Student Testimonial: Shanxiazi Jiang

Academic Program: Master of Finance and Business Economics

My mentor is an experienced accounting professional. He not only guided me in technical knowledge but also instructed me on how to enhance my interpersonal skills. By reflecting on his career development, my mentor helped me with my career growth from job hunting and applications, offered tips to make a good impression on interviews and most importantly provided personal advice on my career planning and study directions. I was very fortunate to have a caring and passionate mentor. Overall speaking, my experience with my mentor was very positive and fruitful.

Before attending this mentoring program, since I was the first year of master student in Australia, my career goal was narrow with unclear future directions. My mentor assisted me to discover several potential options for my career in the future and two explicit career directions with a thorough analysis. Instead of only aiming for the accounting internship, I realised that any entry-level administrative job will be helpful before landing my dream job. Apart from working in big firms, my mentor specifically indicated the fact that the majority of the enterprises in Australia is small and medium-sized, where is more feasible for me to start working as a management accountant. After this program, I managed to adjust my expectations to the Australian employment market and had a wider career plan with more alternatives.

I was thankful to be a part of this great program, you will get valuable advice from one of our alumni who shared a similar experience, study and cultural background with you. They put their time and effort in to become who they are today, hence their stories are inspiring and their successful pathways could be replicated, which can guide you in the right direction and avoid detours. On the other hand, it is a great opportunity to build up your network in Adelaide by adding mentors from LinkedIn and networking with them, which could help you to expand your local connections.