What's your background? What was it that drew you to initially apply for the NEC IT Graduate Program?
Having finished secondary school in 2006 I worked in several industries prior to the commencement of my employment at NEC. I spent periods of time working in Retail, Mining, Manufacturing, Pool Construction + Servicing and Hospitality. After concluding my studies at RMIT in 2019 I explored a range of options before deciding to pursue a graduate position. This was largely due to the unique experience of working in a number of roles over 18 months. This provides exposure to different areas of any business and industry other positions would not offer. I choose to apply at NEC because not only was I familiar and had strong interests in their operations, but I had heard great things about the program and culture.
What does a typical day look for you, and what are you currently working on?
A typical day for me consists of a healthy mix of collaborative and individual tasks. I work primarily on a project known as NMMS which is an abbreviation of National Management and Monitoring Solution. NMMS will provide improved reporting and analytics, event management, and capacity management to NEC’s managed service personnel as well as faster access to the information they need which enables the team to enhance end-to-end support services and proactively manage. My BAU activities include reoccurring and ad-hoc business and data analysis including but not limited to resourcing, time sheeting, scheduling, change management, software identification and categorization. I also coordinate and execute testing for the project’s technologies. My typical day also includes upskilling in systems and technologies that support my role and assist in further learning such as Microsoft Project, Power BI, AWS, Azure and SQL. To keep up to date and in line with the businesses and industry processes I am always looking for exposure and learnings into different Business and Data analysis techniques and Project Management methodologies.
What have you enjoyed most about your experience in the Graduate Program?
I have found the empowerment and high level of responsibility given to me as a graduate as the most surprising and enjoyable part of the program so far. Although the culture at NEC is such that help is never far away when needed, especially throughout the earlier stages of the program when the learning curve is quite steep, the tasks I have been given ownership of are crucial to the projects progression and success. The tasks I often perform are regularly presented either by myself or my team to upper management or externally and actions I derive through my works and analysis are acted upon meaning from early on I felt like an invaluable member of the team, project, and overall business.
What are the limitations of your job?
The main limitations I have faced in my time in the NEC graduate program have largely been felt by everyone and are unavoidable. After only 6 weeks of employment with NEC all staff were asked to work from home due to the CV19 pandemic. Although I do not believe this has affected my overall learning and progress I believe I would have had more exposure to other areas of the business and others expertise had I have worked along side my colleagues in an office environment.
What have you gained from working at NEC from a career perspective?
The NEC graduate position has provided me with invaluable experiences that have helped me further define my industry career prospects. Starting on the Service Desk for my first rotation I gained a great feel and overview for how NEC operates while servicing customers and further developing new skills. My second rotation saw me work with PMO (Project Management Office) working directly with the Governance Specialist. This experience provided me a great overview of NEC’s Project Management Methodologies. I worked on a number of different types of reports, carried out compliance checks of both internal and external projects and worked with Project Managers and Delivery Managers to ensure financial and non-financial project details are kept up to date and budget. I then moved into Digital Services and Analytics where I am now working on the NMMS Project. After these experiences and some consideration, I am actively pursuing a permanent position within my current team.
What kind of characteristics or skills do you believe a Graduate needs to be successful in the program?
A good, hardworking attitude is a must. The people and culture at NEC is one that is very accepting and help is never too far for those that need it so although a strong prior knowledge of current and emerging technologies and business structures and operations will make your early journey easier, if you have the right attitude you will be provided with every opportunity you need to succeed.
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...
If I were to go back in time and meet myself at university, I would advise myself that the long hours of working and studying full time would pay off! I would reassure myself that as someone who was more of an open book when it came to career prospects that I did not have to define exactly where I wanted to work in the industry before I finished my studies as the opportunity to work in different areas in a graduate program would provide insights and help me formulate this ideology that I believe you can only really experience firsthand. And finally, I would tell myself that one day soon I would not have to sit a number of exams every six months!