Profiles

Ms Alexia Hunter
Bachelor of Information Technology (Honours)

Having five job offers on the table at the end of her Bachelor of Information Technology (Honours) studies was sweet reward for Alexia Hunter and testimony to the reputation of the innovative Deakin course.

Alexia chose to join Telstra’s graduate program as a technology specialist at its innovation centre in Melbourne. More than 4000 applicants were received for 100 such positions available Australia-wide.

The 18-month graduate program involves six-month rotations through different departments. Alexia, 22, has already rotated through broadband technology and mobile engineering, with a focus on multimedia messaging. She is currently involved in the cutting-edge field of 3G products in mobiles, which involves video calling from mobile to mobile, mobile to computer and video messaging.

In the rotations, she has drawn on both the technical and business skill sets she acquired through the Deakin program.

Originally from Albury in NSW, Alexia shopped around her home state and Victoria for an appropriate tertiary course in IT. Deakin won hands down with its fast-tracked program offering honours and eight months of industry-based learning. A substantial bonus was that Alexia was awarded a scholarship of $8000 per year for the duration of her course.

“The prospect of gaining solid industry experience and entering the workforce a year earlier was extremely appealing,” explained Alexia, who was one of three females in the group of 11 to graduate in her intake at the Geelong campus at Waurn Ponds.

She said the course successfully married business subjects, such as e-commerce, microeconomics and management, with the more technical units. It meant that graduates were equipped with the necessary skills to work in a technical or more business-oriented capacity.

With compulsory summer semesters, industry placements and honours research, the course is not for the faint-hearted. The program requires commitment and a solid work ethic, according to Alexia.

Highly motivated, Alexia achieved a high distinction average throughout her studies. And, just for good measure, in her honours year she managed to represent Australia in both the English Open and the Commonwealth Karate Games, coming second in both. She juggled training sessions of up to four hours a day, with her research into knowledge sharing on the intranet.

Alexia added that she enjoyed immensely the culture and lifestyle of Deakin’s Geelong campus at Waurn Ponds. “Deakin is very community-oriented and all the lecturers knew our names and who we were,” said Alexia. “It was an absolute blast being in a rural setting with 500 students and trees all around. I don’t think I would have enjoyed being surrounded by concrete slabs.”

Looking to the future, Alexia’s dilemma is that she is interested in both the technical and business aspects of the IT industry. If she moves forward in the business sector her challenge will be to keep her technical skill set current.