Tell us a little about your background and what bought you to UNSW?
I am an Australian-born Vietnamese person who had grown up largely in West Sydney. I had attended Birrong Boys High School all throughout my years of secondary education, which had provided a good amount of support for my interests in STEM. Eventually I would go on to undertake an Engineering & Commerce degree; marrying my current interests with insights into how businesses operate and make money.
At the time of choosing my degree UNSW had boasted one of the largest and highest ranked engineering schools, which also happened to be located relatively close to me. Despite requiring upwards of an hour for commute from home, the chance to be a part of such a large and esteemed school was too attractive to pass up. To get here, I would work hard in my STEM subjects, even going so far to pursue distance education for subjects my school could not offer. My high school was small, which made it quite hard to find other people passionate about both STEM and commerce. It was always my hope for tertiary education to be part of a cohort of similarly hard-working people to encourage and support me through to a career. After my long experience at university, I can confidently say that most people I have worked with shared similarly strong work ethic and drive.
What did your Co-NNECTIONS experience involve?
Getting involved in Co-NNECTIONs was a swift process, which had us hurriedly prepare for a camp and then a placement toward the end of my semester. Given the short-time frame I personally felt the process became necessarily efficient, and still felt well-supported throughout.
The camp portion of the program exposed us to several challenges that emphasise a range of things such as leadership, team-work and individual problem-solving. In addition to this, we were also given a personality evaluation that explained our strengths and weaknesses and what contexts we could excel in. To this day I still reflect on my camping experience for how I saw myself and others achieve success as well as how we would manage failure, both individually and together as a team.
Through November I was fortunate to find work opportunity over the summer in a software development company called InLoop. It was here that I was going to have my first introduction to a professional white-collar work environment. There were all sorts of unique challenges which just could not be captured in any workshops or seminars, and I was glad to have Co-NNECTIONs to support me through it. I was told to be mindful of what my over-arching goals were, for myself and long-term career; as well as what strict tasks I aimed to complete during my stay. This simple exercise helped me orient myself and I felt prepared to extract the most benefit for my own professional development and give back my best to the company I worked for.
What was the highlight for you and how has taking part benefited you most?
Oddly enough, the highlight for me would have to be the short-term camping experience. While nothing can feel as significant as actual work-place experience, my camping experience introduced me to good people from a wide-variety of backgrounds which I did not get to see much of through my immediate degree. The challenges were abstract and the cohort contained such variety that I feel I can always navigate future challenges by using my camp experience as a reference.
Of course, my experience at my work-place gave me the greatest boost to my career. I have learnt how to be confident in my own skills and how to use them to work with others, whether they be from widely different backgrounds or very similar.
What’s in store for the future?
While one of the core lessons for me were to set long-term goals and orient myself in my career path, unfortunately I still don’t have a strict answer for where I would like to be. At least now, I know how to be helpful especially to those closer to you – but also to those of the wider community who you may be doing good for by way of a product or service. Overall, this experience has taught me how to break away from feeling shy, and to earnestly participate and involve myself in a variety of experiences until I find that answer.