Rebecca T.
About me
| Rebecca T. | |
| Mathematics | |
| Mathematics with Economics | |
| Undergraduate | |
| Goodricke | |
| 2009 | |
| United Kingdom |
My employment
| Business Systems Analyst | |
| Tesco | |
| United Kingdom | |
| 2009 | |
| £27000 | |
| £33000 |
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A day in the life of a Business Systems Analyst in the United Kingdom
My career history
I started on Tesco's IT Graduate Scheme in 2009, and was on this scheme, training to be a Business Systems Analyst, for two years. This involved mostly working in Retail IT, where I assisted with and managed various IT projects. The Graduate Scheme also involved various training courses, a three month placement in Tesco Dotcom and three months working with our Technical Specialists in Bangalore, India.
I was promoted to Business Systems Analyst after the two years, and I'm currently working in the IT Service Improvement team.
Where I hope to be in 5 years
I hope to be promoted within the next year, and to work abroad for a while.
My advice to students considering work
I found that having various different experiences really helped me in the interviews. E.g. I spent three months working at a Girl Scout Camp in America and so I brought this up a few times in interviews when being asked to describe a situation when I lead a team, or when I was given responsibility.
Being part of a committee at Uni is also really great as this can give you experience with project management, meetings and talking infront of large groups of people.
My advice about working in my industry
Sign up to the relevant graduate agencies and be yourself in interviews - at the end of the day, you want to work for a company that you're well suited to and will enjoy working for!
Due to the current climate, many companies are saving money by not using recruitment agencies. Therefore, investigate into the type of company you'd like to work for (check out the 'The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers'), and apply directly on their website. Let me know if you'd like to apply for the Tesco IT Gradaute Scheme!
What I do
I manage various IT projects which Tesco staff or customers benefit from once implemented into stores, distribution centres or head office.
A project is initiated when an area of the business (e.g. Shrinkage & Security or Productivity) come to IT with a proposed solution. As a Project Manager, I will then: document these business requirements; design the solution with help from various IT teams; work closely with our Technical Specialists or an external supplier to develop the solution; assist with testing; engage the various service areas to ensure the new system will be fully supported; and work with the rollout team to ensure it's implemented successfully.
I need to ensure that all stakeholders fully support the project, and that the solution we implement complies with the business requirements, is simple to use, is cost effective and ultimately produces the predicted benefit.
Skills I use and how I developed them
Getting a 2.1 at York was necessary for my current job, and doing a Maths degree means that I'm fairly analytical. But mostly, being at York University gave me the ability to communicate well with various different people, and gave me a better understanding of what I was capable of and what job I would be well suited to.
Degree skills:
Analytical skills developed at York have been extremely useful. Being able to write well and concisely in Economics has also helped me with the documentation I need to do in my current role.
Extracurricular skills:
Good communication skills with various different types of people, which I developed through belonging to societies at York.
What I like most
I like the interesting, varied projects. One of the most interesting projects I worked on was to deploy a system into Tesco stores that detected scan avoidance at the tills. The video footage created from the project was eye opening!
What I like least
The bureaucracy and documentation - these are essential when rolling out projects but can be tedious!
What would I change? Nothing, I really enjoy my job and working for Tesco!
Next steps...
If you like the look of Rebecca’s profile, the next steps are down to you! You can send Rebecca a message to find out more about their career journey.