What's your job about?
Best known for its Roadside Assistance service and Motor Insurance products – RACV is a member-owned mutual that offers a diverse range of products and services including insurance, on-call assistance, loans, resorts, and solar installation among many others. As a member of the Growth, Strategy and Analytics team, we are responsible for managing and analysing internal (RACV owned/collected) and external data for the purpose of reviewing past and influencing future business activities.
As a data analyst, my day-to-day activities are incredibly varied and dependant on what has been deemed a priority within either the team or the broader business. When assigned a project or task, there are generally three stages that we go through:
Building Logic: This is the process of manipulating data, either through writing code or collating existing data, that allows us to address a business problem that needs to be solved.
Analysis and Visualisation: This is the process of studying and analysing the data before creating charts, tables or other visualisations that allow us to best understand and explain what is happening.
Presentation and Review: We then present our findings to a broader audience, answering questions, gathering feedback and if need be, entertaining further requests for further analysis.
What's your background?
After moving around a little bit when I was younger, I grew up and completed most of my schooling in Melbourne. After studying a broad range of subjects for the IB, I decided to go to Monash to complete a double degree in Commerce and Global Studies. I had an interest in Marketing and Business but also wanted to further my German language studies. This let to me spends half a year abroad at the European Business School in Frankfurt, which was a unique opportunity to further my business studies while also strengthening my German. It was this experience that helped me understand business and society in a different context to what I was used to in Australia, broadening my perspective and teaching me how to handle uncomfortable and new situations.
After working at McDonald’s throughout high school and university, I managed to secure a co-op year placement in GM Holden’s fleet sales team in 2019, choosing to push back my studies for a year. I ended up staying on at Holden part-time after my co-op year, being made redundant in April 2020 as Holden closed its doors.
After graduating in 2020, I took a job as a Sales Consultant for a Truck bodybuilder. Doing this during the pandemic was exceptionally difficult as visiting potential customers was almost impossible. I was considering going back to Uni to complete a Masters's in Business Analytics at Melbourne, before being offered a grad role in the Analytics team at RACV in October 2021.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
As someone with a background that was very much outside the Data Analytics space (aside from some basic coding that I had learnt online in my spare time), I would encourage anyone with an interest in the field to give it a try. In many ways, my diverse qualifications and experiences have been a blessing rather than a curse, as employers in the space are always looking for broad perspectives and experiences. To succeed in the space, employers are looking for good problem-solving skills, as well as an appetite to continuously learn and develop.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
The best part of my job is that it satisfies my inner curiosity, allowing me to go down the proverbial rabbit hole in search of a finding or an insight that may have a significant impact on how business is done. I have never felt satisfied in a job where the impact my work was having was either invisible or non-existent and despite being relatively inexperienced and new to the field, I can see the impact that my work and effort are making.
What are the limitations of your job?
As the majority of the work isn’t day today, we are very rarely dealing with cookie-cutter problems and as a result, very rarely create cookie-cutter solutions. This means that one has to be constantly thinking outside the box, as well as finding and fixing bugs or problems with the code or visualisations that we are creating. There is nothing more frustrating than looking through a long script that won’t work because of a typo or having to edit charts or tables 5-10 times because of errors in logic. On the flip side of this, there is nothing more satisfying than eventually getting it right.
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...
Study Abroad: This is a unique opportunity (that the university will often pay for) to gain experience, see a new part of the world and meet friends that you’ll stay in touch with for the rest of your life.
Get involved in extra-curricular: Joining the Marketing Society committee was one of the best things I did as it exposed me to networking opportunities and introduced me to a group of like-minded individuals who shared my interests (It also looks great on a resume).
Don’t box yourself in: Take opportunities where they present themselves and don’t stress if you make mistakes in the process. Say “Yes” to amazing opportunities and work out how you can make them work down the track.