I get to learn something new every day in my job

What did you enjoy most about your degree?

I enjoyed most of the topics we were taught, especially neuroscience and statistics. There was always a right answer! Some of my other favourite subjects were around real world problems, such as gender bias and abnormal psychology. Sheffield is also a fantastic student friendly city, so I loved getting to live there for four years.

What are you doing now and what made you decide to go down that route?

I currently work for Deloitte as an Oracle HCM Consultant. As an Oracle HCM Consultant, I design, develop and implement Oracle Human Capital Management products for customers across all industries. It’s a mixture of management consultancy (streamlining business processes, enabling organisational change and fixing existing business problems using technology), as well as doing the actual technical work (writing formulas, converting and loading data, and actual configuration of the system). To be honest, I fell into this job after university when I was accepted on the Oracle HCM graduate scheme and I’ve stayed for six years because I love it. I learn something new every single day (e.g. I learnt how to code and do all the technical aspects on the job) and I get to work with huge customers and learn the inside workings of all sorts of businesses. Some of the projects I’ve worked on include Sainsburys, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Barclays, Redbull and many more!

How did your degree help you get your job?

When I applied for my graduate job, a requirement was having a degree that was orientated to Human Capital Management. After my BSc, I joined the Management School at Sheffield to study the Occupational Psychology MSc. This complemented my undergraduate studies really well and gave me an understanding of human behaviour and organisational change which is a huge part of my job. One of the biggest reasons that technology implementations fail is because people just don’t like change, even if it’s for the better! Understanding some of the key reasons for this and ways of overcoming it is crucial.

What kind of skills from your course are you using in your job?

As technology is so fast-paced, I’m always researching new and better ways to do things for my customers. What might have worked best six months ago may no longer be the case! The skills I picked up during university to be able to look for reliable sources of information, analyse it and apply it to real-life problems has been very useful.

What are you enjoying most about your job?

As I mentioned before, I learn something new every day and no project is ever the same. I get exposed to new ways of working and new businesses all the time. Each project has its own challenges and successes, so I never get bored.