Internship Success - Eugin

What's your job about?

1st Group is a digital platform where health providers and patients connect and have access to a variety of healthcare services and information anytime, anywhere, so they can get well sooner and stay well longer. If a doctor needs a system, they come to us and we provide them with the software.

My responsibility is the server installation and I’m working with Optomate Touch, a Practice Management System (PMS). I install servers for the customer and also create profiles where I’m adding the practitioner’s profile. I also help conduct training sessions and presentations via Zoom on how our software works and how they can access its features.

Most of the time I am working on the server installation for the practice. I am not directly involved with customers but if a system error occurs or happens to be slow, or if a practitioner needs an updated profile, they will ask me to fix the issue. Afterwards, I send a report to the customer of what I have been doing. The practitioner will check from the patient’s side of view if everything is working properly. I’m learning a lot about the health sector side and attending the training sessions is helpful to learn more about what we’re providing for the customers.

What's your background?

I grew up in Sri Lanka. The country is not really developed, so after coming to Australia I learned a lot, especially about tech.

I did my bachelor's in Business Information Systems & Management in Sri Lanka and my Masters in Information Technology (Network Security) in Sydney, Australia. In 2019, I was an IT Helpdesk volunteer for a wholesale company in Sydney.

My current placement position I got through applying for the internship program with my university (Charles Sturt University), which brought me in contact with Readygrad. I started my placement in January 2022 and it runs until April 2022.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes! If they can provide service and are happy to do proper training on how to help customers, they will be able to catch up easily. A lot of terms we use here were new to me (so is working with a PMS system) so it is not easy at the start but once you get used to this you can definitely do it. Even if you don’t have an IT background. All you need is confidence and communication skills for the training sessions you will be doing, like not being afraid to ask questions to customers for example or if something is unclear to speak up. Tech skills will come in handy as you will need to be able to fix any errors in service installations.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

The coolest thing I would say is that the team is very involved with one another. Every morning, sharp 9am, we have a meeting where everyone gets to speak and share what happened the day before. Everyone is very cooperative and contributes any ideas/solutions they have. Another cool thing is that I learned to work with a new online system. It’s quite interesting to see how this company works and how things are set up on the back end and front end, and how they’re dealing with customers.

What are the limitations of your job?

A limitation is mostly my access to the system. As an intern, I can’t go further and deal with customers directly. If any mistake would happen then there would be another problem. The company is providing training and is tracking how we are doing which is great but there are some limitations.

3 pieces of advice for your university self?

During my studies, I had a lot of pressure to pay my university fee, exams, work to pay the bills, etc. Due to this pressure, it felt as if I was constantly in survival mode and didn’t get to focus so much on my career. I learned that when you do focus on your career, you will be able to get somewhere. If you lose confidence, we can’t do anything. I noticed it is hard to get a job in Australia as employers are asking for experience which is frustrating. How will you get experience if no one offers you the chance to get any? I learned after finishing university that you have to believe in yourself and keep going. An internship is a very valuable thing to do as I already improved a lot in the technology field. Making mistakes is also part of the journey and you learn from them. Focus and keep going!