I joined the ANAO as part of the Assurance Audit Services Group graduate program in 2011, having decided on a career change in 2009. My background was establishing and managing travel agencies with one of Australia's leading travel companies; ie private sector, fast paced, small teams and service oriented.

I studied accounting at the University of Canberra as a mature student, and decided that Audit was where I wanted to specialise. I chose to transition to the public sector as I wanted to gain employment experience with the Government, to complement my private industry experience.

The ANAO was recommended to me as being a great place to work, particularly for the professional learning and development opportunities, and I was very proud to have been offered the opportunity to commence on the graduate program. I believe that it was a fantastic foundation for my audit career. I was exposed to financial statement audits of both large and small clients, which gave me insight into the unique circumstances and challenges facing differing government businesses.

Training was, and continues to be, a combination of in-house and external classroom style courses and on-the-job learning. I have been given real responsibilities for financial statement line items from the beginning, and I enjoy the professional relationships that I have with my colleagues and our clients. I have recently joined our Audit Methodology Support team and I look forward to making a contribution in terms of developing audit quality.

As part of my graduate year, I spent seven weeks on rotation to the HR department, undertaking an e-Learning development project, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It enabled me to use some of my transferrable skills and interact with colleagues in other groups of the organisation.

During my time with the ANAO, I have been guided and supported by my colleagues, team leaders and audit managers. I enjoy working in the professional and highly respected environment of the ANAO, with interesting and knowledgeable people, and I look forward to a long and successful career in public sector audit. Travel remains my hobby, but is no longer my vocation.