Michaela Mayes

Balancing work and studies paid off for International College of Management, Sydney (ICMS) alumna Michaela Mayes when she was offered a fulltime role at Nova Entertainment before graduating, and a promotion a year after that.

Michaela graduated from ICMS in 2022 with a Bachelor of Business (Marketing).

She had already gained valuable industry experience through her ICMS Work Integrated Learning (WIL) placement at ICMS as a Marketing Communications intern, and then as a part-time ICMS Marketing Communications Co-ordinator, a role she was offered after she completed her professional placement.

That work experience, together with her ICMS alumni contacts at Nova, meant that even before Michaela had completed her Bachelor degree, she was offered a fulltime role as Client Implementation Executive at Nova Entertainment (from February 2022). She was promoted to Senior Client Implementation Executive as of June 2023.

Nova Entertainment is Australia’s fastest growing audio entertainment business. The company owns and operates the Nova Network, the most listened to metro network in Australia, which includes Nova 96.9 Sydney and smoothfm. Nova also delivers a range of on-demand assets across digital, social, and mobile, including the NOVA Entertainment Podcast Network. Nova Entertainment is also an ICMS Scholarships Partner offering two scholarships: for undergraduate and postgraduate students.

As a Senior Client Implementation Executive, Michaela works with the agency sales team in collaboration with the creative, integration, airtime and programming teams to ensure the smooth delivery of content, promotions and commercial campaigns to Nova Entertainment clients and listeners.

“You have to put 100% of yourself in to get 100% out,” Michaela said.

“I think, with radio, people may have a traditional point of view on the medium, that it’s just in your car, you switch it on and listen. That’s not really what it is. We work super close with the talent who are on air.”

Working with Smoothfm means Michaela comes “face to face with celebrities all the time”.

This means being self-confident in the role she plays in the process.

“I think the biggest thing for me, because we are so client-facing, is that we have some massive clients and I may feel a bit ‘little’ to work across. But from a day-to-day perspective, it’s basically nurturing those clients and wanting to be the first point of call they go to when they have questions.”

‘Multitasking’ could be Michaela’s middle name

Although Michaela worked while studying, she was active in the student community and served as SRC President between August 2021 and March 2022. She was also awarded two ICMS Professional Scholarships over the course of her studies at ICMS.

“When I told a few of my friends and my mentors that I was going to start full-time work while I was still studying, I think everyone was a little bit worried, but I think it was a risk that I knew I had to take.”

Michaela studied through the Covid pandemic, and experienced both on-campus studying and online studying.

“It’s not very common that you live, work, and study at the exact same place. A lot of my memories are quite fun, and I made friends from working and also living on campus which is definitely different,” Michaela said.

ICMS connections beyond campus

Michaela found her current role through ICMS networking on social media.

“My first account manager actually studied at ICMS about four years before I did. I think it’s critical to put your name out there. It’s hard as a 21-year-old to put yourself out there on LinkedIn but I think, in the corporate and professional world now, it’s something you have to do.”

International experience = industry advantage

ICMS is proud of its diverse community with students coming from over 50 countries around the world to study at the Australia’s leader in industry-focused education.

Living, and working, with international students is an advantage in your future career, Michaela believes, as it prepares you for working with colleagues in an increasingly global workplace.

“I lived on campus for a little bit of my time. I also lived off campus, but still in ICMS accommodation. From an international perspective, you really do get to learn about a lot of different countries and cultures,” Michaela said.

“I think that’s important in life in general, but particularly in business. You never know where your next manager or where your colleague is going to be from. Being able to acknowledge that there are cultural differences in the way that we process different emotions and everything is super important.”

Partnering with industry leaders

Nova Entertainment is a valued ICMS industry partner.

The company has come on board the ICMS Professional Scholarships Program and offers two annual opportunities for students to benefit from either the Nova Entertainment Scholarship – Undergraduate Student or Nova Entertainment Scholarship – Postgraduate Current Student.

Both scholarships each offer up to $12,000 tuition waiver as well as the potential to build new corporate networks.

To find out more about the ICMS Bachelor of Business (Marketing), click here.

To connect with Michaela Mayes, click here.