Ariana Gao

Tell us a bit about yourself, what programme did you join at SSE and when, what location are/were you based in?

I’m in the IT Graduate Scheme and I joined SSE in 2023, based in Reading.

What did you study at university and what university do you/did you attend/what year group?

I majored in Psychology for my bachelor's degree at UCL and later studied MA Education as a postgraduate also at UCL. I worked as a Product Owner for half a year before I joined the Graduate Scheme at SSE.

Which sectors did you consider applying to for your graduate or placement role?

The IT Graduate Scheme is flexible in the roles and business sectors that we could apply. We were provided with placement opportunities in energy sectors such as Thermal, Distribution, Renewables and Enterprise as well as opportunities in Corporate IT. I personally had a placement in Enterprise and another in Energy Customer Solutions and I am about to have my third placement in Renewables.

How did you find the recruitment process? Do you have any advice for students considering applying for the SSE Graduate Programmes/Summer Placements?

I enjoyed the recruitment process as it offered a lot of useful information to help me get a better understanding of SSE, including its vision, the strategies and the highlights in the graduate scheme program. When going through the introductory videos and the questions in the video interview, I really had a chance to reflect on how my past experiences can contribute to a greener future and how SSE may enable me to develop further in gaining knowledge and improving skills.

My advice for students would be to go through the reports, news and different public contents on SSE’s website to understand the vision and what it is currently working on to achieve the goals. It is also helpful to think about how you would contribute in the transition to net zero and what you wish to learn during the program.

Did you require any adjustments during the selection process and would you be happy to share what support you received?

No adjustment required.

Tell us a bit about your current role, what you’ve learnt and what you’ve enjoyed most.

I’m currently working as a Conversation Designer in the UX designer team. My main responsibilities include mapping out conversation logics for our Chatbot to accurately answer customers’ questions, reviewing website contents on the Help and Support page to help customers easily allocate information as well as ensuring the content quality meets the requirement for training the Chatbot.

The placement strengthened my ability to work as a small team and built up my project management skills with different projects going on at the same time and my communication skills with various teams as well as the customers. My highlight in the placement would be the customer-centred perspective that I built up in the past 6-month from conducting usability tests with actual customers and reviewing customer engagement with the Chatbot. In addition to working on my placement, I took the Microsoft Learning courses in my free time and passed the test for Power BI certification.

If you are working towards a professional qualification, tell us a bit about that and the support you receive on this.

I always hope to develop further in Product Ownership from a systematic perspective. In the last placement, I completed the Agile Product Ownership training with QA. It is a third-party training that SSE employees could sign up for when they opt in for a learning pathway. The 3-day training really shaped my understanding for the role and provided useful suggestions on techniques that a PO could use in everyday work when interacting with stakeholders. I signed up for another training provided by QA called the Agile Team Facilitation which will equip me with knowledge on how an agile facilitator works and the effective toolkits.

Apart from these training sessions in partnership with third-party providers such as QA, there is also a buddy/mentor for each graduate who will be there to support in everyday work life and provide suggestions or connections when needed. I also received many helps from a senior business analyst and a senior product owner/manager who were willing to do 1-1 sessions to share their past working experience and knowledge. In a nutshell, there are a lot of training and learning opportunities within and out of SSE and people around you will always be happy to help out.

Any additional thoughts or comments?

I also wanted to mention the volunteer opportunities for career events, workshops such as Cloud Expo, Everywoman in Tech and for STEM events. I personally volunteered to attend a veteran career fair where I got the chance to introduce ongoing projects and my experience working in SSE as a graduate to veterans. By participating in the STEM project, I got to know a group of Commercial and Distribution graduates and became good friends through the project. I also enjoyed various events where I can listen to speech from female pioneers in the energy and tech industries or learn about Cloud platforms and Cloud services that I was not familiar with before.