"The University of Melbourne and Faculty of Business and Economics provide a lot of student support services. I would strongly recommend utilising them as they are all free! Especially library support if you are interested in research."

Q&A with Wai Yeung Tang

Q: What course are you doing within the Department of Management and Marketing?

I'm in my third year of a doctoral program in marketing. Prior to this, I completed a Master of Management (Marketing).

Q: What attracted you to this course?

I have been majoring in Marketing since my Associate Degree of Business back in Hong Kong. After the completion of Bachelor of Business (Marketing) at La Trobe University, I felt the urge to better equip myself considering my career path in the contemporary business environment. The University of Melbourne is well-known for high teaching quality, great employer reputation and excellent student support, which all justified its ranking.
During the final semester of the Master of Management (Marketing), I received an invitation to apply for the five-year doctoral program in marketing. I applied for it to pursue a research-oriented career, an option that I had never thought of before. Being able to conduct research at the top university in Australia is attractive enough, not to mention the scholarship scheme was one of the most generous, with waived tuition fees and a living stipend.

Q: Please share with us a little about your background.

I am from Hong Kong, and I have been majoring in Marketing for my entire student life.

Q: What did you think of the Master of Management (Marketing)?

The course design has a good balance between theoretical and practical assessments. It starts off with foundation subjects alongside discipline core subjects. It also has a wide range of electives for students to focus on their area of interest, or expand into new territories. The elective list of Marketing subjects is notably more diverse given the nature of this discipline.

Q: What was the highlight of that course?

The highlight of my Master of Management (Marketing) has to be the course Consumer Behaviour. It was a core subject with a theoretical focus on the consumer behaviour paradigm of research. During some lectures we did in-depth reading of journal articles with high impact to observe patterns, learn the basics of theorising and get a taste of critically assessing professional manuscripts. I still remember our in-class discussion on a paper by McCracken (1986) on the structure and movement of the cultural meaning of consumer goods. That was the first time I developed my interest in academic research.

Q: Can you share an example of a practical subject or project that you think has helped you be "job ready"?

Retail management was a very practical subject to help students be job ready in the sense that the coursework was based on real-life business scenarios. In one of the assessments our lecturer invited representatives from a supermarket to develop business plans to combat newcomers in the Melbourne market. Students came across with a lot of creative yet concrete ideas and shared them in class in a short video format. This type of business war game, although smaller in scale, helps us to improve critical thinking and problem-solving skills through generation of ideas for a real-life competitive strategy.

Q: What will be some of your favourite memories of your time with us?

I personally loved the study time in the student space within The Spot. It is comfy and spacious for personal use and group discussion, although it is always so full given its popularity.

Q: Anything else you would like to mention that you think future students might like to know about the Faculty or University?

The University of Melbourne and Faculty of Business and Economics provide a lot of student support services. I would strongly recommend utilising them as they are all free! Especially library support if you are interested in research.