Beckett Yang still remembers pushing a cleaning trolley for OCS while studying a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Auckland.
Two decades later, he’s involved in projects across the business, from accounts to procurement and reporting, leading teams and managing systems that help over 1,700 customers in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand.
Variety is his non-negotiable. It’s what gets him out of bed in the morning, and his current role as Reporting Manager allows him to have just that.
As a young adult, he never imagined his part-time job would be the beginning of a career that continues to excite and interest him two decades later.
“As an international student, I was so focused on getting through my studies. I didn’t believe I would have the opportunity to work for a large international business straight out of university,” he says.
“And I certainly never thought I could get to where I am now.”
He says his manager, OCS Finance Director Debby Wong, has been the most influential person in his career.
“Debby knows just the right time to push someone – usually before they even realise it themselves.
“But she never throws you in the deep end. Every progression has been supported with training and mentorship to make sure I’m ready for the new responsibilities.”
He recalls two transitions in his career that felt like the biggest leaps: moving from being an administrator to a manager, and later, managing the Power BI reporting team.
The former called for Beckett to develop his people skills and change his mindset from executing tasks to managing colleagues and customers, and a management training course helped this shift.
Moving into the Power BI team was almost like moving to a foreign country where he didn’t speak the language.
“The Power BI team has a totally different skill set. I’d never been exposed to coding language and IT software. But I knew I was good with Excel, and I was good with numbers.”
Rather than hiring externally, Debby had faith that Beckett was the right person for the job. He trusted her judgement, excited by the opportunity to grow. OCS supported Beckett through a three-month business intelligence/data analyst programme to equip him with the missing skills.
Once he had a firm grasp of the world of IT language and logic, he could combine that with accounting language and logic. Beckett developed processes that are still raising the performance of his team to the next level.
While his days of pushing a trolley are long gone, he still calls on that experience to make better decisions in the office.
“One of the biggest lessons I learnt as a general cleaner was ownership: when you’re the one cleaning a building, there is a weight of responsibility to make sure it’s done well. I carry that ownership into my work in the office too.”
For Beckett, owning his work means looking under the hood – analysing reports and recommendations he receives to ensure they not only look good on paper, but also work on the frontline.
“Early in my career, I learnt that lesson the hard way by implementing a change recommended by an external consultant. It seemed relatively simple – consolidating our range of rubbish bags – but it blew up on a national level because it just wasn’t practical.
“When things escalated, I had support from senior leadership and was trusted to continue working on it. After three months of analysis, I came up with the right solution, and we’re still using that range 12 years later.”
Beckett says it’s through making mistakes that we truly grow, and OCS provides the right support for people to learn from their actions and decisions.
Careers can often begin in the places we least expect. What seemed like a job to pay his way through university unlocked a lifelong journey for Beckett.
One where trust, opportunities and a supportive push at the right time are helping him realise his potential.
