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Up and up – iexchange kicks off a new career for Mario
25-Aug-2008
“There’s nothing better than to see all the effort you put into your studies finally paying off. The iexchange program can help you do this.”From consulting on business improvement at Brisbane City Council to a key project management role at Virgin Blue’s VAustralia project, the professional career of MBA graduate Mario Saona has literally taken off with a little help from tuscon’s “innovative” iexchange placement program.
Peruvian-born Mario came to Australia to complete a Masters of Business Administration at the University of Queensland Business School and gain some local work experience. But although he was able to get paid experience while he studied, it was generally casual and not related to his field of study. That was until tuscon came to his attention.
“My first impression of tuscon was of a company with an innovative and interesting program for postgraduate students. It appealed to me because it gave me the opportunity to put into practice all the new skill I was developing at university,” he said.
After being accepted into the iexchange program, Mario was placed with two major Brisbane-based organisations: Brisbane City Council and Virgin Blue. During his three months at Brisbane City Council’s Business Improvement Department, Mario worked on a group redesign project as a business consultant, gathering data, facilitating workshops and formulating recommendations.
His next iexchange experience proved to be a more enduring success, resulting in a full-time position with Virgin Blue. As a Program Coordinator for the VAustralia project, Mario demonstrated his project management expertise as well as his financial prowess, and his performance was recently rewarded with a direct contract with the Virgin Blue Group.
“The role requires a lot of planning and control as well as risk, issue, cost and change management. My role specifically is to look after the eight departments that form the operational stream of the project. Due to my financial background, I also help the Finance Department with some of the business case evaluations,” he said.
Mario credits tuscon with opening doors for him in Australia.
“These experiences have made me better understand how businesses are driven in Australia and in some way opened doors to the Australian labour market as a business professional,” he said. “I’ve been hired by Virgin Blue now, so I will keep working on the VAustralia project until its completion and then hopefully be assigned to another project within the Virgin Blue group. And of course I’ll enjoy the benefits of travelling around Asutralian with the discounted airfares!”
tuscon has left an enduring impression on Mario, who “absolutely” recommends the iexchange program other postgraduates.
“There’s nothing better than to see all the effort you put into your studies finally paying off. The iexchange program can help you do this,” he said.
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