Meet the Grads - Bec

We are sharing stories from current and former grads, as they share insights about their career experiences so far.   

Bec Ellinson, works as Product Manager at SEEK Pass. Bec is a Strategy and Operations Graduate Program alumni.  

Bec studied Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science at university before joining SEEK as a graduate in 2022. 

What drew you to SEEK’s Graduate Program? 

SEEK was attractive because of the exciting projects they were working on. I could see SEEK had a great culture, good mission, and a lot of opportunity to progress my career. I'd heard good things about the work life balance.  

At the time, there was nothing like the Strategy and Operations Graduate Program in the market. Traditionally, if you wanted to work at a tech company, you were looking at Software Engineering Graduate Programs, and I wanted to do something a bit more generalised. That's why SEEK stood out as the company I wanted to work for. 
 

What were some of your favourite projects or rotations? 

I did my first six months in the AI and Platform Services (AIPS) team working with pricing and performance. It was a blend of product and strategy. My next rotations was six months in the Strategy team. My third and fourth rotations were product focused - Jora in the Candidate Experience team and then in Discover, which is a team that works on the search page and the home page of the SEEK website.  

I loved all those rotations. It gave me a good, balanced view of the company.  

The highest impact project I worked on was in the Discover team. I worked on the split view project. SEEK’s search results used to appear as single job ad listings, and when they were clicked, candidates were taken to a new page to see the job ad’s information. With the split view project, we changed the process, so candidates could click on a job listing and see the information to the right, staying on the same page.  

That was quite a big change for SEEK because it was changing a core product, something every candidate engages with, and it had been the same for a very long time. I was involved in rolling that out. It was great to be involved in a such big project, working with multiple different teams while I was in the program. Not every graduate program would allow for that opportunity. 

You’re now working with the SEEK Pass team. How did you join the team?  

I wanted to work in a product role. At the end of the Graduate Program, there were lots of roles available across various teams. Some smaller start-up style, and some bigger, more established teams, working on the SEEK core products.  

SEEK Pass felt like a good middle ground between the two. It was an internal startup that could move quickly, and you could have a lot of engagement with senior leaders. But it also had a good structure in place, a lot of people I could learn from, and exciting projects. SEEK Pass is doing awesome things in the business, it's cool place to be a part of.  

What surprised you about the Graduate Program?  

Two things stood out, and they relate to each other. One, is how invested people are in your success. 

The Strategy and Operations program is unique, in that it is run by the Strategy team itself. That means you've got people whose everyday roles are Strategy, so they are really uniquely positioned to coach you and mentor you through starting your career. It was nice to have that support, and also have different opportunities around the business.  

The second is the opportunities the program set up for us.  

Teams around the business are happy to have you. The teams that you can work for, and the projects that you work on – there feels like endless opportunities. I was appreciative of that given I was in an early stage of my career.  

Compared to what you studied, was the Graduate Program what you expected?  

What I studied was very different to strategy and operations. It was a little bit relevant, in that you learn how to live in the unknown, and work through what you know and what you need to find out. They’re the kinds of problems that you get in strategy and product.  

But a lot of what I studied was not relevant! In my engineering degree, I was learning how heat and fluid transfers, and other stuff that I'm never going to look at again, and I’m grateful for that! Part of university is getting some life experience, because I think if we all started work when we were 18, we wouldn’t be ready for this kind of environment. It's about learning more about yourself and how you operate.

If you are interested in learning more about SEEK's grad programs please click here.