Meet our Academy Consultants – Hashan Sugu

The first year of your career is the most important one – when a new world of opportunities is opened up for you and you can feel yourself growing in confidence as you enter a new field of expertise. That’s why, through the Ten10 Academy, we give new consultants a solid foundation of tech knowledge – they know what questions to ask and broaden their knowledge wherever opportunities may take them.

Hashan Sugu is just one example of an Academy Consultant who has made the most of his opportunities. He’s just finished a lengthy placement with a client in the Chemicals industry, so we caught up with him to chat about his transition from the classroom to the workplace, which teams and departments he’s been working with, and how he feels he’s grown over the last 12 months.

How do you feel you’ve transitioned from the Ten10 Academy to your client work?

It was a massive backbone for me when I went into my client as we would talk about core concepts of technology and learn different sides of technology. I was able to transition that to my client work as I was in and out with a lot of things, whether that be business-side or on the technical side. The knowledge I learned there really helped me bring new ideas to the table, reflect on current ideas, [know] how we can adapt that and mitigate any issues that would come up.

Take us through your placement – what was it like when you started?

I started about a year ago now. We were thrown, if I’m being honest, into the deep end through my manager. It was quite a new project, quite global in that sense. It was very interesting to learn because I was applying the knowledge that I had learned in Ten10. Then there were a lot of questions being asked. A lot [was] being asked of me. So, it put me in a position where I had to swim upstream and learn these new traits and ways of working. But with the help of Ten10 and my manager at my client, they got me through and I’d learned so much more than I would have ever learned if I was a bit more relaxed.

It was definitely worth it. I think, in this line of work, you’re going to swim upstream a little while before you catch on to what’s going on in the client because every company works differently. It’s a very interesting insight that I had and now that I know what I’m up against, I’m pretty sure I’ll be ready for my next client.

Could you explain some of the projects you were helping out with and some of the teams you were interacting with?

The project required me to activate the full function of a CRM system, and then attach a contact management system. That started by working with the business team and seeing their requirements, what was required of me, and their various skills and what they needed. Afterwards, I realised I had a bit more technical understanding due to my knowledge at Ten10 and prior experience, so I delved into speaking with the IT team about what they were looking to implement, what they currently had in the pipeline, and help understand any potential dependencies and how we can utilise that to help make a better project outcome.

I worked with the customer service team so that we could get an understanding of what they need – what would be ideal for them and what sort of things they need to show up when using their systems.

Once we spoke with customer service, we spoke with [wider] business, we spoke with the technical team, and we spoke with the various sectors as well, which was very interesting. Then we had to meet around thirty stakeholders, which was very exciting. You learn different ways and different perspectives on certain matters. So it was very interesting and I had to work with a wide variety of people.

What was an average day for you like?

If I take it back to the beginning of my time with my client, it was just getting to know everyone. There were so many stakeholders on board so I booked introductory meetings with each of these stakeholders to get a better understanding of their outlook on the project and if that would cause any concerns so we could understand that and help them understand why this project would be good for the company. Then we also spoke with our managers to sort of get an understanding of what sort of risks we’re looking at and how we can best mitigate those risks.

As time went on and we started going into the various phases of our project, we got more meetings. I think it got to a point where we had about 10-15 meetings a week, just to scope out and understand what the requirements were. As we went on, I was in charge of booking meetings and making sure all the stakeholders were available across different time zones. That was very interesting, we had some 6 a.m. calls as well!

We also had time to speak and understand what sort of risks were happening. We logged that in a RAID log, mentioning every risk, issue, assumption, and dependency. I was in charge of looking after that register and getting an understanding of what we need to divert our attention to. What sort of opportunities do we have based on this project? What other projects are in the pipeline? Things like that

I had a chance to speak with various project teams in that sense. I had to book meetings to understand their dependencies and how they could interlink. We also had to speak with senior management teams to make sure that they were on board with the project and we got their approvals. While I was working on this, I had some other projects where I had to lead as a main project manager which was very exciting, helping streamline their communication services.

Was there a moment when your training seemed to ‘click’ into place?

Definitely. I think the time I finally got everything was when we were closing out our first phase of the project. It summarised what I, as a project manager, was able to understand, and what I had summarised quite well – it showed how much effort I had put into the project and how much I had collected by myself. It’s that sense of accomplishment that you get which was really exciting to understand and I think you’ll have those multiple clicks as you go through as projects can be up and down.

You’ll have that trough of hard work, feeling overwhelmed at times, but then it all pays off in these closing moments. I think with any project, it’ll always be up and down, but there are more times when it’s clicked and I feel very proud of myself.

What parts of the Ten10 Academy training have been most useful in your placement?

One main takeaway I’d say is all the training was very important to me. I was quite excited when I joined Ten10 to learn anything and everything I could. So I did all the various modules. I did the core training, and then we went into our developer training, but I wanted to expand my knowledge – even if I didn’t understand it properly, just to be in that environment. So I did database training as well as our business analysis training. I did all three paths just to get a better understanding and I think it’s safe to say I’ve applied all three [fields of] knowledge there.

I think every module counts towards something I did in my client work. Favourites-wise, I’d probably say the business analysis training, as much as it strays from different paths, I think every single part of the module I enjoyed in some way or another.

What tools did you gain experience with

With thanks to my manager, I had a lot of software and tools. Just as an example, for project management, we used Smartsheet which was a software I had never used before. Looking back one year later, I’m safe to say I’m quite well-versed in Smartsheet. I help manage our various reports, generating reports, and allowing owners to be assigned to different deliverables, and I’m certified in that. I also made use of Mural and Miro which are diagram drawing software and allowed me to understand how to map out processes within the company.

I also worked with SAP as they use as their CRM system I was able to delve in a bit more technical there because I had a bit of a technical understanding. I was able to fulfil employee tickets using their ServiceNow system which allowed me to bring them in as a new account, set that up in our CRM system, and make sure they’re fulfilled and they meet those requirements. I probably have a lot more to be honest with you, but we could spend all day here listing these off!

How has your client supported your development?

My manager was very helpful. They threw me into every sort of challenge I could find, anything for me to learn basics and find some understanding. And a few examples are that we set up daily standups (Monday to Friday) to get an understanding of where we’re at and if we have any blockers. Maybe even to share what we’re going on in our lives. Just moral support. We also had one-to-ones. My manager and I would catch up every Thursday and it wouldn’t always be work-related. It would just be ‘How are you finding this? Are you finding this overwhelming?’ Things like that helped push me towards meeting my development goals that we’d laid out together.

We were also given an individual project which I had to work on to help streamline customer communications. They used a plethora of different systems which started to get quite messy so it was my job to help streamline that and bring that to maybe three or four. Safe to say that I’ve left my mark at my client by allowing them to work off a diagram that I’d created. So now they know what they need to use and what sort of communications need to go where. If it wasn’t for my manager, I probably wouldn’t have learned as much at all.

What support have you received from Ten10 during your placement?

Definitely. I think ‘support’ is an understatement. They sort of guided every hand in such a way that, just as much as my client helped, Ten10 did a lot of work with me. I got to speak with a lot of the trainers and get an understanding based on their experiences because a lot of the trainers come from a similar background to us. So we’re able to reflect on any feedback that I might have gotten – how could I better push myself in the right direction?

Trainers have been a great help. as well as the Wellbeing team, they have been massively helpful. They’re always on our side. It’s always great to have someone in the company rooting for us every day and every success, they celebrate with us. Safe to say that the Wellbeing team, the trainers; everyone at Ten10 has just been amazing.

What would you say to someone considering joining the Ten10 Tech Academy?

I think what I would say is ‘go for it!’ Simply because there are so many experiences, there are so many people that you get to meet and there are so many different perspectives that you get to see. There are many people from different walks of life, people without any tech background at all. There are people that have done different degrees that are not remotely related to technology but they’re able to pair it with their client and help push themselves forward in the tech industry. And I think Ten10 is a great platform to bring yourself out there, push yourself, and get your tech self out there.