What did you study at undergraduate level and postgraduate level?
I completed a Bachelor of Science (Advanced) with a double major in physics and maths at the University of Sydney in 2012, and then enrolled in a Master of Engineering (Mechanical) and graduated last year.
How did you find your way from Engineering to Management Consulting?
I did an internship at a management consulting firm over the summer after my penultimate year. It was a great experience, and especially useful to see how an engineering degree can prepare you for careers outside of your particular field of study. After completing my internship, I was offered a job at the company, which I was excited to accept. I’ve been in the role for almost one year.
What made you decide to progress with further study?
I love knowing how things work and understanding the physical and mathematical principles that underpin so many of the things we use every day. I felt like this degree complemented my undergraduate studies nicely, but would also give me a more practical, broadly applicable skill set.
Why did you choose to study at Melbourne University?
I knew I wanted to do a Masters degree in engineering, and Melbourne’s program is really well suited to people who don’t have an undergraduate degree in engineering. I also loved the idea of living in Melbourne, plus the university’s standing as the top-ranked in Australia was a pretty big drawcard.
What characteristics or skills did you gain by completing your course?
Aside from the technical skills, analytical thinking and problem-solving skills – it sounds cliché, but teamwork. There’s a lot of group work in engineering, and while that can challenging, it’s actually a great chance to learn how to work with people you don’t necessarily know or agree with, and how to get things done as a team. I think this is great preparation for any future career path.
What did you love the most about your course?
I got to study a lot of cool, interesting subjects like fluid dynamics, which I’ve always found fascinating and picked up skills like coding that I always wished I had. The course was broad enough that I got a taste for a range of different aspects of mechanical engineering, but there was still the opportunity to dig deeper into the subjects I found particularly interesting. I also really enjoyed working on my final year capstone project where we designed (and built!) adaptive landing gear for a commercial drone, under the guidance of an industry partner and collaboration with a university overseas. The project really brought together almost every aspect of mechanical engineering study we’d done up to that point. The satisfaction of having an idea, then actually designing and building it and having it work, was incredible.