I began my working life straight from school as a cadet in the Audit division of one of the big accounting firms in Australia.  The cadetship combined work experience with doing my university degree.  The experience gave me first hand exposure to a large variety of companies and gave me an in-depth understanding of the internal controls, processes and systems that drive a corporation.  But more importantly, I also realised that I didn't want to be an accountant! 

Post university, I then started my banking career as a graduate in the Credit division of a large investment bank in Sydney.  I stayed for three and a half years and then decided to travel to London for a year with my brand new backpack for a working holiday.  The intention was to do some contract work in order to save enough money to go backpacking through Europe for six months.  However, I never ended up using the backpack!   My contracting job was at Education and, after a year, I was offered a permanent job in what is now known as Corporate Banking and so nearly five years later I am still here. 

I love working and living in London.  From a work perspective, London is one of the world's key financial hubs and the sheer size of the market provides great opportunities in terms of both the size and types of transactions that I am involved in.  I also love working with and meeting people from so many different nationalities and cultures.  And of course, there is no way that I could pop over to Paris for a shopping weekend from Sydney.

In a Corporate Banking role, you learn an incredibly broad range of skills. I really believe that it is an excellent foundation and GCRM actively encourages mobility both within the division and other parts of the bank as well as geographically if people so desire.

Corporate Bankers need to be very well-rounded individuals.  You obviously need to be numerate but it's also really important to be able to communicate well, both in terms of writing reports and verbally expressing your conclusions.  You need to be able to work both as part of a deal team and on your own, taking responsibility for delivering to a deadline.  Most importantly, you need to be pro-active and have an inquisitive personality.

GCRM has a fantastic Analyst and Associate programme, which started about two years ago. They're always having training courses, breakfast meetings with senior management or social functions.  As a recently promoted VP, I now feel rather left out!   But I'm aiming on trying to fix that this year.

I tend to work long hours during the week but can usually count on having the weekends as my own.  However, being involved in live transactions sometimes means you can't control client driven deadlines and working the weekend is a necessity.  But it doesn't happen very often and to be honest it goes part and parcel with the opportunity to work on interesting and challenging transactions.

We are encouraged to participate in GCRM wide initiatives and projects.  Sometimes it's a little frustrating as there seems to be so much demand on our time.  But to be honest, once you start getting involved, you realise that not only is it a great opportunity to learn new skills and network with colleagues but that it can also be very rewarding and a lot of fun.  Over the past year, I've been part of a working group implementing a piece of our new credit infrastructure and teams organising a Fun Day for GCRM, where we even had senior management doing three legged races, a softball game Hyde Park and also a wine tasting evening for the GCRM Woman's Network.  In particular, it's also given me the opportunity to give something back to the community by taking part in the Young Enterprise Scheme, where three colleagues and I were advisors to a group of local school students who had to set up and run their own company over the course of the year.

If I didn't work in finance and could have any job at all - I'd love to be a florist.  I think it would be really satisfying, if only you didn't have to get up so early.

Outside work, my boyfriend and I spend as much time travelling as possible.  We love finding out of the way places to stay and good restaurants.  After five years without a car, we have recently succumbed in order to further explore the U.K.  Although at the moment, I get most excited about using it to carry the shopping!   We also enjoy going to the theatre and of course, inviting friends around for barbeques.