When and Where I was Born
I was born on April 5th, 1983 at St. Vincent's Hospital, located in Fitzroy, which is just out of the heart of Melbourne city in Australia. St. Vincent's Hospital is a part of the "St. Vincent's Health" Organization. The hospital provides adult medical, surgical and mental health services as well as being a teaching, researching and tertiary referral centre. St. Vincent's hospital first opened in 1893, with its new $160 million facility in the same location opening in 1995. (St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne. Retrieved April 26, 2004, from http://www.svhm.org.au/infoabout/svh/svhm.htm)Fitzroy is the inner suburb of Melbourne that houses St. Vincent's Hospital. Fitzroy is one of Melbourne's oldest suburbs, as many of those within a 2km radius of the city are. (Barrett,B (1971). The Inner Suburbs: The evolution of an industrial area. Carlton,Vic. Australia: Melbourne University Press.)
Melbourne was first discovered in 1835, when a ship called the "Enterprise" landed at Queens Wharf (as we call it today). John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner can be thanked for their exploration and development of the surrounding areas in the following years. Melbourne was given it's status as a city by the queen in 1847 and the early twentieth century saw Melbourne's tram system come to life, as well as the erection of a number of large buildings. In the 1950's Melbourne received its first sky scraper and the 1970's its first underground railway tunnels. (City of Melbourne. Retrieved April 26, 2004, from http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/index.cfm?CategoryID=5&TopicID=5&InfoPageID=717&ContentFile=infopage.cfm)
Melbourne is within the state of Victoria, in the south-eastern corner of Australia. Other than Melbourne, Victoria has many regional centres and cities. These include Geelong: which leads to the "Great Ocean Road", Ballarat in the "Goldfields" and the Yarra Valley and Dandenongs region. All of these places are popular with tourists and hold their own special attributes and culture. Victoria is a very diverse state, with many people from around the world residing there side by side, providing a melting pot of cultures, which I was lucky enough to grow up in. Victoria is also home to many festivals and Events. These include Moomba and the Australian Grand Prix - held in March, The International Comedy festival - March/April and the Fringe Festival - October. (Melbourne Victoria Australia - visitvictoria.com. Retrieved April 26, 2004, from, http://www.visitvictoria.com/)
School Years
The first primary school I went to was Dallas North Primary School. Located in Dallas, in Melbourne's northwest, I attended there from the start of grade prep until the end of grade three. My fondest memory of Dallas north was sitting under the wattle tree in the playground and my friend Joanne. At the start of grade four, I moved to Coolaroo South Primary School to be with some local friends. Here was one of my most exciting primary school moments, when we (the kids) designed, then them (the builders) built us an amazing new playground. In Grade five, we moved house and so I moved schools once again, this time to Ascot Vale West Primary School. A special treat each year for us kids at Ascot Vale West was being invited to 'test' the show bags the week before the Royal Melbourne Show Started.I started high school at Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School. This was my first experience of Uniform, all girls and homework, which came as a huge shell shock. School being easily close enough to walk to was a nice new experience and Penleigh was where I met many of my best friends today. As my high school years progressed I found myself gaining an interest in art and travel. My subjects reflected this with French and Chinese studies as well as Art, Graphics and Art History. Unfortunately, I found this to be a negative experience at Penleigh. Artistic endeavours were discouraged and instead replaced with science and maths. This was what lead me to Footscray city college at the start of my VCE (Victorian certificate of education - the last 2 years of high school). At Footscray, not only was I able to choose from many more creative subjects such as Studio Arts, Photography and Multimedia, but I was actually encouraged to do and excel in them. This was a completely new world for me and I loved it. My final years of high school at Footscray were Secondary school
University
I first started university at the University of Ballarat, studying a Bachelor of Visual Arts in Graphic Design and Multimedia in 2001. I was very passionate about Graphics when I first started studying but unfortunately missed the practical side of my subject. I found in both graphics and multimedia, I enjoyed most working with clients and having final products and the course offered in Ballarat focussed much more on theory and self development. After my first semester of University I deferred the course, choosing to work again. I had a little over six months off studying during which time I worked in industry and got and insight into Marketing, where I found a possibility to still work with graphics and be creative without being a designer. In March 2002 I commenced a Bachelor of Business in Marketing, again at the University of Ballarat. Studying Marketing has been interesting, and I have been able to do minor units in Tourism, Information Technology, Management and Art History. One of my elective units that I am currently undertaking is Multimedia Communications. In this subject, I will again get to work in web design and multimedia authoring. I'm hoping to update my skills again in this area which I started to develop when I first started university. At the end of this semester, when I finish my course, I'm going to do some work experience in Marketing which I'm looking forward to using to make the link between the theory I have been learning and the real world.Career
My first job was with the City of Moonee Valley, which I started when I was 13, as a volunteer. I was working with the Music Reference Group (MRG), with whom I helped organise and worked at underage music events. Over the next six years I continued to work with the MRG as well as other departments of the council. I moved on to paid work, part time, full time and consultancy. Most recently I created the websites for the Moonee Valley Festival, the council's biggest yearly event as well as a website and flyer for the HAPEY project, which was a program we ran for troubled youths who had immigrated to Melbourne from the horn of Africa. In August 2001, after deferring my Graphic Design course, I moved to Singapore to complete a 6-month internship with D'arcy, an advertising Agency. With D'Arcy I worked in Creative, Account Management and Media (Design and Marketing). It was here that I found my passion for marketing and decided to go back to University so I could pursue this full-time and learn more about the field.Since returning from Singapore, I have been at university and worked a number of part time positions. I have continued to do consultancy work in graphics and web design with the city of Moonee Valley as well as other companies. During 2002-2003 I worked with IBM GSA Australia, providing IT technical support to the Victoria Police, as well as other various clients. Currently, I'm working part-time with a company called PartnerCall. We run membership campaigns for companies, clubs and associations looking to expand or renew current membership bases. I have worked on campaigns for the Melbourne, Geelong, Brisbane and Hawthorn football clubs as well as Save The Children Australia. Part of the work I do with PartnerCall is prospecting, this involves researching and approaching new prospective clients for work. I enjoy this part of my work best, especially as it gives me a chance to put some of my marketing skills into practice and I get to start and manage my own projects from scratch.
The Future
In the future, I am looking forward to working in Marketing. There are two particular areas I am interested in; Account Management in Advertising and Brand Management.Working in marketing means putting brands into peoples heads. To increase awareness, then reputation, then attractiveness of your products so at the end of their purchase decision, people want your product over and above any others. Wetfeet.com explain how marketing is the bridge between product development and sales. Marketers' job is to make a brand, and enhance it to the point where consumers decide that is the brand for them. (Wetfeet.com>Career Profile> Marketing. Retrieved April 26, 2004, from http://www.wetfeet.com/asp/careerprofiles_lite.asp?careerpk=23.)
Account management involves working within an advertising agency and taking on a particular client or account to manage. This would mean liasing with the client, the agency, the media and the creative team to come up with effective campaigns. Then the campaign must be followed up, continued, replaced or updated if needed. If an initial campaign goes well for a client, they are likely to keep on working with the agency regularly to keep advertising their product. The account manager/executive would then keep the client and agency in touch and up to date, maintaining the relationship and developing the advertising for their product/s. About.com explain again how an account executive develops and maintains relationships with current and potential advertising clients. It is important that account managers/executives are articulate, creative and good with working with people. (Marketing Career Profile. Retrieved April 26,2004, from http://marketing.about.com/library/marketingjobs/blacctexec.htm.)
Brand management is another field of marketing. It is a little more specific where a manager is assigned one particular brand or group of brands to maintain as their job. They will co-ordinate advertising, creative and media. They work with advertising agencies, public relations and promotions to make sure the image their brand is portraying to the public is the one they want. Brand managers focussing solely on one brand are more likely to be found in larger companies with more resources.
The Prospects.uk website explain that a brand manager looks after not only the creative side of a brand; that is things like package design and advertising, but also the commercial side; pricing and profits. (Graduate profile : Brand manager. Retrieved April 26, 2004, from http://www.prospects.ac.uk/ager/.)
