Summer of Biz Launch Event Recap!

And we’re off!

Summer of Biz, younger sibling to Summer of Tech has officially launched at the Victoria University of Wellington campus this week. This launch comes at the end of months of hard work put in by our volunteers and it was great to see such a large turnout for our first event!

Our wonderful panel of industry experts included the following:

• Suzanne de Geus, Chief Marketing Officer – Cigna New Zealand @suzdegeus
• Richard Westney, Director – Humankind @hrmannz
• Siobhan Warren, Global Graduate Experience Manager – Xero @siobhan_warren
• Helen Player, Digital Marketing Manager – WREDA @helenplayer

Coming from varied backgrounds and experiences these panellists had some great words of wisdom for those embarking on HR and Marketing careers. This was too good not to share so we’ve summarised their key pointers for you!

• The value of networking cannot be underestimated – one of our panellists never applied for a job in their life! One of the Summer of Tech panellists, Max said “it’s not just about who you know, but who knows you!”. There a plenty of great ways you can network in Wellington using Twitter, the MeetUp App, LinkedIn and of course coming to Summer of Biz events.
• When you do find a role that you would like to apply for our panelists unanimously agreed that you should always get a fresh pair of eyes to proof read your CV before submitting it. You would be surprised how many come through with errors, so if you want to put your best foot forward then get a mate to proofread your CV before hitting apply!
• Treat interviews as a two way street. Use them to find out as much information about the company and the hiring manager. Yes they are making a decision about whether or not to hire you but you should also be using this as an opportunity to make sure that this role and company will work for you as well.
• And finally when you do start your first role stay authentic and don’t be afraid to put the hard work in. You will fail and you should use this as an opportunity to learn and when problems come up, address them with solutions. Stay open to learning at every opportunity and find someone amazing to mentor you.

Our student panel was next up to share their experience being involved in Summer of Tech and how Summer of Biz students can get the most out of the programme.

These awesome panelists included:

• Sacha Judd, Junior Developer – Silverstripe
• Toby Judd, Junior Developer – Silverstripe
• Keryn Kalyn, Business Analyst – Xero
• Max Godfrey, Developer – Alphero
• Jacob Lapworth, Digital Designer – TradeMe

Here’s what our Summer of Tech graduates had to say on how to get the most out of Summer of Biz as a student

• Go to all the things! This includes bootcamps, mock interviews, and meet and greets – use these as opportunities to network and meet potential employers as these panelists pointed out you can meet potential employers anywhere!
• Don’t be afraid to ask people to review your CV or practice a mock interview with you. This is key when you are starting out and Summer of Biz will provide plenty of opportunities for this.
• Research the companies that you are interested in interning for, this will mean that you can have richer conversations with the employers as you are already fully informed about what the organisation does.
• Finally, use your mistakes as an opportunity to learn. This was echoed in both of our panels, you will make mistakes and our employers will provide a supportive environment for you to do this and to keep learning from those mistakes.

Getting to our official Summer of Biz launch event this week felt like the finish line for many of our volunteers who have been involved in getting this project off the ground for the past 8 months however for our fantastic students this is actually the start line! We’re looking forward to seeing what great talent comes out from our students this year and watching them grow and learn as they connect with our top industry talent.

If you’re interested in getting involved with Summer of Biz as either a student or an employer we would love to hear from you, to find out more about becoming a sponsor click here. To get involved as a volunteer, speaker or in any other way please fill out this form and we will be in touch.