Henry Li

Position: IT Graduate
Degree: Master of Information Technology/ Bachelor of Commerce

What do you get up to in your day-to-day role?

I am in the IT department and my areas of responsibility are in the support and maintenance of applications across the business. My day-to-day tasks normally start with opening the dashboard and reviewing any new user access requests raised by our fieldworkers or task schedulers. Like most of us in Melbourne I always save some time for a coffee, before coming back to log into SAP and extract any data to prepare an error report for the team. I normally like to catch up with colleagues over lunch; I especially like exploring all the good lunch spots the city has to offer. In the afternoon, I will complete the error reporting requirements and submit it to the business side of the company, then solve any incoming incident tickets raised. I like to think of incident tickets as customer service, where I am there to help members of our business solve any tricky problems they may face related to software usage.

What's your background?

I was born and raised in China, but I moved to Melbourne to complete my Bachelor of Commerce and Masters of IT degrees at the University of Melbourne. I was fortunate to have work experience in both China and Australia, working in the IT and finance industries. Most helpful to my career was my time with Enactus, a student-focused group that works on innovative ideas through entrepreneurship to solve the world’s biggest issues and make positive social and environmental impacts. I wanted to apply my knowledge and kick-start my career in a graduate program, and CitiPower and Powercor was the perfect fit. I have now been in the position for 6 months. My hobbies include finding the best restaurants around Melbourne and regional Victoria, playing tennis, and road trip with my friends.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes! The key points of this role are problem solving, taking initiative, being calm under pressures, and providing clear communication, both written and verbal. You may not know much about the energy sector, (I have certainly learnt a lot myself!) but don’t be afraid to ask questions as there is always someone around to help.

What do you love most about your job?

The most rewarding aspect of this job is clicking the ‘incident solved’ button! I get great satisfaction from being able to help my colleagues at the company solve their issues, which often stops them from doing their own jobs.

So far, what has been the highlight of the graduate program? Was your graduate role as you expected it to be? Did anything take you by surprise?

So far the highlight has been the extensive training the company has been able to provide. In particular, the road trip we took to the Loy Yang Power station really opened my eyes to work we do as a company within the energy industry. It is nice to know how my work with the IT graduate program fits into the wider company. This sense of inclusion has also been a great surprise. Graduates are immediately included in the wider IT department, being invited to quarterly Townhall meetings.

Everyone is keen on maintaining work/life balance, with that in mind what is the longest day you have put in and have you worked weekends at all?

The IT graduate program has so far been very flexible with my current work/life balance, I haven’t been chained to my desk so far! At first, I attended the office everyday to absorb as much information as I could. As I have become more familiar with the role, I work some days from home, especially on days where I have other commitments. It is fantastic that the program allows for this flexibility to suit your lifestyle.

Do you have any advice to potential graduates applying?

I have three pieces of advice for potential graduates applying: 1) seek out a mentor (either at university or personal) to help guide you through the recruitment process, 2) involve your friends and family to help you prepare for any interviews that are needed, and 3) be yourself! What makes you unique also often stands you out from the crowd.

Kevin Wong

Position: Graduate Engineer
Degree: Bachelor of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering
and Bachelor of Commerce (Econometrics Major)

What do you get up to in your day-to-day role?

I currently work in Primary Asset Management – Stations. This is essentially looking after all the assets inside a large power distribution station. These include large power transformers, circuit breakers, etc. Some of my tasks include building/developing models to assess risk and determine when the best time to replace an asset is, writing business cases to replace assets if required, updating standards/manuals/guides, and learning as much as I can about our existing assets and the best practice to maintain them. i.e. Over the past week, I have been working on a circuit breaker replacement project. To justify replacing this circuit breaker, I need to use the models I mentioned earlier to assess the risk. We need to compare that risk against the cost of replacing that asset (why spend $800,000 to tear down and rebuild a house when you can repair it for $2,000). We’ve concluded that replacing the circuit breaker is justifiable, and we need a business case to justify what we are doing and what benefits it will bring.

You can think of my role as determining the least cost options to ensure the electricity network is running as efficiently and least cost to the customer as possible.

This role allows you to rotate through many departments across the business, so if you don’t find one which suits you at the moment, you have a taste of it and you can look forward to future rotations in different areas which may suit you better.

What's your background?

I was born overseas but grew up locally in Melbourne. I was never particularly talented at anything, whether it was music, sport, or academics, instead I was a good jack of all trades throughout high school.

I am interested in creating and tearing things apart. My grandfather would wire his own speaker system, and he would explain to me how to best optimise the placement of speakers. That passion has greatly influenced me.

After the stress of year 12, I decided to refine some of my skills in university, further pushing myself to seek out additional experiences. I started part time work tutoring, trying to be an academic role model while also providing advice for how to approach balance school/family/friends/work. I entered many competitions in university, both in person during early years of university and online competitions during later years of university (due to COVID).

In terms of future careers, I highly recommend doing a summer internship/vacation program. I learnt more in my three months of work experience than multiple years in my degree. Yes, the degree is useful for early concepts, understanding fundamentals and the logic for how assets interact, but most of it is very high level. A program like this really puts you apart from other potential candidates, as you have industry experience and experience in navigating a workplace environment. The CitiPower Powercor United Energy vacation program also gave me an opportunity to secure my current graduate job.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes, I think someone with a different background can do this job. As mentioned earlier, most of the learning is on the job, and if you are willing to put in the hours to accommodate for your different background, I think you will be able to thrive. I believe the most important thing for someone doing this job is to have curiosity, a continuous desire to learn, improve, and challenge the way we approach tasks to complete them more efficiently and effectively.

What do you love most about your job?

I really enjoy being able to find ways to improve our process and improve the business. Learning new skills and adding additional fundamental knowledge is sometimes dry; sometimes making risk assessments are difficult or tedious, especially with data quality issues. However, making logical assumptions, understanding that my actions will eventually result in lower overall costs for the customer, increased reliability for both the customer and the business, and increased performance for the business makes all the tedious and tiring work worth it.

So far, what has been the highlight of the graduate program? Was your graduate role as you expected it to be? Did anything take you by surprise?

The graduate program has been really fun. In the first year, we’ve had a graduate trip and visited a power station. Every few months the graduates have a group knowledge sharing. This allows us to share experiences between departments, see which rotations interest us and allow us all to learn from each other. My rotations so far have been great. I would like to get more on site and get more experience and physically see the assets we are maintaining/designing/ working on instead of predominantly working in front of a computer. You may need to take the initiative and ask/organise activities for yourself. There are also many opportunities for training, and my managers have been quite encouraging for me to attend as much training as possible.

Everyone is keen on maintaining work/life balance, with that in mind what is the longest day you have put in and have you worked weekends at all?

I don’t recall working too many hours of overtime, the latest I stayed working was until 5:30PM. I haven’t needed to work weekends. Work life balance is quite good here, most teams here have a hybrid working model, 2-3 days from the office and 2-3 days from home. I prefer working more from the office, especially earlier in my career to meet more people. Most of my managers are perfectly comfortable with you coming an hour earlier and finishing an hour earlier if you have other commitments, just let them know beforehand.

Do you have any advice to potential graduates applying?

Find some way to differentiate yourself from the crowd. Everyone will have a similar degree. Try something new, experiment with personal projects and show off your creativity. If you don’t know something, show that your keen to learn and take opportunities to further develop and challenge yourself. Everyone will have a slightly different background, and there is an opportunity to learn from everyone, especially if your new to the business. Every mistake is an opportunity to learn. Reflect every few years to see what you can improve, but don’t dwell too much in the past and don’t let it dictate your life.

Madison Golotta

Position: Graduate Accountant
Degree: Bachelor of Business (Entrepreneurship & Economics)
& Masters of Professional Accounting with CPA Specialisation (In progress)

What do you get up to in your day-to-day role?

I am working in the finance department, specifically covering various areas of accounting. Over the course of my two year graduate experience I will have worked across the business performance management team, financial accounting team, tax team, and revenue management team. Currently I am in my second rotation in financial accounting. The day to day is always different depending on the time of year and the deliverables. At the moment I am working through some of our subsidiary company statutory accounts which entails compiling all of the financial data for the year into reports to be distributed to our board and shareholders. In addition to this I also have my own ‘month end’ deliverables which involve reconciliations and posting journals and accruals.

In my previous rotation I was working in the Business Performance Management team, and I helped in the creation of our budgets and regulatory reporting as well as some other month end deliverables reporting monthly financial results.

My job involves a lot of Excel use each day, most of which you will learn on the job (you realise uni only scratches the surface of Excel!) and other various accounting systems such as SAP and Board. I’m not always in front of my computer either, there are a lot of opportunities to socialise with colleagues during your workday. I am in our Women In Power networking group program called ‘Coffee Roulette’ where I am matched with someone else in the business once a fortnight and we organise to go grab a coffee and talk about our careers and personal lives. There are also various morning teas and other events throughout the year to encourage networking with peers, plus a lot of opportunities to go on training days or site trips to learn more about the business.

What's your background?

I grew up in the western suburbs of Melbourne and would be the first in my immediate family to study at university. I had so many ideas of what I wanted to be when I finished school, so much so, I would constantly change my mind. I went from wanting to do fashion design, law, forensic science, teaching- the list just went on! I didn’t have an older sibling or family member who had gone through high school who could guide me with subject selection and I was overwhelmed by the thought of my decision to study subjects in year 10 could determine the rest of my working life!

I graduated from high school in 2010 and was accepted to study arts at La Trobe. I lasted one year before I figured out it wasn’t for me and decided to drop out and pursue full time work so I could travel. I ended up doing 3 months in the USA on a solo trip in 2011.

I decided to have another go at uni when I came back home and thought I would pursue culinary management. I studied for 2 years before deciding it wasn’t what I wanted to pursue, but it ended up being a beneficial endeavor as I realised I loved all the business and finance subjects I had studied there. I ended up going on to study and graduate with a Bachelor of Business at RMIT majoring in entrepreneurship and economics. Throughout my studies, I worked part time in hospitality in various roles and managed to still fit in a bit of travel in between. Upon graduating I began working full time as a restaurant and cellar door supervisor at a winery, with a dream to eventually open my own restaurant one day. After the covid lockdowns however, my love for hospitality started to dwindle and I decided that a change is what I needed.

I landed in the position I’m in now by going back to study a more specialised degree (Master of Accounting) as I was struggling to find a corporate role with just my bachelor’s degree. I am still studying my masters as I work as a graduate and my managers are really flexible with giving me the time off I need for exam times. I also spent a lot of my spare time while I was hunting for a role, doing the free online courses offered by LinkedIn to gain some extra skills that would help me in my job search.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

As my role here is heavily accounting based, I think it would be quite difficult to do this job without a background in accounting. If it is something you really want to pursue, I think that my story is evidence enough that it is never too late to return to study and change careers.

Although there is technical skill needed to complete my role, I think it’s incredibly important to also develop your soft skills as company culture, communication and attitude are also important aspects to any role.

What do you love most about your job?

It sounds super nerdy, but I love all the math and problem solving I get to do in any given day. I also have an affinity for a spreadsheet, so I always feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction when building my own models. My colleagues are also such a great group of people, always willing to help me with work related things as well as provide a good chat and laugh. And I’m not going to lie, the free lunches and social events throughout the year also help!

So far, what has been the highlight of the graduate program? Was your graduate role as you expected it to be? Did anything take you by surprise?

The highlight of my graduate program so far has been the way I have been welcomed into the team and treated as any other team member. You sometimes hear of some horror stories of graduates being overworked, given the tasks that no one wants to do or just be generally bossed around, and I can honestly say I’ve never once been treated like that or felt that way in my time here. I obviously don’t have the experience of my peers; however everyone has been so helpful and welcoming and have gone above and beyond to ensure that I am comfortable and that I’m able to do my job successfully. My experience in my graduate role has been better than I could have ever expected, and I’ve been surprised by just how much I have learnt while I’ve been here, both about myself as well as the technical parts of the role.

Everyone is keen on maintaining work/life balance, with that in mind what is the longest day you have put in and have you worked weekends at all?

The work/life balance here is great. A typical day for me is usually 8:45 am - 5:00 pm in the office with about an hour for lunch. I think the latest I have ever worked back was 6:00 pm when we had a time sensitive deadline. There are also flexible work arrangements in place, so I am able to work from home a day or two if I wish. I actually enjoy coming into the office for the social aspect and I find I’m more productive in the office so I only really work from home when I have appointments to go to, or I just need a break from the commute. I am still studying my masters online and need to usually devote one night after work as well as an entire day on the weekend to get through my coursework and assignments, and I still find that between that, work and my home commitments (renting by myself) I can still enjoy time out with friends and family and have time for a little bit of fun.

Do you have any advice to potential graduates applying?

If I could have a do over, I wish I had of done an internship whilst at uni before graduating to make the job search a little easier. I think it would have also given me more of a taste of what to expect in a corporate 9-5 role. In saying that though, its obviously not necessary to successfully get a graduate role.

My advice when applying for graduate roles is to just keep an open mind and apply for the roles that sound like you! Even if you don’t tick every box on the listing criteria, apply anyways, the worst that can happen is not getting the job, the best is having a role that you absolutely love.

Even if you think you don’t think you have relevant experience for the role, most part time jobs that you would have done during your studies will have some transferrable experience or skills. There is no doubt that you would have done some problem solving, communicating with customers and other stakeholders, worked in a team with a common goal etc. Instead of relying on your studies alone, try to use some of this practical experience in your interviews or application as it is what a lot of the employers are looking for.

Sam Opray

Position: IT Graduate
Degree: Bachelor’s Degree of Information Technology

What do you get up to in your day-to-day role?

I work in the IT department, in the OT/ SCADA (Operational Technology/ Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) team. OT allows us to detect change in the equipment in our network. My team is responsible for taking the data from OT and using it to build and maintain a digital model of the electricity distribution network. This allows us to identify faults in the network, assist with scheduled maintenance, and support other teams in the business. Over my 6 month rotation in the OT/ SCADA team, I have worked on a number of large tasks while also completing smaller ad hoc tasks. One of these large tasks has been web development for my team's knowledgebase website. The knowledgebase website is a library of information and work instructions on the applications we use. A regular day working on the knowledgebase website involves sourcing current, up to date information on applications which may involve shadowing a team member who is a subject matter expert. I then use this new information to create web pages in the knowledgebase website or updating existing ones using Visual Studio Code.

What's your background?

I grew up on a farm outside a small town in South Gippsland. I went to high school in a nearby town which is where I discovered my passion for IT in my first computer science class. I studied a Bachelor’s degree of Information Technology at Federation University in which I learned about various areas of IT. After finishing uni, I saw the advertisement for the graduate program online and applied as it looked like a great opportunity for someone like myself. I’ve now been in the grad program for nearly a year and a half.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes, I believe so. There have been other IT Grads who have completed the same or similar roles who do not come from an IT background and who continue to thrive in IT. For someone with a different background, I think that being good at learning new skills and being able to take in technology-based concepts are good characteristics to have. Other good characteristics for someone in this role would be having an interest in technology, the energy industry and be enthusiastic about learning. I think that there are many soft skills from different areas that are transferable.

What do you love most about your job?

What I like most about my job is that I get to work on tasks that I find really interesting. Being someone who likes working with and learning about technology, I like being able to do hands on work with applications and tools such as AutoCAD and PowerOn Fusion. I’ve had a lot of opportunities to do in this across multiple teams which is why I really enjoy the grad program. Having the opportunity to gain knowledge and skills across many teams is also one of my favourite things about my role.

So far, what has been the highlight of the graduate program? Was your graduate role as you expected it to be? Did anything take you by surprise?

One of the highlights of the Grad program so far has been the grad trip. This was a great opportunity to go on industry specific tours and develop connections with the other grads. I was surprised how much support you get in the grad program; everyone is always happy to help you out and are always willing to answer any questions or to have a chat. Other rotations outside of the OT/SCADA team? As well as the OT/SCADA team, I have done rotations in the Design Support team and in the Security Operations team. The training has been great in each rotation and I was able to take on more responsibilities in those teams as I learnt.

Everyone is keen on maintaining work/life balance, with that in mind what is the longest day you have put in and have you worked weekends at all?

The longest day that I’ve done so far has been 8am – 6pm one day in my first rotation. I have only had to work on one weekend where I had to check on a server throughout the day and restart it if it stopped for a project. I typically work three days in the office and two days from home. I am also allowed to choose my starting time. I like to start at 8.00am and finish at 4.00pm.

Do you have any advice to potential graduates applying?

If you’re not exactly sure in which area you want to work in after uni, I would definitely recommend applying for the Grad program. I’d advise any applicants to research and learn about the business prior to the interviews so that you’re well prepared. I’d also advise to make sure to ask any questions you may have during the interviews.

Nicolette Ciccarelli

Position: IT Graduate
Degree: Bachelor of Design
(Urban Planning major, Digital Technologies minor)

What do you get up to in your day-to-day role?

I am currently working in the IT Performance team in a role which assists the management of IT projects running at the business. This is done via reporting of projects in key indicators such as data quality, schedule, budget, benefits and risks. It involves general project governance, awareness of budget oversights, updating items such as project milestones, and comparing budget forecasts with approved baseline budgets

The role also seeks to manage performance management processes, including project start-up and close out procedures and change requests. Overall, the position provides extensive oversight into the capital expenditure (i.e. not operational) projects within the IT Portfolio. I am required to reach out to Project Managers and other key stakeholders to ensure their projects are running as expected, which also provides a good chance to meet and liaise with people throughout the business.

What's your background?

I grew up in the inner-city suburbs of Melbourne and have lived here ever since. Throughout school, I was never too sure what I wanted to do for work but knew I wanted to study further at Uni. Given Melbourne University’s model offered a range of electives and breadth subjects unrelated to a degree, I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to try a few things. I ended up commencing a Bachelor of Design degree at UniMelb in 2017, and decided after my first semester to start underloading my degree (taking less subjects per semester). I was originally planning to get a Major in Digital Technologies, however given the course was new in 2017 they had some prerequisite classes involving coding which I was not going to pass, so I changed my Major to Urban Planning given I was enjoying a related elective class at the time.

I graduated in 2020 with an Urban Planning Major, still obtaining a Minor in Digital Technologies. I then worked as a Town Planning Consultant for 2 years in a private firm assisting clients with their planning applications, submitting and liaising with local Councils to get them approved. While I enjoyed this work, Town Planning can be a slow process and I was feeling a little bit burnt out. Towards the end of 2022 I decided to look into IT-related jobs, and managed to get a job with Powercor, who saw my non-traditional background and experience as a positive instead of a restriction. I commenced work in the IT Graduate Program in February 2023.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes, absolutely! As mentioned with my own background, I did not follow a traditional path into IT and do not have the University qualifications of some of my coworkers. However, my experience in a different field was still viewed as valuable particularly because I spent some time out in the workforce, which should be valued regardless of industry. Having some experience as a consultant that was required to do some project management also assists with me being able to speak with different stakeholders and understand various processes in this business.

What do you love most about your job?

The best thing about being part of the graduate program here is that it is encouraged to take time out of your day to network and catch up with people that work in various areas across the business as the importance of knowledge sharing is understood. Whether this be someone from another sector of our IT department, or an engineer, or someone that has worked in the finance team for 20 years, everyone has something different to offer and you would be surprised the amount of crossover we all have with projects and knowledge in such a large business.

So far, what has been the highlight of the graduate program? Was your graduate role as you expected it to be? Did anything take you by surprise?

The program has certainly exceeded my expectations in terms of the variety of learning opportunities provided and the choices we are given to control our 3-year graduate journey. Being a graduate here offers a range of rotations, some of which may be difficult or not suited to your expertise or interests at all, while others might fit into your skillset perfectly. The challenge I found was trying to understand that both of these are equally as important to grow my knowledge and understanding of the company and improve on a wide range of skills. Fortunately, there are many opportunities for formal training and experienced workers are always keen to lend out a helping hand.

Everyone is keen on maintaining work/life balance, with that in mind what is the longest day you have put in and have you worked weekends at all?

In my current role, I am able to work 2 days from home. I also choose to work from 8am-4pm, and in previous roles have worked from 7am-3pm. This has allowed me to continue my sport and other activities post-work, and skip traffic when I’m commuting. Most teams, particularly across IT, are flexible in terms of work hours and which days you come in, as long as this is communicated beforehand. I am also encouraged to get out of the office and out on site if the opportunity presents itself, which has been great.

Do you have any advice to potential graduates applying?

I would encourage people who are not sure if they fit the qualifications to still apply. In my case, I applied on a whim not expecting to get the role given I lacked the qualifications, however the company looked through that and took me on board. Take some time to get familiar with the company, ask lots of questions and most importantly be yourself in any job interviews you may have as this is always valued (and there won’t be any surprises if you are recruited).

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