Given the chance to shine

Virginia’s story

Throughout my career in Africa, I worked as a personal assistant across a few different companies. My main responsibility was to carry out secretarial duties. This was the type of job I was looking for when I first arrived in Australia but I was told it would be impossible to get similar work because I didn’t have any experience in the field.

While I continued to look for a job I decided to enrol at Latrobe University and do my Masters of Business Administration. I thought maybe having an Australian education might help me find a role that suited both my experience and prior qualifications – but unfortunately it did not.

Given the chance

I heard about the Given the Chance program through our local community and I ended up volunteering as a receptionist at the office of the Brotherhood of St Laurence (BSL).

After working there for a while, the people at BSL encouraged me to enrol in the Given the Chance program – they had observed my work and believed I had the capability to secure a place in the program and find a suitable job.

It was through this I was fortunate to get a job at ANZ.

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A challenging start

Working as a personal assistant in Africa gave me a lot of experience working in the corporate world but I had never worked in a role where I spoke to customers over the phone. Selling products and managing customer relationships and accounts was completely new to me.

I faced many challenges when I started working at ANZ in a customer service role. I battled with the difference in culture; I found people’s accents hard to understand and I initially struggled with the systems and processes – and these examples are just to name a few.

It took time, but as I faced each of these challenges head on, I was able to overcome them. I have now developed internal strength and skills that have helped me not only in that particular role but will also in future roles.

I started at ANZ in the Customer First team as a sales consultant in 2008. The main responsibilities included card activations, balance transfers from other financial institutions as well as other things. I was there for two years. I then moved over to commercial banking and I’ve held various roles as a Merchant Sales Consultant, Small Business Specialist and now Small Business Manager/Cashflow Specialist - and I am really enjoying it.

If I were to give a piece of advice to anyone who might be in a similar position to what I was when I arrived in Australia - or to anyone interested in enrolling in the Given the Chance program - it would be this: be forthright about what you want, work hard and take any difficulty as a challenge to overcome. This is how I approached it and here I am now. 

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