James Wilson

Started a tiny side hustle tutoring high school accounting on weekends. Biggest lesson: price per session, not per hour, and send a short summary after each lesson. Parents love it.

Year 2 Business students keep asking me whether they have to choose between going on exchange and landing a consulting vacation program. You don't, but you need to plan backwards from the deadlines, not forwards from your wishes. Here is exactly what I did. February of year 2: applied for the PwC summer vacationer program while also shortlisting three exchange universities. Most people think these clash, but vacation programs run over the Australian summer and most northern hemisphere exchange semesters start in August or September, so you can do both in the same year. March: booked a meeting with the Deakin Abroad team and mapped my core units. MAA103 was the one that almost blocked me because the host uni had no direct equivalent, so I got it approved as an elective and took it at home first. That single meeting saved me a whole trimester. May to July: interviews. Every behavioural question I got had a better answer because I could talk about why I chose my exchange university and how I would use it. Consulting firms love anyone who has had to adapt quickly in a new country. Finally, budget. The OS-HELP loan covered my flights and first month of rent, and the vacation program pay covered the rest. Start the paperwork now, it is slower than any interview.

PwC vacationer application timeline nobody tells you: applications open FEBRUARY for the following summer. Year 2s, set a reminder now. Half my cohort missed it because they assumed winter openings.

Business students applying for Big 4 summer vacationer programs: I can submit employee referrals at PwC for Deakin students this round. Reply with the service line you want (consulting, audit, tax, deals) and two sentences on why. Get a DeakinTALENT resume check before you reply, it is free and it catches the basics. A referral puts your application in front of a recruiter; the assessments and interviews are the same for everyone.

Case competitions are the business degree cheat code. One state final = three interview stories, two referees, and a line on the resume that every consulting screener stops at. MAA103 group work is the training ground, so treat it seriously.

Excel skills that got me through every business unit and the PwC internship, in order of use: XLOOKUP, pivot tables, conditional formatting, INDEX/MATCH, and knowing when to stop using Excel and ask for the real database.

Networking event survival guide for introverts: arrive early when it's quiet, ask people what they're working on (never 'what do you do'), and leave after 3 real conversations. Quality over laps of the room.

deakin.edu.auDeakin StudentsOfficial student hub for units, support and key dates.