Liz Sheehan - IT Business Analyst

Bio: Went to Roleystone High, but did my last years at Lesmurdie Senior High. I have always been based in Perth, because of the work opportunities here, but I do get to go interstate occasionally.

What do you do?
I am an IT Business Analyst for HBOSA (Halifax Bank of Scotland - Australia) - the parent company of Bankwest. I act as the interface between the business and Information Technology. Basically, I translate other people's ideas into functional system requirements for IT.

What do you love about your work?
I get to interact with a range of different people within the business daily. One day I'm working out a technical difficulty with a developer, the next I'm meeting with members of the finance team for a new project.

What is the money like?
I think the salary in the industry is great - even as a graduate you can expect to earn an above average salary. To get an idea of what kind of pay to expect check the Hays IT Salary survey.

How did you get to where you are today?
I started off doing English Lit at Murdoch, but did so well in my IT electives I changed to a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems. My first job after graduation was with Bunnings as an Oracle Database Administrator (DBA). I went from a junior to senior DBA in six and a half years then moved into my current role as a Business Analyst.

Is the industry what you expected?
Not really. I imagined a lot of introverted people sitting behind their computers feverishly coding away. What I found was generally a great bunch of social people. Gone are the days of being that stereotypical "geek". I have found that you need to have really strong communication skills and interpersonal skills to succeed in this industry.

What do you find interesting about working in ICT?
There are so many areas you can go into with a background in ICT. I have moved from being a database administrator to being an IT business analyst. You never get bored.

Where do you see your job in ICT taking you?
Having moved from a very technical role to a more client/customer focussed role I am hoping to keep developing my career in this direction without losing my technical knowledge of Oracle. I would eventually like to move into a more managerial role and mentor new graduates coming into the industry.

What advice would you give someone considering a career in ICT?
Decide whether you would prefer to be in a "hands on" technical role, or a more client/customer focussed role and base your course choices around this. It's good to take some business based units to broaden your knowledge. Also join the Australian Computer Society or another user group that you are interested in, which will give you opportunities to network with people in the industry and further your career.

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