Leadership program gives Business students the edge in tough job market

Dongjin You, Kaustubh Mamdyal, Alvin Yap and Georgia Newell
GBS Leaders Dongjin You, Kaustubh Mamdyal, Alvin Yap and Georgia Newell

In a job market full of qualified applicants, it can be difficult to get your resume to stand out from the crowd. But a Griffith Business School program is helping to change all that.

The two-year Student Leadership Program aims to give its members the life and job skills to stand head and shoulders above the competition.

Georgia Newell knows firsthand just how beneficial the program has been to increasing her skill set as she progresses through her dual Bachelor of International Business/Bachelor of Government & International Relations degree.

“The Student Leadership Program has given me real-world professional experiences. I’ve been to networking events, and interacted with alumni of Griffith, so now I know how to interact with people in the workforce and also through seminars, develop my professional skills,” she explains.

“I know that if I go out into the world I will be able to do public speaking, I am already able to set up my personal brand, I know how to do my LinkedIn and so on. This program has really set me up to be able to take that next step into my career instead of finishing uni and being unsure of where I want to go next.”

The program gives students the opportunity to learn new skills through business-themed seminars, as well as offering overseas experiences, camps, and volunteering work.

Griffith Student Leaders Borneo project
Griffith Student Leaders on the Borneo Project.

Georgia recently travelled to Borneo as part of the GBS Leadership Program, an experience she said was a highlight of her whole university experience so far.

“It really just made me so aware how other cultures deal with things,” she says. “Professionally it has definitely changed my life because it’s made me more globally aware.”

She says being a part of the program has been life changing. “It’s honestly shaped my whole university life and even my future career. It’s made me so much happier at university and made me feel like I belong here.”

Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of International Business student Alvin Yap, who also travelled to Borneo, says he’s really expanded his horizons thanks to the program.

“During my time as a student leader, I’ve learnt networking skills, attended GBS alumni breakfasts, met with former students who are now in the business world,” he says. And that’s important, he says, because “in today’s business world it’s often not just what you know but who you know.”

All students who participate in the leadership program contribute to various volunteer projects that – apart from adding a socially responsible element to their resumes – also serve to provide them with an emotionally rewarding experience.

“At the end of the day you know that you’ve made someone else’s life a bit better, or helped a cause. It felt really great to give back to the community,” Alvin says.

Not to mention the friends you make along the way. Fellow Student Leaders Dongjin You and Kaustubh Mamdyal say their university greatly enhanced through their introduction to 50 like-minded students.

“You will find a lot of people aren’t able to keep up with uni because they don’t have support,” Bachelor of Business student Kaustubh explains. “And the leadership program provides a level of support and a push and the skills to get ahead.

“It give you the chance to network and to make friends, even just sheer confidence in work and uni situations.”

DJ agrees wholeheartedly. “I get to see all these friends and it’s great because we always help each other when it comes to study, or networking,” the Bachelor of Commerce student says.

Georgia says she thinks that participating in the program will definitely give her an edge in the job market when it comes time to graduate, and she couldn’t have imagined her university experience without it.

“This program has really let me build that bridge between university and professional life,” she says.