Video transcript: Sector Managers & Sector Advisors: What we’re looking for
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Title: Sector Managers & Sector Advisors: What we’re looking for
Gareth Ellis, Assistant Auditor-General, Parliamentary Group:
For a sector manager we're looking for someone with a tertiary qualification ideally with a good few years' experience working at reasonably senior levels in the public sector.
Andrea Reeves, Assistant Auditor-General, Local Government Group:
Despite it being the Office of the Auditor-General you don't need an audit background. The sector managers within the local government team and across the the Office, including in the Parliamentary Group, have a wide variety of experience.
Gareth:
They may have a law or an accounting background but that's not a requirement – that can be helpful. People come from public policy backgrounds, from research roles. We've had psychologists.
Andrea:
While it's useful often to have some financial experience or an understanding of financial information, it's not a prerequisite. What is useful is to be able to come to grips with financial information quickly.
Gareth:
So really it's the the ability to develop and maintain really strong relationships with senior managers, for them to be able to get their heads around lots of information in reasonably short time, to make sense of complex issues.
Andrea:
Well the sector advisor is a new role at the Office. What we're looking for is someone that has more recently got their tertiary qualification and maybe has a couple of years' experience in the public sector. We're looking for people that are enthusiastic about the public sector and people that want to learn and explore about more aspects of the public sector. One of the benefits in the Office is that we get to see all public entities, whether that be councils, central government, government departments, crown entities, state-owned enterprises, and schools.
Gareth:
We want them to be inquisitive, to be analytical, to be able to communicate both clearly – written and verbal communication – and to bring some some energy and ideas in terms of how we as an Office can help improve the work we do to add value to the organisations that we audit.
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