Labour of love

‘Choose a job you love, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.’ It’s a motto Esita Sogotubu has taken to heart as the Employability Coordinator (International) for UTS Careers, a role in which she’s mentored more than 80 students over the past two years through the Univative program.

The annual inter-university competition sees students placed into groups to work on a real-life project with limited time and resources. Over the course of three weeks, each team must develop a solution to a problem from a nominated host organisation. Each project host then selects a winning team based on a final presentation and report.

This year, the UTS teams working with Ericsson and ClickView were selected as winners after coming up with solutions to a wide range of issues, including the development of a marketing plan to promote the organisations to potential graduates.

“One of our major objectives is for students to develop and enhance their employability skills by working in a mixed environment,” says Sogotubu.

“It’s all about the journey of working with people from different backgrounds, because that’s what the workplace is like.”

It’s no coincidence that international students have been some of the most engaged and successful graduates of the program. Sogotubu draws on her own experiences as an international student to relate to the cultural barriers they face. 

Originally from Fiji, Sogotubu studied Law at the University of Tasmania in the early 90s, a time when there wasn’t a great deal of cultural diversity on campus.

“I had people asking me how I got to Australia and I just wanted to say, ‘I was in my grass skirt, paddling over in a boat’, you know what I mean?” she laughs.

“Working at the Careers Service, I’ve come across students who really want to go and do more but are held back by those cultural differences. With Univative, it’s great to see international students gain the confidence to hang out with local students and make all those connections.”

Sogotubu’s tips to students looking to enhance their employability?

“Develop your soft skills! You might have all the technical skills in the world but if you can’t work in a team, people won’t hire you. If you’ve got great ideas on paper, but can’t express them to somebody else, that doesn’t help you either.

“That’s where Univative comes in, because it’s all about developing those soft skills you can use as examples in job applications or interviews. If someone asked you about project work, or working under pressure, you can talk about your experience in Univative.”

It’s the way Sogotubu’s eyes light up when talking about her passion project that gives away the fact this is so much more than a job to her.

“Going through that intense time with the students, you get attached,” she admits.

“One of my students said, ‘It must be nice now that Univative’s done and dusted.’ But I said, ‘Nah not really!’

“Sometimes I’ll whinge about how much work it is, but I really love doing this. When you see your students on campus and they’re doing well, that’s what brings a smile to my face.”