Bree Franklin secured a job in her chosen field before she even finished her bachelor’s degree, thanks to an internship she completed in the heart of Hobart.
Bree enjoyed business studies at college and knew she wanted to pursue that career path at university, which is why she enrolled in a Bachelor of Business degree at the University of Tasmania.
“There’s a lot of avenues that you can go down with a business degree and, for me, I really enjoyed the human resource side and the marketing side,” she said.
“That’s why I came to the University of Tasmania to study the bachelor of business, then I could major in both marketing and human resource management.”
With the School of Business and Economics located in the Hobart CBD, Bree found herself in the perfect place to immerse herself in the business world she was studying.
And there were other benefits, too.
“Studying in town, it’s really nice. On lunch break, we just head down, go get a coffee, get some food, and then can pop back up and continue studying.
“It’s very close to the shops and lots of cafes. For me personally, that’s probably the greatest benefit!’
There were study benefits as well, of course. Most notably, the close proximity between the campus and MyState bank, where Bree did an internship elective.
Being able to move so quickly and easily between the two nearby locations made it much easier for her to balance her work and her studies.
“It was really great that [MyState] was so close to the business school and so lovely now that when I am, you know, in the elevator, or just around the campus, that I see my colleagues. So that’s nice.”
MyState human resources consultant Laura Robinson said it was a mutually beneficial relationship on a number of levels.
“We see huge value in being able to bring in people that have recently studied, have a really amazing recent theoretical knowledge on their expert field, and we’re learning from them all the time, so, a very cool opportunity for us.”
She said she was impressed with the healthy level of balance Bree was able to maintain between her studies and internship.
“We had a really good open relationship about what she needed and what was going on and she, within her last week with us, had an exam, and so it was about checking in on how that was going,” Laura said.
“But she was able to get everything done with us, we were able to support her through what she needed to do. Often she’d leave our building and go downstairs and study for the rest of the day.”
“Laura was great in the fact that she was so open and so approachable,” Bree said.
“If I had any questions at all, I could just go to her. She would help me with anything I needed. I’m glad that I did choose to do the internship, and it is quite manageable with your studies.”
And of course the greatest benefit of being able to so easily blend her degree with work experience, came at the end of Bree’s internship.
“My last day of the internship, I asked [Laura] if she would be happy to be a reference for me moving forwards. And probably a week later she sent me a text and said, I actually have a better proposition for you, give me a call.
“And so I gave her a call and that’s when she said that there’s potential to do a couple of days a week for six months with them. If I hadn’t done the internship and been part of that team, then yeah, there’s no way I would have gotten this opportunity.”
You might be surprised by the kinds of places a Bachelor of Business can take you.