Why leadership prevails over your WAM

The moment you sit in your first graduation job interview, your potential employer isn’t looking at your WAM or your academic achievements. They’re looking for an entrepreneurial character to help grow their business. That’s why when you see them clicking their pens or not writing anything down, it’s a cue to move on. Tell them explicitly what makes you different.

How?

Leadership. It is the most employable skill, as leadership experiences can’t be solely studied.

So what exactly is WAM?

WAM:
Weighted Average Mark; a non-experience based numerical assessment of work ethic assigned to all enrolled students.

To an employer, it can tell them how much of a high-achiever you may be. They wouldn’t know if you’ve crammed content the night before. Or how many all nighters you’ve pulled thus far. Let’s be frank: it’s just a number. Like ATAR. It does not encompass you as a character.

So why leadership?

Communication
First impressions count. It gets your foot in the door.  How one presents themself as self-aware through communication differentiates them from the rest of the graduate employment market. They’re looking for people who will make the best fit for their workplace. Someone who can communicate their ideas clearly and confidently.

Initiative
Unless you’re superhuman, you’re probably not going to start off your first graduate job as the perfect worker. Your employer knows that. That’s why initiative is desirable. They will be asking themselves, “Is this candidate willing to challenge themself and learn new things?” When people see you with initiative, they see you as someone who can take charge and be dependable. Only through a self-development mindset can you experience true professional growth. After all, experience cannot be studied.

Teamwork
Regardless of the field, teamwork is the definitive quality of a desirable employee. It doesn’t matter how good you are on paper. Selflessness is good teamwork. A realisation of collective aspirations beyond one’s self and working to common ends is what employers can’t do without. Think of it as nailing the theoretical components. Only achieving on a theoretical level is not as pleasing as an individual with practical experience.

Networking
Harnessing opportunities to ascertain your future pathway remains in and out of the connections you foster and maintain. Building bridges with not only professionals, but also students from diverse backgrounds and experiences canvasses a network for future collaboration and impact. Glue yourself to a suite of possibilities with extensive networks. It’ll land you jobs deemed to be out of reach.

AIESEC: Your Gateway to Leadership
AIESEC is the largest student run organisation in the world, facilitating students with volunteering and internship exchanges in over 125 partnered countries since 1948.

From Kofi Annan (Former Secretary General of the UN) to Neil Janin (Global Director, McKinsey and Co.), participants of the Global Leader program have paved new pathways for communities, businesses and lives around the world.

AIESEC spearheads its members into an immersive environment with developmental space to enhance practical skills in areas such as business development, marketing, finance and human resources. 

So why leadership over WAM?
Employers don’t reduce the company's future to a number. They will find value in your capacity to impact as an innovative leader.

Be prepared the next time you head in for an interview. Loosen your grip on the inky CV. An interviewer seeks experience prepared by the opportunities you seize here and now. All the doors close itself eventually. Initiate the start to your future, work with potentially prominent figures of the world and expand your network.

Good luck.

Solenna Fu
Current student at the University of Sydney and Public Relations Officer, AIESEC Sydney

The Top Five Benefits of International Internships

Choosing to intern globally is a big decision to make. It’s not only a choice to commit yourself to a new professional atmosphere, but to change entirely your daily habits of food, culture and social life for a time.  It’s like going hiking in high altitudes – your body needs time to acclimatize and it may be difficult initially, but you are no doubt going to emerge a better hiker when you’re finished.

The rewards of training in new environments are plentiful, but what are the top five rewards of global internships?

It grows the initiative muscle
Initiative is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger and more efficient it becomes. It’s a big step to jump on a plane and voluntarily shift your time zone, let alone commit to an internship in a new and exotic land. When interning overseas, you no longer have your deeply knit friends or family watching over your shoulder. You are in charge of yourself and all things get done only if you proactively choose to do them.

Living in a new culture
The great thing about travelling overseas is how much it allows us to learn about the world beyond the society we happened to be born into. In an even more profound way, international work experience is a chance to not only learn about a foreign culture, but to live in the heart of it. Have you ever thought about who you would be if the dice roll of nature had been different? What if you were born into an entirely different culture? This question can’t actually be answered, but global internships provide a nice experimental gaze into other cultural realities.

A CV more interesting than your average bear
Take two candidates for a graduate engineering position, Bob and Bill. They have roughly similar grades and extra-curriculars. The only difference is that Bob interned in Australia whilst Bill worked for a company in Vietnam. Before the filtering process of an interview, Bill is a little more intriguing – he stands out. He signals a more interesting candidate, one who takes initiative and is curious about self-development.

New friends, new ideas
Making friends overseas is fun because every conversation is potentially a challenge to your entire way of viewing the world. New jokes, food and dance are all great benefits – but even more profound is the exciting novelty of a new climate of friendship.

Coming back a superhero
Returning from their internships, participants often say that they feel like new people – like their dreams and visions for the world are somehow so much closer than they’ve ever been. This sense of agency and courage is nothing short of super hero status – you feel like a new person because you are a new person.

 

AIESEC’s Global Talent

AIESEC is a student run institution that organizes international internships and volunteering opportunities. Operating in over 125 different countries, Global Talent offers internships in young and gunning startups, all the way to big game multinationals. Internships can range from six weeks to two years, depending on what a candidate is looking for in their placement. AIESEC Sydney operates from campus and exists to facilitate the wonderful experience of global internships for University of Sydney students.

We live in the best time to be alive. The world has always been large and endless, and yet today it is firmly in the palm of our hands, if that’s how we want it to be. In the old days, if you were born a cultured German, you remained a cultured German – and might not have even acknowledged that something outside of your part of Germany existed. Today, not only can we skype anyone from anywhere – we can travel abroad to live, work, eat and laugh amongst them.

Ninos Mansor
Current student at the University of Sydney and PR Manager, AIESEC Sydney

AIESEC: Global Youth Leadership

AIESEC is a student society which specialises in arranging overseas volunteering programs. There are programs in almost every continent, and my program was in Taiwan. It was an education project in Hsinchu called, ‘Bridge the Gap’.

Taiwan has always been a country that I have wanted to visit, and I have always felt that the best way to get to know a foreign country is to live the local life. Furthermore, I wanted to spend the three months of my summer holidays doing something meaningful and memorable. So I applied, and I couldn’t have given myself a better 21st present.

Like many people, when I heard about the volunteering opportunity with an education program, I thought I would be teaching a small class at a rural school in the mountains with only fundamental supplies and furniture. I was wrong. Instead, I taught at a public elementary school which comprised of more than 1000 students. Initially, I was arranged to teach from year 3 to year 6, but later, due to the amount of positive feedback, I also taught year 1 and year 2 students.

Altogether, I taught 48 classes and presented 64 lessons throughout the 6 week program. I also arranged an Australian cultural camp. I taught my students Aboriginal Art and also brought in lamingtons and vegemite for them to try. It was definitely an accomplishment which I never thought of achieving.


As Taiwan does not have a multicultural society, naturally, students have less exposure to different cultures around the world. It was the first time I felt privileged for living in a multicultural environment. The aim of my program was to broaden my students’ global perspective. Thus, in my lessons, I taught them about Australian culture: our food, language, landscape, etc. I even showed them what an Australian Primary School is like.

I also had to assign homework to the students and their task was DIY postcard. Many of them wrote that when they grow up, they wanted to travel to Australia. Unexpectedly, I became a free ambassador for Tourism Australia.

I was hosted by one of my students’ family and they definitely exhibited the hospitable nature of the Taiwanese people. However, the best thing about the AIESEC program was that I got to meet other volunteers from around the world. I made friends from Chile, Brazil, the USA, Korea, New Zealand, Vietnam, Singapore and many more places. Like me, most of my volunteer friends have never been to Taiwan. For this reason, everyone bonded very quickly and looked after each other like family. The other volunteers were in different programs, including community service, farming and other education programs. However, we planned weekend trips, dinners, and Christmas and New Year celebrations together. 

Often, we only actively interact with people who have a similar background or interests. However, when you are in a foreign country knowing nobody, you are forced to bond and connect with people from different backgrounds and walks of life. Making friends with people who you would usually never interact with didn’t seem so hard anymore. I managed to gain a new perspective of the world and this was definitely one of my biggest gains.

In my application for this program, I wrote: ‘It is through giving that we receive’. I felt that I have definitely received a lot more than what I have given: better social and communication skills, self-management skills, independence, satisfaction and most importantly, the courage and confidence to do something that was not in my comfort zone. If in the coming holidays you fail to obtain an internship or a job, I would definitely recommend volunteering as a substitute. By being in a different environment, you will definitely discover a new perspective of yourself.

Anna Zhou
Current student at the University of Sydney Business School

“Where will I be in 10 years?”

powered by AIESEC Sydney - bringing leadership development to youth since 1948

AIESEC group picture

This is a question you as a student at a globally competitive university will probably ask yourself from time to time. Some of us find ourselves worrying about whether what we are doing will emotionally profit in the future.

That is okay.

Success is not built overnight on firm and reliable earth. It is built on soft and unstable ground that takes years of maintenance and additional support. To be successful means you must patiently improve and bring value to all your life’s aspects, as well as create value in others around you. Your road to success will be long and tiring, but improving these skills below will help make the journey a bit more easily enjoyable.

1) Self-awareness:
Knowing what you are capable of will give you an idea of who, what, where and when to efficiently place your precious time and effort. Knowing what you are not capable of will help you improve where needed. Using a twenty dollar bill to hammer a nail is not worth the effort if you can buy a hammer across the street. Efficiency is key.

2) Cultural awareness:
After university, the comfort of a spoon-fed community consisting of similar minded people will not easily exist. Sure, you can put forth the effort to find them, but that is not realistic for those of us with a limited amount of time. Instead, get to know different people. Be open, share stories, share hobbies, work together and most of all connect. Understanding and interacting with people from different lifestyles makes your journey to success vibrant with life and energy.

3) Effective communication.
What you say can either make you or break you. Your communication skills can affect the outcomes of major decisions. Misunderstanding can occur, and can leave both parties confused and irritated. Work on your communication skills by carefully wording what you say to be concise, comprehensible and diplomatic.

Keep these in mind. Success is not a paved road. It is rugged, even at its best, yet rewarding.
Your future is a never ending journey filled with challenges that should not be pushed away, but embraced with hope.

You’ve got this.

For more information about AIESEC Sydney, please visit us online.

Justin Pepito
Current student at the University of Sydney Business School

Inside Enterprise: Founding a Student Business Journal

In June 2013, a group of enthusiastic students and I took the first steps in implementing an idea I had toyed with for some time: starting a business publication that was entirely student-run, informing a readership that spanned several Australian Universities and which would inspire business students through the practical tips and insights gained from successful industry professionals. Six months later and the first issue of Inside Enterprise was released, launched with the ethos of ‘Informing and inspiring the next generation of business leaders.’ Our founding vision was to become a platform that bridged the world of university-taught theory and that of real-world business. This publication would ensure that every student could have free, regular access to a host of experiences and tools that could help them translate their ideas into reality. Our inaugural issue was themed ‘The Gamechanger’ – reflective of Inside Enterprise's belief that successful business people are often more than great thinkers: they are brilliant communicators who can inspire change through the very power of their words and ideas.

The greatest challenge in starting something ambitious like this with no experience or funds and a team comprising initially of only my friends, was gaining credibility from the people whose help we most sorely needed. We were fortunate enough to secure sponsorship from the University of Sydney Business School and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia which made printing 2,000 copies of the first issue and 5,000 copies of the second issue realisable. We were also very lucky to find designers, editors and IT directors from the pool of talented students whom we accessed via newsletters, word of mouth and social media. It was very reassuring to know that there were so many people who perceived value in the publication and wanted to become involved in any way possible.

Beyond publishing and distributing two print issues a year across four major universities in Sydney, we operate a website (www.insideenterprise.org) that features additional student-produced content entrenched within the business world. We also run writers workshops and training days every semester to help our writers produce better quality content.

The success of issue one owed largely to the assistance given by many of our partner societies, such as AIESEC, UNIT and the Sydney Marketing Society (SMS), who helped us distribute and get word of our publication out to the public. Every day we continue to think of ways to tighten our internal processes, improve our publication and expand in new directions to make a greater impact on our readership and to in turn enable them to more effectively impact us. There is simply no experience more educational and rewarding than that of creating something that adds value – whether it be a business, a product or a publication.

Jenny Huang
Current student at the University of Sydney Business School

Discovering New Forms of Business

Corporate Social Responsibility has been an idea embedded into the pores of business foundation classes from the start.

At the same time, I felt like it was more of an elaborate marketing ploy. Businesses are concerned with making a profit, I reasoned. Why would they willingly participate in extra activities and practices that would add extra costs?

It wasn’t until I stumbled across ‘social enterprise’ that I truly understood the implications that this CSR could have for business.

In the most basic of ways, social enterprises are the best mix of not-for-profits and businesses. It’s a term describing an organisation that has business operations (sale of goods/services) but exists or works towards a humanitarian benefit.

Why is it great? It enables organisations to create sustainable change without having to rely on donations or grants.

My first run with the term was about one and a half years ago, when I joined a youth-run social enterprise called AIESEC.

AIESEC’s social mission is to develop global youth leaders, and empower young people to make a positive change, while its business operations are focused on facilitating the international experiences that enable young people to develop those leadership capacities.

Interestingly, I was a ‘customer’ of AIESEC before I joined the organisation itself.

In the summer of 2012, I went on an AIESEC volunteering exchange, spending six weeks in Sri Lanka facilitating soft-skill training sessions for university students. 

From exploring a different culture, meeting like-minded youth from across the world, and working alongside locals on projects directly impacting their community, the experience challenged me to think differently about the world and how we can all play a part in making it a better place.

Working alongside more than 40 young people from 10 different countries!

I can definitely vouch for how much the life-changing experience has impacted me, and how gaining insight into not only how a social enterprise works, but also experiencing it firsthand has elucidated that businesses can care about more than just their profit margins.

As young people, I feel like many of us want to work for something that’s actually making a positive impact, but may be unsure of how we can develop or utilise our business skills to do so.

My answer? Discover the world of social enterprise, where business is moving more towards ‘creating shared value’ as opposed to ’corporate social responsibility’.

In a legitimately unbiased way, I think it’s really encouraging that the Business School here at the University of Sydney offers a Community Placement Program which enables students to learn and work for a social enterprise and be recognised for their learning in an accredited course (BUSS2503, 6 units of study), as well as many other subjects on social entrepreneurship and community service.

For more real life examples of social enterprises check out Thankyou Group, which sell things like bottled water to fund clean water projects in third world countries and TOMS Shoes, which donate a pair of shoes for each pair sold to a child in need.

Helen Chan
Current student at the University of Sydney Business School

AIESEC Go Volunteer exchange: A life changing experience

It’s eye-opening what travelling over the summer break can do for a uni student, especially if the purpose of travel is volunteer and social work. That’s what I found during my trip to Europe at the beginning of 2014, as part of AIESEC’s Go Volunteer exchange. AIESEC is a global youth network that develops leaders through international exchange. With the aid of a Business School scholarship, I was able to undertake my AIESEC exchange in Hungary over a period of six weeks. My ultimate aim was to develop cultural awareness and understanding in my work in two very distinct institutions.

My fellow volunteers, who were all from Brazil, whom I lived and worked with at the refugee camp.

The first was a refugee camp, whereby many of the refugees came from countries such as Somalia, Afghanistan, Iran, Cameroon, Syria and Algeria. Together with my fellow volunteers who were all from Brazil and Mexico, I taught English basics such as ‘My name is….’ and ‘it is nice to meet you’ to the adult refugees. As many of them had experienced various degrees of emotional, social and physical struggles in their own war-torn countries, their aspiration to learn English was one of their goals in their pursuit of reaching safe and democratic countries such as Australia or America. For some of them, their brave stories of enduring months of travel by foot or with strangers made me cherish how fortunate I am to live in Australia. And although my father was once also a refugee, this experience of living and working in a refugee camp propelled many questions in my mind about how Australia was dealing with its humanitarian issues.

Myself and a volunteer playing soccer with the kids at the refugee camp.

After two weeks of teaching and getting to know the families at the refugee camp, I was offered the opportunity to work in a school for blind and mentally disabled children. Having never had any experience of working with the blind, I was anxious about how I would cope and manage my interactions. However, my anxiety was unwarranted. Whether it be saying hello to me and attempting to hold up a conversation in English (very few Hungarians can speak English) or bringing fruit and other snacks to my dorm room so that I wouldn’t get lonely living by myself, the staff and students all made me feel so welcome and safe. The warmth shown to me by everyone in the school really motivated me to do as much as I could to contribute to their learning and teaching environment.

My grade 3 kids at the Blind School.

So what did my typical day look like? I would wake up at 6.45am, have breakfast in the school dining hall, and start my first class at 7.15am. I would usually go to five classes throughout the day, teaching children who ranged from 7-17 years old, all of whom had very unique personalities and levels of English proficiency. Usually, I was accompanied by the classroom teacher, who could translate for me. What was really inspiring was that the teachers at the school were also blind and aside from their teaching jobs, they each had unique interests and talents which they pursued. For instance, one of the English teachers that I worked with was an opera singer who was concurrently working on her PhD, and is involved in numerous charitable and social initiatives to raise awareness about programs and opportunities available to blind people. She is such a great mentor, colleague and friend to me, as are many of the other staff members and students that I met.

Making ANZAC biscuits at the Blind School.

All in all, working in the refugee camp and the blind school gave me so much motivation to explore ways in which I could better serve my community back here in Australia. Hence, although I am devoted to finishing my Bachelor of Commerce degree and am involved in a number of student start-ups and societies, I am committed to making a concerted effort to contribute to my community by volunteering for humanitarian and youth development causes, as well as attending festivities that celebrate cultural diversity. Looking back, I can honestly say that my 2013/2014 summer break was undoubtedly the best summer break I’ve ever had.

Christine Ma
Current student at The University of Sydney Business School.