Roland Slee

Deputy Chancellor, Provost, Dean of the Faculty, presiding Director, Chair of the Academic Board, Members of the University Executive, Council, staff, graduates, families and friends.

Let me commence by paying my respects to the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, the traditional owners of the land on which the university now stands. I pay respect to their elders past, present and emerging, and recognise them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for this place.

It’s an enormous pleasure and a great privilege to be here with you this morning as we recognise and celebrate the achievements of all those who are graduating today, along with many proud parents, families and friends. I want to acknowledge each and every one of you for your hard work, discipline and perseverance. Gaining a university degree is no mean feat. Congratulations on your graduation. It’s a wonderful thing that you’ve done.

I don’t know about you, but I love graduations. To me, they’re a lot like the Oscars, with everyone coming up and accepting their awards, except in fancy dress and with much less chance of teary speeches or wardrobe malfunctions. But seriously though, graduating from university marks an important point of transition in life. Some of you will go onto further study or to pursue academic careers; others will enter into or continue in the workforce, applying what you’ve learnt here in a business context.

I remember very well attending my own graduation when I received my bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. I sat there, wondering what the future would hold for me. I had no idea at that time that graduation would lead me into a career in enterprise software or that my work would take me all over the world. Indeed, work has provided me with many adventures, experiences and lessons that were completely beyond my comprehension or expectation at that time.

So, I’d like to share with you today a few of those lessons that I’ve learned along the way. In fact, there are three specific suggestions I’d like to offer you. Firstly, don’t be too fixed in your thinking about the kind of work you will do. Secondly, be quick to volunteer and sure to deliver. Thirdly, build skills that will always be in demand because they focus on the human factors. Let me discuss each of these briefly.

Firstly, don’t be too fixed in your mind about the work you plan to do. I’ve always liked this saying: ‘Life is what happens to you while you’re busy planning something else,’ and that has certainly been true for me. I anticipated a career in mechanical engineering, but found myself working in enterprise software. I anticipated a career focused on technology, but found myself working in sales. I anticipated a career focused in Australia, but found myself working in Europe, Asia and Africa.

Along the way, I came across another saying that has become a favourite of mine: ‘Everything is interesting if you know enough about it.’ I’ve learned that across industries there are countless jobs that I had no idea even existed when I was graduating. The people who do these less well-known jobs find them fascinating and satisfying and they’re passionate about their work. For example, it was only in recent years that I came to understand the vital role that product managers play in financial services, designing investment and insurance products. They constantly evolve their products to ensure regulatory compliance and market competitiveness.

Very few of these people set out in their careers intending to do such work, but rather, they were drawn into it over time as they gained experience in the workplace. They progressively came to understand what kind of work they enjoyed and to discover how they could best add value.

This is typical of the way that many careers evolve; the work finds the people rather than the people finding the work. So, it’s important to be open to all possibilities. Most people’s primary satisfaction of work comes from serving customers, whether those customers be internal or external. Genuine service is at the heart of gaining a true sense of purpose in life.

Most businesses today are working hard to understand and refine their stated purpose, because to succeed, any business needs a reason for being beyond simply making money. Having a strong sense of purpose is vital to effective strategy setting. Purpose has also been shown to be a far more effective motivator of human behaviour that remuneration alone.

So, I would encourage you – find customers to serve, be prepared for the likelihood that your life will be the sum of what happens to you while are you are planning something else, and embrace the notion that everything can be interesting if you know enough about it. In this way, you’ll be able to seize upon the opportunities that life presents you without being too constrained by preconceived notions about what you will do or where you will go.

If my first point, then, is about being open to all possibilities, my second point is about maximising them. I would encourage you to always be quick to volunteer and sure to deliver. Most graduates commence work at roughly the same age, and they end up retiring at roughly the same age, and so their careers are over roughly similar durations. But some fly high, achieve great things and make a big impact, while others achieve more modestly.

To fly high and achieve great things, you need to come out of the blocks fast, gaining leadership skills and management experience early in your career that will enable you to carry heavy responsibilities later on. However, many graduates find their early work offers few opportunities for gaining skills in leadership and management. Early career work can sometimes be constrained or repetitive.

So, how does one break out of this cycle to maximise your long-term opportunity. The answer is to volunteer. Whether it’s in your place of work outside it, every organisation is seeking leaders, managers and do-ers who reliably deliver. Find a worthwhile challenge that needs addressing and make yourself available. It might be organising a school reunion or supporting a fundraising appeal. It might be arranging a church conference or organising a group holiday. Whatever it is, be quick to volunteer and sure to deliver. You will quickly gain valuable experience and learn vital lessons that may be much slower coming to you if you wait for opportunities to arise through your regular employment.

I’m a serial volunteer in many different fields and my life has been greatly enriched by it. More than 15 years ago, I was invited to join an industry advisory board here at UTS. At the time, I had no real understanding of the interplay between business, government and academia and I was entirely unsure what value I could add, but I quickly said yes and hoped to figure the rest out later.

Many years later, my long association with UTS has been one of the most enjoyable and satisfying aspects of my professional life. That one act of saying yes, followed by sheer persistence in turning up whenever invited, has led to me meeting the most exceptional people, having opportunities to teach and lead and govern and learn, and ultimately to my being here with you today. I’m deeply grateful to UTS for affording me so many extraordinary opportunities.

Volunteering has also brought me many adventures, including performing in the opening and closing ceremonies of the Sydney Olympics, working as a mechanic on a motor racing team, and marshalling at the trials for the Winter Olympics in Canada. Through volunteering, I’ve even had opportunities to photograph celebrity weddings and drive exotic supercars. You, too, can accelerate your career and maximise your opportunities by being quick to say yes and sure to deliver.

Finally, I want to encourage you to build skills that will always be in demand, such as leading, communicating and relating. The modern workplace is being transformed by the arrival of big data and artificial intelligence. Many highly skilled, well-rewarded jobs that have traditionally been filled by degree-qualified professionals are now being automated by software. One can no longer assume that a degree in law or engineering or IT will provide a ticket to stable employment or a rewarding career. The robots are here and they’re getting smarter by the day.

But there are many tasks that are unlikely ever to be automated. These include providing leadership; setting strategy; distilling complex ideas into persuasive, pithy arguments; communicating with people in a manner that challenges their thinking and changes their behaviour; and building relationships with people that generate trust, enable risk taking and unlock innovation.  

I began my career as most graduates do, trading on the technical skills I acquired at university. I found it exciting but challenging to keep up with an ever-changing and constantly accelerating technology landscape. But over time, I was able to shift my work to focus more on matters related to leadership, communication and relationship building. These skills have allowed me to add value through selling, governing, strategising and directing.

As technology continues to become more powerful and many traditional roles are automated, I would encourage you to actively develop skills that will always be in demand, It’s the human factors that are usually the making or breaking of any endeavour. Learning to trade on your ability to manage the human factors is a great way to ensure that you’ll always be able to add value.

So, in summary, my encouragements to you are these: firstly, don’t be too fixed on the kind of work you plan to do. Secondly, be quick to volunteer and sure to deliver. Thirdly, build skills that will always be in demand because they focus on the human factors.

To put this another way, build a strong sense of purpose by committing yourself to the service of others. Seize opportunities as they arise, volunteer quickly, deliver reliably and build skills that will never go out of date. I’m sure that if you do these things, life will bring you many opportunities to serve and you will make a valuable contribution in every endeavour you engage in. 

Congratulations once again to all those who are graduating today. Thank you for the opportunity to address you on this marvellous occasion. I wish you all the very best for the future.