What's your job about?
RACV is a mutual organisation that provides its members with a diverse range of product offerings in leisure, home, and insurance. As part of being a technology graduate, I rotate through 4 different roles and get to explore all facets of technology at RACV.
Previously I worked as a Release and Change Coordinator. Here my role was to help maintain the release cadence of software deployments for the range of projects going on throughout the organisations. Fundamentally the role was to facilitate risk and dependency management to support continuous improvement. A large part of this role was liaising with different teams to get a concrete understanding of what was being delivered in the future. Within the first month of working at RACV, I had the opportunity to deliver a presentation to management that clarified our code branching strategy for the whole of technology.
Next, I rotated into the Digital testing teams where I got to get hands-on with testing a variety of insurance flows for RACV Online. Here I was able to build a big picture view of the Insurance side of the business through a technology lens.
Currently, I am a Cyber Analyst on the Cyber Security Operations team. My role requires me to help prevent malicious activities that will disrupt the wider business. My responsibilities include resolving security-related tickets, evaluating security threats, and employing preventative measures to help mitigate future vulnerabilities. To help with this I utilise a range of tools to identify possible security vulnerabilities and construct a methodology to help overcome these. This role is significantly more technical than my previous rotations.
What's your background?
My story begins down in the Southeast of Melbourne. During my schooling years, I always had a love of problem-solving. This passion only grew as I got my first computer. I still remember playing around on the Windows 98 Operating System. Ever since this day I knew my passions and interests lay in the technology industry.
I chose to undertake a Business Information systems Degree at RMIT University as I thought it was the perfect blend of Business with Technology that would make me an adaptable employee. Whilst the primary focus of this degree was Business Analytics, I also got the opportunity to build my technical knowledge by undertaking a broad range of courses in Networking, Programming and Databases. During my time at RMIT, I completed a 6-month internship. Here I worked as a Level 2 technician for 5 months before rotating into a consulting role. This introduced me to the technical facets of IT which I have come to love!
Ultimately this led me to my position as a technology graduate at RACV. I was attracted to RACV because of the flexible graduate program with rotation-based learning. This has allowed me to get a taste of the diverse roles within the technology space. So far, I am 4 months into my graduate journey at RACV and I am so excited to keep learning and developing my skills and knowledge.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Yes! Someone with a non-technical background could do my job. Whilst having this additional knowledge can be beneficial, the beauty of the RACV graduate program is the warm culture where everyone relishes the opportunity to lend a hand. If you come to work with a desire to learn, a willingness to ask questions and a passion for technology you will be a great fit for almost any team.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
The most thrilling part about being a graduate at RACV is the opportunity to jump on a project and own it from start to finish. As a graduate, you may be confused about how to complete a task. However, you can always be confident that your managers will not assign you something you can’t handle. It is a euphoric feeling when you receive an endorsement from your team, and they congratulate your delivery of the work.
What are the limitations of your job?
The biggest limitation as a technology graduate is whilst the short rotations are great to gain a wide breadth of knowledge, you don’t always get to experience a detailed depth of knowledge. I found sometimes the end of the rotation when you finally get a routine and sense of what you are doing.
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...
Allow yourself to be curious. There is no such thing as a bad question.
Learn to network and connect with new and exciting people.
Live life and have fun! Explore your interests and try new things.