REA : Procurement to Springboard to Delivery Manager

I reached out to Rachel and asked her a few questions all about her career journey and uncovered some great insight on developing a meaningful career.

Rachel, tell us about your career before REA?

I studied Commerce, so my graduate career started out in various accounting and finance roles in the private sector. After a few years I moved into local government to an Assistant Accountant role. During this time, I was presented with an internal secondment opportunity in Procurement for major projects and I took it with both hands. Over the next 4 years I continued in local and state-wide government project procurement roles, working with 79 councils across the state. It was during this time that I developed a passion for technology and driving adoption of technology (a common challenge in government) working on a range of state-wide initiatives from a data-driven improvement program to access to solar panels for pensioners through their council rates.

And your career at REA?

My career at REA has created opportunities I never could have imagined. I joined REA nearly 4.5 years ago when I wanted a challenge in a fast-paced digital environment, of which REA is a leader. My interest in tech grew further working directly with our technology vendors. I learnt as much as I could about our various platforms in the process, including our agile and lean software development practices.

A year in, the pilot of the Springboard Program came up and I was lucky enough to be selected to head off to the General Assembly Web Development course. After returning 3 months later, I joined the Data Services tribe as an Associate Developer, but I quickly found my passion was more in the Business Analysis space, where I gravitated towards creating efficiencies, documentation, improving the system of work, removing blockers, and working alongside a very talented development team on exciting data initiatives and products.

When an opportunity presented itself, I applied for a Delivery Lead role in Data Services. I had been doing all I could to upskill for an opportunity like this and with the support of my mentors, I took the step and landed the role. Drawing on my previous experience, it wasn't long before I was looking after multiple squads and was promoted into a Senior Delivery role within the tribe. As the tribe continued to evolve, there were opportunities to expand my remit and gain broader exposure across a larger portfolio of work, this set me up for the Delivery Manager role in the Financial Services group that I am in today, allowing me to continue refining my delivery craft whilst drawing on my previous experiences in the financial services sector.

What do you love about your job?

In my role, the best part is helping others develop their careers, find mentors, follow their passions - especially knowing myself how much courage it can take to change direction. It's much easier to avoid thinking about your career development and get lost in the day-to-day.

I also love the people and culture at REA and being surrounded by such high performers. I think it's great how much REA values career development with so many great initiatives like Springboard and Women in Tech, Mentoring, Leadership and Rotation programs - we don't just talk about it, we actually live our values.

What has been a pivotal moment for you in your career?

Reflecting on this, there have been many pivotal moments that led to a major change in my career, but they all have one thing in common - they have occurred when a great manager has encouraged me to step outside of my comfort zone and try something new. These moments stand out as the ones I have learnt from the most.

What is the best career advice you have received?

I've had lots of great advice from mentors, but my favourite is to hire people that are smarter than you - it will help the team and the company, and you will learn from them too.

What do you think has been an important learning for you as a leader?

You don't need to be a people leader to be a leader - you can look for opportunities to step up and lead in any role - it all counts, and you'll learn from it.

I acted in team lead roles on and off early in my career, where I had some very difficult situations, but they were great opportunities to learn about people. It helps to be in a place like REA where everyone genuinely cares and want to do a good job.

I'm a huge fan of the lateral move, my lateral moves have given me a good understanding of the many moving parts of a business's operations.

And finally, what do you think 2030 will look like for a career in tech?

The future is bright! There will be roles we don't even know exist yet. We won't see geographical bounds - it will truly be a global talent pool and people can work from anywhere.