Career Journey: Here’s how I progressed from a junior architect to a Big Four partner

Julie Hood is a partner in the operational transaction services (OTS) team, which is part of transaction advisory services, at Ernst & Young. She spent seven years with the firm in London before returning to Melbourne in 2008. In the first part of her Q&A with eFinancialCareers, she discusses her career progression from Auckland architect to partner at a Big Four firm.

I have an unusual and diverse background. I left school at 16 when I was awarded a cadetship as a junior architect and worked and studied full-time to gain my Diploma of Architecture. Then, as soon as I qualified, I headed off travelling for 18 months. It was a truly grounding and humbling experience, especially as I was fortunate enough to travel through some remote communities that weren’t really back-packer friendly at the time.

When I arrived in Australia from NZ, I took a job at Deakin University as a construction project manager and then progressed to some senior operational roles over a nine and a half year period. I worked on many major projects and was a sort of troubleshooter at a broad operational level. They supported me through a Bachelor of Commerce and then an Executive MBA, which allowed my career to morph into management and broader operations.

I then moved to London and I felt that my experience as an internal advisor on broad transformation projects in a corporate environment was a great foundation for a career in advising or consulting. I was drawn to the way the Big Four balance the financial and operational requirements of clients. I interviewed with a number of firms and for me, Ernst & Young came out on top partly because of their entrepreneurial style and ethos. Plus I got a sense of an underpinning team culture, and I knew that joining a financially-analytical environment would be important for me.

Ernst & Young recognised the benefits that my industry experience could bring to support their clients’ challenges and they offered me a role helping to set up what was one of the foundation teams of operational transaction services. It felt like a natural fit and I was able to leverage from my diverse background, my operational management experiences from Deakin and the mergers and complex change projects I had worked on.

Operational transaction services

There are 50 people in our OTS team nationally. We are a unique set in the transactional space, who focus on those operational challenges our clients face; it is very exciting work and addictive work. The broader transactions advisory team covers M&A advisory, financial due diligence, project finance, economic advisory, valuations and modelling, corporate restructuring and project finance.

Making partner

The progression to partnership is based on your personal ability, your alignment with the partnership values and then a commercial business case. Timing was important, taking into account my family and where we wanted to live. We made the decision that we wanted to be in Melbourne and I therefore needed to come back and establish myself in that business and that market.

Also if you overlay that with the economic environment – the commercial business case needs to be sound for future success and I wasn’t prepared to scrape through on the business-case front. Early years of partnership are tough enough and you need a solid foundation for success. Ernst & Young is a meritocracy – if you are good at what you do and you continue to grow in your career and take opportunities, it is as much as putting yourself out there and making the most of those opportunities.

Challenges and achievements

I believe the biggest career challenge I have faced was making the transition from an operational-industry role to a totally new professional services environment. It was a big step confidence-wise, but I was adamant that my background and skills could add value. Learning how to put my skills in to practice was a challenge, but I am grateful that I was given the opportunity.

Ultimately, achieving partnership is my greatest achievement, and being recognised as a leader in the field of operational transaction support, particularly at an international level. I am also very proud of my recent achievements outside of the firm; I have been appointed to the board of Plan International Australia, a not-for-profit charity devoted to supporting the rights of children. I have mentored students from the Melbourne Business School and I am also part of the RMIT Business Planning competition, which allows me to share my insights and experience.

The future

Ernst & Young has been a brilliant part of my career and will continue to be for many years yet. There are so many interesting options ahead: it may be a senior operational role globally, a markets role in a defined sector, the chance to set up this team overseas, or stepping up to boards. It is hugely exciting for me to not know where my career is going to take me next.

I would like to spend some more time overseas and I feel very fortunate to work for an international organisation. Because I was in London for so long and worked in Europe and the US during that period, I feel I have a global reputation. I will be able to use that network when the timing is right for me and my family.

Read part two: Here’s how to build a successful career in a Big Four accounting firm