Corporate Graduate Careers
Brochure
Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, February 2011
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Corporate Graduate Careers - brochure [PDF 373 KB]
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade needs your specialist talent, confidence and knowledge.
Do you believe in a career that motivates you to excel and achieve?
A Corporate Graduate position offers you the opportunity to employ your extensive academic and personal skills to manage DFAT operations both in Australia and overseas. The graduate program allows you to develop and expand your knowledge across the wide range of subject areas managed by the Department’s corporate divisions.
The opportunity
Working in a diverse and challenging corporate environment, Corporate Graduates have the opportunity to advance their careers as corporate experts. They will undertake vast and varied functions including the planning for and management of DFAT financial, human and property resources. Corporate officers also undertake consular work and provide advice to Australian embassies and high commissions on a range of topics. Corporate officers have the unique opportunity to work in one of Australia’s many diverse overseas posts as part of a short-term mission or on a long-term posting.
Is this you?
Will you have an accounting, commerce, ICT, human resource management or similar degree by the end of the year?
- Will you be an Australian citizen by 31 May?
- Would you like to live and work overseas?
- Can you maintain the highest standards of conduct and ethics?
- Are you flexible enough to work on new issues every few years?
If you answered yes to these questions, you could be the graduate we are looking for.
We offer graduates a unique program that supports and develops their career.
Are you the right graduate?
Our graduates are team players who have initiative, advanced communication abilities, and are flexible and open to change. They have a broad range of experiences, and keen interest in the work the Department does. If you are ready to learn new skills and face exciting challenges, then you may be the right graduate for us.
The Department is looking for graduates from a diverse range of backgrounds. Successful applicants will have a strong record of academic achievement, work experience, extra-curricular achievements and community activities.
For the Corporate Graduate Program, the Department is seeking graduates with accounting, commerce, ICT and human resource management qualifications.
Professional training
The Corporate Graduate Program enables candidates to develop and expand their knowledge in a broad range of areas - from complex human resource, property and security issues to cutting-edge ICT programs, consular issues, and budgets and finance.
Corporate Graduates undertake a comprehensive two-year professional development program in Canberra, combining work placements with formal training modules.
Graduates with accounting qualifications have the opportunity to study towards a CPA, CA or other appropriate financial management qualification.
Work overseas
After completing the training program, graduates commence a placement in Canberra and are eligible to apply for overseas postings. Officers overseas enjoy diverse and varied responsibilities. Corporate graduates overseas assist in the management of the mission’s financial, human and property resources, and providing consular assistance to Australians.
Unbeatable variety
DFAT is a large organisation with a range of different work areas. Employees with broad skills or seeking diversity are encouraged to change roles and master new areas of work, creating work place variety and personal satisfaction.
Our graduates are team players who have initiative, advanced communication abilities, and are flexible and open to change.
Competitive salaries and conditions
The Department’s employees enjoy highly competitive pay and conditions including:
- comprehensive superannuation,
- 22 days paid rec leave,
- paid maternity/paternity leave
- three months paid long service leave,
- on-site gym and
- on-site childcare.
The Department offers equity and fairness in the workplace and opportunities for professional development.
Indigenous Australians
In support of the Government’s Closing the Gap: Indigenous Economic Partnership Agreement, the Department is committed to increasing the recruitment of Indigenous Australians including through the use of the APS Special Measures provision.
People with a disability
The Department is committed to providing equal employment opportunities, access, equity and social inclusion for people with a disability.
www.dfat.gov.au/jobs/graduates
Employee profile: Krishan
Krishan joined the Department as a Corporate Graduate in 2006 and he is currently working in the Consular Policy Branch.
He has a Bachelor of Computer Science, a Master of Professional Accounting and Graduate Certificate in Business Studies. He has had a posting to Tehran, Iran.
Here’s what Krishan has to say about working in the Department:
“Working in DFAT, I have seen amazing places that I never thought I would see. While on posting to Iran, I drove overland from Tehran to the Black Sea in Turkey, past Mt Ararat and other places I will never forget. DFAT has also put me up against amazing professional challenges. As the Third Secretary in Tehran, I helped a young woman who was being held by her family against her will in Iran. Successfully negotiating her return to Australia with the Iranian Immigration Department was one of the most personally and professionally rewarding experiences of my life.
In applying for DFAT, I was looking for a role that challenged me on a daily basis and brought together a broad range of work to keep me interested. DFAT has given me exactly that. I have been able to develop a broad range of skills, and I constantly apply them in a range of challenging personal and professional contexts.”
The graduate recruitment process
Applications open in February. Please visit the Departments website at www.dfat.gov.au/jobs/graduates to learn more about how to apply for the graduate programs and the Departments selection process.
Policy graduate program
The Department also offers a unique graduate program for students interested in pursuing a career as a foreign affairs and trade policy officer with opportunities to work overseas as a diplomat. For details on the Policy Graduate Program, see our brochures or visit our website at www.dfat.gov/jobs/ graduates.
Indigenous cadetships
The Departments Indigenous Cadetship Program is a sponsorship program that provides Indigenous students with financial assistance during their studies and practical work experience during their summer breaks.
Information on the Indigenous Cadetship Program is available at: www.dfat.gov.au/jobs/cadetship/.
Need more information?
- Visit our website: www.dfat.gov.au/jobs/graduates
- Phone: (02) 6261 2736
- Email: gradrec@dfat.gov.au
- Face to face: We will be visiting your university around March. For information on dates and venues, visit the DFAT website www.dfat.gov.au/jobs/ graduates. Alternatively contact your university Careers Centre.