Where did you grow up? Can you tell us about your education and any previous employment? Have you ever studied abroad?
I grew up in Alstonville and went to Alstonville High School for years 7–12. I did an exchange semester at KAIST in South Korea under the New Colombo Plan Scholarship in 2016 and a study tour with QUT Business School to Switzerland in 2017, where I learnt about advertising and marketing. I also attended an international conference in India in 2017 for AIESEC, a volunteer student organisation that aims to develop cross-cultural understanding in young people. In my second and third years at university, I worked as an information and communications technology (ICT) cadet for the Department of Human Services. This taught me how to work in a professional environment and develop core IT skills.
How did you get to your current job position? For how long have you had it?
Networking! I met representatives of TechnologyOne at a science and engineering networking event run by QUT. From there I met up for coffee with a representative and did a take-home challenge, then a phone interview.
I had been working as a Business Analyst intern for ten months before I started their graduate program. I have now been in the graduate program for three weeks.
What does your employer do?
TechnologyOne is an enterprise software company. We create solutions that transform business and make life simple for our customers.
What are your areas of responsibility?
As a Business Analyst I am responsible for gathering requirements from customers to ensure our software products continue to be market leaders. My role includes:
Can you describe a typical work day?
It depends on the phase of the software development lifecycle that we are in. Typically the day starts with a stand-up meeting where team members discuss what they’ve completed, what they’re working on and if they’re facing any issues or blockers. If we’re in the research phase I would typically be working on research artefacts such as personas, UX mocks and process maps. I would then have a variety of meetings to review these artefacts with different stakeholders.
Suppose a student was considering your career. What would you advise them to study? Should they pursue any sort of work experience? Are there any soft skills it would be beneficial for them to develop?
I majored in computer science, although it is more typical for Business Analysts to have an information systems background. I find it very helpful to have a technical background when communicating with developers as you can speak their language.
Work experience is always a good idea to determine if a company is a good cultural fit for you before you commit to a graduate role there.
Interpersonal skills are very important as a Business Analyst, because you have to communicate complex information to many different types of stakeholders.
What sort of person succeeds in your career?
A person with an analytical mindset. Being a Business Analyst relies on strong organisational and communication skills in order to organise and communicate software requirements to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
What do you love the most about your job? Which kind of task do you enjoy the most?
I love working for TechnologyOne because I get to work with bright, motivated people. The culture is very inclusive and I really enjoy spending time with my colleagues at ‘social hour’ on Fridays.
I enjoy tasks where I get to interact with users of our software. I particularly enjoy usability testing and seeing how successful our designs are.
What’s the biggest limitation of your job? Do you have to work on weekends?
I don’t feel like I’ve hit any limits in my job yet. I did come into work one weekend, as a volunteer – we run a workshop series called STEAM Lab, aimed at school students to inspire them to pursue science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (STEAM) careers.
What would your career be if you weren’t doing what you’re doing now?
Product management at a fast-moving startup. I love working for a large company because of the amazing development opportunities and the workplace perks, but it would be nice to work
for a smaller organisation that is able to be more agile.
Which three pieces of advice would you give to a current university student?