Combining health and business to pursue my career

When people ask me why I decided to study in Melbourne, I always tell them Melbourne is the best city to live in with the best coffee in the world. Welcome to the four-season city that is Melbourne.

My name is Yitong Feng and I studied a Bachelor of Nursing in Deakin University in 2012. As a top-tier university for nursing in Australia, Deakin University’s nursing course provides the perfect combination of study knowledge and clinical working experience.  You will have several hospital and aged care placements before you graduate. I learned the professional skills to become a Registered Nurse through my two years of study in Deakin and then I started my nursing career in hospital.

As a top- tier university for nursing in Australia, Deakin University’s nursing course provides the perfect combination of study knowledge and clinical working experience.

After working in the hospital as a full-time nurse for one year, I felt I was not good at clinical nursing and therefore decided to change my career. According to my personality and background, I investigated whether business study was more suitable for me. I found the answer was YES. I believe I can use my advantage even more. I spent one month doing my research and contacted my former supervisor Jennifer Watts in Deakin University to get more advice on my career plan.

I clearly explained to her that I would like to study a course which combined health and business. Mrs. Watts then introduced me to the Master of Health and Human Service Management. This course was the perfect combination of health and economical knowledge, which can help me to develop my career in both health and business. This course does not only include basic accounting, marketing and business knowledge, but also offers more career opportunities for health students. I really appreciate Jennifer Watts and we still have connection with each other.

During my masters degree in Deakin University, I actively participated in the various activities of the school, and I met a lot friends from all over the world. We studied together and helped each other. I helped the Health Faculty to establish and improve their Peer Mentor Program to offer weekly feedback to the students as well as report to our staff. As the first peer mentor of the program, I helped over 20 International students to enjoy their campus life in the University and to achieve study-life balance. I believe this experience gave me the opportunity to improve my leadership and communication skills. Moreover, I am so happy that my graduation ceremony photo has been posted by Deakin Instagram.

As the first peer mentor of the program, I helped over 20 International students to enjoy their campus life in the University and to achieve study-life balance.

I would like to highlight the DeakinTALENT website. It is a fantastic website which has a lot of work opportunities and career coaching programs. Moreover, there are professional career specialists who help you with your resume review. I was very grateful for the help and coaching I received from DeakinTALENT which helped me to receive my first sales job offer. Prior to my graduation in 2017, I already had two years of sales and business development management working experience in the pharmaceutical industry, which gave me more competitiveness for the next stage of my career. Currently, I am working for Bupa Health Insurance as Assistant Manager and joined the Bupa Future Leader Program in 2020. I really appreciate all of people who helped me in my career development.

Nowadays, there are so many people asking me which course I studied in the past to make me so good at marketing and communication. I tell them I studied nursing before, and they were really surprised, because they thought I studied business or commerce. Traditionally, nurses work in hospitals and aged care centres. However, I am a different person. I always believe, if you would like to have a long-term career, you should have passion and patience.

Quick links

To learn more about Deakin’s Bachelor of Nursing, click here.

To discover Deakin’s range of nursing degrees, click here.

To learn more about Deakin’s Master of Health and Human Services Management, click here.

To discover Deakin’s range of postgraduate health degrees, click here.

To learn more about the Faculty of Health’s Peer Mentor Program, click here.

To discover how DeakinTALENT can help you prepare for your professional life, click here.