My past

My professional career began in corporate accounting, because I’d studied Business Administration and was told this was the best path for me. In truth, it was the worst path. I never even enjoyed the accounting units, and spent all my time in the library writing stories and letters, and sketching ideas on the back of balance sheets. But I was young back then, and still learning about myself.

I spent two years in Accounts Receivable, then pivoted to a GST Helpdesk role when Australia introduced new GST laws. We had ten thousand staff members who needed to rapidly understand the new concepts, while also not feeling disrespected or criticised, and it turns out I had the right blend of empathy and expertise for the job. It became my superpower.

From there I was invited into a corporate IT role, essentially doing the same job - acting as a kind of middleman, or translator, between high-ego executives and an IT department that just wanted to throw those executives off the roof because they didn't understand how to reconfigure their proxy settings with static IP addresses.

While these roles taught me diplomacy and empathetic influence, my most compelling observations were drawn from how human everyone was. From the CEO to the car park officer, everyone had such rich perspectives on life. We all had challenges and aspirations, and baggage, and beauty. We all contained multitudes, as Whitman would say.