Banking
The first job Ann-Marie Chamberlain had was making tea and coffee for the bank branch boss in an era when every white-collar worker was addressed as Miss, Mr or Mrs. If a woman was promoted to be first teller it was a real feat.
The workplace today, including the financial sector, is a different story, one where women fill many senior positions, reports TRACIE McPHERSON.
JUST one comment changed the direction of Ann-Marie Chamberlain's career. It was after more than a decade in various roles at the National Australia Bank that a basic truth was reiterated.
"I was the only female at my level, but I was looking for something more. I really wanted to work towards management,'' she says.
"One of the senior staff knew I was holding back and told me that it was up to me to speak up and let my ambitions be known. If I didn't, how could I hope for the bank to guess where I wanted to be?'' Ms Chamberlain began her career in the bank in 1981, after leaving school. She now holds the position of state manager retail, overseeing operations and strategic direction in South Australia and the Northern Territory.
"Part of my role is in assessing our results in terms of operations each week, and then determining what strategies we need to implement in following weeks to meet performance commitments,'' she says. The greater time is spent away from her King William St offices, visiting branches and service centres and overseeing new projects and strategies.
"I don't really like sitting behind a desk so this job is perfect,'' Ms Chamberlain says.
In the 24 years of her career, she has worked in Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane. "My first job was making tea and coffee for the boss,'' she says.
"I worked at the Aberfoyle Park branch. It was the era when everyone was Miss, Mister or Mrs. "Back in those days if a woman made it to first teller it was a real feat.
"But now the bank offers a lot more flexibility, and as a result we are attracting more dynamic women who are holding significant roles in the system.''
For Ms Chamberlain her first significant role was as a loans officer in Adelaide city. She then moved to Sydney as a loans officer.
"That is one of the advantages of working for a national organisation,'' she says. "I've been able to live in different cities and take on a broad variety of roles. It's meant my work has always been challenging.''
After a short stint in Sydney the banker was transferred to Brisbane, securing a level in which she was the only female. "I learned about sugar cane, farming, beef, and agriculture in Brisbane. The nature of banking is that we interface with all sorts of businesses, industries and people across the community.'' With a plan to reach a management role by the time she was 30, Ms Chamberlain returned to Adelaide in 1994.
By September that year, she was appointed as a business banking manager. Though banking in the 1980s is viewed as archaic by today's standards, the environment and demands have given many long-term staff an understanding beyond the average banker.
"Many of us who have been at the bank for a while started in branches, worked in customer service, foreign currency, lending and investments,'' she says. "Much of our customers' paperwork was done at branch level, whereas banks have centralised these operations over the past decade.''
In recognition of the value customers place in being able to have their banking needs met at one location, the NAB is decentralising some of its operations.
Under the banner of Customer First, the NAB will bring more staff into branches across SA, along with the full realm of banking services.
"It is the right way to go to provide for the expectations of customers,'' Ms Chamberlain says.
"We are heading towards an exciting time and I am in the fantastic position of helping to implement what could become a new era of banking.''
By Tracie McPherson, The Advertiser, March 18 2006.
