Master of Commerce (Extension) student Heidi Wan shares her experience of the Job Smart Edge unit BWIL6573, available to international postgraduate students enrolled in the Business School.
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| Heidi Wan |
Participating in Job Smart Edge
I knew about the Job Smart Edge program before I even began my studies at the University of Sydney. Part of my reason for choosing to study at the Business School was how it can bridge the gap between students and the real working environment through these opportunities.
I had undertaken the Job Smart Edge program in Semester 1 2021 and I really enjoyed the experience. I was fortunate to work with one of the big 4 banks in Australia – National Australian Bank (NAB), to explore the possibility of sovereign issuance of Green, Social and Sustainable (GSS) bonds in Australia and New Zealand.
Although this was only a 2-week project, my team communicated thoroughly and had many online meetings to ensure we delivered what our client needed.
Some highlights and challenges
The experience was challenging, but rewarding. The biggest challenge was that while all of our teammates majored in finance, we did not have a solid understanding of what GSS bonds were. This meant that not only did we have to conduct additional research to gain knowledge of the topic in a short amount of time, we had to think further to identify the issuance opportunity for Australia and New Zealand. Thus, we approached the project with case studies of successful industry examples, so that we could benchmark and learn from other successful practices.
Luckily, throughout the project, we had our mentor guiding us. As she is from an investment banking background, she had given us a lot of advice on how to approach the project, what direction to take, and how to frame our recommendations. The advice received was very practical and certainly enhanced the professionalism of our final deliverable!
Career skills I have developed
With this opportunity, I realised that my adaptability has greatly improved. Work differs from university projects in that the scope, content and deliverables can be changed at any time based on client requests.
In this experience, after our initial research finding, our client was more inclined to understand the Green bond itself, so we had to narrow down the project scope and focus on the depth of the deliverable. Even though I had a bit of work experience prior to participating in this project, I still found it a challenge to accommodate to such changes in less than a week.
Nevertheless, by staying focused and re-organising our priorities, my team was able to deliver a written report, PowerPoint slides and a verbal presentation in the end. This did not only show us the importance of staying agile in the workplace, it also signifies that staying focused as a team can yield good results.
My advice to students
If you do not have work experience, Job Smart Edge is a good place to start. It helps you gain some understanding of what it is like to work with a client and meet their needs.
If you do have work experience, Job Smart Edge is still a good refresher for you. It is a good chance to learn how to work in a team in a short period of time and be able to deliver quality work. Therefore, I would strongly recommend others to participate in Job Smart Edge.
Learn more about Job Smart Edge.
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