Careers & Conversations

Meet Amy Armstrong – Graduate, Canberra

Meet Amy, a professional who's traded her detective hat for an accountant's visor! With a background in Intelligence and Investigations in the police force, Amy knows how to crack cases and balance the books. She's gone from chasing suspects to chasing spreadsheets, and she's making number crunching look cooler than ever. Amy is now using her analytical and investigation skills in the Restructuring and Recovery division, where Amy's sleuthing skills and financial finesse make for a dynamic duo.

Personal Life

WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT YOUR LOCATION?

I grew up in the country in the Snowy Mountains and moved to Canberra toward the end of my school years. Growing up in a small country town was excellent – I had all the typical country-kid experiences and having close access to the snow fields was a big win as I love skiing and snowboarding. 

For me, the transition to Canberra was easy as it feels just like a big country town but offers great lifestyle choices for everyone who lives and works here, with the bonus of being relatively close to Sydney, the coast and the snow! I recently started a family of my own and the ability to comfortably balance work life with my home life without making sacrifices is a real advantage. 

TELL US SOMETHING WE DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU… YET.

I’m a very big fan of American Sports! I love NFL, NBA and am a die-hard NHL fan! I previously played Floorball for Australia; it’s a little-known sport that is a bit similar to ice hockey and indoor hockey, and that’s where my love of watching ice-hockey stemmed from (I am terrible at ice skating, otherwise I’d probably take up playing ice hockey).

The Boston Bruins are my NHL team and I also enjoy getting behind the Canberra Brave in the local Australian Ice Hockey League. I travelled to Boston in 2017 and was actually lucky enough to meet a bunch of the Boston Bruins players, including Zdeno Chara who at the time was the captain of the team and had previously led the 2011 Bruins team to a Stanley Cup win! He was so friendly, engaging and humble…. And tall! He towered over me at 6 feet and 9 inches!!

Professional Life

WHAT DID YOU DO PREVIOUSLY? WHAT LED YOU DOWN THIS PARTICULAR CAREER PATH?

Prior to starting with RSM, I worked in law enforcement for 10 years (seven years in policing) and three and a half years in the public service, where my roles were predominantly in the intelligence or investigations space. I started my career as a graduate with Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (now Border Force) working in intelligence and moved across to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) whilst in the intelligence field. Through working at the AFP, I learned a lot about the role of sworn police officers in the community and that’s when I decided to undertake recruit training and move into the field of investigations.

In my policing career I worked as a general duties police officer and had exposure to numerous different jobs, crime types and investigations, where I found I particularly enjoyed investigating fraud matters. After quite some time, I resigned from the AFP due to the shift work and mental health impacts associated with policing. I then worked in an investigation’s role in the public service for a few years, but there wasn’t a lot of scope for training or professional development. This led me to a full pivot in my career and a new role in restructuring and recovery with RSM, where I can easily utilise my intelligence and investigations skill sets to progress insolvency matters, while also having a lot of opportunities for professional development and learning new things

WHAT IS THE BEST PIECE OF PROFESSIONAL ADVICE YOU HAVE EVER RECEIVED?

I’ve received a few gems of professional advice which I’ve carried through my entire career:

“Building a career is like building a house – if you don’t build a stable foundation, it will fall down around you”. The intent is to build a career where every stage of the promotional process is underpinned by a solid base of skills, knowledge, leadership and the ability to do your job properly and “You can learn something from everyone, whether it be the janitor or the CEO”.

I can’t remember who told me the first two pieces of advice, but the third advice I received was “If you’re on time, you’re late”. I learned that one from one of my Sergeants when I was a Constable in General Duties Policing. It was a good reminder that being a little bit early for work shifts/events/other things is always a positive, and I’ve certainly had many good networking and other opportunities since simply by just being 5 minutes early!

Life at RSM

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN RESTRUCTURING AND RECOVERY? WHAT ARE THE COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS PEOPLE HAVE ABOUT BEING A GRADUATE?

I’ve been with RSM, and in R&R, for eight months. A common misconception I get as a graduate is that people sometimes think I am younger (not complaining about that one!) and have much less professional work experience. I often get asked about why I pivoted my career path to start again as a graduate. 

For me, I really value learning and professional development, so taking the leap to start a career in a new field meant that I had those opportunities. Although I have well-developed work experience and skill sets which I utilise daily, the field of insolvency is still new to me and I feel it’s really important that I learn all the required technical skills at a graduate level before I progress in my career.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE CULTURE IN YOUR OFFICE/DIVISION

I find the culture in the Canberra office to be very friendly, supportive and inclusive! My team specifically have a great balance of being able to have fun with each other whilst also being professional, hardworking, productive and achieving all our targets and deadlines.

One of the biggest drawcards for me is that there are always opportunities to get involved. There are plenty of social opportunities - through challenges that raise money for charity (ie: ‘Movember’) or participating in sport-related networking days (such as the Young Chartered Accountants Netball tournament), as well as work-related opportunities through training and professional development sessions run both in-house and externally to RSM, or even office morning teas (celebrating World Donut Day with the office was great fun)! It certainly brings a great work-life-social balance to the office!