Watch international alumni videos

I’ve always loved building things and taking them apart to see how they work.

A few years ago when I was looking for universities overseas, I knew I wanted to study biomedical engineering, but I didn’t want to learn just theory — I wanted hands-on practical experience too. UTS stood out to me because it offered that perfect mix. 

My name is Jessie Nguyen, and I graduated with a Bachelor of Biomedical Engineering from UTS.

Moving to Australia from New Caledonia on my own was definitely a bit intimidating. But I was really lucky to work with an awesome group in one of my first classes, and we kind of just stuck together throughout uni. Lots of late night study sessions, coffee runs, bouncing ideas for group projects off each other… I couldn’t have done it without them.

 My favourite spot on campus is the Reading Room. I spent so many days and nights there, surrounded by students from all different faculties. It was really motivating to be in that study environment.

I was also able to work part-time at a café near campus, and later on in an industry relevant internship. I loved the office environment and how much I learned every day, meeting new people and learning about Aussie culture. Living in Sydney felt really safe as well, there’s a great mix of people from all over the world. 

When it was time to apply for full time jobs, employers really wanted to know, “How did you apply your skills? What projects have you worked on?” I had all these great examples - like the time my group developed a machine that could use nanoparticles to detect ovarian cancer. 

Now in my job as a test engineer, I help to develop prototypes for unique automated disinfection technology and medical devices that can help thousands of people. 

Being an international student has been one of my biggest strengths. There were some challenges of course - but I never took them as a barrier for me to do what I wanted to do. 

I came to UTS with big dreams, and it’s been amazing to see them come to life. I’m really enjoying where I’m at right now, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

So my name is Sana.

I'm ethnically from Pakistan, but I'm born and raised in Saudi Arabia.

I did my Bachelor's of Science in I.T. and I did my major in programming and sub-major in business information systems.

A year after graduating, I was working as a senior I.T. risk consultant at PwC and I'm currently working a Controls Assurance Manager at Commonwealth Bank.

The degree is designed very nicely here.

They start with giving you the theoretical knowledge and then they give you a hands-on experience on the different applications or give you experience of how things would look in the professional world.

Reading and writing SQL is one thing that I use in my current job so when we have to read through scripts, that all comes from uni experience.

In my first year, I got an idea of how all the different I.T. sectors, whether it be networking, UX, UI, SQL, I got to experience all of them.

That was really fun because you would eventually get bored if you were just given theoretical knowledge but if you you're given like a complete picture it not only helps you make better informed career decisions but also makes your university life more enjoyable.

When I interacted with the Muslim society or the Saudi society, you'd get a confidence of how to interact and talk with people from different cultures, different nationalities, because that's one thing that you do at a workplace as well.

I have gained so much confidence to basically just interact with people, help coach people at my work, as well as to talk to my seniors and give my feedback. So I think it's more so the confidence and the soft skills and the communication networking skills that I've gained through uni, which has really helped me through my career.

I would say to any other future international student the degree here at the UTS is built in a way that would help you understand everything from scratch. So you do not need to worry about knowing everything when you're stepping in. You just need to step in with a mindset that you're willing to learn and you're willing to put in 100% and do the hard work that's required for you to survive.

So you don't really need to worry about it.

You can just take a step back, just relax and do everything what the uni is asking you to do and you’ll be all fine.

Hi, my name is Mohit Kumar. I’m originally from Haryana, India. I have done my Master’s from UTS with my major in Cybersecurity and currently I’m working as a Cyber Incident Response Consultant at KPMG. 

I received the UTS Postgraduate Academic Excellence Scholarship. The scholarship helped me and my family to reduce the financial burden and helped me to focus more on to my studies.

My experience with UTS instructors, classes, and curriculum was really amazing. The course and curriculum offered by UTS helped me to develop the in-demand industry skills in information technology. There were a few skills which I developed from beginner level to advanced level like python programming skills, computer networking skills, digital forensics skills, and Linux skills. 

In my current role at KPMG as a Cyber Incident Response Consultant, I oftentimes come across situations where I need to solve some complex problems. The hands-on approach practiced at UTS definitely comes handy to tackle these kinds of situations. 

Transitioning into professional career soon after graduation could be challenging for an international student. Stay positive, don’t fear rejections, and keep enhancing your soft skills and technical skills which will eventually lead you to a good career. In short, hard work and persistence is the key. 

I decided to opt for an industry standard certification as I was having limited amount of work experience. The exam was not hard to crack as I obtained ample amount of technical knowledge from UTS. And soon after cracking my exam, I landed my first job as a Security Analyst at ThreatDefence in Sydney.