INTRODUCE YOURSELF!

I’m Jack, I started the Master of Media and Comms in 2016 January, and then I finished December of 2018, and I am now doing the graduate program at Carlton United Breweries.

 

What can you tell us about the graduate program?

It’s global management training so pretty much I am just rotating through all of the different functions within the company. So I have just finished six weeks in that Abbottsford Brewery doing supply. I am now doing sort of the IT side, then we go onto marketing, sales. So you really do a bit of everything, so you’re not really just stuck in media and comms, I am kind of expanding.

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How did you get into the program?

Last year I started just applying for all the grad jobs like 30-40 of them, and sort of just go through each stage and slowly get knocked out of them until it was just down to CUB which was a seven stage application process. In June I passed the final stage and accepted a contract.

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What made you want to study at Swinburne?

I had previously studied at Melbourne where I did my undergrad, and that was very theoretical. I didn’t really get the chance to do really any hands on stuff, so what I really liked about this course was that pretty much all of the subjects linked back to some sort of actual real world application. Part of it was actually we worked with the Victorian Building Law Authority and actually kind of helped them design new communication infrastructure which was really cool and actually looked really good on my CV.

 

As well as just all of the projects they always ask you to sort of like link back to the real world, see if you can add it to your resume. Like the final project I got to make a podcast which was really good hands on experience I had never had before. So yeah it was really just the fact that I got to actually do stuff.

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Other than that it was just the really broad sort of spectrum of things I did, in the strategic communications discipline. In that I have done marketing, HR, PR, internal engagement. So yeah it was just a really good set of skills.

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What would you say to those considering to study a Master of Media and Comms at Swinburne?

Yeah I would say just look online, look at the actual course structure, and actually just look at what subjects and what are the pathways you can take that suits you. Because it may not be the best one for you, but I definitely think if you are unsure, if you just look online see what grabs you and see if you can actually cater it to yourself. Because I know that when I did it, Diana and all of the other lecturers were always so happy to actually change the assessments towards something that you are more interested in. And so if you are unsure, it’s just like even if you look on line or actually go in and speak to them and see if they can work it so it fits you.

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What did you study before you started at Swinburne?

So my undergrad was an Arts Degree in History and Politics and majors. So it was very theoretical, a lot of readings, a lot of kind of primary sources and yeah as I said there was just never really any chance to get hands on with it. The most I ever did was go into an archive and that’s not the same as getting into a recording booth and so that was another thing that sort of led me to want to do something a bit more real world. Something like media and comms where it is actually applicable to the real world, and not just something that I am going to be kind of stuck in academia with.

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What skills did you learn while studying that you can apply to the work you are doing now?

So I think it is actually really good that they do a lot of team based assignments and projects at Swinburne. Because pretty much everything you do in the workplace is team based. You won’t ever really do a project which is just you on it. So being able to actually work with a lot of different people which is great that Swinburne has a very diverse set of students. Being able to bring that is super good as a leader, and also as just sort of a team member.

 

The diversity is really great working with kind of my course, they were kind of aged from sort of my age 22, all the way up to 50. All different backgrounds, people who have just come straight from uni like myself, others have been working for the past 4 years, its just really cool to work with so many different people.

 

Do you think you could have gotten to where you are now without studying media and communications?

 

I definitely couldn’t have done it with just my Arts degree. That was just too broad and didn’t really have any real world application.

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It didn’t necessarily have to be media and comms, that was just sort of what gripped me. Most of my co-workers in the grad program they have all got finance or some engineers or law, I am actually the only communications student I think. Yeah so it could be another degree but this one did just fine and I actually… it’s actually worked out pretty well. A lot of people comment that I have a different set of skills that I can bring. It’s a year long rotation through all of the different things, then we sort of have a final 3 month project to do in a specific set in the business and after that we get placed in like a proper role for next year.