Johannesburg, 29 Nov 2016
Determined to enter what he considered to be one of the best graduate programmes in the country and well aware that he met the stringent requirements demanded, Mothusi Setlhabetsi applied to the SAS Institute's graduate programme in 2015.
He explains that he was inspired to enter this programme based at least in part on the career paths experienced by other graduates that had enrolled in the past. In addition, the fact that SAS works closely with excellent partners to provide these graduates with practical experience meant he knew he would be able to advance his career and grow his skills in this period.
"From my observation, I have witnessed that all SAS graduates are ready to enter the corporate world after completing their 12 months of training. This training not only improves our software skills, it also provides us with soft skills, thereby enabling us to move into the business arena filled with confidence," says Setlhabetsi.
Having studied both his initial degree - where he majored in statistics, economics and operational research - and his post-graduate honour's degree in statistics at North West University, the next task was to obtain practical experience in the field.
"One of the key reasons I wanted to join SAS was because it is the leader in analytics and this is a subject I am very passionate about."
Setlhabetsi says once he entered the graduate programme, there were numerous challenges he had to face. "Obviously, the work I was tasked with doing, namely data analytics, posed its own issues, but the real challenge came in terms of cultural diversity and socialising. I had to adapt to the culture that existed within the organisation and be able to socialise with the people there - something quite difficult for an introvert like myself."
Fortunately, the programme offers courses that instruct graduates on issues like business etiquette and cultural diversity, which helped him to gain a greater understanding, appreciation and acceptance of other people's cultures and beliefs.
"It is vital to be able to engage with people that are different from you in the working environment, and to be able to understand different types of personal behaviour in the workplace. These courses assisted us all enormously in finding common ground and understanding and appreciating one another, whatever our differences," he says.
At the same time, there was the additional challenge of working as a data analyst, despite being new to the industry and having little basic knowledge of SAS. Since his position was in a fraud department, the pressure was on from the outset to deliver accurate and reliable results at all times.
"One of the challenges that I faced as a junior was to understand the fraud systems used and to take complex data, clean it and put it into a structured form that we could use for analysis. However, I feel that by believing in myself, paying attention to the details, applying my mind to solving problems, and being prepared to ask for help when I didn't understand something, I made a good impression. I believe that this approach helped me to secure a contract with Facts Consulting, which is where I am at present, completing my practical studies."
Facts is a SAS partner and working here gives him the opportunity to understand different SAS products and solutions. He explains that one of his medium- to long-term goals is to obtain knowledge and training in those SAS products and solutions that are related to data analysis.
"Next year, I'm planning to go for my SAS Advanced Programming and SAS Visual Analytics certifications. After being certified on those two solutions, I will choose another two to gain certification in.
"My internship has been extremely significant in terms of my development as an individual and in terms of paving the road to the future. I must admit that never in my life would I have expected to end up analysing data to detect suspicious fraudulent activities, and this surprising career turn is the best gift that I received from SAS. I would like to thank the SAS management team, particularly my mentor, Brigitte Kruger, and everyone involved for offering me such an amazing opportunity to develop as an individual and as a data analyst," he says.
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