A year in the life of a graduate at Macquarie – Jessica Soligo's story

Jessica Soligo has appreciated the opportunity to expand her skills and work on projects that shape how Macquarie grows its business.

By Jessica Soligo 

After studying a Bachelor of Mathematics and Finance (Honours), I joined Macquarie’s Graduate Program, where I work in the Capital Management and Projections team within Group Treasury.

Group Treasury is part of the Financial Management Group, and works on capital and funding, liquidity and interest-rate risk management of Macquarie's balance sheet. It also manages Macquarie's liquid-asset portfolio and is responsible for managing debt investor, rating agency and banking relationships.

It’s an interesting division, because you get to work on projects that help determine how Macquarie allocates capital to grow its business. I work on Macquarie’s capital strategy across a wide range of projects.

One of the highlights of my graduate year has been being involved with Macquarie’s engagement with government regulators for a recently completed internal transaction. It’s very rewarding to be part of such a project and then see it announced. It’s certainly more than I thought I’d be doing in my graduate year.

Away from my desk, I’ve also enjoyed some of the extracurricular activities that Macquarie offers. I was part of the Financial Management Group’s team in the tug-of-war challenge and helped to organise a Group Treasury “beep test”. Both raised money for charity through the Macquarie Group Foundation.

I have loved how the Graduate Development Program has allowed me to continually learn and develop in my role. That’s really important to me. I’ve had the support of so many people through the program during my graduate year. I’ve also benefited from organised events throughout the year that help graduates on the program develop skills, such as business writing, which weren’t as much of a focus at university.