Virtuous circle – winning iexchange student becomes winning IT employee

“There is no doubt that paid work experience through tuscon’s iexchange program has advanced my professional career in Australia. It’s been a very, very valuable relationship."

When Abhishek Sodhani saw a UQ email promoting tuscon’s iexchange program he hoped for some valuable Australian work experience. He didn’t expect that it would be the start of a virtuous circle that would culminate in a hundred thousand dollar prize from UQ for his new employer – CVSDude – or a budding career in IT.

“I just don’t know what happened to me! I never expected to work for an IT company like CVSDude where everyone is under 29. I enjoy my work and I work really hard,” Abhishek said of his work with the IT start-up, which was brought about, in part, by tuscon CEO Justin Robinson.

Before coming to Australia to study for his MBA, Abhishek held a management role in marketing and finance for a renowned crane manufacturing company in India. In spite of his qualifications and practical overseas experience, he found it difficult to find paid professional experience in Australia – particularly flexible work that suited the demands of a full-time student.

While studying his second semester of an MBA at the University of Queensland in 2007, Abhishek signed up to tuscon’s iexchange program and was thrilled to gain professional experience in his field of study. He gave away his customer service job at Coles and worked 20 hours a week for six months at the Brisbane Housing Company as a financial analyst.

“In the UK or US, an MBA would speak for itself. In Australia, it’s a working culture. Local work experience counts more than qualifications or overseas experience. So the work with Brisbane Housing Company was a big advantage that really improved my chances of working further in Australia,” he said.

“I was particularly impressed by the iexchange program, which highlights tuscon’s serious concern for the development of management knowledge in postgraduate students through gaining work experience. I appreciated the flexibility of the iexchange program, which allowed me to meet my needs and interests. I was able to synthesize my accounting degree and experience, along with my marketing background to obtain a financial analyst position dealing with business models and financial statements.”

During his placement with Brisbane Housing Company, tuscon CEO Justin Robinson encouraged all of the student consultants to consider entering the UQ Enterprize Competition by becoming the University Link for one of the participating businesses. Justin suggested five possible businesses for Abhishek and recommended he take on a voluntary role with one of them – effectively promoting his winning iexchange student back to UQ.

“He totally encouraged me to do it and as a result I was successful in joining the CVSDude team, which was developing a new Enterprise Product that would enable them to sell their successful plans to organisations instead of individuals. My role involved contributing to the business planning – analysing market share and customer feedback to assist with product development,” Abhishek said.

The virtuous circle continued when the CVSDude team won top honours in the UQ Enterprize Competition in October 2007, taking home A$100,000 to develop their new product.

But the virtuous circle reached its zenith for Abhishek a month later when CVSDude invited him to join their team and in February 2007 he was appointed as their Financial Analyst.

“It’s a massive job. We’re a very small team of seven people so I’m managing the new accounting system and helping out with advertising and market analysis as well as working with the CEO on an industry ranking study,” Abhishek said.
Having now received a work visa, Abhishek has applied for permanent residency in Australia.

“There is no doubt that paid work experience through tuscon’s iexchange program has advanced my professional career in Australia. It’s been a very, very valuable relationship,” he said.