What did you study at undergraduate level and when did you graduate? What are you studying now? Are you studying and working at the same time?
Bachelor of Commerce with majors in public relations and tourism and events management. I graduated in 2013. I am now a Senior Marketing Coordinator, started as a marketing assistant, then marketing coordinator before but within the same company.
What have been the most important stages of your life?
How did you get to your current (or most recent) job position and how long have you been working there?
I found the advert on seek, I applied and started as a marketing assistant, I have been with the company for three years in August..
What made you decide to progress with further study?
It seems like the right this to do after high school and I knew I wanted a professional career and job and knew most companies were more interested in someone with professional qualifications. My dad and mum also studied at university and encouraged me to do the same, all my friends were also going to university.
How did you choose your particular further study course (compared to others)? / Were you weighing up any alternative degrees or career pathways before choosing this qualification?
I had two ideas of what I wanted to do which was marketing, public relations and environmental management. I applied for both but decided there were more jobs in the business world and thought that would be a smarter choice long term. It was also widely known that a Bachelor of Commerce opens a lot of doors and possibilities.
What was the process to get accepted into your course? What were the prerequisites?
there were no prerequisites for a Bachelor of Commerce at Curtin except for getting a ATAR of 70 or higher which was easily accomplished. You do need to sit through one year of general business units such as accounting, economics, business law, even if you were not going to major in that.
What does your study involve? Can you describe a typical day? (if it’s difficult to describe a typical day, tell us about the last thing you worked on?)
I would wake up pretty late as my first lectures were say at 9am, I would attend and either go to a tutorial or seminar for 1-3 hours where we did a lot of work sheets, talk about assignments, do presentations etc. I would then get lunch with mates and go home to study or do assignments.
Will this course be beneficial in your career? Where could you or others in your position go from here? Please explain your answer.
It has been beneficial; all marketing companies look for a degree in marketing and there are no specific Bachelor of Marketing and Commerce is really the only way into that field. having the different majors has helped me appear more appealing on paper through resumes and my university is well known which has helped.
What do you love the most about your course?
The flexibility and it wasn't that demanding, we had heaps of industry assignments with real life organisations and issues which was key to learning, the contact hours weren’t high which allowed me to work a part time job as well and in your last year there was a unit for work experience which you needed to complete.
What are the limitations of your course?
Sometimes the course wasn’t engaging, you would just be spoken too where I saw a lot of people drop off, I don’t think it was that practical to everyday life, I would have used two physical elements which are a marketing plan and media release in real life which I learnt at uni. Everything else I have never used.
Which three pieces of advice would you give to a current undergraduate student? They don’t necessarily have to be related to your studies, or even to one’s professional life.