Lili's placement story

I chose to do a professional internship because I wanted to apply my knowledge to a real-life workplace after finishing my two-year study journey. As a second-year undergraduate, I thought it was a great opportunity to explore potential career paths and get a taste of the world of work to gain a competitive advantage and get ahead of the competition. In addition, as an international student, it is a valuable opportunity to identify challenges, concerns and an effective work model in Australian work culture.

I applied for a Business Analyst Internship project at Clear Grain Exchange during the 2019 winter break. Clear Grain Exchange provides an online grain exchange platform to help growers/sellers to trade their grain. My project involved working with the software engineering and business development teams. My role was to help CGX review the existing online exchange system and provide a detailed process flow chart with recommendation for improvement to replace the 10-year-old inefficient system. This project was about system analyst and design, data modelling, and excel upgrade which is related to the course I did before. 

Lili completed an internship during her 2019 winter break as a Business Analyst at Clear Grain Exchange.

I received support from a team of three. They all assisted in me being able to produce higher quality work and have helped me learn and grow, assisting me as I applied myself in the workplace.

Throughout my 19-day internship with CGX, I really enjoyed working in a friendly and positive environment. The internship has helped me gain a better understanding and expand my knowledge in a professional environment. I got to know a lot of different people, especially experts in the field who can really enhance my employability.

This internship has given me a wonderful experience in a specific role within the agriculture industry. It gives me general business analyst skills, which I’ll be able to use in my future career. It increased my confidence in being able to speak to people in certain environments where I wasn’t comfortable beforehand. My soft skills such as communication and teamwork have definitely improved. 

I would highly recommend students undertake a professional internship or placement before they graduate. It is a really great opportunity to get out of the classroom and gain a broader picture of your degree and career path. Swinburne University offers a Career Start module which can help students improve their employability and soft skills. It is a helpful way to prepare your cover letter, resume, and interview skills. When I was going through the process I attended career chats three times a week and received regular feedback from the career consultants.

My advice for any students going on an internship or placement program would be to just go for it! Take the risk because you won’t regret it. This experience will only benefit you.  

I heard about the professional internship program from an email I received from the Professional Placements team. I also attended their internship information session to gain more information and hear another student’s success story.

After finished my 19 days project at CGX, I was offered a casual position at CGX system to work on a design project.