This post is part of our series about the individual experience of studying with UNE Business School – we’ll be talking to current students, graduates and alumni over the coming months. If you have a story to share, or know someone who does, let us know via email.

An update:

We were happy to see Matt at graduation at the end of the month celebrating with family – he’s shared some photos with us. Congratulations Matt!

 

 

 

Matt Fox

Bachelor of Business/Bachelor of Economics, Graduating October 2017

Matt hails from Sydney and has checked in with us at UNE Business School in the lead up to graduation to share a bit more of his story, and how the future is looking for him on the strength of his tertiary study experience, his chosen career and the great outdoors. We were really happy to chat with Matt about the world of accounting, his approach to getting experience in the field and building a career, but also are happy to share his insight into the Sydney to Armidale move, and everything that comes with that.

Matt graduates with a double degree – Business and Economics, majoring in Finance and Econometrics. He’s also taken on some Law units for his Chartered Accountant qualification, which he feels will give him a wider scope of knowledge and ability to handle situations outside of his regular day-to-day responsibilities.

Matt’s approach to study for a career in his chosen field has definitely been front-foot forward – hitting the 2 year mark of his double degree, Matt sent an email to the top 100 accounting firms in Sydney and had 20 responses – out of these he landed two interviews, leading to a position with Walker Wayland Services, who were able to offer paid summer internships that allowed Matt to continue his study during the year. In total, he undertook 3 internships with Walker Wayland Services, before getting to the end of his 4th year of full time study and returning to Sydney to take up a full-time  role while continuing the remainder of his study part-time.

 

Of his time at UNE, Matt shares a few of his favourite lecturers – particularly enjoying lectures with John Anderson, who he says was always able to illustrate the material with an example from his experience on Wall Street, which left an inspirational mark. He particularly found John’s Fraud Investigation unit to drive him to a more critical approach to his work in the accounting area.

Every class of John’s I do makes me think harder, and it helps with me with my job every day.

He also credits Rene Villano, Scotty Harrison and George Chen with having the flare to liven up even the driest economics units, sharing “their classes were interesting and fun; ones that I wouldn’t think ‘it’s Friday morning, I’m going to sleep in and give this one a miss’ “.

It’s taken a few years to arrive at this graduation, but Matt has well and truly set himself up for success:

I have already taken the first step in getting a full time job straight out of UNE and I know that now I have a double degree, I will be able to start my career thanks to UNE.

“I have been working full time for over 2 years at the firm that gave me the initial opportunity. I am so grateful, not only for the chance to work straight out of Uni, but for the knowledge I have ascertained whilst working everyday. When I started I couldn’t even put together a binder folder…a binder folder. How embarrassing. Now I can complete any level of tax calculation, write a business scope and valuation and I can tell you if what you’ve investing in is going to pay dividends. My knowledge is 10 fold and I am always hungry for more. ”

Matt came to choose his courses the way many of us do – he came to the end of high school, received a good ATAR and took his enjoyment of commerce in school (and some mentoring from his favourite teacher, also his rugby coach) to the tertiary sector. He speaks of feeling that his environment was steering him towards tertiary study, and decided to move out of the city for a new challenge.

I chose to study at UNE to get not only a sense of independence but a chance to prove that I could succeed away from the comforts of home. What I didn’t realise is that I was never doing this by myself. I would develop friendships along the way that would last for life. I would bond with teachers who would give me an insight to what the future held and would do things I never knew existed. I wasn’t lucky, I had put myself there for a reason and it may sound corny but that was to succeed.

Matt shares the value in hearing just how proud his mother is of his hard work – and that after 6 years of study, the fact he’s graduating has only just started to sink in. Keen to keep a good life balance, Matt has turned his love of wildlife and the outdoors into a passion for taking photos, which has lead him to his next degree in photography (we’re pleased to share a few of Matt’s wildlife photos throughout the post). He credits his great friends and amazing girlfriend with enjoying life outside of work hours. Matt packs in a lot of extra-curricular interests and activites beyond photography, too – he visits friends all over the country to help with mustering, fencing and pest control on annual leave; led his workplace fundraising drive this year, resulting in $3000 for the Lyceum Foundation; runs the City2Surf yearly; has played a variety of sports and competed at a national level.

Matt shares with us – “it’s a hectic life, and I enjoy every minute of it”.  We were so pleased to be able to catch up before graduation – and we hope to keep in touch as he moves on to the next big thing. Congratulations, Matt!