What's your job about?

The ANAO provides independent reporting to the Parliament on the financial and non-financial performance of Australian Government entities. A key assurance product we produce for the Parliament is performance audit reports. Our role as performance auditors is to scrutinise everything that government entities do—from procurement to grants administration to corporate planning—to make sure they are delivering their functions in an effective, efficient, economical, and ethical manner.

After completing a grad year in 2019, I grew my skills and knowledge to the point where I started working as one of the audit managers working in the Performance Audit Services Group. As a manager, I lead my team through the audit process to deliver a quality performance audit report. A typical performance audit process begins with scoping the audit topic (which varies enormously). Then we start collecting evidence from auditees and conduct detailed analysis to see how the entities are performing against our audit criteria. At the end of the process, we produce a report making audit findings, conclusions, and, importantly, recommendations to improve public sector performance. These reports are tabled in the Parliament and also published on the ANAO website.

What's your background?

I was born in South Korea and moved to Australia when I was 10 years old. I grew up and went to school on the Central Coast, in NSW. I became an Australian citizen in 2013—just in time for university. I studied for a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of International Studies at UNSW, which included a year on exchange in Paris.

I knew fairly early on in my uni degree that, despite studying law, I wasn’t really interested in becoming a practising lawyer. I was more interested in public policy and had my mind set on entering the Australian Public Service on graduation.

Like many others, I worked part-time through university. During my last couple of years at uni, I worked for a small research company that specialised in analysis of government policy on IT. This was when I first came across and became familiar with the work of the ANAO, as it frequently reports on government IT projects. I remember being impressed by the quality of analysis in the ANAO’s performance audit reports, including how they provided a level of transparency on government spending that I could not find anywhere else.

I graduated in 2018 and was successful in applying for the 2019 ANAO graduate program—and I have been working here as a performance auditor ever since. I became an audit manager in 2023 and saw the first audit I managed tabled in Parliament in May 2024.

Could someone with a different background do your job?

Yes, absolutely. The ANAO scrutinises all functions of the Australian Government sector—which means we need people who have backgrounds and knowledge in health, defence, education, finance, law, social services, the environment, and everything in between. The most important thing is to be open-minded and curious, because every audit is different, and there is a lot of variety in the work you will encounter here. Having an eye for detail, critical thinking, and decent writing skills would also be helpful.

What's the coolest thing about your job?

Seeing your work leading to actual meaningful change within the public service is one of the best things about being a performance auditor. The findings we make and the recommendations we provide lead to tangible improvements in the way government entities spend public funds and deliver essential services for the Australian community. It is not uncommon for us to be the only organisation looking into or uncovering certain issues in the public sector that would otherwise go unnoticed. It is a very rewarding job.

What are the limitations of your job?

There is no university degree or other tertiary qualification you can pursue to ‘become’ a performance auditor. While the ANAO provides extensive training for graduates and new starters, it can be a steep learning curve when you first join. It can take a good couple of years until you feel ‘comfortable’ in your role as performance auditor.

Due to the nature of our work, which frequently involves making negative findings about other entities, the ANAO also has very strict standards for quality, which can be difficult to adjust to if you are not used to working in very detail-oriented workplaces.

3 pieces of advice for yourself when you were a student...

• Don’t be limited by the ‘typical’ career pathway that your degree offers. Just because you studied law, it doesn’t mean that you must become a lawyer, or else your degree is ‘wasted.’ There are so many rewarding career options available to those with an open mind.
• Travel—whether overseas or locally. As the saying goes, it broadens your mind and will give you some valuable experiences to look back on in future years.
• Put your hand up for things and give them a go. Opportunities are everywhere, and you never know where you might end up.