There are First Nations employee groups, a lot of awareness and education around Indigenous topics, NAIDOC Week celebrations, and of course, their partnership with CareerTrackers. From the moment I joined Telstra I could tell that the company cares a lot about its employees and First Nations people. There are First Nations employee groups, a lot of awareness and education around Indigenous topics, NAIDOC Week celebrations, and of course, their partnership with CareerTrackers. Megan, who runs the group chat for CareerTrackers grads, students and interns, constantly consults with us to make sure our experience is great, and she pushes for everything that will benefit us in any way possible.
The fact that I was a CareerTrackers alumni gave me an advantage with Telstra’s Graduate Program. I’d already done multiple internships through CareerTrackers so I was familiar with corporate environments which helped immensely. When I found out I had fellow CT alumni on my team, my experience here got even better.
I was first exposed to UX/UI design at the start of university and I had an instant feel for it. For an assignment we had to get into groups to design and code a website for a coding competition. My teammates did all the coding while I did the designing/wireframes and we received the highest grade based on the design and features.
I knew then I wanted to explore UI/UX design and I’ve followed this through my internships and now with my gig at Belong.
From the get-go I’ve been doing what I always wanted to do. I’ve learned so much about UX/UI design and I’ve had amazing results working at Belong. The tight-knit team has empowered me to accelerate my learning and my skills have developed quicky.
The internships I did through CareerTrackers gave me a good understanding of UX and UI before I even came to Telstra. Prior to that, I had always thought that if a company had poor UX or UI it was a budget thing. But I learned a lot about the planning and decision-making involved, and all the technical restraints and issues you can face.
Because of these opportunities, when I started at Telstra, I was familiar with certain processes and could apply my knowledge to my work. I also knew the correct questions to ask if I wanted to know something for example what tech restraints we might be dealing with.
Early on in my grad program I was being asked constantly what I was interested in and I was assigned to projects that aligned with my aspirations. My advice - talk to Telstra’s recruiters and Early Careers. They’re there to answer any questions or concerns you have and there are lots of ways they can help you get on to the grad program. . Telstra are very flexible and accommodating, but they will only know what you need if you tell them.
I’m four months in now and I feel lucky to already be in my dream career of being a UI/Product Designer. I’m happy with how things are going – I think my career is set for the time being.
