IND101A Industry Guest Interview Assessment 3 relevant 20260326 120114 Meeting Recording

All right. Well, welcome everyone.

Lovely to see so many of you here today.

Great to see some familiar faces and

names. Um, so in ID101A, we have the

absolute pleasure of each term being

able to invite somebody from industry to

come and speak to us about all things

industry skills. So everything from CVs,

job interviews, sort of the first, you

know, couple of months on a job to then

having a manager role, managing people

and all the things that come with that

and um you then have the joy of writing

an assessment about this interview um

and hopefully take some really good

points from it.

So before we officially begin, I'd like

to begin by acknowledging the

traditional custodians of the lands on

which we meet today and pay my respects

to elders past and present. Um the plan

for today is I'll do the introductions

of myself, of Lynn and of Peter. Then we

will conduct the interview and at the

end we'll have time for questions from

you for Peter. Um things that come up

for you. You can also type them into the

chat if you'd like and then Lynn will

collect them and then we can go through

them at the end.

Um so for those of you who don't know

me, my name is Sarah Smart. I have been

with Torrrens now for quite a few years.

Um I lecture in the business faculty um

generally in marketing and industry

skills. My background is in business,

but I've also got a degree in politics

and history. I really liked going to uni

um and I'm back there now. Um and my

co-conspirator is Lynn Hall. Um who will

be manning our chat today and helping

with all things in the background. She

is also um she's also been at Torrance

for quite a few years. She is the

learning facilitator within 101A, but

she's also a subject coordinator with

BIS 107.

And now I'd like to introduce Peter

Maher to you all, um, who is going to be

our industry speaker. He is a managing

director of our insurance manager, which

is a Brisbane-based independent

consultancy with over a decade of

operation. With a career spanning roles

as an insurance broker, manager, and

consultant, Peter brings deep practical

expertise in general general insurance

advisory, program design, and risk

strategy for corporate buyers. Unlike

traditional brokers, Peter operates with

complete independence, offering clients

impartial advice free from commissions

or insure relationships. His work

focuses on identifying gaps, improving

efficiency, and delivering solutions

that stand up to board level scrutiny.

Now, beyond his professional practice,

Peter is a long-standing community

leader. He's a board member of the

Redland Foundation and a past president

and Paul Harris fellow of the Rotary

Club of Cleveland, where he's been an

active member for over 35 years. So,

welcome, Peter. It's lovely to have you.

Thank you for taking the time,

>> Sarah. Thanks. That's the best

introduction I've had since the last

introduction you gave me. So, that's

excellent. Thank you.

Perfect.

>> All your own work and everything.

>> All my own work. Absolutely. Um, so now

that I've sort of introduced you, would

you like to tell us a little bit about

yourself? Sort of your current job, your

career journey, your educational

journey?

>> Yeah, sure. Look, it's always

interesting when you're asked to talk

about yourself, and you you pause to

think, you know, how did I get to where

I am today? But I I'm probably going to

tell you, it didn't happen in a straight

line. And I don't know many people who

do end up in their this stage of their

working life in a straight line. Uh as

you said Sarah, I'm the managing

director of a consulting firm, but it's

been built on real world experiences

rather than following a textbook path. I

I know how important education is and

I went to the University of Life. So

that um that's a different university.

But I work my way through different

roles by um learning what to do, making

mistakes, uh fixing them, and then

slowing building the confidence to lead

teams and businesses. It doesn't just

happen on day one. Because you're a good

football player doesn't mean you're a

good coach. Because you read a lot of

books on golf doesn't make you a good

golfer. You've got to go and make those

mistakes and fix them. So, um, if I'm

being honest, where I've got to has come

from experience. Um, dealing with

clients who have a need. Um, handling

pressure when people might have claims

and their livelihoods at risk. Um,

managing people who have different

agendas or different outlooks on life.

And most importantly in my world is

being accountable when things go wrong.

That's where the the real learning

happens. So, I've worked in insurance

companies. I worked for insurance

brokers. and now I'm doing my own

consulting work. So whilst the flavor

has been insurance, it um it uh cuts

across many disciplines, legal, come it,

come HR, come everything. So jack of all

trades, master of none, but pleased to

be here at least.

>> Well, we're glad to have you. Well,

let's um we want to take the students on

a bit of a journey through sort of the

life within work. And I'd like to start

with the recruitment process.

>> Yeah. when when you're recruiting, what

are some things that you look for in a

resume?

>> Aren't rums interesting now? Um,

>> you know, in the old days, you in the

old days, I'm sounding ages, but just go

with me on in the old days. Um, you'd

store your resume and you'd see a job in

the paper. This is when you'd go and get

the paper on a Friday cuz that's when

all the jobs were in. You you write it

and put an envelope and send it off and

hope. But now with an advancing world,

AI, etc., It's made it harder now I

think for

employers to se select the right

candidate. Um but from what I'm looking

for is substance not polish. Um I don't

care if the regime looks fancy and it's

it's dressed up and seems to be

technically perfect. I just care if it

makes sense. And I think that's really

important that you think it makes sense

or you dress it up to make it sound like

you think it should sound. Um, but I

want you to tell me what you actually

did or what you actually do or what

responsibility do you have or what

responsibility you want to have. Um, I

want to know what problems you've

solved. Um, or what problems you'd like

to solve and and what did you learn and

if you messed up, tell me that you

messed up. I don't care. You messed up

on someone else's watch, not on mine. I

want to know what you learned from it.

Um, regime. Look, we we we're all

critical that attention span now seems

to be about 15 seconds. um I'll multiply

that by four or five. If I can look at a

resume and it's easy to read in less

than a couple of minutes, um I'm good.

Um but if I if it's hard to understand

or it's too esoteric, um it's already a

problem. So um to summarize, I guess

Sarah, um substance, not polish, just

real life examples of who you are. And

it doesn't just have to doesn't have to

be in your professional world. You know,

you're kind enough to mention some of my

out of um professional work. you know,

if you've been a member of a charitable

organization or you've started

something, tell me you I want to know

what else you what else your values are

in life.

>> Yeah, it's something we talk about to

the students as well. You know, being

clear as what your interests are because

they shape you as a person. You know,

somebody who plays an instrument has

certain characteristics in terms of how