Five minutes with Linh Co, engineering and computer science finalist in the national GradConnect Top 100 Awards
From extreme internship prepping to enjoying a humble brag, Linh Co shows you can dream big.
Linh Co is in his final year of a Bachelor of Engineering and a Bachelor of Mathematical and Computer Science. Despite starting university during COVID and switching to online study, going overseas on an exchange program when face-to-face learning resumed, and changing majors a few times, he went on to become a finalist in the national GradConnect Top 100 Future Leaders Award. The experience helped him to make valuable social connections and prepare for his penultimate-year internship.
Why did you apply for the Top 100 future Leaders Award?
The honest answer is that I saw they would fly you to Sydney and I haven’t been to Sydney since I was a little kid, so I was like that would be cool. But equal or more important is that I was trying to get my penultimate year internship and I saw it as a great opportunity to practise interviewing and online assessments and practise (writing) my resume because it’s very similar to a job application. So I saw it as a very competitive way to practise applying for a real job.
Who helped you with the application process?
The first stage of the application I did by myself and then they (GradConnect) invited me to Sydney for the conference. But before the conference there was this whole day of assessments which included a behavioural assessment and also game theory game where you sit in a group, there’s a problem and you have to solve it ... so they assess you on how you act in a team, how you lead, how you work under pressure as well.
When Career Services found out I was going to Sydney ... we had a good chat about what types of questions that might come up with a behavioural assessment and they were very clear with me that it's just practice and that I might get some different questions and gave me some steps that I could follow. But to my surprise on the day (of the assessment) they asked two of the three questions that I’d actually gone over with Career Services — so they were super helpful and just really brilliant the whole time.
What were the other GradConnect Top 100 future Leader finalists like?
I guess that my favourite thing about it was meeting so many people that are your age, they're about to finish (university) and they also have like pretty big, lofty ideas and goals. I met people who were working with the CSIRO, I met a guy that owned a nightclub and people who worked with Tesla and someone who was making their own app — so everyones doing something, everyone’s trying to chase an ambition that they have and that was so inspiring to hear about. Cause, you know I like having dreams but I feel that like in Australia you get shut down early with tall poppy syndrome a bit, cause it’s like "just stick to what you’re doing", but everyone there was a really tall poppy.
The thing that unites everyone is that they work really hard and that they have really big dreams. There’s no "we all went to private school or we all went to public school or we’re all males", it’s so diverse and mixed, I think that was like the most "woah" thing for me.
...when I went to the GradConnect event, everyone was so open about everything they were interested in — they wanted to share it with you and they also had great ideas to share.Linh Co
At the Awards did you interact with people working for corporations?
I had a few interactions. I remember going up to the Bega people and having a good chat about cheese ... I said, "do you know how much Bega cheese I buy every time I go shopping?" I love my cheeses but it’s just a shame they’re so expensive now. But I try to find something that I have in common with employers, like for example Optiver — I applied with them two years ago and I also did a study exchange in the Netherlands where their headquarters are, so I struck up a conversation about that.
Or, for example with Aurecon I am working on this idea that I feel would benefit engineers. I spoke to a few of their grads about a problem they were having and they also told me about how they are approaching that problem and what they’re doing to alleviate it — so we just came to this by having a chat. I think coming to have a chat about something that’s not just about your career is quite important.
How did the experience of being a finalist change you?
I think it changed me quite a bit ... I’ll be honest with you, at university I haven’t made that many friends, also because of the fact that I started studying online during COVID and went on an overseas study exchange (program) and switched my majors a few times. When you swap around, you don’t get to build a lot of connections and you don’t get to talk to people about the things that you want to be doing.
But when I went to the GradConnect event, everyone was so open about everything they were interested in — they wanted to share it with you and they also had great ideas to share. So, I now know that there are people like that out there, you know, who are passionate about what they do and they also work really hard for it — it inspires me so much. I think it’s one of the most inspiring things I’ve done career-wise that makes me want to explore other options or chase my dreams. It’s made me want to stay in contact with these people and see what they’re up to in a year’s time.
📑To apply or find out more information about the 2025 competition visit the Grad Connection website .
Remember, if you need support with your application then get in contact with Career Services!