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Author Topic: Zhen’s University Journal  (Read 2335 times)

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zhen

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Zhen’s University Journal
« on: July 22, 2019, 10:30:58 pm »
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I’ve been thinking a lot about my career and past choices recently so I wanted to just blurt out my thoughts here. I haven’t posted here in ages, but I think it’ll be good to get my thoughts out. I’m currently studying a double degree in commerce and law after taking subjects that were unrelated to either in VCE. I studied English, Methods, Spesh, Chem, Physics and Chinese in VCE. I really didn’t enjoy most of my VCE subjects for various reasons such as not liking my teachers and just not enjoying the content itself. So, I when I went to choose my degree, I steered away from the sciences cause I didn’t like chem and physics. However, I still enjoyed maths to an extent. While I didn’t really enjoy spesh because my teacher’s teaching style didn’t agree withe me, I still enjoyed methods. So, I went into uni thinking that commerce would be a great way to apply that love for maths in majors like finance. So, I chose commerce cause of this and also cause it was an employable major. Now, for law I was really interested in what my sister was studying and wanted to try it out for myself. While I had never really had any exposure to legal studies, I realised that I was actually interested in how the law governed society and the different considerations that come into play. So, that was my reasoning for going into this degree. I planning on just starting and transferring out if I hated it.

Year 1
So my first year of university went by reasonably smoothly. While I regret not interacting with and getting to know more people, I think I was able to adapt to the independent nature of university. I was able to balance work, extra curriculars and volunteering with my studies. I really enjoyed most of my units this semester, except management and business and economic stats. I disliked management because it felt so impractical and the assessments just seemed tedious rather than something that would test my knowledge. I hated stats because at first year, it felt like mindless excel bashing with very little knowledge needed. I know that there was probably more to these subjects but this is what I felt at the time. Surprisingly, I enjoyed accounting because of its systematic nature. Anyway, overall I think that my first year was a good year despite these subjects.

Year 2
So, my first semester of second year was crazy hectic. I was juggling two jobs with volunteering and extra curriculars. This would eat up 2 to 3 days per week on average (more on busy weeks but these were rarer). Because of this, I felt like I didn’t have time to properly complete the coursework and fell behind quickly. I felt like I was just studying to meet the test rather than learning to improve my knowledge or for the fun of it. At this point, I began to realise that I enjoyed law quite a bit more than commerce. I just found law so logical and things just clicked faster. The cases made sense and the principles were interesting. On the other hand, I found finance boring and it wouldn’t click with me. Accounting was more interesting, but still not as interesting as law. I didn’t know why but my commerce side was starting to fall apart. By exam and results time, this showed. I did better in my law subjects despite the fact that law is usually notoriously harder to do well in. I’m not exactly sure why this was the case. I feel like it’s because I didn’t enjoy it as much or I wasn’t as efficient at studying these subjects as I was at law. It might have just been because the lecturers in law were better or that I was forced to attend lectures because one of them wasn’t recorded. I’m not entirely sure, but I know that I didn’t manage last semester well.

What has been good about university life so far?
I feel like going into law has really forced me to face one of my biggest weaknesses which is my shyness and antisocial behaviour. I feel like the various volunteer programs I’ve done such as volunteering at a community legal centre and Victoria Legal Aid have helped immensely in developing my communication skills. I’ve also developed time management skills and feel like I’m a more well rounded person from balancing all these obligations. So, I feel like I’ve just developed do much as a person.

Concerns
Currently, I’m concerned about my commerce major. I have decided not to do finance because I didn’t like corporate finance at all. So, currently I’m leaning towards an accounting major. But, I feel like I want to try something more mathy so I’m also doing ETC2410 as a unit this semester in case I want to instead major in econometrics. If I don’t major in it, I’ll likely minor in it (I think I have enough electives for it) to give me some maths in my degree. I’m just worried right now that I might not like the maths in this, since I really didn’t like ETC1000. But, I’m also reluctant to give up on maths entirely since it was such a big part of VCE and my schooling life. However, one of my concerns is the employability of econometrics if I do end up pursuing that path. While I did commerce to pursue a mathy pathway like finance, I also thought of it as a backup plan cause law was so competitive. I think right now there’s a decent demand for accountants and accounting is a good degree to set up for various other fields like finance, since knowledge of accounting is valuable for a business. I’m just not sure how employable a major like econometrics is and I’m scared that it’ll end up competing with people who are taking math degrees. So, I’m just scared of the choice I may have to make next year if I do end up liking econometrics a lot more than accounting. Right now, accounting isn’t bad and is decently enjoyable. But, if I end up liking econometrics, should I pursue my passion or take the safer more typical option that I enjoy but not as much. This is all hypotheticals right now so I really don’t know.

Another concern of mine is that while I enjoy law, the law field is not for me because I’m not the most extroverted and my communication still isn’t my strength. Especially given the competitive nature of law, I’m not sure I’ll fit in. So, right now I’m hoping to pursue a job in government policy, but that might change later. I just feel like the environment won’t be as crazy as what has been said about law firms.

One last concern is that I’ve recently done a few interviews and got rejected for paralegal jobs. But this is an upside as well as a downside. At the start of the year, I was getting rejected and wasn’t getting interviews, so I appreciate that I’m improving. But, it’s also a concern as I sometimes get nervous for these interviews, which I feel is because of the intimidating nature of law firms and legal jobs. But I think I’ll improve on this with practice.

Goals for this semester
I want to first of all meet new people and make new friends. While I have made some friends, I didn’t interact with many people in my first year. Last semester was quite an improvement on that aspect, but I’m trying to hopefully continue to do that. But I feel like it gets harder cause friendship groups have already formed.

I want to also do well in my studies. This semester, my obligations are quite a bit less than last sem, so I should be able to have more time for my studies. Also, I want to learn from my mistakes from last sem and be more organised and plan my time better by having people keep me accountable.

Last of all, I want to learn something new or do something outside of university and careers. I want to hopefully do something like learn programming or go back to drawing which is something that I stopped doing for a while.

Conclusion
If you’ve read this far, I’m not sure how you’ve navigated through this blob of text. Anyway, that’s all my thoughts right now.

caffinatedloz

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Re: Zhen’s University Journal
« Reply #1 on: July 23, 2019, 06:52:36 am »
+1
Goals for this semester
I want to first of all meet new people and make new friends. While I have made some friends, I didn’t interact with many people in my first year. Last semester was quite an improvement on that aspect, but I’m trying to hopefully continue to do that. But I feel like it gets harder cause friendship groups have already formed.

I want to also do well in my studies. This semester, my obligations are quite a bit less than last sem, so I should be able to have more time for my studies. Also, I want to learn from my mistakes from last sem and be more organised and plan my time better by having people keep me accountable.

Last of all, I want to learn something new or do something outside of university and careers. I want to hopefully do something like learn programming or go back to drawing which is something that I stopped doing for a while.

It sounds like you are really busy between work and volunteering! What kind of things do you do there?

Best of luck achieving your goals this semester! Which do you think will be the hardest?

LifeisaConstantStruggle

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Re: Zhen’s University Journal
« Reply #2 on: July 23, 2019, 09:54:36 am »
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For econometrics (an econometrics major in Monash here), ETC2410 is a subject you'll either hate or love, and that really doesn't depend on ETC1000. I hated that unit, but ETC2410 was really nice and I did super well in it even tho I'm not a maths whizz like u.
Employability wise it'll definitely impress the right people, even though it doesn't have a definite career path. If u want to tho just hmu for advice on econometrics/actuarial stuff I can try to help for sure.
2018-2020: Bachelor of Actuarial Science (+ Econometrics), Monash
2021: Bachelor of Commerce (Honours), Econometrics & Financial Mathematics, Monash
2022-2023: Work and some soul-searching

zhen

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Re: Zhen’s University Journal
« Reply #3 on: July 23, 2019, 12:52:17 pm »
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It sounds like you are really busy between work and volunteering! What kind of things do you do there?

Best of luck achieving your goals this semester! Which do you think will be the hardest?
For work, I’m just tutoring and note taking for Monash (so taking notes for disability support services). For volunteering, I’ve volunteered at Monash Law Clinics Clayton and Victoria Legal Aid. MLCC is basically just a community legal centre that gives free legal advice to people that need it. So, I was helping to interview clients and do that sort of thing. For Victoria Legal Aid, I had to go down to court and help out filling forms and getting the briefs for the lawyers. Both are worthwhile experiences imo, especially if you just want exposure to different parts of the law.

I think the hardest goal will be my third one. Whenever things get busy, I always drop whatever I’m doing. Like, I tried going back to drawing last sem, but stopped as soon as it got busy which was really fast.

For econometrics (an econometrics major in Monash here), ETC2410 is a subject you'll either hate or love, and that really doesn't depend on ETC1000. I hated that unit, but ETC2410 was really nice and I did super well in it even tho I'm not a maths whizz like u.
Employability wise it'll definitely impress the right people, even though it doesn't have a definite career path. If u want to tho just hmu for advice on econometrics/actuarial stuff I can try to help for sure.

It’s a relief to know that hating ETC1000 doesn’t mean that I’ll hate the rest of it. I’ll definitely message you for advice later on, when I’m starting to actually decide on my major. Right now, just going to see if I enjoy it.

Bri MT

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Re: Zhen’s University Journal
« Reply #4 on: July 23, 2019, 01:49:02 pm »
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Hey zhen! It's great to hear from you.

2nd year being more hectic than expected (& than 1st year has) definitely been a theme for me as well. This semester will be better for me - hopefully it is also better for you :)

Joseph41

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Re: Zhen’s University Journal
« Reply #5 on: July 25, 2019, 10:09:40 am »
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zhen, amazing to hear from you. Found your OP really interesting. Welcome back!

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AngelWings

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Re: Zhen’s University Journal
« Reply #6 on: July 25, 2019, 01:21:03 pm »
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Welcome back Zhen!

I had similar difficulties balancing two jobs and regular life with my science degree, so I totally understand where you’re coming from. Hope the new semester treats you well and that you continue to discover more about yourself in the future!
VCE: Psych | Eng Lang | LOTE | Methods | Further | Chem                 
Uni: Bachelor of Science (Hons) - genetics
Current: working (sporadically on AN)
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