Britta Maunder

Graduate Lawyer at the Department of Transport

Actively seek out experience. Whether it’s internships, volunteer roles or part-time work, it’s all valuable.

What's your job about?

I am currently working in the Department of Transport’s legal team as part of a rotation within the legal stream of the Victorian Public Service Graduate Program. My current role is focused on commercial law matters relevant to the transport portfolio. Matters often involve reviewing and drafting contracts and deeds as well as undertaking legal research across a variety of areas such as intellectual property, privacy and contract law.

No one day is the same. On some days I attend meetings with stakeholders from the Department, other days I work independently on legal research tasks. As graduates, we are also lucky to benefit from attending numerous graduate program training on a variety of topics such as procurement, project management and human rights.

What's your background?

Before commencing the graduate program I studied a Juris Doctor, Bachelor of Arts and Diploma of Languages at the University of Melbourne.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

Working in the public interest overlays every aspect of my role. It really is a privilege to contribute, even in a small way, to significant state transport and infrastructure projects that benefit the wider Victorian community.

What are the limitations of your job?

Due to successive lockdowns, my time with the Department has been nearly entirely virtual. This has inevitably limited my opportunities to spend time meeting people in other teams across the Department. Despite this, I’ve managed to stay connected and engaged by proactively setting up virtual coffees as well as attending training and other events when possible.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

Actively seek out experience. Whether it’s internships, volunteer roles or part-time work, it’s all valuable.
Study subjects in which you have a genuine interest, and the rest will follow.
Talk to people in the industry and attend any career events where possible. These are great ways to learn about an organisation’s culture and recruitment processes.

Alix Ayton

Digital Marketing, Australian Institute of Information and
Communications Technology

Education: BA Media Studies and Philosophy, Post Graduate Degree Education (Primary and Secondary), Graduate Certificate Career Development and Education (current study)
Internship Placement: Digital Marketing
Location: Employment Pathways – Inclusion and Diversity, Department of Transport

Why did you take part in the Digital Jobs Program?

I applied to join the Digital Jobs Program in the middle of 2021. We were in lockdown at the time, and I was no longer working due to the lockdown. I was looking for work but there wasn’t much being advertised so I also started looking into re-training and/or upskilling. I came across information on the Digital Jobs Program and it piqued my interest.

Which course in the Digital Jobs Program did you study?

I studied Digital Marketing as it was something I had an interest in and it seemed to be an increasingly useful area to have expertise in. I had taken a copy writing course during the first round of lock downs in 2020, everything was going online; being able to work from home was looking increasingly attractive. So, I chose to study Digital Marketing.

Where did you complete your internship?

My internship, which I am now halfway through, is with the Department of Transport. I am working in the Employment Programs team.

How long is/was your internship?

My internship was initially for 3 months but I was offered another 3 months which I was happy to accept.

What skills did you already have from your previous work history that you brought to the internship at DoT?

I have a teaching background, so I had: time management skills, written and verbal communication skills, presentation skills, experience in organising events, in managing behaviour, in instructing and mentoring, conducting interviews and making assessments.

What skills did you learn from your DJP course?

The course went for 12 weeks. It gave a good introduction to the world of Digital Marketing. Each week covered a different Digital Marketing element like Social Media, SEO, Google Analytics, and Branding.

How did you apply these skills during your internship?

I have mainly used my written communication skills during my internship. I have needed to use my knowledge of some marketing concepts like ‘audience’ and ‘brand’ to guide my writing.

What type of work or projects did you work on during your internship?

I have written some video scripts for hiring managers to use when trying to attract graduates. I have shot and edited a video using the VMJ software. I have written some articles about Employment Programs, The Rail Academy and Employment Programs events. I have worked with members of my team, giving feedback on their written pieces and videos. I have also helped with some recruitment which is not marketing but I am also studying career education and development so I’m very happy to gain the experience in this area too.

What did you gain from your time working with DoT?

Work experience in the Communications area and an insight into working for the VPS. I have also received Inclusion and Diversity and LGBTQI+ training.

Do you have any recommendations for the business units who may be looking to hire an intern from the Digital Jobs Program?

It’s a very good investment to take-on a DJP intern. Your intern comes with years of work experience and maturity, so they are often resilient and able to work a lot of things out independently. However, it’s also important to be able to provide some mentoring to an intern in the area they studied. Interns are there to learn and gain valuable work experience. It’s more efficient to spend 10 – 30 minutes with someone explaining or training them on a task than to leave them to muddle through on their own.

Ben Kent

Data Analytics with Python, Melbourne University

Education: Doctor of Philosophy – PHD, Physics
Internship Placement: Data Analyst
Location: Patronage, Safety & Customer Experience Insights, Department of Transport

Why did you take part in the Digital Jobs Program?

I had been working as an academic scientist for about 10 years but knew it was time for me to change to something a bit different, but still be able to use skills I had built up in my career. I didn’t want to start something completely alien to me. I took some time off for parental leave and that cemented my decision to change. The digital jobs program was appealing to me because I needed some help with programming and data analytical software, but it wasn’t a completely new concept to me.

Which course in the Digital Jobs Program did you study?

Data Analytics with Python at Melb Uni.

Where did you complete your internship?

Department of Transport - Patronage, Safety & Customer Experience Insights

How long was your internship?

15 weeks at 4 days per week (equiv. to 12 weeks fulltime)

What skills did you already have from your previous work history that you brought to the internship at DoT (Department of Transport)?

I had a lot of data analysis experience with scientific data, but not using typical data analytical software or techniques. I also had problem solving skills, written communication skills and presentation skills.

What skills did you learn from your DJP course?

I learnt how to use python and data analytical python packages such as pandas. I also learnt about data science techniques such as classification and ways to classify data. It also gave good insights into further study/career options such as data science, machine learning etc.

How did you apply these skills during your internship?

I have used my new python skills to analyse public transport patronage data. I would not have been able to do this before my course.

What type of work or projects did you work on during your internship?

I investigated patronage data on Victorian Public Transport, looking at how travel behavior has changed since Covid arrived, and comparing it with previous years before Covid. I was also introduced to daily work in the team and the BAU (Business as Usual) work that produces patronage data for stakeholders.

What did you gain from your time at DoT?

I got to hone my python data analytics skills. I also started working with visualisation packages such as Power BI and was introduced to dashboarding for data analysis. It was also invaluable to have first-hand experience as a data analyst to help me decide if this is a good career fit for me.

Do you have any recommendations for the business units who may be looking to hire an intern from the Digital Jobs Program?

Have a good, interesting project ready to go and daily work for interns. This will keep enthusiasm high and give a taste of the career. If possible, have data sources for their project ready to go when the intern starts to save time at the start setting things up and letting the intern get started with analysis etc.

Hang Le

Digital Marketing, RMIT

Education: BA in Music, Diploma of Photography, Cert IV Training and Assessment
DJP Training Course: Digital Marketing – Brand Experience, Content and Social Media Marketing
Location: Employment Pathways – Inclusion and Diversity, Department of Transport

Why did you take part in the Digital Jobs Program?

I had reached a point in my career where I was questioning the purpose of what I was doing and wondering what else I could do. The time off during lock down allowed me to re-evaluate my job and confirmed my desire to seek change.

I saw the Digital Jobs Program as an opportunity to upskill, re-set and explore a career pivot. I had been working in the photography industry and was looking for a way I could apply the skills I had in a different direction and in a new environment.

The program format appealed to me because it presented a tailored pathway to learning new skills followed by on-the-job training. The knowledge component of the program was delivered online allowing me to study around other commitments.

Which course in the Digital Jobs Program did you study?

I did two Micro Credentials with RMIT in Digital Marketing:

Brand Experience
Content and Social Media Marketing.

I chose Digital Marketing because I felt it complemented my existing skills, and the two disciplines could combine naturally.

Where did you complete your internship?

I completed my internship placement with the Employment Pathways team at Department of Transport.

How long was your internship?

The internship was 12 weeks (full-time) which was then extended for an additional 12 weeks.

What skills did you already have from your previous work history that you brought to the internship at DoT (Department of Transport)?

I studied a Bachelor of Arts in Music at the Victorian College of the Arts and then later a Diploma of Photography and Photo Imaging at Melbourne Polytechnic, so my background had always been in the Arts. For the past 15 years I worked in portrait and event photography both individually and for various studios as a photographer, trainer, operations and team manager.

In addition to technical and creative skills, these roles required extensive customer interaction, people management and communication skills, job coordination, resilience, resourcefulness, problem solving ability, digital literacy, and a good eye for detail.

So, I brought to the internship a well-developed work ethic and skills framework plus a proficiency in visual storytelling. From the Digital Jobs Program training I acquired foundation level knowledge of digital marketing theory.

What skills did you learn from your DJP course?

In the Digital Marketing course, I learnt how to analyse, create, and deploy brand and marketing strategy to connect with customers. I planned tailored content for communication through social media and other digital platforms.

How did you apply these skills during your internship?

During my internship this helped me to recognise and understand Dot’s vision and brand idea ensuring I created content within brand guidelines maintaining brand experience continuity.

What type of work or projects did you work on during your internship?

To help promote the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Graduate program, I coordinated a video project where I worked with the hiring managers of different business units within DoT to produce their video profile. This included:

Learning and using the Video production app VideoMyJob
Liaising with other business units and department managers
Create instruction manuals and offering technical support
Script writing
Mobile video filming
Mobile video editing
Image sourcing
YouTube content management

I also photographed various DoT events providing images for communication and social media publication

Dotability
EP (Employment Pathways) events

What did you gain from your time at DoT?

I gained experience in writing and creating short form video content with a Transport and Government focus combining words, video, and still imagery for storytelling.

Do you have any recommendations for the business units who may be looking to hire an intern from the Digital Jobs Program?

Because it’s only a 3-month internship, I would recommend having a clear plan of what projects and tasks would benefit both the business and the intern, have relevant resources available and provide access to a subject matter expert for assistance or mentorship.

Yolanda Pannuccio

Digital Marketing, Australian Institute of Information Communication
Technology in partnership with the Digital Marketing Institute

Education: Grad Dip in Vocational Education & Training, B.A Human Services Administration, Diploma of Management, Associate Diploma Welfare Studies, Certificate IV Training and Assessment, Applied Human Rights Education
Internship Placement: Digital Marketing
Location: Employment Pathways – Inclusion and Diversity, Department of Transport and Planning

Why did you take part in the Digital Jobs Program?

I undertook the Digital Jobs Program (DJP) because if offers digital skills and opens new career opportunities. My extensive career has focused on providing education and community services and the free DJP digital marketing course provides skills that enable me to engage, inform and educate community through digital means. The course content complements my existing knowledge and skills in communication, marketing, stakeholder management, and training, which I gained from professional qualifications and employment in Victorian Government, mediation, and TAFE sectors.

The free ongoing mentoring and paid internship offered by the Program helped me to practice my new digital skills and envisage new career opportunities. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to undertake my internship with Victoria’s top graduate employer, the Department of Transport and Planning.

Which course in the Digital Jobs Program did you study?

I completed the Digital Marketing Professional Certificate delivered by the Australian Institute of Communication Technology with the Digital Marketing Institute. This course covered the foundation knowledge and skills needed by a digital marketing professional to create and implement web and social media marketing content and strategy. It also provided Certifications in Google Analytics IQ and Google Ads Search.

Where did you complete your internship?

I am grateful for the opportunity to complete my internship with the Department of Transport and Planning, Inclusion and Diversity, Employment Pathways Program (DTP). The Department of Transport and Planning was awarded ‘Top Graduate Employer’ by The Australian Association of Graduate Employers (AAGE) based on a broad range of criteria including, training and development and quality of work.

How long was your internship?

My internship with the Department of Transport and Planning was extended from 3 to 6 months and was followed by a 6-month employment contract.

What skills did you already have from your previous work history that you brought to the internship at DTP (Department of Transport and Planning)?

I am a self-motivated, high achiever who is outcome focussed. As a former Victorian Government Human Rights Ambassador, I actively embrace human rights, diversity, and inclusive practices. My effective communication, analytical and negotiation skills ensure I am confident to consult with internal and external stakeholders, understand their needs, and find agreed solutions. I apply my ‘can do’ attitude, continuous improvement practices, mediation, and management experience to make problem solving fun when working autonomously or in a team.

I brought to the internship professional experience and skills in:

Designing, delivering, and reviewing accredited and non-accredited training programs with key stakeholders, including Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations
Management of Victorian Government stakeholders, partnerships, contracts, projects, programs, and policies
Mediation and mediation training

My qualifications include:

Grad Dip in Vocational Education & Training
B.A Human Services Administration
Associate Diploma Welfare Studies
Diploma of Management
Certificate IV in Training and Assessment
Applied Human Rights Education

What skills did you learn from your DJP course?

The Digital Marketing Professional course provided me with the foundation technical, communications and marketing skills needed by a digital marketing professional to create, implement and evaluate web based and social media marketing content and strategy. It included digital tools such as Google Analytics and Google Ads Search.

How did you apply these skills during your internship?

During my internship I applied my digital marketing skills to develop digital content to promote graduate opportunities at the Department of Transport and Planning. I created and published internal and external facing online communications and marketing content including articles, fact sheets and created videos for social media. In addition, I supported recruitment of graduates by assessing applications and interviewing candidates online.

What type of work or projects did you work on during your internship?

During my internship I undertook the following responsibilities:

Developed internal and external facing digital communications and marketing content for online publication
Developed workflows for the approval and publishing of web content
Edited online web content
Wrote online articles
Created videos for social media
Developed and delivered online presentations

What did you gain from your time at DTP?

Whilst working at the Department of Transport and Planning I learnt much about digital marketing and communications including their value as a community service. The key to successful outcomes of projects that impact on community includes effective community engagement through communications and marketing, in digital and non-digital formats.

Do you have any recommendations for the business units who may be looking to hire an intern from the Digital Jobs Program?

As mature aged mid-career interns, we bring to the internship a wealth of relevant professional experience in addition to our new digital skills. Please remember to provide a workplace project that gives your intern the opportunity to apply and further develop their new digital knowledge and skills whilst utilising existing relevant professional knowledge and skills. This will ensure everyone benefits from the internship experience.