Can you provide an overview of your career journey so far?
After graduating from Hills, I took a half year break to work as a diving instructor before studying at UNSW for a year. I knew I wanted to experience something different so I decided to move to Rotterdam in the Netherlands (helped by my Hungarian passport) to study a bachelor in Economics and a master’s in Public Policy. I focused any research I could on tech policy, including a thesis on European Union data privacy law and one on Chinese tech influence in Latin America. After 4 years there, I did a half-a-year exchange in Brazil living in Sao Paulo, before finally moving to Brussels to properly start my career in tech policy. The reason it had to be Brussels is because it's the "capital" of Europe, the headquarters of the EU, and so the place where EU policy is made. After struggling quite, a lot to find a way to break through, I did a 6 month traineeship at a lobbying consultancy firm (mostly working for Google), and I'm now finishing my second traineeship in the European Parliament itself (one of three main parts of the EU). I've been again focused on tech policy, working on the EU's AI Act which is the world's first governmental regulation of Artificial Intelligence; an attempt to ensure that Europe can be an AI powerhouse in the future, whilst ensuring AI safety, ethics and the upholding of the fundamental rights of EU citizens.
What inspired you to pursue this career path?
I was always interested in improving the way our society functions, and I saw no better way than to work on the governmental policy that dictates so much of our lives behind the scenes. Our lives are being integrated with tech at break-neck speed and often more so than we are aware of. Almost every action we take in the world involves giving away our data, receiving digital information that is controlled by others, and being subject to algorithmic decision making far beyond our understanding. If we want to leverage the enormous potential that further technological development promises, whilst also preventing a techno-dystopian future and preserving what it means to be human, tech policy is our only chance.
What are your future aspirations?
In April I'm lucky enough to be opening the Brussels office of a Swiss Think Tank called Pour Demain (French for 'For Tomorrow'). The organisation's role is to condense policy research from a variety of resources into clear and actionable policy recommendations that are then passed on to policymakers (whether in the EU, the UN, or national governments). Following on from my experience, I'll be focusing on AI Safety policy, ensuring that safety concerns are embedded as a core principle of current and future EU AI policy. With the European elections coming up in June, I expect to build this organisation in Brussels for the foreseeable future but am always thinking ahead to further opportunities. Eventually I would like to go deeper into policymaking itself, perhaps by becoming a policy adviser in the European Parliament. Eventually though I can also see myself bringing everything I've learnt back home and finding a job in tech policy for the Australian government. Of course, these things are always impossible to know!
What advice can you give to our Hills Originals?
One piece of advice that always hit home for me is: "If you don't know what you want, you're unlikely to get it". Of course, you're not going to know straight away and that process will take time, but until you know, always be working towards it. Explore the world, explore different fields, and explore different ideas. Once you know roughly what it is that you want to pursue, you're already halfway there.
And lastly, doubting yourself is normal. The question is not whether you will doubt yourself, it's about how you deal with that doubt. Get to know that doubt within yourself and use it as motivation to get to the other side. The path after high school will be full of uncertainty and at times the steps you take won't completely make sense. But everything we do shapes who we become, and you'll find that things start to make sense when you look at your life in reverse.
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