How This Kiwi Took Flight

I am a fiercely proud New Zealander.  Jandals, buzzy bees, pavlova, gumboots, hokey pokey ice cream, kumara, silver ferns  and rugby – all are icons from New Zealand’s heritage that make me who I am.  Colloquially we are known as kiwis.  No, not the fruit!  The kiwi is a native bird of New Zealand and a symbol for our country and us as a people.  The kiwi is a flightless bird.  Many birds in New Zealand are.  This is my story as to how I took flight, both as an individual and as a business professional.  My hope is that it will inspire you to take some risks and to spread your wings too.

Growing up in New Zealand was fantastic.  I could talk for many hours about that.  Though for the purposes of this post I am going to fast forward to my university years.  A year out from graduation I started my hunt for what would be my first full-time job.  The careers office at the university published a weekly newsletter of employers seeking to hire university graduates.  Now the economy in New Zealand was not at its best that year and the opportunities were few and far in between.  I had studied management, computer science and information systems.  I enjoyed my studies, but had no idea what I wanted to do for a career.  And my choices were limited.  I applied to a few of the Big 4 and to Accenture.  I missed out on a role with Accenture, but they pulled out of New Zealand soon after, so I dodged a bullet there.  I received an offer from PricewaterhouseCoopers (now PwC) and without knowing much about what they did, I accepted the role.

Insight: Taking a leap of faith, although scary at the time, can pay off with big dividends.

PwC had a strong brand and were well known to have a good graduate training program.  I didn’t fully appreciate it at the time, but this is how I would end up with a career in Internal Audit.  My role encompassed IT internal audit work as well as IT support for external audits.  This is where starting a career at PwC in New Zealand has shaped who I am today.  Firstly, because New Zealand companies are on the smaller side and therefore are quicker to audit, I was able to have a very broad portfolio across multiple industries (financial services, technology, government, consumer products, etc).  And the nature of the work was greatly varied.  I became and still am today very versatile and adaptable because of this foundation.  I am able to take on new challenges with ease.

Insight: You can be successful by being a specialist at being a generalist.

My exposure and training at PwC helped me to develop the soft skills required for a successful career - communications, negotiation, influencing, leadership, coaching, client service, multi-tasking, teamwork to name just a few.  Confidence in myself and my abilities grew with each year.

My success led to a promotion early in my career, presenting me with further opportunities to learn and grow.  By my second year I was already beginning to take on a leadership role.  I was trusted and I delivered.

Insight: If you work smart and hard, you may well get rewarded for your efforts.

There became a point where my desire to move to Australia and obtain overseas experience began to exceed my desire to stay in New Zealand.  I flapped my wings for the first time and moved to Melbourne and joined Protiviti.  And what a blast!  A great lifestyle and enjoyable work.  I took my learnings from PwC and applied them to my new role and again was promoted quickly into a management role.  My versatility was an asset, which allowed me to work across healthcare, government and manufacturing clients.  I even audited how General Motors designs and builds cars!  I also broadened my skill-set by taking on technology risk management engagements. 

Moving away from my hometown allowed me to become more independent and self-sustainable.  I grew as both an individual and as a professional.

Insight: Living in a city away from your hometown stretches and challenges you in wonderful ways.

After 18 months in Melbourne I flapped my wings for the second time and transferred with Protiviti to New York City.  I surprised even myself with how quickly I made the decision and enacted the move.  Arriving in NYC was certainly eye-opening.  Let me put it into perspective for you.  The population of Manhattan alone is 5 x my home town – the capital city of New Zealand.  The population of NYC is almost 2 x the whole population of New Zealand.

It took a while to feel at home in NYC and with Protiviti.  It was a big cultural shift.  Society is different.  Business is different.  I put my head down and got to work.  I further honed my leadership skills and began to manage larger teams.  There were some speed bumps with the economy (read: GFC) and the work I was assigned, but I confronted adversity and continued to excel.  Promotions came and my success continued.

After a few years, having done my time in consulting, I made the decision to step out into industry and joined the IT Audit team at BNP Paribas.  That did not work out and I elected to move on after a long 12 months.

Insight: It is perfectly okay to acknowledge that you made a mistake in accepting a job and taking corrective action.  You need to enjoy your work.

The first big role in my career was as the Head of IT Audit for CLS Bank.  I had responsibility for all technology coverage for the company.  I relished the opportunity to build a new team in NYC and to reengineer our processes.  I had significant exposure to the C-suite and to the federal regulators.  It was a broad and expansive role, in which I exceled and became a confident leader.  I enjoyed coaching and inspiring others in the team.

For my next challenge I wanted to have responsibility for a larger team and that was not possible at CLS Bank.  I moved on to Citi and got what I was seeking – a team of 25.  This is where my versatility and leadership experience have combined to pay handsome dividends.  I was the right candidate at the right time.  In my role I cover technology for AML, compliance, finance, tax, human resources, risk, treasury and other corporate functions.  Also add business continuity into the mix.  The early years of my career certainly led to this moment.  This role has cemented my confidence in myself and has given me real ownership. 

This was not the career that I had envisaged, in terms of employers and my transition between them and I had certainly not expected to end up in NYC.  However the steps I have taken, both consciously and subconsciously, have led to my success.  Writing this post has allowed me to reflect on the twists and turns I faced and I don’t think I would change much if I was to do it over.

Insight: Don’t have any regrets in your career.  Make the best of the opportunities that you are presented with and take risks.  You only get to have one career.  Make it the one that you want!