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Perpetual

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4.1
  • 1,000 - 50,000 employees

Jessamy Burton

I feel grateful that I have been able to take my time to discover my interests and passions and to be working in a field that I really enjoy. Taking time out from study to travel and work really helped to shape my career pathway.

What's your job about?

I am currently working within Perpetual’s People and Culture Team who are responsible for developing and executing the company’s HR strategy. I am lucky to be gaining exposure to the many facets of HR, which includes recruitment, performance and rewards, organisational development, HR systems, and HR business partnering support.

As a graduate, I am in the process of completing four rotations through different People and Culture teams. At the moment I am working in the Talent Acquisition team, who take care of all things recruitment. Often you’ll find me talking to candidates who have applied for roles at Perpetual and booking in their interviews, as well as getting involved with projects to try to optimise our recruitment strategy and processes. I have also been looking at the data and analytics we receive through various systems and have been compiling them into a dashboard. It’s a great mix of connecting with people and my team and getting stuck into a spreadsheet!

What's your background?

I grew up in Perth and didn’t really know what I wanted to do when I finished High School, so I enrolled in an Arts degree at the University of Western Australia. I was fortunate enough to fall into psychology through completing a few elective units and discovered a passion for the science of people and human behaviour. After finishing my undergraduate degree I was ready for a break from studying and spent time travelling through Europe and Asia before I wound up working in the corporate sector. I decided to combine my interests in business and psychology and went back to uni to complete an Honours in Psychology before moving to Brisbane to complete a Masters in Organisational Psychology at the University of Queensland. I was ready for another adventure in a new city, so I applied for Perpetual’s graduate program and moved to Sydney at the start of 2021. Looking back I feel grateful that I have been able to take my time to discover my interests and passions and to be working in a field that I really enjoy. Taking time out from study to travel and work really helped to shape my career pathway, and I hope to live and work abroad one day (when travel restrictions allow it)!

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Absolutely. The people within the People and Culture team come from a range of backgrounds, including various business and commerce degrees, psychology and HR-related disciplines. If you are interested in people and asking questions around how organisations can best support, motivate and get the most out of their employees, this could be the area for you! The People and Culture Team value diversity of thought and recognise that having a range of people with different backgrounds can create richer conversations and enhanced outcomes.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

I was really interested in getting involved with a specific project and, after expressing interest, was able to support the project by conducting interviews with various people within the business, which was also a great way of understanding different roles and business units at Perpetual. Working on this project showed me that Perpetual is genuinely committed to supporting me in finding the areas and projects where my skills and interests fit best!

What are the limitations of your job?

Although being able to rotate through different teams gives me broad exposure to HR, the limitation is that you don’t have a lot of time to really get stuck into longer projects and progress them over six months or a year.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

  • Take your time to work out what your passions and interests are. I always felt like I was in a rush to figure out what I wanted to do, but taking a little longer to travel, work and seize unexpected opportunities all helped me to get to a role and career pathway that I am really excited about.
  • Do things that excite and intrigue you, not because they look good on your CV. The things you do outside of study and work speak to your personality, interests and skills and may be more relevant to a job than you think. I spoke about my experiences surf boat rowing in my interview!
  • Give yourself options. It can be easy to set your heart on one pathway, working for a specific company or getting a particular job. Keep an open mind to the opportunities around you and take a few risks, whether it be applying for roles that don’t perfectly align to your area of study or considering alternative areas of study or work.