Joyce Ang – Finance Analyst and Mandarin Speaker

Hi, my name is Joyce. I am a finance analyst by profession, trained in reviewing income statements and performing gap analysis. I have five years of corporate experience, hold a Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA), and I am currently taking a second Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Commerce — Financial Planning major.

Fresh from university in 2010, I worked as an office manager where I oversaw daily operations and assisted with administrative tasks such as entertaining clients, workforce scheduling, checking cash flow, maintaining an organised workspace, as well as managing and evaluating staff performance. After nine months of doing so, I received a scholarship grant from the Taiwanese government which allowed me to study Mandarin as a second language and take-up a masters degree. I immediately grabbed the opportunity knowing that the global market’s involvement with trades in China was significantly increasing. I understood that knowing how to speak Mandarin and immersing in the Chinese culture was going to be beneficial in my career.

I had a blast in Taiwan. Not only did I gain the ability to speak another language and receive an additional degree, but I learned heaps from the diverse community I was in. I had classmates from different parts of the world and this taught me to respect each and everyone’s ideas and ways of doing things.

After Taiwan, I moved back home to be with family. Home is the bright and sunny island in the middle of the Philippines called Cebu. I immediately got a job in corporate; first, performing contracts management, data entry and validation, and then progressed to having more complex responsibilities in finance operations. This was where I learned the process of invoicing, deployment, and revenue recognition. Three and a half years passed and an opportunity to be part of the financial planning and analysis team was offered to me. I grabbed it and for a year and a half, I was doing financial reports for the Greater China sales offices and worked with counterparts from Singapore and Australia. I specifically had to manage and update reports every month, monitor key accounts as regularly as possible, perform deep-dive analysis for variance narrative reports, and worked closely with cross-functional teams whose work had an impact on the financials.

This whole time, I felt the pressure to perform better since most of my colleagues were certified accountants or at least had a background in accounting. Hence, I pursued studying financial planning in Australia. Why Australia? It is mainly because I enjoy working with Aussies, but on top of this, it is a lovely place to live.

For a copy of Joyce’s resume please click here.