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Transcript

Title: Career Connection 

Episode 2: MJ’s software engineering project – building apps and backing yourself 

Creator: Carolyn Huane

Year: 2026

[Intro music up]

ADA: Career Connection is made on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, the Traditional Owners of the land on which ��õ������’s Hawthorn campus is located. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. 

MJ: Creating a whole new app was really different from just doing assignments.

We learned and then we executed immediately, so sometimes it crashed, and we didn’t know how to fix it. At the end of the day, when we got the project, it was all worth it. 

ADA: Welcome to this episode of Career Connection. I’m Ada Konstantine, a Journalism student at ��õ������, and your host. At ��õ������, real industry experience is guaranteed in all bachelor degrees. But what does that actually look like? Today I’m here with MJ, and we’ll be going through her software engineering industry project at CAPEX. Hi MJ, how are we? 

MJ: Hello Ada, it’s nice to meet you.

ADA: It’s nice to meet you too! Can you tell me what you’re studying, what year you’re in, and the name of your industry project?

MJ: Sure. So, I just graduated from my bachelor degree and immediately came back to ��õ������ again with my master’s by research degree. So, I’m currently doing my master’s by research, and my industry project was called BeSide. So, it was an app, it’s still going on, so it is an app. It’s a mobile app, and it’s like a travel buddy kind of a thing. If you want someone to be at your side while you’re travelling, or walking, this is definitely the thing you need. So, kind of your travel buddy, as I said.

ADA: Wonderful. The way this industry project came about was through CAPEX or the Capstone Project Expo, Could you tell me a bit about what that's all about? What's it been like?

MJ: So basically, this whole capstone project is all about your final year project. So, you work with a team, like a group of 5 or 6 random students from different backgrounds and we all become a group or a team and work on a same project for a year. And then, after that year, we complete the whole project and showcase that at CAPEX. At CAPEX, we have like so many, like, big industry people or like education people, peers and stuff like that. Really honourable persons that are coming there. And we have like huge guests coming there as well to see our project, you might get a direct connection with them to get something, like a job or something, like that immediately. I got some cards, contacts when I was like promoting or like showcasing my project from, like really big companies.

ADA : That's awesome. And the really exciting thing about your project as well is that you actually won a couple prizes of CAPEX. Could you speak to that a little bit?

MJ: Well, it was unexpected. We worked really hard. We were targeting to have like a great, picture out of it, but then we never thought, like, we'll get two prestigious awards out of it.

So, it was really great. One, was Best Project in our department, and the second one was People's Choice Awards. So, all the guests we had in the showcase, they could vote for our project, and everyone, it was around, like, probably thousands of people were there, and eight hundred or so projects were there as well in total. Then, we got the best, People's Choice award.

ADA: Congratulations. Well-deserved. I'm sure.

MJ: So, that’s of course, a really great experience and, very new to me.

ADA: Could you talk me through an unexpected challenge, or perk that you found while you were working on the project?

MJ: Oh, there was so many. Because it's an app, and also, like, we all were software engineering students, we had to build, the whole app from scratch. There were a lot of perspectives where we haven't really worked before, because creating a whole new app was really different from just doing assignments or like writing few codes and just completing the assignments for other units. So, it was totally different. We learned, and then we executed immediately. So, sometimes it crashed and we didn't know how to fix it. So, we spent like a whole night back-to-back sometimes, especially before CAPEX. We were like spending our whole night at the LateLab. As we have the LateLab, we can stay there for the whole night. So, the whole group was there. We were fixing, we’re building, we’re executing and like, this was going back and forth all the time and a few people almost died.

ADA: I can imagine!

MJ: Like, Oh my God, it has to get fixed or we’re just done. At the end of the day, when we got the project, it was all worth it. But yeah, there was a lot. Also, handling the whole team is really tough as well, when you have like different commitments and different people coming from different places. So, it was really hard to be in a team and work together.

ADA: It’s all a bit like a Jenga tower, isn't it? Because you've got to pull out different pieces and put them back on top and balance it all. But you managed to get it, and it looks great.

MJ: Yeah, thank you. Yeah, we all did it together. 

ADA: Fantastic. Yeah. Was there anything from your course that was unexpectedly, like, more useful than you thought it would be during the project?

MJ: Yeah, dealing with the client. You can deal with your teammates, your professor and stuff like that, right? But, you can’t never do that, without going into a workplace or without doing any business. So, doing a project with a client in the industry, really helped me to learn how to deal with a client like, professionally. And sometimes, you know, because client has different perspective, you have different perspective, the whole team has a different perspective. So, combining everything together and then dealing with the client was really something huge and different. And doing that, professionally as well, because sometimes, clients will be like wrong, right. But yeah, you can’t really say ‘hey, you’re wrong’.

ADA: Yeah, you have to work with them and be gentle and be like ‘Hey, yeah, I think that this solution would work better. 

MJ: Yeah, exactly. 

ADA: And learning how to communicate in that way is, is so useful. Also I'd say, in so many fields as well, not just in engineering.

MJ: Learning that before jumping into a workplace was really, really great, and I would say this will help me a lot in the future.

ADA: How has the experience prepped you for your career, you think?

MJ: Definitely in a really positive way, because as I mentioned, I never thought about dealing with clients, and then, dealing with a whole team with different perspectives, and then communication. That communication skill really helped me, and then also leadership. So, all these kinds of things and how you do a project with a whole team, and present that and then how you manage the whole thing. Like, when we like mistakenly did something and the app crashed and that we had to fix it. So, stuff like that, really, was unexpected. During this whole journey, I learned from step by step how things work in real industry as well, because these are the things you actually do at a workplace. Like you get a project handed over to you, and you have to figure out how you want to do it, right? Then you have to present that to your boss, or to your client, and then you have your whole team there, to work with you. So, this whole thing, before even jumping to the workplace, I got to experience that during my whole last year project. It was really outstanding. and this will actually help me to going because I know how workplaces work right now, with this experience. So I won't be like, ‘Oh my God, what's happening here? I don't know, I just want to go home’, You know what I mean? On our first day at work in future.

ADA: How did doing the project help inform what you wanted to do after you graduated? You mentioned earlier you were doing a master's by research. Was this something that came about partially because of the project? Or is this something you're pursuing separately?

MJ: Well, research was kind of a thing, that was again, never in my list, honestly.

But then yeah. while doing these kinds of projects, I have done some other projects with my other supervisors as well. So, while doing these whole things, I felt like, studying software, and doing this project, can really help actual people out there. Like, we can actually create something or research on something that can improve others in society or like, in general. 

ADA: It has a real impact. 

MJ: So that's how the motivation came to me. That, if I do some research, and some big projects, do something about it, it will be really beneficial for me and others as well.

ADA: If another student approached you and asked you for advice on taking on an industry project like yours, maybe presenting at CAPEX, what piece of advice would you give them?

MJ: It might feel really hard at the beginning, but then yeah, you might feel lost. Well, and I also failed at points, when nothing was working at a point. But then, when we worked hard on it, we stayed awake all night. eventually it worked out. So yeah, just keep going. Keep going. Yeah.

ADA: Thank you for listening to Career Connection. You can find other episodes of Career Connection on your favourite audio app or at swinburne.edu.au/podcasts.

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Transcript

Title: Career Connection

Episode 3: Tahira’s law internships – money laundering and how to network 

Creator: Carolyn Huane 

Year: 2026

[Intro music up]

ADA: Career Connection is made on the lands of the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation, who are the Traditional Owners of the land on which ��õ������’s Hawthorn campus is located. We pay our respect to their Elders past, present and emerging.

TAHIRA: That case got me the role that I am in right now. I got hired because I had experience of money laundering, and yeah, all those skills got me into another role, which I’m in right now as a paralegal.

ADA: Welcome to this episode of Career Connection. I’m Ada Konstantine, your host, and a Journalism student here at ��õ������. At ��õ������, all bachelor's degrees have guaranteed industry experience. But what does that actually look like? Today, I’m joined by Tahira, she’s studying a double degree in law and business, and she’s going to be talking about her experience on her internship. What’s she’s experienced, what  it’s felt  like, and how it’s connecting her to her career. Could you tell us a bit about what you’re studying, what year you’re in, and where you did your internship? 

TAHIRA: Sure, thanks for having me today, Ada. I’m studying a bachelors of law and business, majoring in accounting. I’m in my fifth year, last semester. 

 So, I did two internships, one at Norton Rose Fulbright which was in the commercial litigation team, and the second was in Victorian Legal Aid, which was in the infringement team.

 ADA: With these two internships, how did they come to be? Like, did you source them yourself? Or did ��õ������ help you find them for you?  

TAHIRA: So, the Norton Rose Fulbright, I actually sourced it myself, but with the help of ��õ������ actually examining my CV and cover letter and helping me with those. With Victorian Legal Aid, ��õ������ helped me find it.  

ADA: Can you go into a little bit of detail, actually, about how ��õ������ helped you with your CV?

TAHIRA: Yep, so there is something called CV360. I uploaded my CV there, got it checked a few times, with grammar and all the small skills I had to build up, and I uploaded my cover letter and asked them if this cover letter matches the job requirement. And they actually helped me pick up those little specific wordings the job required and asked me to help writing the sentences or the paragraphs that suits the job description. 

���ٴ� :&�Բ�����;So, Tahira, you did two internships. You did one with Norton Rose and you also did one with Victorian Legal Aid. Could you talk me through some of the logistics behind that? So, like, how long did it go for? Was it part-time or full-time?

TAHIRA: So, for Norton Rose Fulbright, I was there for three months, and that was full-time. And then straight after that, the following week, I started Victorian Legal Aid with uni and I was coming in only one day a week for Victorian Legal Aid. With Norton Rose, I actually got paid, but with Victorian Legal Aid, I wasn’t paid. It was just one day a week consisting of 20 days, which I had to do 20 days of placement, three of them, for my degree, but yeah.  

ADA : You worked on a really big case for Norton Rose; it was about money laundering, I believe. Could you give us a flyover view of that one? 

TAHIRA : Sure, I won’t go into much detail about that one. It is a confidential case, but it was to do with an international client from China. He did some sort of money laundering in Australia. Even during the court hearings, he was speaking Chinese. There was a translator, and there was all the lawyers translating back to him. It was back and forward a lot. That case got me a role that I am in right now. I am a paralegal at Lander and Rogers, and I got hired because I had that experience of money laundering. And right now, I am working on another money laundering case. It is anti-money laundering, where I have to prepare two documents for Lander and Rogers, a risk analysis and policy and procedure documents. And yeah, so all those skills, got me to another role which I am right now in as a paralegal.  

ADA: Were there any unexpected challenges or perks that you found during your internships? 

�մ�����鴡 :&�Բ�����;I think the most challenging part was the Victorian Legal Aid Internship. Where I had to sit with a client for at least 30-40 minutes and listen to their stories, analysing their scenarios. They were vulnerable, so I had to make sure to understand their perspective to help them in a way that I can give my full potential. And I think you know that was the most challenging part, just consuming the information and then delivering that back to my manager so we can help them, in any way possible.

���ٴ� :&�Բ�����; Could you describe for me a moment where you felt like a real professional during your internships that you couldn't have felt in a classroom? 

�մ�����鴡 :&�Բ�����;At Norton Rose, I think every day. I used to go to work, I had to be very professional, especially when I’m talking, you know, I had maintain a tone, maintain certain wordings with different people, especially talking to big law firm partners. The first impression is kind of last impression.

���ٴ� :&�Բ�����;Do you think you could take us through what a typical day at Norton Rose could look like?

�մ�����鴡 :&�Բ�����;Sure. So, work started at nine. Started off with, you know, just catching up with my buddies, just a coffee catch up, usually. And then, after coffee, 10–15-minute coffee catch up, we used to just sit down and work. The whole office went quiet for at least until lunchtime. It was very quiet. So, yeah, we just focused on work. Depends on if it's a court day. We used to go to court, straight away after the coffee catch up. For me, as an intern, I used to just go to the chambers of barristers and help them fix the paper wordings and files to take to court. Otherwise, if it's in the office, just working on whatever task I was given, making the priorities at the top and then coming down to the least priorities. So yeah, then lunchtime and then after lunchtime again, back to work. But usually after three, I wanted to go to explore other teams, and I used to ask my manager if I could go, you know, shadow some other team doing their work, if they don't mind, if it's not too confidential. Yeah. So, the work I did at Norton Rose really fit my skills or experience I had before, and after that, yeah, I changed my mind to do commercial law.  

���ٴ� :&�Բ�����;Is there a piece of feedback that you've received during your internships that's really stuck with you? 

TAHIRA: Yes, During Norton Rose Fulbright, there was court hearings basically every day for at least two weeks, for one of the cases. And I came across a barrister, who was dealing with that case, and I usually used to help him, taking things to court with him. On the way from court to his chamber, we used to do a small walk, and during that walk, I used to ask him about his life experiences. He has lived a long life. So, I used to just ask him about skills or to become a barrister or become a good lawyer, what skills do you need? And what do you need to take on? And the first, or I think, our second meeting, he said, “I've been noticing you and you've been doing a very great job. For someone different in the room, you have been doing very well, and I want to see where you go, and you have a lot of potential in you.” He actually got connected with me through LinkedIn, and he was like, “Yeah, get connected with me through LinkedIn, I want to see where you’re going.” And that word of him just saying, you know, being the youngest in the room, really told me that, you know, I've been doing a great job. You know, all the experiences have taught me a lot to be where I am today. But I think it was that feedback that, you know, just a little compliment that was really great.

ADA: That is so lovely. And like, so encouraging. It's really great to hear. Talking about industry connections and networking, is there any tip you would give to anyone new to law or business about that?

�մ�����鴡 :&�Բ�����;I think that for law, networking is very important. Just a five-minute chat with the HR person, or anyone in the area you're working in could lead you to so many areas. Because one person has so many connections that they can connect you with. So, where I am today, all that with all these experiences, I think networking was my top, the one thing that I've done well, and it got me somewhere. I reach out to those networks first, if there are any opportunities around. Before I take a step, fitting in myself into some new opportunities. But I think networking is very important for law here. 

���ٴ� :&�Բ�����; How do you feel stepping into the next phase of your career?  

�մ�����鴡 :&�Բ�����;I feel very confident. If you asked me this question three years, two years ago, I would say “I don't know where I want to go". But, at the moment, I feel very confident and I have long-term and short-term goals set out. I know where I want to go, so I don't have to stress when I think about it. But yeah, with all these experiences, I have chosen a pathway to go in the future or in the next six months. But yeah, it has opened some doors for me. It has opened my mind where to look. But yeah, I have built that confidence to make that decision of where I want to go in the next three months. 

 ���ٴ� :&�Բ�����;Yeah. Fantastic. I guess the last question that I kind of wanted to ask you was if someone were to take on the same opportunities as you, so, the two internships that you did, what would be the first piece of advice you give them?

�մ�����鴡 :&�Բ�����;Take the risk. Ask the dumb questions. Ask the silly questions. There are no wrong questions. So yeah, even if a small, an example question could be, “how do I open a Word document?” Ask, because there are a lot of ways to open that Word document. 

 So, ask the silly questions. But I think, take the risk at the start. Don't be afraid of taking any risks.

���ٴ� :&�Բ�����;Fantastic. Thank you for joining us, Tahira. You've been a wealth of knowledge, and you've been an absolute joy to have. 

�մ�����鴡 :&�Բ�����;Thanks for having me.

���ٴ�:&�Բ�����;���Բ�پ�����. 

���ٴ� :&�Բ�����;Thank you for listening to Career Connection. You can find other episodes of Career Connection on your favourite audio apps, or at swinburne.edu.au/podcasts/.

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