How opportunities make us who we are

How opportunities make us who we are

From military engineer to detective to educator, Dr. Gavin Nicholson's unconventional journey brings practical experience to RMIT's business postgraduate programs.

There are many traditional roads to enter a career in education, and for Dr. Gavin Nicholson, he took none of them. 

A rough childhood led Dr. Nicholson to leave school early and enter the Australian military, where he worked as a military engineer for six years. He then transitioned to a career in law enforcement, working as a uniformed police officer and eventually becoming a detective in New South Wales’ serious crime division. 

Thanks to his success as a detective, Dr. Nicholson worked for the Australian Government as a Fraud Investigator and as an Investigator of the Internal Affairs section of Australian Customs and Border Protection. It was at this time that he “fell into taking an MBA.” Dr. Nicholson first became a sessional lecturer in 2013 at Swinburne and La Trobe universities.  By 2015, he had begun a cross-country journey, teaching in China and Malaysia while also working as a business consultant and corporate trainer in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. Dr. Nicholson joined RMIT in 2021 and he flies between HCMC and Hanoi teaching Human Resource Management and Management courses for RMIT’s business postgraduate programs.

“I am clearly not a pure academic,” Dr. Nicholson admits, “I didn't learn everything in my life from a book. Life was my teacher, so I try to impart practical learning in my classrooms. First and foremost, I want my students to grow in their self-confidence and belief that they also can achieve what they want in life with resilience and self-belief.”

Dr. Gavin Nicholson, RMIT Vietnam lecturer Dr. Gavin Nicholson, RMIT Vietnam lecturer

Dr. Nicholson explains that without giving practical examples, academic theories alone are like “trying to hang a coat on a wall with no hook, you need something tangible to apply it to.” He goes on to note that when explaining theories, he also tries to incorporate them into the viewpoints from a number of different Asian countries so that students can see the relevance of them to their personal life and environment. 

As part of his philosophy to impart real-world learning, Dr. Nicholson tells his students that taking a postgraduate degree is just the first step in a long journey, and that a good GPA “only gets you to the door, it doesn't get you through the door.” He states, “I use myself and my journey as an example to the class, and I think what that does is it shows the things I have done right, and done wrong, and sort of allows me to be the anchor where students can assess themselves against me. I make sure that I am honest about my experience and the doors open for the students’ own self-awareness.”

Dr. Nicholson takes a deep sense of pride in being authentic, and this comes through in his genuine interest of others. “Everybody has a story and journey, and since I teach courses based around leadership, I understand that true leadership is about helping others become better based on what you’ve done. It only takes meeting one person who takes interest in you to possibly change your life forever. This happened to me, and I always make sure I return that possibility to others.”

Would you like to gain practical experience and learn from lecturers like Dr. Nicholson? Discover what a postgraduate degree can do for you!

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