The First Week!

First up, I have a shameless plug for Josh Calder’s blog. He just released his break through film clip on Sunday and has written up a detailed post about it's production and inspiration HERE. It’s worth a read and you can also follow his progress on the short movie that he has in the works. I’ve embedded a copy of the music video he directed for his talented brother below.



A second quick plug goes to Will Hawker who just came second in an innovation competition (against a myriad of other great submissions from all faculties) for one of his whiz-bang ideas. I was fortunate enough to attend the award ceremony and that was great. It was held on a 7th floor balcony/function area with an amazing view of the university that we never get to normally visit.

Now back to business. Because the first week of university is over I figured it would be a good time to write a detailed blog post. I have been intending to write a post the last couple of days but to be honest I've been a little time starved with all the readings that I've been set (and actually did!).

Regarding the content of each course, I won't bother going into too much depth but there are a few aspects that I thought were worth sharing. Firstly, the balance sheet analysis course is structured amazingly. Instead of going home after each lecture to do set problems that will teach you certain skills you have to apply what you learn to an ongoing assignment. In this case the assignment is the analysis of a midsized company. Each lecture you are taught an analysis type (strategic analysis, ratio analysis etc) and you need to apply what you learn each week. The company analysis makes up 70% of your total mark (60% written, 10% oral) and really nails in the practical aspect of what you are learning.

The other subject that I found great was one titled financial risk management. In this subject the second half of the semester is playing the 'trading game' in which you manage a portfolio of debt and write reports on your decisions. This simulates working in a treasury or central bank and teaches you about all the debt options that exist for funding projects. Again this really appeals to me as it has such a practical aspect to it.

Lastly, in regards to university, I finally managed to attend a library tour and information session. My dad had been trying to get me to do this ever since my undergrad and it turns out it is actually worth it. By being a student at the university I have access to nearly every newspaper in the world for free online (even via my home log in) as well as copies of every Australian news paper delivered daily in paper form (including the financial review that I pay for currently) and all the finance/economics magazines that I buy here and there. Long story short, the library is great and I can see why all the librarians always seem so excited when they talk about it!

Briefly I wanted to just list a few developments in my extracurricular activities over the past week. Firstly, this week I was elected into the executive committee for my toast masters club. I’ve been a member of this club for about 4 months and I’ve found it useful for working on my presentation skills (something that I currently see as my biggest weakness). Secondly, I have finished an article on technical analysis of charts. I’ve been working with a website (I’ll post a link once it is published) to produce a series of articles to educate finance students. Thirdly, my Spanish is coming along nicely. I am attempting to keep to 3 hours per week and this should get me to level 5 by the middle of next year. Fourthly, I have been looking into incorporating an exchange program into my degree and it turns out that UQ can place students into the 5th best business school in the world (top in continental Europe). I will be trying hard to work this into my degree when it comes time. Lastly, I managed to get information on a number of clubs from UQ and I’m going head first into experiencing this side of the university. On Saturday I have a post graduate networking barbeque and the UQ mountaineering society introduction climbing day on Sunday.

All in all this has been a hectic and productive week. If I can keep every week going at this pace then the progress is going to be very solid!