What's your job about?
I work as a Supply graduate at Diageo, the biggest spirits company in Australia, where I have the privilege of rotating between different functions within the Diageo supply chain every six months.
In my latest rotation, I had the opportunity to work within the production function of the Diageo supply chain under the Manufacturing Excellence (ManEx) team as an Analyst. The responsibilities in my role are mainly tasked with working in conjunction with operational teams (e.g. production operators, asset care technicians & quality assurance) to improve site performance by transforming raw data into educated and detailed information.
My workday is incredibly varied, but the bulk of my responsibility falls on tracking and analysing various KPI’s related to production and investigating any issues when they arise. For example, if the site does not make the planned volume of a product for a week, it will be one of my responsibilities to understand why and work with other teams to solve how to best navigate the situation in the future.
What's your background?
I grew up in South-West Sydney and attended school in Moore Park. I chose to complete a double degree at the University of New South Wales where I was able to finish with a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Arts. During my time at university, I was lucky enough to have a couple of part-time jobs such as working in hospitality and retail where I was able to make some lifelong friends and make some much-needed cash.
When I was nearing the end of my degree (which I didn’t realise until a little too late), I frantically applied for a couple of grad roles that I thought would fit my skill set. As fortune would have it, I stumbled onto the Diageo graduate program on GradAustralia. Honestly, I hadn’t heard of Diageo before seeing the grad opening but when I did look through the Diageo portfolio, I realised that I was extremely familiar with their brands (as any Uni student would be). Working within supply has always been something that I wanted to experience, and to be able to work with great brands was a huge motivation for me to apply for the Diageo graduate program. After multiple lengthy assessments, I was able to secure my position in the graduate program!
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Yes – 100%! The supply graduate role was originally intended for individuals with an engineering or supply chain-relevant degree but I – a Commerce & Arts student - still chose to apply because it was something that I was passionate about and wanted to experience. Even if you don’t have an educational background, you can definitely thrive in this position if you have resilience, fast-learning capability, and problem-solving skills. I have learnt the bulk of my skills through on-the-job experience where I’ve also made my fair share of mistakes. Overall, if you have enthusiasm and passion, Diageo will have a place for you.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
The coolest thing about my job is to be able to work on continuous improvement projects and really make a difference in our products! The most recent project I worked on was in figuring out how to reduce liquid wastage across our canning line. It was an intense 12-week project where I was able to learn a lot and implement new ideas and changes that saw us reduce waste by 32%. This amounted to a saving of 85k! After the project ended, the entire project team was praised and won an award at our annual Supply Mission Day.
What are the limitations of your job?
Diageo is a large company that has many different functions with a lot of different people. Due to this, there have been times throughout my program where I have felt that directions have been vague and that I have felt quite lost on what to do. As a result of this, you are forced to be proactive and seek out information yourself from time to time. Although this may come as a challenge at first, I have become better at it and have become more deliberate in my actions and time.
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...