What's your job about?
I am currently a Financial Services Graduate at AMP. AMP is a financial services company in Australia and New Zealand providing superannuation and investment products, financial advice, and banking products. As a Financial Services Graduate at AMP, we have the opportunity to rotate across four different teams across several different areas of the business.
I am currently rotating through the Digital Client Experience team, which is the team that's responsible for the business ownership and client experience of AMP's digital assets which includes our website, apps, and My AMP desktop. They are in charge of the planning, execution, and optimization of these digital assets.
Some of the responsibilities include leading the end-to-end development of Adobe Target campaigns across ideation, planning, testing, reporting, and governance, supporting digital analytics and insights to various business and technology stakeholders using Adobe Analytics, doing monthly feedback analysis, and delivering weekly updates to the Chief Technology Officer.
In terms of what my daily work looks like, it will depend on the week and current priorities. I might be writing up a brief for a personalization test we're planning to run, testing our experiences to make sure everything looks okay before we set it live to our customers, or going through and analyzing our monthly NPS data to understand the themes that customers are happy/not happy with and then bringing them to various stakeholders.
I like that I have the opportunity to get across various different initiatives because it keeps the week interesting and helps broaden my understanding and skillsets and of course, allows me to meet and work with new people!
What's your background?
I grew up in inner Melbourne which is also where I went to school.
In VCE, my favorite subject was business management which is why I decided to do a business degree. I originally thought my major was going to be business management because I enjoyed the subject in school however, within the first week of doing the unit, I realized that this wasn't for me and that I wanted to study marketing instead.
When it came to deciding which industry I wanted to get into and what marketing I wanted to do, a few things helped me make this decision. When I first started university, I was working a retail job but halfway through my studies, I moved to a bank which is where my interest in the financial services industry sparked. I also did 2 internships while I was studying and that helped me form an idea of what areas of marketing I was actually interested in.
I also went on a four-week study tour to Europe where we visited multiple different companies across several different industries which reconfirmed my interest and helped me figure out which industry I was and wasn’t interested in. With all of these opportunities, when it came time to apply for jobs, I found it really easy to which companies to apply for because I already had an idea where my interest lies.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Yes definitely!
What’s great about being a financial services graduate is that you have the opportunity to explore several different areas of the business, depending on what your interest is. A lot of the rotations that you do require soft skills like communication and time management but as long as you have an open mind and are willing to learn then you can do the job.
Some rotations will require more technical skills however there’s plenty of support and opportunity to develop those days today.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
I really enjoy seeing how making small changes here and there on either our website or app can make all the difference to our customers. It's always really nice when you change something and it results in a better experience for our users. It's not always obvious whether it has made an impact but over time, it starts to reflect in the monthly NPS data I analyze.
Seeing how your efforts are making someone’s life easier, whether that’s internal or external is always really nice.
What are the limitations of your job?
Moving teams every six months can be a steep learning curve.
Having to change teams every six months was pretty hard to get used to at first because you almost have to start from scratch meaning you're working with a new manager, team, stakeholders, responsibilities, processes, and systems. However, after the first two rotations, you get into the swing of things a lot faster.
Although it's a steep learning curve, I've never felt the need to work long hours or on weekends. Everything always takes a bit longer at the beginning because you're learning and that's okay.
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...
You don’t need to know everything - When you first start, you are not expected to know everything and no one expects you to either. It’s okay to say you don’t know because, at the end of the day, you are there to learn. The most important thing is to be open-minded and ask lots of questions – think why?
Always seek new opportunities - It’s important to try new things because you never know, you might actually enjoy it. You’ll never figure out what you do and don’t like if you don’t try it first so always say yes, seek new opportunities and learn. It's also a great way to meet new people and learn new skills.
You don’t need to have it all figured out - What you do after university isn’t necessarily what you’ll do forever so you don’t need to have your whole career figured out. On average, a person will have several different careers throughout their working life so don't get too caught up in getting it right the first time around. Instead, think about what you want to learn, develop on, and where your interest lies. Every opportunity is a learning experience and if and when you don't enjoy it anymore, move and find something else you like. There are always options.