Growing up, no one told Caroline that living with low vision would hold her back, but she was well aware of the challenges it would pose later in life.
“I was never told directly that my eye condition would hold me back, however, myself and others were well aware that it would mean I couldn’t do certain things and that finding a job may be difficult,” Caroline said.
After completing a Bachelor of Business as well as two short summer internships, Caroline joined the Vision Australia Career Start program in 2016 to give herself more opportunities at advancing her career.
The program is open to graduates who are blind or have low vision and provides a nine-month paid position at Vision Australia and a three-month placement at an external organisation.
At Vision Australia, Caroline joined the People and Culture team, gaining experience across a number of different roles and responsibilities.
“During my time in People and Culture, I was involved in advertising new roles, onboarding new staff members, liaising with hiring managers, and helping drive process improvements initiatives across the company.”
Caroline was seconded out to PTV for three months as part of the program.
Following the Career Start program, she secured a role in the ANZ graduate program that eventually led to a permanent position with the major bank.
“I’m currently working as a business analyst/scrum master within the customer authentication space at ANZ,” she said.
“I’ve been at ANZ for almost five years now, and in my current role for just over three years.”
Caroline’s role at ANZ comes with a range of competing tasks, including business analysis, stakeholder management, dependency management and feature planning/prioritisation.
“The Career Start program provided me a safe environment to use and sharpen all the skills I had developed throughout my life, which in turn gave me reassurance in myself that I could be successful within the corporate landscape.”
Having benefited from the Career Start program, Caroline encouraged others in similar circumstances to make the most of any opportunity.
“By jumping onto every opportunity I could find, as well as the supports that were available to me, I was able to set myself up for success.
“Rather than considering my eye condition as a hindrance, I see that the resilience and adaptability it has forced me to develop, are in fact two key assets that have allowed me to achieve success in multiple facets of my life, including my career. The Career Start program helped me recognise this.”
Applications for Vision Australia’s Career Start program for 2022 are now open. To apply, or to find out more about the program, click here.