It’s the people that make the company
Delisa is a business analyst with expertise in designing engineering teams that get projects off the ground. She opens up about why she’s stayed at Shell for over two decades and how she plans to stick around for many more.
You’ve been at Shell for almost 25 years. Will you tell us how it all started?
When I graduated from the University of Houston, it was with a Bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems — more on the business side than technical. I started as a programmer analyst for the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County. Two years later, I switched over to Shell. I’ve had a variety of roles in the company ever since.
Currently, as a business analyst for Design Engineering, I divide my time between two projects. Over the last couple of years, the Design Engineering teams have been encouraged to upskill and learn and that helps if we want to work on projects outside our core area of expertise.
The work over the years has been exciting and challenging. However, it’s the relationships I’ve built over the years that have kept me going. You certainly don’t stay at a company as long as I have if you don’t love the people and the environment. Meeting people and learning from them has been my favourite part of the job.
Delisa, IT Business Analyst (DE)“You certainly don’t stay at a company as long as I have if you don’t love the people and the environment.”
What qualities would you say are most valuable for someone like you to thrive at Shell?
You need to have a flexible mindset. There have been some IT reorganisations over the years, and everyone that has been through something like that should pat themselves on the back and give themselves a gold star. Keeping business continuity even as everything changes around you is challenging. For instance, when the pandemic hit, everyone scattered and went home to work remotely. But Shell kept the infrastructure up and enabled everyone to keep the business running while at home. Having gone through those kinds of reorganisations, I came out at the end of it with a completely new perspective of where Shell is going.
You also have to have a learner mindset, use your technical skills in different scenarios and be willing to learn as you go.
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Delisa, IT Business Analyst (DE)“We have to be ahead of the curve, and I think we’re going down the right path.”
How do you see the kind of work you and your colleagues do contribute to Shell’s vision for Powering Progress?
If you hear Shell’s leaders talking today, you’ll hear that phrase 20 times in a webcast. Of course, you can say it and not mean it, but I believe they do stand behind Powering Progress. And digital is the key to that movement. If you don’t have IT infrastructure as a backbone, no matter the company or industry, you’re not going to survive in the 21st century.
What do you think your next decade at Shell will look like?
I am enjoying my time at Shell, and I hope I can be around for as long as I can. I like my current business analyst role, but I do have a vision of moving on to expand my business knowledge. I’m currently seeing a big push within the company towards artificial intelligence and AV drones. I think that’s a good, forward-thinking starting point. We have to be ahead of the curve, and I think we’re going down the right path. It’ll be interesting to see the progress in the next 5-10 years.
