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CAREERS CORNERINDUSTRY MENTORING PROGRAM EXPERIENCE: REFLECTIONS OF A MENTEE

SPONSORS’ ARTICLESCA: JOURNEY TOWARDS BECOMING A CAKORDAMENTHA INTERNSHIPSPwC: SUCCESS IN ECONOMICALLY CHALLENGING TIMESDELOITTE: LIFE AS A GRADUATE ANALYST

COLUMNS

WRITERSCHRISTINA LUERIC LIAOKAREN WANGWENXI QIAN

CAREERS CONTRIBUTORSJACKZENGYVONNE LAM

COVER DESIGNLARISSA DAVIS

OUR THANKS GOES TO THE FOLLOWING CONTRIBUTORS:AXEL SUKIANTO - SPORTS CORNERROBERT CHAN - GRAPHICS

PUBLICATIONS DIRECTORSLARISSA DAVISl.davis@unswbsoc.com

LESLIE WONGl.wong@unswbsoc.com

ARTICLES & EXTRASFIRST YEAR ADVISOR WELCOMESPORTS CORNER

PUBLICATIONSTEAM

ON INTERNSHIPSAUSTRALIABEING AN AUSTRALIAN/UNSW STUDENTASIANS AGAINST ASIANS

COMUNIECO THE BIG MID-YEAR EDITION

Committee officers sought for all portfolios!

The Business Society is now re-cruiting for individuals dedicated to enriching the university life of fellow students to participate in a Portfolio of their interest.

All undergraduate students en-rolled at the Australian School of Business are encouraged to apply.

http://www.unswbsoc.com/ portfolios/recruitment

COLUMNS

Many view internships as stepping stones to further their career, while others see it as an extra source of income during their holidays. Those familiar with the application process may remember the times when they rummaged fervently through their piles of applications, wondering where they could edge out their competition by just changing their font size or border outline. It is a daunting prospect to finally enter the “real world“ and experiencing what professional work is really like. Some may find where their passions truly lie; while others may be disappointed by what they discover. No matter the reason, surely the prospect of putting on a snazzling suit for work is enough an incentive to apply for that internship. Never again shall you be known as the “checkout chick” (even if you are a guy) or make greasy burgers known as “food”. However, is the professional world as good as it’s hyped up to be?

Let’s assume you’ve been offered an internship for the summer holidays by utilising your “superior” communication skills (Honestly you have no idea how you got it). You’ve already developed pre-conceptions on the people you are going to work with: up-tight, stressed and no sense of humour whatsoever. But as people say, “You work hard, you party even harder” (I just made that up). The more you work, the more you discover that professionals do have a life outside of work after all. Some even are fun people that you love to have a Friday night drink with, despite the age gap of 10 years. Sure, they may still make fun of you being the baby of the team, saying how cute you are “pretend-ing” to be a professional, but you take it in good humour and sometimes even have a go back at them. Of course as all brochures say, “this will be a valuable experience to gain important skills and expertise within the financial industry”, which is absolutely correct. I’m sure that would be your foremost reason to hand in your internship applications, but no one said you can-not have fun along the way. The annual Christ-

KAREN WANGON INTERNSHIPS

So what does being Australian mean?

Well for starters it means crazy weather, hail, scorching sun, sub-zero winds all in one day!

Rights and freedom: Australia is a particularly friendly country where if you have an opinion you can voice it openly and it will be heard by others. Many countries do not have this luxury. A democratic and fair justice system sees that most people who live here are protected and treated fairly.

Australia is great in its multicultural roots. From Chinese New Year to Ramadan, we have it all. It’s no wonder people migrate to Australia in search of a better life.

Australia Day, the main celebration of the year. All nationalities come together to express what it means to be Australian. This year’s celebration included a warship parade, Chinese dancers and martial artists, aboriginal artwork and so much more. It is more than just living in Australia, it is living Australia.

Australians are associated with 2 things, beer and BBQ’s. Along with Koalas, Kangaroos, Emus...

I once had an American friend who asked me if we rode Kangaroos to school. This is the sort of image people view Australians with, free, fun and outgoing.

Now if that doesn’t get you, then how about the awesome fush and chups?

ERIC LIAOAUSTRALIA

mas work function will surely turn your pre-con-ceptions around. As the music pounds overhead and the champagnes flow freely, you may even see your CEO shaking his ass to Flo Rida’s “Low”. You will definitely enjoy your time surrounded by free food and alcohol plus the great company. To sum it up, you will definitely need to be profes-sional during the working hours. But for the after hours, who knows what can happen? I guess it’s up to you to decide on whether you want that free drink off your manager.

The UNSW Business Society welcomes

KORDAMENTHAas our new major sponsor!

LARISSA DAVISASIANS AGAINST ASIANS

As you grudgingly trudged to another 9am lecture, battling amongst eager first years to push onto the bus, you wonder to yourself, “If only I moved closer to uni.’ But then, flashes of images speed through your mind involving unpaid bills, crowded sinks, and dirty laundry. Your previous thoughts suddenly disappear, and you continue to push ahead, grumbling all the way.

Those privileged enough to live in the Eastern suburbs never may have seen the sun before 8am, but for the rest of us, transport times can take at least 2-3 hrs a day. It is an unforseen evil, draining our youth away. Yet we deal with it, ranging from offensive body odours to the stiffness in our necks from sleeping too much on trains. It is part of being an Australian uni-versity student, where the country’s vast land coupled with its mere population size doesn’t exactly equal to close distances. Trains and buses become a part of our daily routine, and it creepily seeps into our bank accounts, tak-ing our hard earned cash away.

Your bank account takes a further hit as your stomach rumbles in the lecture. Perhaps this is common throughout Australia, or just purely Sydney, or even UNSW. Either way, you cringe at your considerably lighter wallet as you slurp your way through your Laksa.

Wait, there is Laksa?

Damn right there is. Not only can you delight yourself with the flavours of Malaysia, but you can also experiment with other tastes of the world such as Indian, Chinese, Italian and the list goes on. The multicultural variety of food in Sydney is endless, where we merely get a taste for it in our local campus food courts. Not only are we multicultural in food, but our massive student cohort consists of people from all over the world (Some may disagree about the commerce faculty). This exposes us to the varied and wonderful cultures of others, which is a unique opportunity of going to an Australian university.

You may still complain about the bus lines or the food prices, but the fun and quirks associ-ated with attending uni in Australia is surely an experience in itself.

I’ve never really understood this. You’re the same. You come from the same place. You look the same. Well, you may not dress the same but you look the same. Some of you speak/sound the same (but not many) and though you may want to deny it, but you kind

of act and carry yourselves the same way too.

Its either ABCs (American/Australian Born Chinese) against the rest of the Chinese (HK, China, some mixed asians like malaysian-chi-nese) or the rest of Asia against China Chinese or private school Chinese against local school Chinese. What the hell.

The general formula is, if you have more than 1-2 of the following characteristics you’re gonna be “hated” in Australia by your own race (and other people):

1. You can’t speak good english or have perfect vocabulary with a weird accent or a mix of both

2. You wear “weird clothing” (I assume its HK style clothing, which mainly copies Korean or Japanese clothing anyway, but yet comes out a bit weird sometimes)

3. You wear heels to uni

4. You have crap manners and/or courtesy (because people do have different social backgrounds - some asians are just rude by nature and noisy)

5. You’re racist towards the rest of the world, including your own race

6. You tend to go to class

7. People get frustrated when trying to communicate with you

8. People think you have no creative capacity

9. You’re a snob

10. You tend to hang around in large groups and stand and block paths (especially en-tranceways)

11. Your phone tends to go off a lot in class

12. You have a random asian song as your ringtone

13. You talk really loudly

14. You talk really loudly in your native lan-guage

15. You talk in your native language

16. People avoid you when it comes to group-work because they think you’re terrible at it

“Basically. And this is bad to categorise them as such but, the snobs are the ones from HK. The rude ones are Indonesian. The nicest (and most helpful) you’ll ever meet are the Singa-poreans.” …I bet a Singaporean did not write that.

Well, okay, I’m a hypocrit. Now that I think about it, I’ve been quite brainwashed against

KAREN WANGBEING AN AUSTRALIAN UNSW

STUDENT

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asians (I spent 17 years of my life in Hong Kong). There are certain characteristics (that mainly spawn from them) that really piss me off as well:

1. They talk too damn loud sometimes (e.g. you’re on the MTR and some girl is scream-ing over the phone: MEH??! MEH WAHH?? TEEEEEEEEENG NG DOU LEI AH! MEHHH?!)

2. They always have a pissed look on their faces (or just a very zeen gak look)

3. Some of them have unbearably whiny/nasal-y voices

4. They push and have no sense of direction whatsoever.

5. They will abruptly stop in the middle of the road

6. They stare (A lot, especially if you’re white they will continuously stare at you)

7. They walk in giant groups really slowly and take up the entire street and block street traf-fic.

8. They’re really impatient and will get frus-trated easily (explains the pissed look on their faces half of the time)

9. They’re always complaining/bitching about

something (that plus the way they do it with elevated voices and in annoying accents makes it unbearable)

10. Have you heard cantonese before? If you think the singaporeans and malaysians are bad enough with their “lahs”, we have LAHHH, MAHHH, LEHHHH, LOHHH, ARRRR, ZEHHH, ME-HHH, GEHHH, BOHHH, WOHH, HORRRR, HAAHH… there’s probably a lot more. Unfortunately my canto typing skills aren’t good enough to repli-cate how annoying it can get sometimes (espe-cially when your mom is whining at you, but i guess that’s just annoying in every language).

Lastly, what I really don’t understand is why in-ternational students don’t attempt to integrate into Australian society. It just defies all logic. Being in UNSW is pretty much feels as if I never left Hong Kong. People get by not speaking a word of English in uni and they complain about how expensive their university fees are. Money well spent guys.

Its not like the locals make it any easier for them either. Australia is a pretty racist country. Though that’s probably not giving it enough credit. Its a country that has relatively been quite tolerant to the onslaught of immigrants from different continents. But the hostility is certainly there. You can see it when people try to do group work, you can see it in class when an international student asks a question.

Each time I keep asking myself why.

Get ready...

for the LAST BSOC social event for the year.

It is also known as the most extravagant of them all!

BSOC BALL 2009

When: Friday, September 25, 2009

Where: Star Room, Lvl 6 of Imax Theatre

Let all your friends know...

Put it in your calendars and diaries...

Book your stylists/hairdressers/make up artists...

Pick out your most glamourous and lavish outfit...Pick out your most glamourous and lavish outfit...

More details will be available during Semester 2

remember to get your tickets early!

INVERVARSITY SPORTS DAY

REPORT

With 80+ students, 50 pizzas, 6 hours of competitive sport battles, 3 business schools, 2 sport fields and 1 day of fun­filled action, UNSW BSOC presented a successful intervarsity sports day for its members.

On Saturday the 4th of April 2009, the business societies of UNSW, UTS and Macquarie University held an intervarsity sports day at Macquarie University.

The agenda on the day includes soccer and basketball competitions, but there were also other games such as bullrush for those who were not so interested in soccer and basketball.

It was a competitive soccer competition with the likes of ‘Torres’ and ‘Ronaldo’ strutting their stuff, but it was eventually Macquarie University who won the soccer competition. However, totally different story for the basketball competition. UNSW BSOC, with our own extraordinary team, came up victorious, trumping UTS and Macq in some style!

Apart from the prizes for the winning teams, there were also individual prizes for best player and most unco players, with prizes ranging from discount vouchers, top 40 music CDs and entry tickets to the Macquarie University dance party. So, if you felt like you would have won those fantastic prizes and have fun, make sure you come to the next Sports event of BSOC, which would be the Interfaculty Sports event, coming soon!

www.kordamentha.com

It’s 8:36am. You’ve just received an email – it’s your Manager. Three of the partners have just been appointed as Receivers to over 21 companies in a funds management and property group which has collapsed. Over 8,000 “Mum and Dad” investors could lose everything, and the morning paper is already suggesting misappropriation of funds by the directors.

You are eager to get to work on such a high profile job and keen to be involved with maximising the return to investors, creditors and employees.

After the team briefing you are tasked with taking control of trading matters including freezing bank accounts, establishing new internal controls and tracking down the directors for questioning.

This is a typical day in the life of a KordaMentha Business Analyst.

Interested? Let’s talk.

A Richer Career Experience

The business is in your hands…

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(!)*+,

Too much choice can be daunting, so it’s important to get a chance to try before you buy, so to speak. Apply for our 2009 summer vacation program to enjoy signifi cant client exposure, networking opportunities, training, and feedback from a strong support system, with the prospect of securing a graduate position.

Visit www.graduates.deloitte.com.au for more information and to apply. It’s your future, how far will you take it?

Want to ! nd the right ! t?We’ll let you try us on for size

Graduate EmployabilityWhat is it?

-- Wenxi Qian

For students like you and I, the question of “employability” usually comes up during the weeks before the panic of application closing dates. About 90% of the time, this would then lead to a rushed attempt at getting the resume up-to-date and doing all the relevant research to impress the interviewer.

Generally speaking, during the interview process, interviewers will mainly be looking for two major categories of human qualities. Citizenship and skill qualification.

Citizenship usually refers to all those extra-curricular activities and interpersonal skills which we pile into our resumes; skill-qualification is pretty much the reason we spend 3-5 years of our precious youth in this institution. But in the grander scheme of things, our university days can only be considered the incubational stages of our working lives.

We graduate, we compete for the best positions and hopefully we get our dream job, but what next?

What do we watch out for in terms of “employability” once we’re already in?

Well…I would give you my answer if I knew what it was. So I went and searched for it instead. The following was published in a recent paper from Higher Educa-tion Research & Development:

“ In the context of a rapidly changing information- and knowledge-intensive economy, workers must be both immediately and sustainably employable. In order to do so, they must not only maintain and develop knowledge and skills that are specific to their own discipline or occupation, but must also possess ‘generic’ skills, dispositions and attributes that are transferable to many occupational situations and areas.”1

As much as we may think that we can bludge our way through life, the pace of change within the working environment demands that once employed, we need to be readily adaptable to this change in order to stay in the game. This means we need to possess the ability to think on our feet and be open to the various lifelong training opportunities which open up. Moreover, it means we need to achieve a level of personal and intellectual autonomy in order to “learn to learn” for new job opportunities. These, along with the usual “communication”, “organisational” and “innovational” are our career-building skills.

Oh, and they help us stay employed.

Resources: 1. Bridgstock, R 2009 “The graduate attributes we’ve overlooked: enhancing graduate employability through career management skills” Higher Education Research and Development, v.28, no.1, Mar 2009: (31)-44

What would you like to be?

Enjoy a diverse career inside PwC.

PricewaterhouseCoopers helps organisations around the globe to better manage themselves and shape their destiny. We could help shape yours.

Our summer vaction program is open to penultimate year students from all degree disciplines. To apply early and for more information, please visit:

pwc.com/au/careers

Look no further, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is one of the world’s leading professional services fi rms, with over 140 years of experience in assurance, tax and advisory services. We work with a diverse range of clients to solve their business issues and help them to achieve the best outcomes from the challenges and opportunities ahead.

PwC employs over 5000 people in Australia, who service 90 of the ASX top 100 listed companies and 704 of the leading 1000 IBIS fi rms. Our industry leadership and strong client focus is recognised by being named Best Large Accounting Firm and Market Leader in the 2008 BRW Client Choice Awards.

PwC is committed to investing in our people and nurturing a vibrant culture of teamwork, excellence and leadership. PwC offers a great variety of career opportunities and varied work experience for summer vacation students from all degree disciplines. We recruit summer vacation students into our Assurance, Tax & Legal and Advisory Lines of Service.

Our applications open on Monday, 20th July 2009 and will close as soon as all positions are fi lled, so it’s more important than ever to apply early! We will start interviewing candidates for the summer vacation program as soon as applications open, so please submit your application early to save disappointment.

To fi nd out more about the opportunities available within the summer vacation program visit pwc.com/au/careers or phone 1800 175 599

pwc.com/au/careers

What would you like to be?

Enjoy a diverse career inside PwC.

PricewaterhouseCoopers helps organisations around the globe to better manage themselves and shape their destiny. We could help shape yours.

Our summer vaction program is open to penultimate year students from all degree disciplines. To apply early and for more information, please visit:

pwc.com/au/careers

Look no further, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is one of the world’s leading professional services fi rms, with over 140 years of experience in assurance, tax and advisory services. We work with a diverse range of clients to solve their business issues and help them to achieve the best outcomes from the challenges and opportunities ahead.

PwC employs over 5000 people in Australia, who service 90 of the ASX top 100 listed companies and 704 of the leading 1000 IBIS fi rms. Our industry leadership and strong client focus is recognised by being named Best Large Accounting Firm and Market Leader in the 2008 BRW Client Choice Awards.

PwC is committed to investing in our people and nurturing a vibrant culture of teamwork, excellence and leadership. PwC offers a great variety of career opportunities and varied work experience for summer vacation students from all degree disciplines. We recruit summer vacation students into our Assurance, Tax & Legal and Advisory Lines of Service.

Our applications open on Monday, 20th July 2009 and will close as soon as all positions are fi lled, so it’s more important than ever to apply early! We will start interviewing candidates for the summer vacation program as soon as applications open, so please submit your application early to save disappointment.

To fi nd out more about the opportunities available within the summer vacation program visit pwc.com/au/careers or phone 1800 175 599

pwc.com/au/careers

Hi BSoc members!

My name is Anna Trivedi and I was recently appointed as the First Year Advisor for the Australian School of Business (ASB). I am passion-ate about improving our first year students’ experience. I believe that getting involved in the student community is an important part of the student experience, and encourage all first year students to be part of the clubs and societies on offer at university.

So what exactly is my role at the ASB? My role is to act as the first point of contact for first year undergraduate students at the ASB. I am based in the Business Student Centre on the ground floor of the ASB building (west wing) and am available for consultation on Monday, Wednesday and Friday 2 to 4 pm, and Tuesday and Thursday 10-12 pm. To book an appointment, students can call the Business Student Centre on (02) 9385 3189, or else visit the Business Student Centre.

In addition to student advising, I will be involved in a range of projects as part of my role. One of these projects will be developing a range seminars targeted at our first year cohort. The first of the series, the First Year Exams Seminar, will be offered on Wednesday June 3rd and Thursday June 4th from 1-2pm. This exam preparation seminar has been developed in collaboration with the Education Development Unit (EDU). Students in their first semester at the ASB should check their WebCT Vista pages for further information and details on registration.

I will also be working with the EDU on their new Capturing the Student Voice website. The website allows all ASB students (not only first years) to provide feedback to the ASB on anything they feel is important. Students can do so either anonymously or with their student details if they want a response. The purpose of this website is so that we can quickly identify areas that require changes and go about implementing changes where appropriate. The ASB is committed to the quality of students’ teaching and learning experience, so we want your feedback!

Kind regards, Anna Anna Trivedi | First Year Advisor

THE BUSINESS SOCIETY WOULD LIKE TO THANK OUR SPONSORS:

MAJOR SPONSORS

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