A personal brand isn’t about selling yourself like a product. It’s about curating your professional story and showing people what you stand for, what you’re curious about, and where you’re headed. And the best time to start building it isn’t after you graduate. It’s now, while you’re still studying.

You don’t need to be an accounting major to understand how businesses work but you do need to understand how businesses tell their story. That story lives inside a document that most students flip past with dread: the financial statements.

When semester ends and your calendar suddenly opens up, it’s tempting to collapse into full-time relaxation mode (and you absolutely deserve some downtime!) . But if you’re studying finance or starting your career, semester breaks can also be golden opportunities to invest in something even more powerful than your GPA: your professional momentum.

Algorithmic decisions can inadvertently incorporate biases present in their training data or design. Even when gender or race isn’t explicitly used, AI models may still discriminate by relying on proxy variables or skewed historical patterns . As a result, women and minorities have often been disproportionately negatively impacted by such automated decisions . The illustration above symbolises how algorithms might favour certain profiles over others – some inputs get a green light while others face a question mark, reflecting potential hidden bias.

Think a successful finance career is all about math and spreadsheets? Think again. In today’s finance world, communication is king. Whether you’re a financial analyst, advisor, or CFO, it’s not enough to know the numbers; you must explain, persuade, and inspire with them. This is the “language of money” – translating complex financial concepts into clear, relatable insights.

Ever made a financial choice that felt irrational in hindsight? Perhaps you hesitated to sell a losing stock or splurged on something you knew wasn’t in the budget. You’re not alone. Money isn’t just about numbers – it’s deeply psychological. Welcome to the world of behavioural finance, where economists and psychologists (think Nobel laureates like Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler) team up to explain why we often act against our own financial best interests.

If you’re starting in finance as a recent graduate you’ll quickly discover that technical skills alone aren’t enough. You also need to communicate your insights compellingly. Whether you’re explaining a budget to non-financial colleagues or pitching an analysis to executives, strong presentation skills will set you apart.

Kickstart your finance career in Australia with our practical guide, covering education, networking, internships, mentorship and more.

Introduction: Starting a career in finance is exciting, but it can also be intimidating. You might find yourself sitting in a meeting surrounded by experienced colleagues in suits, heart pounding as you wonder, “Am I really cut out for this, or did I just get lucky?”