Last week, Captain Bagrat’s Intern class of the 2022 Creative Internship Program, supported by the City of Sydney, had the pleasure of engaging in a virtual sit down to pick the brain of Deloitte Digital Manager and small business owner, Deanne Tran.
DEANNE'S STORY
Deanne’s inspiring success in the corporate world has humble and familiar beginnings for us interns, and soon to be university graduates, as she was once in the very same position we find ourselves in.
After graduating with a degree in pharmacy and feeling unsure about her future in the industry she headed back to university and continued her studies in a Bachelor of Business majoring in accounting and finance. With such a broad skill set she was successful in landing a graduate role with GSK. Deanne emphasised the importance of this first graduate role as a foot in the door to open new windows of opportunity. From there, Deanne was also able to obtain work experience with Deloitte in their Assurance and Advisory sector.
This graduate role sparked a passion within her for e-commerce and digital business. Pursuing this passion then led Deanne to Unilever where she worked as a Digital Commerce Manager and got to work on exciting projects to create and embed e-commerce technologies for major retailers. Eventually landing a job with Deloitte Digital six months ago as a Digital Manager.
Her success in climbing the corporate ladder equipped her with key business and management skills which she has used in starting her own side passion project, Sip Co. Sip Co. makes and sells eco-friendly straws made from rice and corn starch which make them both biodegradable and compostable. The value proposition offered to customers which differentiates Sipco from other non-plastic straws is that they do not get soft and soggy like paper straws do, as we all know there is nothing worse than the feel of limp wet paper in your mouth when going to take a sip of your beverage of choice.
THE EMERGING WORLD OF DIGITAL CONSULTING
Today, Deanne works as a Manager at Deloitte Digital. Deanne wanted to make the distinction very clear between Deloitte Digital and Deloitte. A stark contrast to the traditional perceptions about consulting, Deanne explained Deloitte Digital has a much more of a techy start-up vibe to the workplace culture with a demanding and fast-paced workflow.
You could tell Deanne was genuinely passionate and excited about her job and told us how enjoyable it was to work with a whole range of smart and driven colleagues with extremely diverse skill sets. There is an expansive range of roles within Deloitte Digital, that can generally be categorised into two categories - generalists and specialists. These include typical roles most people associate with consulting such as business analysts and marketing specialists, but also include ones you wouldn't typically associate with consulting, with many creative roles, including in production and content creation/writing.
DEANNE'S TOP TIPS FOR ENTERING THE CORPORATE WORLD
● Find a mentor - Mentors provide valuable insights to young aspirational graduates because they possess the one thing that they lack - years of experience. Deanne mentioned how reaching out and finding her own mentor to help guide and advise her was crucial in getting her to the position she is in today.
● Don't put too much pressure on uni - Of course a transcript full of HD’s is extremely impressive to any employer, but it is not everything. A lot of jobs have their own training or simply expect employees to learn on the job, so don't worry if your transcript is not crammed full of HD’s. Instead you may want to focus on broadening your skill sets through short courses or co-curricular activities, developing your communication and interpersonal skills or gaining experience in entry level (or lower barrier) jobs in similar fields.
● Network! - As the old saying goes, “It's not what you know, it's who you know”... This holds true particularly in the corporate world, where a referee or recommendation from someone inside the company who has worked with you previously can make a huge difference in job applications when trying to differentiate yourself from the rest of the applicants.
● Upskill - Deanne noted all the courses and training offered by Deloitte to keep their employees up to date with the latest work trends and skills required in the modern workplace. Deanne urged us all to always look to how we can improve and broaden our own skillset to give us the edge when applying for jobs.
On behalf of the 2022 CBMP interns, I would like to thank Deanne for sharing her story with us and providing valuable tips and insights for planning our future career pathways. We wish her the best of luck in her future endeavours.
Christopher McMaster is a final year Chinese Australian student studying Biotechnology and Marketing at the University of Technology Sydney. He enjoys exploring his own Chinese heritage as well as other Asian cultures that have influenced the multicultural experiences of Sydney.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmcmaster2/
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