ProGrad Brisbane

Like all Prograd candidates I did my time (it sounds like prison doesn’t it?) at New Zealand’s Auckland University of Technology where I majored in accounting. Due to the practical nature of our degree I was required to obtain a job related to my field and I commenced working as a Tax Investigator for the New Zealand Tax Department. After 2 years the travel bug bit and I began working as a Youth Counselor aboard cruise liners around the world. What was planned as a six week contract, turned into a five year stint allowing me to visit 59 spectacular countries. After calling in every possible port and realizing it was time to enter the ‘grown up’ world, my friends and I decided to move to Australia.

I started to job hunt online through seek.com.au and applied for several positions, one of which was through ProGrad. The ProGrad staff were quick to contact me and arrange my attendance at the upcoming assessment afternoon. I was fairly skeptical about what to expect after hearing horror stories from friends who had done similar things. I was very close to canceling last minute and am so grateful I didn’t.

The assessment day was full of similar people, nervous about not knowing anyone, being judged, and about the three minute presentation looming. After several group exercises the ice melted and we found our place in the groups allocated. The sigh of relief could be heard through the door as all those who ‘passed’ were told they were accepted onto ProGrads candidate list. The following morning I was contacted by ProGrad and put forward for an interview with Kimberly Clark. My consultant ensured that I was organised by suggesting I research the company online and prepare examples to be used.

Within a week I had completed two interviews, personality testing and had received an employment offer. The same day I received two equally great employment offers which left me with a large decision to make. I discussed all the options with my consultant who added any impartial insight she felt could help me make the most informed decision to benefit me.

After preparing the list of pros and cons, I decided to follow my instincts and accepted the role as a Territory Manager for Kimberly Clark. Kimberly Clark produces Australian made FMCG paper products found in the everyday home. Its common consumer brands include Kleenex, Viva, Kotex and Huggies. My role as a Territory Manager is to ensure compliance of promotions, check that pricing and ticketing is correct and look for opportunities to upsell and create displays of our products. The atmosphere and the people at Kimberly Clark are incredible. I have found such an inspiring role model and see a fabulous long term career with the company.

Six weeks after commencing employment, I spent five days completing Module One of the ProGrad course. I can not speak more highly of this course and the facilitator who ran the program. It covered a vast array of topics in an open forum which allowed all of us to feel comfortable to express our opinions and questions. I found it beneficial having started work and being able to relate the information to experiences I had encountered in the workplace thus far. In a recent sales meeting, our National Manager touched on some of the topics ProGrad had covered and I was able to relate the theory learnt to workplace practices. My experience with both ProGrad and Kimberly Clark has been nothing but rewarding and I am looking forward to attending Module Two and increasing my skill set. 

My recommendations for future candidates would be: *attend the assessment day and get involved as much as possible. *Be honest to your consultant about what you are looking for in a role and a company. *Take all the opportunities presented and use them as experience to improve your interview skills. *Take quality time to prepare for each interview.

Good Luck!

I studied Bachelor of Arts at Sydney Uni, majoring in Philosophy and Sociology. Naturally when my study was coming to the end I was asking myself  “What am I going to do with that?!” The work experience I had didn’t make things any clearer, I had worked as a cleaner, a bartender and a pool man; so I was struggling to see where my first foothold would be for my career.

I then stumbled on ProGrad’s website and was hooked by the focus they placed on personality traits rather than just the title of the degree.  There was a quick phone interview and all of a sudden I was in my dressed up in my suit at the ProGrad office. The assessment day was quite daunting at first, not knowing what we were being judged on, staring around the room looking at our competition and truly, I wasn’t sure what it was that got me selected, I was just my normal self; seemed like a breeze in the end! On the Monday following I had five calls and three interviews all organised before lunch time, as good as it was I kept  thinking to myself, how am I going to have time to write three proposals, finish my Uni assessments and prepare for three interviews! It all happened so fast.

The interview process lasted approx two weeks; I started my first ‘real’ job immediately on the third Monday after the assessment day and handed in my last assessment simultaneously. I took up a role at Hasbro, a leading global toy company; I mean who could say no to a fun environment with exposure to national and global business experience, not to mention a desk covered in Transformers, Nerf Guns and other toys which definitely have the potential for distraction. Since starting in November 2007 I’ve been promoted twice to be the account executive for one of our major accounts. The knowledge I gained from the four Modules of ProGrad training gave me the head start and confidence to challenge my peers into taking on these new opportunities for promotion.  However, not only the content of the courses is beneficial, it was a great opportunity to learn from the experiences of other people within their different roles and companies developing strong professional and social relationships. The drinks after each course weren’t too bad either…

To anyone in the same position as me approaching the end of my degree, my advice is don’t hesitate, ProGrad helped me to gain my first foot hold so quickly and developed my skills to assist in quick promotions. I am sad that I don’t have any more training modules to attend.

If you would like to apply for a ProGrad opportunity, please call our Graduate Management Team on 02 8235 8300, or apply online using the ProGrad application form.  To open the ProGrad Application Form please click on this link.

Michael worked at various creative media agencies and freelanced as a 3D animator and film-maker prior to graduating from Bachelor Digital Media at UNSW, minoring in Personal Financial Planning.

My first run-in with ProGrad was on one of the larger online job sites. I saw an ad, shrugged, and said to myself “yeah why not, might as well give this a go”.

After submitting a CV and taking part in a phone interview (while walking to a face-to-face interview, coincidentally enough), I was invited to attend one of ProGrad’s regular Assessment Days.

Being one of a handful of non-Business/Economics/Commerce graduates present, in a room of about thirty candidates, it’s a severe understatement to say I was “nervous”.  The assessment Day was an interesting experience, made more so by being told we passed.  There are a few pointers that are worth sharing to those at the early stages of the ProGrad process:

• Plenty of sleep the night prior to Assessment Day definitely helps keep you on the ball.
• Being able to think about the situation from someone else’s perspective (eg, a client) is helpful too.
• Be professional, amiable, and friendly. Migrating from a uni lifestyle to a business environment can be a large transition, we just have to try and persevere.
• For those whose degrees are don’t quite fall under the business umbrella, you’ll be happy to know a degree is also about being able to finish something you started 3 or more years ago. Learning the ropes of a new industry is easier than learning perseverance.

The second company I attended an interview for, was Rainmaker Group. After securing employment, ProGrad provided training sessions every few months, which is always helpful in developing one’s repertoire, from solution selling to negotiation skills. I am definitely looking forward to the next training session with ProGrad.

If you’re looking for career that recognises your professional abilities, getting involved with ProGrad is a very easy first step. Chances are they’ll slide a springboard after that step and you’ll start taking leaps onwards, with ProGrad pointing you in the direction you want to go. 

If you would like to apply for a ProGrad opportunity, please call our Graduate Management Team on 02 8235 8300, or apply online using the ProGrad application form.  To open the ProGrad Application Form please click on this link.

I studied a Bachelor of Design Computing at the University from 2004 to 2006, the degree focused on mainly on design and its implementation in today’s society and designing for technology. My course was quite broad and included subjects on 3D animation, Web design, Mobile application development all in addition to the core graphic design fundamentals. I had no direct work experience from the industry apart from a couple of minor freelancing jobs in addition to working for a furniture rental company during university and working in retail while living in London.

My experience of the assessment day was quite nerve-racking, as there were a lot of graduates applying for positions and we were told the recruitment process was quite selective. Overall, it was a great experience as the day provided a lot of helpful hints and general training that prepares you for the interview process in between the assessment tasks.

ProGrad proposed me for an interview with Eyeblaster and I saw a great role in a company with a lot of potential. It utilizes a lot of my experiences from university and allows me to work with a broad range of clients.

Eyeblaster is marketing solutions provider operating in the online advertising market. We provide solutions for media agencies, creative agencies and publishers to be able to track, monitor and analyze their campaigns from the Eyeblaster Ad Campaign Manager Platform.

Day to day I work with creative agency contacts throughout Australia and New Zealand and help them integrate their Ideas with our Rich Media Platform. I work across a lot of different creative concepts with a wide range of small and big agencies.

I have attended Module 1, and I found it a great introduction to the business environment. Although the course was mainly sales based, I took a lot of useful information from it in regards to how to deal with certain types of people to presentation techniques and business etiquette.

ProGrad is a great experience and service and good way of getting your foot in the door of the industry you desire.

If you would like to apply for a ProGrad opportunity, please call our Graduate Management Team on 02 8235 8300, or apply online using the ProGrad application form.  To open the ProGrad Application Form please click on this link.

I was born in Malaysia, raised in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur until the end of High School. I am half malay, half australian. I swam and ran for school and state and absolutely love reading comics. I studied at Sydney University for 5 years, where it should have been 4 years but I went to Wesley College on campus, and between that and competing for Malaysia it took me a bit longer!

I graduated with a Commerce (liberal studies) Degree and majored in Political Economy and Management but my favourite subjects were usually Sociology.

I mainly did internships over the summer back in KL, advertising with Saatchi and then Market Research with TNS. Most of my work experience was bar work, I have been a bartender for about 4 years and it is by far the most fun job, up till now at least. I had been searching for a job for several months before I came across Pro Grad.

Initially the assessment day is very daunting, you think there are going to be a lot of egos and people shouting over one another but it was not like that, people were generally friendly but there was a definite air of competition. It is quite difficult to be heard and so you have to choose your timing and words very carefully. I found the tests to be interesting, there is no right or wrong way to go about them, but your personality will be exposed, whether you are a group leader, peacemaker, quiet and so on. I found the best thing to do was listen first and then try to resolve issues together, and even if someone wanted to be supreme leader it was beneficial to ensure everyone was heard.

Speaking in front of the clients made me a bit nervous so I gave up trying to read my speech and just went with it. It is definitely a good experience though.

Why did you select the role you did?

Books mainly, I jumped at the idea I could spend my days researching, purchasing and distributing books! My boss read all the same books so I knew we would get along. In the second interview I found that I may work with comics too and by that stage they pretty much had me hook, line and sinker. It was quite a junior role but since I had no real prior work experience it was great for me.

Tell us about the company…

Sorrento is a book company but I cannot say too much because I am bound by a lot of confidentiality oaths! On a day to day basis I help with operations, researching book prices (mainly tertiary), writing invoices, tracking their freight movements and finding new clients and suppliers worldwide. However just recently my time is moving to new markets and new products, mainly Comics and fiction books which is what I signed up for.

The ProGrad training was enjoyable, definitely interesting to be taken out of work and put in a room with people of similar situations. I made a lot of good friends and contacts and for me that was the greatest benefit of the training.

The first few days were good for life skills and self reflection, it definitely made me re think my life’s direction and how I may achieve certain goals; simple things, we learnt could make huge differences, you just have to work at it.

What advice do you have for other graduates thinking of using ProGrad?

Well, on the assessment day be yourself, just be yourself on your best day, don’t let people take charge, make sure you are heard and what you are saying is worth hearing! Don’t be intimidated and look the clients in the eye and be confident. 

Otherwise just DO IT! Save the hassle of scouring the internet day in and day out, looking for jobs which aren’t even looking for you! ProGrad, from start to ‘finish’ helped and worked with me every step of the way, taking into consideration all my thoughts and wishes and called me almost every day after the assessment to discuss job possibilities as well as following up to see what the next move is.

You get the extra benefits of training, meeting loads of interesting people and best of all Pro Grad got me a job in comics. So if you think you may have to settle for ‘some job’ right out of Uni just for experience sake… think again!

If you would like to apply for a ProGrad opportunity, please call our Graduate Management Team on 02 8235 8300, or apply online using the ProGrad application form.  To open the ProGrad Application Form please click on this link.

ProGrad has historically serviced Sydney and Melbourne, yet have seen an increasing demand for graduates within Brisbane over the last 6 months.

As a result, ProGrad are starting to extend their presence and are looking to develop new graduate opportunities in the Brisbane area.

We have already placed a number of candidates in Brisbane, with companies like JCDecaux, Pitney Bowes, Avnet and Kimberley Clark Australia.  These placed graduates have had the opportunity to attend the ProGrad training sessions, which are conducted in both Sydney and Melbourne.

With this increasing demand, ProGrad will aim to service the location with assessment days which we will hold more regularly and the presence of our business development team.

If you would like to apply for a ProGrad opportunity, please call our Graduate Management Team on 02 8235 8300, or apply online using the ProGrad application form.  To open the ProGrad Application Form please click on this link.

ProGrad are Australia’s largest assessment, placement and training company.  We work with recent University graduates who are looking to start their business career within companies like Dell, Citrix, Reed, Simplot, Lion Nathan, Johnson and Johnson and MARS.

Our client partners are looking for the next generation of business professionals who can join their fast growing teams, in a variety of roles – such as client services, account management, corporate sales, business development and marketing positions.

Upon placement with an organization, ProGrad candidates also receive a master-class training program which is facilitated by ProGrad.  These course are designed to provide our young business professionals with the skill-sets required for them to progress quickly and organically grow the business.

Covering topics like professional communication skills, effective presentation skills, solution selling, negotiation and key account management, our graduates have the corporate skills which will assist them in quick progression into more senior roles early in their career.

All graduates are encouraged to apply, regardless of the degree topic or University.  ProGrad receives almost 1,000 applications each week, and will invite the top 30 candidates in each location to attend an assessment centre.

Our corporate clients are asked to attend the assessment days to select candidates, which also increases the graduate opportunities available to you upon attending.  If successful at a ProGrad assessment day, candidates are exposed to interviews with our client base.

If you would like to apply for a ProGrad opportunity, please call our Graduate Management Team on 02 8235 8300, or apply online using the ProGrad application form.  To open the ProGrad Application Form please click on this link.