From backgrounds in food science and teaching to newfound professional potential within the world of business, the Master of Management has bridged the gap between technical expertise and career possibility for friends and co-alumni, Felix Bain and Trent Taylor.
Felix Bain had been working in food research and development for a number of years before she first started considering her next move. “My undergraduate degree is in food science, but you can get pigeonholed,” she explains. “It doesn't really give you many avenues which you can go down, whereas a business degree broadens your horizons.”
She’d been looking at returning to the UK for postgraduate study, however the Master of Management at the University of Sydney provided exactly what she’d been looking for all along. “If you want a general consensus of what business management is like, this course is very good for that,” she adds. “You’ve got things like business strategy, financial management, the business of future thinking and statistics that all give you a well-rounded understanding of business as a whole.”
Having started her undergraduate degree in 2020 during the pandemic, Felix found the intensive approach and in-person schedule of the Master of Management a great way to retain her learnings while connecting with likeminded friends and students. “We were there from 9am-5pm, three days per week, and then we had group projects on top of that, so we got to spend a lot of time with each other,” she says.
Importantly, the course provided Felix with a solid framework that she continues to use and build upon even now as she considers her next career move. “There’s a good chance I’ll go back into food at some point but in a different area,” she explains. “I really like the project management and business side of things.”
One of the real strengths of the program is that it’s designed for people from all backgrounds – some of us come from the legal side, some are engineers, food scientists, architects… and this also means when we have discussions in class, we all come at things from a different perspective.
Trent Taylor
Master of Management graduate
From one classroom to another
For Trent Taylor, a fellow cohort member, the decision to pursue the Master of Management also came from a desire to expand his existing career opportunities and make a professional pivot. “I transitioned from teaching – it’s a passion I’ll always have and I’m very proud of it, but being a teacher now involves a lot of behaviour management, and I fell out of love with that side of things,” he explains. “I really enjoyed it when I could actually teach.”
Although passionate and experienced, Trent quickly realised he would need to make a change if he hoped to have a longstanding and fulfilling professional future. “I felt business aligned well to the skills I already had,” he says. “It’s very people-orientated, working with teams, making societal impacts.”
While the Master of Management appealed to Trent for a number of reasons, one of the most significant included the way in which the course brought together professionals from a diverse range of fields. “One of the real strengths of the program is that it’s designed for people that have backgrounds like Felix and me,” he says. “We’re not all from business backgrounds – some of us come from the legal side, some are engineers, food scientists, architects… and this also means when we have discussions in class, we all come at things from a different perspective.”
Trent believes, this has all opened new doors and opportunities for his professional future, including the idea of creating a startup focused on education. “I transitioned from education to business, but I’d love to start an ed-tech startup one day so I can make a real impact for teachers or students, especially in the digital world where it's rapidly changing,” he adds. “As a teacher, you're in that one room making an impact on those students' lives and that's amazing but what if you could make an impact on many people's lives without being that one person in front of the room?”
Supporting lifelong learning
What’s been most crucial to Trent’s experience however has also been the financial accessibility provided during his studies. He was awarded a Commonwealth Supported Place to undertake the course. “That’s what really made it exceptional for me because when I left high school, I didn’t see doing a Masters as something I’d actually pursue due to the price tag,” he explains. “Having a Commonwealth Supported Place meant I could pursue postgraduate study without it being such a big burden going forward.”
While both Trent and Felix are preparing to take the next big step in their professional lives, both agree that the Master of Management has given them the framework to apply their expertise and passions to new directions. “This course has set me up so that I can explore any pathway,” says Trent. This sentiment is shared wholeheartedly by Felix. “It’s really given us that extra something – now we have the framework to build off that rather than just winging it with whatever comes next.”