Case Study: Austin & his Ribit Journey
Student: Austin Wilshire and iRecruit – Systems Engineer, Tanda
Austin Wilshire attended a Ribit speed networking event in Queensland and his career took off from there. Hear from Austin what he attributes his success to, how his experience with Ribit shaped his career and the advice he offers to students in the same position as him.
Austin, was in his first year of his degree at QUT when he heard about Ribit’s speed-networking event at River City Labs and decided there was nothing to lose. The Student Connect event also featured Shark Tank guru and former QLD Chief Entrepreneur, Steve Baxter, who told students ‘ if you’re studying at uni, the best thing you can do is go and get a job’. After the event, Austin was made an offer to work with iRecruit.
When we spoke with Austin, we realised he is a real ‘can-do’ kind of guy, so it came as no surprise to us that he has since made leaps and bounds in his career since his time at iRecruit. He is now working as a Systems Engineer with Tanda, an innovative rapidly growing Queensland startup which offers an online platform to deliver workforce management software.
Adam Lyons, VP of Engineering for Tanda says “It’s been a great time for us as a company and we’ve seen Austin come such a long way in terms of his skill set and the impact he has made. He’s only just graduating this semester, but the experience he’s gained at Tanda has really brought him forward a long way. We love engaging with students to really accelerate their development towards the end of their degrees. We find after a certain point, graduation becomes a formality and the last few semesters support their development in a realistic context.”
Austin has also always aspired to own and operate his own business and after one attempt, took the lessons from that experience – the good and the bad. Through his experience, Austin developed a ‘Startup Playbook’. Essentially, the playbook is a record of his lessons learned through his experience in startups and will guide him when he decides to eventually run his own business.
On offering advice to current and future students Austin’s advice is simple: “Keep saying yes to any opportunity to meet people! Don’t be afraid to talk to people, the worst that can happen is that you’ll talk to someone for five minutes and they may not reply to you. The opportunity is that conversations could open doors that lead your career in a whole new direction”.
If you are looking for an exciting career opportunity, jump onto ribit.net today!