UTS Bachelor of Technology and Innovation student Hayley Tulich started off with no idea about what to get out of her internship - but ended up with a passion for startups and industry connections to boot.
“I just wanted to experience the startup world,” says Hayley. “My internship has guided me through that process and sparked different interests in future career paths.”
With its new Startup Internships program, UTS is giving students the chance to work with early-stage startups in credit-bearing internships.
Connecting students with startups for work experience is having far-reaching benefits for both students and their entrepreneur hosts.
Working with early-stage investment firm Investible, Hayley helped coordinate Investible’s Impact Games, a competition where startups compete over three days in a variety of challenges, being judged across different areas. Investible is based in Australia's largest startup community, Fishburners.
Becoming future work-ready
Demand for management and data competency is expected to increase rapidly with the changing economy, and Hayley’s work on the project required a grasping of these core future-proofing skills.
“I was involved in the whole event: from the planning at the beginning to the execution of the event at the end. To start with, it was a lot of data collection, sorting the startups, but it quickly evolved into project management and testing all the challenges and seeing what needed to be improved on.”
Hayley says the internship allowed her to tackle challenges in a new environment, pushing her to quickly master new skills.
“This experience has been invaluable and I’d recommend everyone do it. The experience you gain from being put into the deep end means you grow so much and it’s nothing compared to what you would learn in a classroom.”
Finding the right match
Elisa-Marie Dumas, Head of Global Partnerships and Programs for Investible, says Hayley proved she was able to learn quickly and get involved in the company’s daily business.
“Ideal interns are people who are naturally curious about entrepreneurship, but also, in how they think and move, are willing to learn, be agile and take on board 50 different things that we might throw on them.”
Hayley says her experience as an intern has ultimately pushed her towards exploring a broader career path in the startup ecosystem.
“This internship has sparked a massive interest for me in startups,” says Hayley. “I’ve met so many people who I would never have met before and, from the Impact Games, a couple of companies I’m interested in have been offering me the opportunity to come and work with them.”