Past Graduates - Glenn Capuano Supervisor, Information Consultancy, ABS Information Consultancy

I graduated from Monash in October 1995, with a Science Degree majoring in Physical Geography. Initially I got a job with a startup Internet Service Provider, as a helpdesk support person. After 11 months of this I applied for and joined the ABS graduate program in January 1997. Initially I worked in Client Services, answering phone queries about ABS statistics and providing information consultancies to paying clients.

In 1999 I moved into Collection District Design for the 2001 Census. This was the part of my work here which was most closely related to geography.

Census Collection Districts are the smallest geographic units used in the Census, and these areas are revised every Census. They have to align to administrative boundaries such as Local Government Areas, and it is desirable that they also align to other boundaries such as suburbs and postcodes, as well as delimiting growth around the edges of urban centres, having visible boundaries and being of a managable size for collection purposes. Balancing these often conflicting priorities for approximately 8,000 collection districts in Victoria was an interesting challenge, which took 18 months to complete.

Just prior to the 2001 Census I was promoted back into Information Consultancy as a supervisor and senior consultant, where I am at the moment. Most of my work involves assessing client's data needs, assigning work to other consultants, and maintaining a very broad knowledge of ABS data sources to assist clients with their requirements. A lot of the work we do here is based on Census data, which, because of its detail, is a very high-demand dataset. It involves using table generation software (SuperCross) to extract complex cross-classified census tables directly from the unit record file. I also do some statistical mapping work, for clients looking to target populations across geographic areas.

For two months in 2001 I was outposted to the Victorian Department of Justice and developed a set of small area profiles of crime, to enable them to refine crime prevention strategies for particular regions. Recently I have completed the Graduate Certificate in Statistics at Victoria University of Technology, and begun presenting statistical training courses, including "Turning Data into Information" aimed at Victorian State Government users of ABS data.

I am married with one dog and no children, and in my spare time, I am a manic
geocacher (see http://www.geocaching.com).