What's your job about?
If you told University-Georgia that she’d be working in a bank, she probably would have laughed at you! But here we are, working as a Product Analyst in NZ’s largest bank, ANZ. I sit within the Everyday Banking team within Banking Products – a lot of jargon, I know… Essentially we take care of all Everyday Banking Products for our Personal/Retail customers (think Visa Debit, ApplePay etc.). Being NZ’s largest bank with over one million customers means that the work I do feels genuinely important – I get to play a role within a product that almost every person uses daily.
A ‘normal’ week in my role includes a mix of data reporting, stakeholder meetings, managing our team’s rapport with frontline teams, and collaborating on larger projects. It’s a fantastic mix of areas that allow each day to feel different - there is no shortage of work to be done! Products is an extremely dynamic area which is very customer-centric, so being someone who has always had an innate interest in others works very well in a space like this.
The beauty of working in such a large corporation means that there is huge diversity in both teams, and the work that they do. There’s a natural assumption that banks are traditional and that all roles would be heavily math/finance related (hence why I thought I would never end up at one!) – but that is definitely not the case! We have large teams in marketing, customer experience, risk, strategy, and so much more.
What's your background?
I was born in Wellington but grew up in the beautiful Hawkes Bay – circling back to Wellington for University. I studied a ‘strange’ mix of majors (Management, Biology, Psychology & Marketing) in aim to keep my options open. As mentioned earlier, I’ve always had a genuine interest in people and what makes them tick. Working in hospitality and events throughout school and University has allowed me to work with a huge range of people, providing a great base of work experience before entering the corporate world!
I developed a passion for entrepreneurship and innovation while at University, throwing myself into opportunities that involved this outside of my studies. This is what ultimately drove my want to make an impact and to work in a large business that does important work. In my penultimate year of University, I started to look around at Summer Internship Programmes (mostly because all my classmates were talking about it). I came across ANZ’s Summer Internship Programme and had heard great things about it from people around me. Getting the opportunity to ‘have a taste’ of the corporate world during Summer (while still studying) was an incredible experience – it was so incredible that I just had to come back as a Graduate!
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Absolutely! ANZ puts real value in hiring those from all different backgrounds – whether that means what you studied, where you’re from or what makes you uniquely you. There definitely aren’t certain boxes that need to be ticked to do well at a job like this.
You’ll often hear around ANZ to ‘be curious’; curiosity is something that really shone through during my experience. Its integral to stay curious, to ask why, and to constantly be seeking out new learning opportunities.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
How much I’ve learnt in such a short amount of time is definitely up there! I feel extremely lucky to be working with such hardworking people who genuinely want to see me succeed. ANZ has a great praise culture – we really value calling out those who are doing a fantastic job (and who doesn’t like being appreciated for the work that you do?!)
My Graduate cohort was fortunate enough to become extremely close – It’s a huge benefit to be surrounded by like-minded people who are all at similar life stages as yourself. I’ve genuinely made friends for life from this programme, which is a pretty cool thing to be able to say from your very first corporate job! The network and support system we all provide for each other is completely invaluable.
What are the limitations of your job?
Tough question! I’d say the biggest limitation is that there are quite a few strict deadlines that I have to meet as a part of my role. There are reports/projects due that have minimal wriggle room around when they have to be completed, so time management and prioritisation is very important. The majority of these tasks need to be completed on a monthly basis, so ensuring that my workload is perfectly balanced around the different weeks in a month is essential – something I have definitely learnt to be better at with time!
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...