What’s your job about?
My current rotation is within the Enterprise Data team, which essentially looks after managing data for TAL. My role within this team is a Data Engineer role, which in simple terms involves developing, managing, maintaining and optimizing systems to effectively collect, store and transform client data to provide organised, readable data for TAL teams to analyse. This helps facilitate TAL’s IT operations in which we strive for accurate, secure and readily-available data so that we can ultimately offer the best service to our clients.
A typical day in my life in this role involves daily ‘stand-up’ meetings with my team to catch up on everybody’s work progress and identify any blockers. After this, I may have some other meetings regarding the work I am doing, for example, I may organise a one-on-one call with a teammate so that they can clarify how our databases are structured or answer any questions I may have. If I’m in the office, I tend to go for coffee runs with my team, or catch up with other Grads for lunch together, which is a nice way to break up my day. During most of the day, I work on my assigned tasks that our team has planned at the beginning of the ‘sprint’ (which is a working increment of two weeks). A typical work task could include automating data processes, testing new changes in our systems, updating new data fields, developing pipelines in Azure DevOps, and much more!
What’s your background?
I was born and raised in the suburbs of Western Sydney. My parents had immigrated to Australia several years back from Argentina, in seek of a better lifestyle and more opportunities. I had always been encouraged by them to get involved in different activities and to learn as much as possible. So, from a young age, I participated in many sports including swimming, dancing, gymnastics, physie, touch football, netball, and even oztag and cheerleading at my high school. I also attended the Secondary School of Community Languages on Saturday mornings, to improve my Spanish language skills, which enabled me to meet so many different types of people from so many different cultures. Throughout high school, I enjoyed being part of the leadership team, and in Year 12 I became the school vice-captain, which was the most enriching aspect of my Year 12 experience, in that I could advocate for my classmates. Outside of school, I worked as a barista, which taught me a lot about people and how to handle working under pressure – as well as how to make a mean cappuccino!
After high school, I felt it was a natural progression to go to university and get a degree. So that’s what I did. I went to UTS for a Bachelor of Science in Information technology, which I completed for a year, until I received a call, offering me a place in the Bachelor of Information Technology Co-operative Scholarship program, which I had applied for previously. This opened up so many doors, in which I was able to complete two 6-month internships during my studies, where I learnt about Cloud infrastructure, Cybersecurity and IT Risk. One of the internships was with TAL, so I applied to the TAL Graduate Program and successfully received an offer, which is how I got to where I am today!
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Absolutely! People from all different walks of life are welcome at TAL. If you are keen on joining the Grad program, TAL is always seeking people who have diverse backgrounds and talents that can be brought to the table, as your fresh perspective adds value to your work.
For my role specifically as a Data Engineer, I entered the role not knowing anything about what I would be doing, but after time I learnt so much, and I can now take responsibility for my work. It just comes down to one’s drive, curiosity and keen desire to keep learning, as in IT everything is constantly changing! I know of so many people who studied something in university other than IT but ended up in a career in IT, so no matter where you are right now if you would like to work at TAL or in IT, there will always be space for you.
What’s the coolest thing about your job?
What I love most about my job is the level of flexibility it provides me so that I can lead a strong work-life balance. Being able to work either from home or from the office enables me to become more productive and manage my lifestyle better. Additionally, the culture at TAL is very cool – the people you meet and work with are always willing to have a conversation and to help you if needed. Your efforts don’t go unnoticed at TAL and while it is a large company, you get to know everybody so quickly as you are treated as a valued employee rather than a number.
What are the limitations of your job?
Rather than a limitation, I would call it a temporary roadblock. With each new role, comes its challenges, no matter where you work or what you do, as it will all be new to you. However, I would say a limitation/roadblock I have experienced is gaining enough context and TAL-specific lingo to be able to understand technical conversations and approach problems with a more rounded understanding of what processes are happening. This is especially true for IT roles, as there are so many acronyms and business jargon to learn! While this is challenging to navigate, you will surely gain an understanding over time, just make sure to ask lots of questions and write everything down as you go so you don’t forget.
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student…