From Ancient history to app coding – the career path of an ANZ Graduate

My background - and my passion - is ancient history and psychology. This is what I studied at university. I loved every minute of it and  always thought I’d go on to have a career in academia.

So how did I end up working at ANZ?

Just before I finished University, I thought it would be a good experience to go through the Graduate program application process to see what all the hype was about.

From the outset I could tell ANZ’s grad program was a step ahead of other organisations. The application process was completely different - they didn't ask for an academic transcript or even my CV as other Graduate programs had.

A week before the final interviews, I was invited to join a question and answer session with a group of Graduates who had joined ANZ the previous year. There was a lot of excitement surrounding their roles and the fact their work could assist in improving the financial wellbeing of millions of Australians. I really appreciated that passion and how inclusive they were of all skills and backgrounds.

I wasn’t sure how my degree would be relevant to a career in banking. But upon reflection, my chosen majors reflected a shared interest in the discourse surrounding human nature and human relationships. Because banking and financial technology touch every part of society, I found I was able to engage with the work early on, while slowly filling in any technical knowledge gaps over time. This was a common experience among all the graduates, who had also come with a diverse set of experiences and expertise.

Joining ANZ as a Graduate, I’ve spent a lot of my time in the ANZx team – working on building and delivering a new banking app, called ANZ Plus.

In my role, about half the time I’m thinking from the perspective of the end user, and how our application can help customers. The other half is spent thinking about how we can use new and existing technologies to meet these needs.

But it's not just all technical skills. You need a good combination of both technical and soft skills. Turns out having people from all sorts of backgrounds and skills is exactly what a bank needs.

I have a lot to be proud of from my first year at ANZ.  In my first six months I had the opportunity to deploy changes in a piece of software that integrated with the ANZ Plus app. This change affected the thousands of customers that are on ANZ Plus!

Having started the job with zero technical skills, I was surprised how quickly I learnt. Within months I was confidently able to make a change that was consequential to so many customers.

What advice do I have for anyone looking to join ANZ as a Graduate?

Just go for it! Even if you don’t think you have the ‘right’ degree, apply and see what happens. I would have never thought that I could implement a change in the ANZ Plus app nine months ago.

I've grown so much during my time on the Graduate program – you never know what you can learn and achieve!

Have confidence and don't doubt yourself because the focus is on learning and developing. Plus, the team at ANZ will do everything they can to help you contribute.

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Lorraine Ohk is a Graduate at ANZx