Corporate and Financial Management Trainee profile - Natalie

Year joined

2009

Current position

Corporate and Financial Management Trainee.

What were you doing before joining DFAT?

I was studying a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Commerce at UWA with majors in Chinese, Japanese and Financial Accounting. While at uni I volunteered with the Starlight Children's Foundation at the children's hospital in Perth and I taught English to foreign students at UWA.

Why did you apply to DFAT?

I thought the CFMT program would be an interesting job where I could use both of my university degrees almost equally, as well as gaining financial and corporate management experience that is different to what you would obtain in other multinational private sector corporations. I was also attracted to the idea of working overseas at one of Australia's missions at the end of the graduate program.

Do you speak any languages?

Social Japanese, social Mandarin and basic French.

What was the most challenging aspect of the recruitment/selection process?

I found the actual application the most testing part of the selection process because you have an extended amount of time to perfect your application (compared to the time constraints in the test and interview). Last year the DFAT graduate applications were due around the same time as a lot of the other finance graduate jobs, so if I were to do the whole process again I would commence the written application as soon as possible.

Has the reality of working in DFAT differed from your perceptions of what it was going to be like?

Having only completed a private sector internship prior to working in DFAT, my main expectation was that the work would be varied and international. Since starting, I have found the work of DFAT covers an extremely diverse band of issues - in my first 10 months I have worked in Financial Services; the International Financial Crisis Task Force on G20 related issues; Post and Locally Engaged Staff Management Section and the Australian Passport Office. The people I have worked with are really supportive and have such a huge amount of experience you can learn from.

Why would you recommend DFAT as a career?

I think DFAT provides a wide scope of challenging work and opportunities that exposes you to various issues and people on a global scale. The Department invests significantly in the graduate training programs and the CFMT program allows people with a commerce background to pursue a worthwhile, non-conventional financial management career with support for further related study.