#GradStories Shibh Lee, Data Analyst & Engineer at PepsiCo

What are your main tasks in a typical week?

On a typical day, I’m pretty much on my computer because our team is everything digital. I take data from across PepsiCo and I put it into dashboards to make it understandable to business owners. We take data, we collate it, and we clean it. We also work on digitizing more and more of PepsiCo’s functions.

What skills do you need to be successful in this role?

I would say having a good digital mindset is important. Being able to look at data and understand how things like data pipelines work. Having a good handle on business analysis and understanding what analytics are important to a business.

How did you get into your job?

I finished my degree in astrophysics, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I looked at job postings in physics and there wasn’t much out there. I then looked at job postings for PepsiCo and saw that I had the skills required and that I could apply the skills from my degree to the job.

What advice would you give to a new graduate?

Digital skills are everything. More and more companies are becoming aware that being digital is important but for your company to become digital, you don’t need someone with a computer science degree. If you have a science degree, you work with data in the labs, you have a lot more capability than you think of. When you join a grad programme, they don’t expect you to know everything at the start. You really learn everything from the ground up. Don’t underestimate the abilities you do have and what you can apply from your degree to a broad range of jobs.

How have you adjusted to working from home?

At Pepsi, as long as you don’t physically need to be in the office, you’re free to come and go as you please. You can work half days or full days in the office. We also do hot-desking so you can book a desk. I find that really useful. I like being in person when I can. I think particularly at the start of my career, being in the office and getting to know people was more important. All of our work is online, particularly with my team which is a global team. That also means we can shift our hours around.

What do you love about your job?

I love the opportunities that I see in the future. A great thing about my team is that there’s people from all across functions and a lot of people move laterally within PepsiCo. There’s huge scope to move and find new experiences and work with new teams. So that’s something I’m excited about for the future.