Starting My FDM Career in Australia

I came to Australia in 2011 as a 19 year old high school graduate. I packed my bags and flew from Indonesia by myself to start my undergraduate degree in engineering at the Australian National University in Canberra. Fast-forward to 2017 and here I am today, working for ANZ bank in Melbourne, all due to the opportunities, training and continued support from FDM.

During my studies I worked part-time to gain more work experience and earn extra money to enjoy everything Australia had to offer. Although most of the jobs were physical, these experiences allowed me to have a ‘work-ready’ attitude once I had graduated.

Relocating is not always an easy thing to do, especially when your destination has a totally different culture and language. Communication was the most challenging part for me as I didn’t speak the local language. I still remember the time when I had to make my first phone call here in Oz – I worked exceptionally hard to improve my English as well as my communication skills. I am proud that I am now able to demonstrate this in my day-to-day life and at work.

After completing the 14 weeks of Murex training at FDM’s pop-up academy in Sydney, I secured a role as an Application Support Engineer at ANZ in Melbourne. My responsibilities are to manage the foreign exchange (FX) applications used by traders and clients of ANZ. I maintain and keep the systems ‘healthy’ at all times. My team also acts as the first point of contact to fix issues that traders or clients might have. Ultimately, our team’s goal is to automate as much of the manual work as possible moving forward. This is part of the recent agile transformation project carried out by ANZ. Therefore, my task going forward will be more inclined to a developer role.

The work environment and culture here is awesome. My colleagues are very friendly, welcoming and supportive which has allowed me to quickly adapt to my new role. My advice for future consultants would be to be pro-active, diligent and responsible during their placement.

Overall, my experience at ANZ has been very positive and rewarding. Although there have been some challenging days at work, they have enabled me to continue to learn new things. I believe hard-work pays off! Good luck to all future consultants and thank you to James and Joe for the opportunities and this experience.

Find out how FDM’s graduate careers program can launch your career with one of many of our high-profile clients.