottle of wine. I also enjoy the sense of responsibility I get when I’m left to organise and manage the store by myself – allowing me an autonomy that I don’t get elsewhere, and that’s really awesome.

After my shift, I try to tackle the big assignments waiting for me. Armed with a jumbo “share” pack of lollies and a LOT of coffee, the next couple of hours were a blur of productivity and procrastination (about 60/40%). By 2am, and 15 “recommended” servings of lollies later, I’ve finally finished and the sense of accomplishment is astounding.

Now it’s off to bed, for a 9am start again tomorrow!

One of the many tasks that the Marketing and Recruitment team are working on at the moment is a brochure, which is part of a PhD campaign. To help out with the campaign, my main task for this week was to organise a photoshoot for the PhD students who’ll feature in the brochure.

The biggest challenge was trying to find times that suited the photographer and everyone involved. Not an easy task when PhD students are based on different campuses and all have a bunch of other things going on the same time!

It feels like I sent out about a million emails, but in the end I managed to schedule everyone in. I even managed to squeeze in a few staff headshots in between the PhD shoots.

I had a blast “helping out” with the photoshoot, even if I mostly recorded names and guided the photographers to the students’ offices – camera equipment is way too expensive for someone with no experience to be fiddling with! But that said, it was really awesome seeing a photoshoot in action.

Next step is choosing the best photos for each of the students and actually completing the brochure, which is one of the things I’ll be doing next week!

I can’t decide whether it feels like I’ve just started, or whether I’ve done so much that it feels like I’ve been here for months, but there’s never a dull moment with the Monash Business School Marketing and Recruitment Group!

At the start of this semester, I was lucky enough to be offered an internship position with the Marketing and Recruitment Group for Monash Business School, as part of the IBL program. It’s still early weeks, but so far, I’m loving it! (I promise they didn’t tell me to write that)

It’s been fascinating getting a look behind the scenes at Monash and seeing the whole process from the other side. I feel like I’m beginning to understand all the work that goes into branding, recruiting prospective students and making sure events go as planned.

Even though I’ve only been interning for a few weeks, I’m already working on a bunch of projects. I’ve been assisting with the organisation of Big Data Challenge day, which is a recruitment event targeting VCE students, and with the creation of a brochure for PhD studies.

Soon the other intern, Nick, and I will start working on our own things, which will include an Instagram project and some student profiling.

Can’t wait to tell you all about the things I get up to this week!

In my time at Monash, I've had the opportunity to involve myself in lots of extra-curricular activities on campus and off.

The most enjoyable one was travelling to Europe for three weeks as part of an Accounting/Finance unit during last summer. Unfortunately it was winter in Europe so we had to bring all our big coats, but it was the greatest experience of my life - the different cultures, food and attractions were amazing! We travelled to Italy (Rome, Prato), Switzerland (Lucerne, Basel and Mt Titlis), France (Paris), the Netherlands (Amsterdam) and the UK (London). In these cities, we visited a number of financial and accounting organisations, such as the World Bank, OECD and the Food and Agriculture Organisation. We learnt about their roles for finance students and about international finance.

I would really recommend travelling and studying abroad if you ever get the chance. You can visit some beautiful places while studying, and Monash Abroad even has scholarships for those who study overseas.

Another fantastic opportunity to learn and improve yourself as a leader is with the Business School PAL Program which includes the Ambassador and Leaders Programs. These Programs offer seminars and activities to build on your team and leadership skills, and it's a great way to meet like-minded friends!

Lastly, something I'm sure a lot of people are already thinking of in terms of starting their career and getting a good job: the industry based learning (IBL) program. The IBL Program allows students to work as an intern with a company to gain valuable experience in their selected field. It also counts towards one or two units of your degree. I am currently doing the IBL program with Monash Oakleigh Legal Service in the Small Business Advisory Practice division. My supervisor and team are looking at the logistics involved in opening up this new practice, as well as improving and finishing the business plan. It's very interesting and allows me to see what working at a real company is like.

There are also heaps of student clubs that you can join as a general or committee member. They’re a great way to meet friends and have fun, as there are many social and academic activities each year.

My final piece of advice - seize all and any opportunities that come your way as you will really value the things you've experienced later on. Have no regrets!

So far, being an intern has been a really incredible experience. I’ve gotten to meet a lot of new people, listen to their stories, and learn from them. Today I even got to tag along to a video shoot, with a film crew coming into the university to film a Deputy Dean. I have never seen a professional crew film live, and it was truly amazing!

Other than that, I’ve been helping out with a new publication that Monash Business School is planning on launching next year. I got to sit in a meeting that allowed me to see how ideas are formed and how a product is developed step by step. I even came up with a couple of ideas on how the publication could be presented to the target audience, and further explained my concept in a draft that could be presented to my supervisor.

Last, but not least, I really enjoy the view at the office! Once I get a job and start my career, I would love to have a window with a view.

As an undergraduate business student majoring in marketing and management, the need to gain practical experience within the industry seemed essential to me. While having Monash on my resume was a good start, I knew that Monash had even more to offer than just academic knowledge.

Monash has been a great place with substantial units that have provided both engaging and interesting content. I’ve found my marketing units to be particularly interesting, as they include both analytical and creative aspects. Because of this, I was motivated to apply for an internship through the Industry-based learning unit. And since I really enjoy the atmosphere at Monash and the Caulfield campus, applying for a marketing internship on-campus seemed like an ideal option. Luckily, I was successful during my interview!

While my academic studies have provided me with a myriad of marketing knowledge and ideas, I’m excited to see the practical application of my studies through this internship. It will also complement my resume and help me with my future prospects. The staff are friendly and welcoming, and I’m eager to learn and gain as much practical experience as possible!

So if anyone has ever considered applying for the IBL unit or any internship program, I’d recommend it. After all, why not? There’s nothing to lose.

Just having a university degree doesn’t always ensure that you land a job once you graduate. But knowing this means that you open yourself up to a range of endless opportunities during your journey as a university student.

I was lucky enough to get accepted into and enrol in the Industry Based Learning unit for my final semester. For this unit, I’m undertaking my placement at a financial advice company, and I am loving it! It is stressful to try and make the link between university life and the world of ‘adults’, and it’s sometimes scary as the expectations are high and you want to stand out. But once you get your hands on work experience, this transition is easier. I would greatly recommend this program to any students trying to make the most of their time at uni!

Similar to Will Smith from the movie ‘I Am Legend’, I understand that there is competition out there. But despite the competition, I hope to survive, thrive and make my time here worthwhile.

So it is Week 8 and I am well into this semester and my internship at Monash. Because last week was so busy (we celebrated Christmas in September and had a student photo shoot), everyone in the office had to catch up on all the work that had accumulated over the week. I for one had to lots of work to catch up on, including continuing my work on a competitor analysis task.

All the jobs I’ve had to do so far during my internship have taught me a lot about work and life after uni.

Today I spent all day working at Club Solutions. The project that I’ve been put in charge of is the “Variety Kids Great Grand Final Lunch” auction, and it’s very exciting being to be given such an amount of responsibility as an intern.

I spent most of this morning on the phone, along with the other Monash intern, trying to contact as many people as possible to get donations, so that we can raise as much money for Variety Kids as possible.

I then spent this afternoon creating a poster to send to sponsors who were able to donate to thank them and acknowledge their input. It was a perfect outlet for all my creative energies! I also updated the database and was briefed on how Club Solutions approaches all of their social media. I even got to write the final post for the weekend on twitter #amazing.

Today was a bit of a hectic day.

First of all, I spent the morning working at Club Solutions as an intern. I got the position by applying for the Monash BusEco Business Internship Program and was lucky enough to be successful. Whilst it is a very small company, I love the experience that I am getting. Despite the fact that I am an intern, my ideas are always valued, and to my surprise I actually haven't done any photocopying yet! But to be honest, my favourite part is being able to wear sophisticated clothing – I feel so grown up.

This afternoon I had a big presentation for my marketing communications subject. As it is about creativity we thought that we’d use ‘prezi’ to make our presentation ‘creative’. However my partner has a MacBook and I have a dinosaur PC, so it was quite a challenge trying to get the Mac and PC to speak to each other! Doing the presentation so early in the semester was quite a challenge as my brain doesn’t usually kick in until week six, however getting it over and done with is a huge relief.

Waking up and driving to uni for an 8am marketing seminar is always a struggle. I can’t deny that waking up, getting ready and leaving the house before the sunrise is not a highlight of my week, but it’s nothing a strong cup of tea can’t fix! (I also just realised that I complained about early mornings in my last post!)

However, I love going to my classes to learn about what’s going on in the world and how I can apply my degree to real life experiences. This week’s seminar focussed on company culture and was filled with fun YouTube clips such as a ‘How to Create a Movement in 3 Minutes’ TED talk and a ‘What is Culture Video’. A take-away point for me was that ‘Creativity is a driving success factor for a company’. In order to be relevant and to stand out from the crowd, companies need to give people room to think of innovative ideas and new ways of doing things!

It’s great to know that commerce is definitely not just all about numbers, and that it can be creative as well. Just look at all the super cool and creative Coke Cola Happiness ads, or the Volvo Epic Split Ad. I spent the rest of my day finishing a marketing report, editing some pictures for my blog and putting up posters for the Undergrad Video Competition, which is running until the start of October. The Video Competition is a great example of creativity in commerce, and with such a great prize I’m definitely making an entry!

I’m currently interning with the Marketing and Recruitment Group at Monash, and there is never a dull moment. I’ve always loved coming to Monash, and it’s been super fun learning what goes on behind the scenes to running a university (especially one with so many people)!

I’ve done so many interesting things so far, ranging from: speaking to Actuarial students to promote the BusEco Video Competition, listening to PhD students present their thesis in three minutes in the Three Minute Thesis Competition, meeting with branding consultants for Monash’s new Business School and watching videographers film Monash academics!

I have never thought too much about what’s involved with running a university but there’s so much going on it’s hard to keep up! It’s been really eye opening and inspiring to see how much each academic and staff member puts in to make sure every student has the best opportunities and has ample support for success. Even though the early mornings are tough, I feel really lucky to be in such a supportive and fun environment (I mean, there was cake and morning tea on my first day! Can it get any better?).

Working as an intern is every student’s dream right? I mean, in that great big pool of talented graduates we all want a way to differentiate ourselves, and something like an internship is just the ticket. I am lucky enough to be interning here with the Marketing and Recruitment Group at Monash Caulfield for semester one. Let me tell you that apart from the resume bolstering this has been a great opportunity – not only to learn how to data merge letters, but to learn a lot about myself and meet some great people.

Although this afternoon consisted of the stock-standard intern duties, like preparing and alphabetizing name tags, every day so far has been different. I have also been surprised by the level of responsibility I have been given whilst interning here. It has given me a real insight into life after uni.