What's your job about?
AMP is a financial services company that provides a wide range of products and services including banking, superannuation, wealth management, and financial advice. Within this, we have a company-wide function called Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), which is responsible for ensuring that we have adequate and effective risk frameworks and processes in place in order to fulfill our regulatory obligations and responsibility to our clients.
As grads, we rotate around the different business units within AMP over the two-year program. Currently, I am in the Group Compliance and Operational Risk team, which plays a key role in ensuring we comply with the relevant laws and regulations. Some areas I’ve worked on include our Delegations of Authority, which outlines how decision-making powers are delegated across the company, our Conflicts of Interest framework, and Licence Management, which is how we comply with and maintain our financial licenses. I was also able to work with the team on a project to prepare for a new ASIC legislation coming into effect for all financial institutions, called Strengthening Breach Reporting. Through this, I’ve been able to learn more about our Group’s risk frameworks and see how they intersect and underpin various functions within the business.
What's your background?
I’ve been based in Sydney for the majority of my life and schooling. For university, I studied a
Bachelor of Commerce (International) at UNSW, where I majored in Finance and minored in Chinese
studies, and this took me to Hong Kong for a one-semester exchange in the second half of 2019.
I joined AMP in February 2021, so it’s been almost 8 months now and two rotations in. Before AMP, I had gained some work experience with a design consultancy and tech company, mainly in communications and marketing. These experiences enabled me to learn about two fields I didn’t know much about before, and being very different from the financial sector, really helped bring a different perspective to the work I’m doing now.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Absolutely. We have a diverse graduate cohort from a bunch of different backgrounds and disciplines, which is really great and goes to show that you don’t necessarily need a business degree to work in financial services. I really think that most of what I know now and the work I do has been learned on the job, so I think the most important thing is just to be open to trying new things and also to be open to learning from others because there will definitely be a lot of that!
What's the coolest thing about your job?
I think the best thing about this role is just how many opportunities there are to learn and grow, both personally and professionally. From day 1, we get to become a valued part of the team and are given real responsibilities and meaningful work, all the while being fully supported along the way by the rest of the team. With our program, we’re provided with numerous development opportunities such as workshops, sessions with senior leaders, and wellbeing events, and it’s great being able to go through all of this together with the grad cohort.
What are the limitations of your job?
Being such a large and complex organization, it can be a steep learning curve when you first join in terms of trying to understand the organizational structure and how each of the business units intersects and functions. I think this can be said for most large organizations though, but it is still something that can be a bit daunting at first and definitely takes time. What’s good though, is that everyone is very aware of this and is always happy to explain things to you, so it’s really important to remember it’s ok to ask whenever you’re unsure about something.
3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...
If you can, make the most of your free electives by branching out and exploring more courses outside of your major on topics that interest you. Although they might not seem directly applicable to your field at first, learning about a wide range of topics will help broaden your knowledge and skillset.
Join more clubs! Uni is a great time to explore new hobbies as you have a huge selection of university clubs at your fingertips, and it’s also a great chance to make some good friends along the way.
Lastly, if there’s something you think you might be interested in, try and look for opportunities in that area to get some work experience in, whether it be internships or volunteer roles, sooner rather than later. It can be really hard to know what you will enjoy and what you won’t until you try them out, so getting experience in different areas can really help you identify what you’re most passionate about.