Caroline has two degrees and found it difficult to find her first professional job like most young people entering the jobs market during the pandemic.
Now she’s a Financial Crime Analyst working for one of Australia’s top banks. Caroline spoke to us about why she chose Wiley Edge and how the training helped her build the skills she needed to start her career fighting financial crime.
I have two degrees under my belt, I have a Bachelor of Arts majoring in both French and Korean and a Master of Applied Econometrics from the University of Queensland in 2020.
At the end of my master's degree, I was in a weird state of having gone through a lot of tertiary learning but not much work experience. Trying to find a job during COVID where the market was so uncertain was difficult; while it was easy for me to reach the final stage in many interviews, I was never hired due to my lack of experience.
I found Wiley Edge when I was contacted directly by a recruiter through LinkedIn. I was asked if I would be interested in a banking role which surprised me because I was already considering a job in that industry.
What I appreciated most from Wiley Edge was the recognition that graduates lack certain skills and experience. As such, we’re not fully qualified in the careers we're interested in. We need training, we need experience, and banking is very much a bottleneck industry that we're trying to break into. Thankfully, Wiley Edge has helped me in all of these areas!
When I finished my bachelor, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do next. I've always been a creative person. By the time I finished my arts degree, I had developed a lot of soft skills; critical thinking, persuasive writing, public speaking, etc. That was a strength of mine, but I lacked the hard skills - which is strange because for most people it's the reverse!
I chose econometrics because in high school I discovered that despite being a very creative person, I was also strangely analytical.
When I did my first subject in the econometrics introductory course I discovered that a lot of students were finding it difficult and few went on to major in it. Despite the fact I hadn't done maths in years I found it relatively easy to learn, so I thought that there’s something to be explored here.
One thing I was often made aware of was that there weren’t enough people with statistical knowledge, which is what econometrics truly is.
When I found out econometrics was only statistics through an economics lens, I thought it was worthwhile to pursue. And it certainly has been. In hindsight, I recognise that I am better at scrutinising what I'm reading and researching. So I am pleased to say, by the end of my master's degree, I had worked conscientiously on both my hard and soft skills!
I think the beauty of my degrees is that they're transferable; you can apply them in any area of work, in any workplace and in any country.
Maths and statistics can always be used - whether it’s for an analytical role or a role where you are expected to appreciate the numbers that have been generated for you.
It's not so much the knowledge that I've acquired from my degrees that has been useful, but rather what I have cultivated in my lateral thinking ability – to be about to see the forest even though my role focuses only on the trees. In that sense, I often ask the question, ‘how does my work fit into the regulatory and knowledge framework of financial crime?’
