The Best CSESoc Portfolio

As I would soon find out, Media occupies a special place in CSESoc. Formerly the Publications team, which produced a monthly magazine titled “Beta”, Media moved to an online distribution platform (that you’re currently reading this on!) which continuously publishes content throughout the year. Media provides CSE students a wealth of information in a variety of mediums about the CSE field, the school, and the industry. This makes it distinct from other teams, like Creative, which focuses on creating graphics, and Workshops, which organises technical workshops and competitions for CSE students.

Throughout 2019, the team and I found an impressive amount of creative freedom in Media, and the directors were always there to help us achieve our vision. This approach to creating content made me really invested in the Media team, and inspired the drive to create really cool articles, podcasts and more!

Invariably, any Media team member will be involved in multiple projects throughout the year, because there is a whole bunch of stuff to do per term. Luckily, from your own drive to make cool things, to seeing your team members report back with the amazing progress they’ve made, there is no shortage of motivation to you finishing your projects. Some of the most memorable things I did as a part of the Media team were doing podcasts inside company offices, including Dropbox, as well as interviewing some really cool people, such as Jake Bloom (working at Facebook), Conway Ying (CTO of a startup, Yoinki), and Oliver Dolk (working at Microsoft). All the guests gave my co-host and I valuable advice, and my work on the projects strengthened my personal ability to speak and network with others.

My directors, Adrian and Mehri, did their best to create a great team culture, and they definitely passed with flying colours. Every meeting would start with a bubble tea run and just shooting the shit in the society office, before we got down to the meeting agenda, which again, was mostly shooting the shit. It was this feeling of being part of a tightly knit team, and the freedom to create anything I wanted about whatever I wanted that made me love Media. I wanted to make Media bigger and better for students applying for Media in 2020, and so I applied for Media Directorship in 2020.

I was lucky enough to be accepted, and as one of the Media Directors, I was now only responsible for making sure that my team got all the assistance and exposure they needed. Our operations were impacted by COVID-19, meaning that we weren’t able to hold in-person meetings, and our ability to record podcasts and video were severely limited. Despite this, the 2020 Media Team managed to increase our engagement with the community, reaching 3,000 total podcast downloads in 2020, and nearly tripling the views on the Media website! As a Director, my proudest accomplishments would be increasing the views on the team’s content, and increasing the public visibility of the team that works so hard to put things out, by creating dedicated profiles for them.

Now, having passed the torch onto Ryan and Genie (who have worked really hard to put this guide out!), I am able to better look upon Media’s place within CSESoc, and its future. Media, being one of the few outward facing teams of CSESoc, is responsible for making students feel informed about their field of study, and it allows them to meet and talk to people whom they usually would never meet in their comings and goings at UNSW - like Chiefs of Staff at burgeoning startups, or jet-setting Product Managers, or industrious Software Engineers. I believe that Media is a special team, and it occupies an important niche within CSESoc. That being said, there is a lot of room to grow. Media has the opportunity to branch out more into video content, and can reach out to international persons of interest in the field of CSE. Furthermore, as only a student-run publication team, Media definitely has the potential to upgrade in areas like audio-visual production, technical expertise and outreach.

Nevertheless, the only direction that Media can go is forwards, and upwards. I look forward to seeing what Media can achieve this year and in future years to come!

Don’t forget to apply when applications open!

- Clarence (2021 CSESoc Secretary)