Finance Officer

SA Housing Authority finance officer Bernardino plays an important financial role in the Authority’s social and affordable housing projects. Bernardino tells about his experience of joining the Authority through our Graduate Program.

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Bernardino:  “Well, I wanted to obviously work – graduated with a commerce and property degree – and I wanted to move into the accounting industry and work as an accountant. I noticed that the Housing Authority was looking for a graduate accountant on the ‘I Work For SA” careers portal. I noticed that because it was housing I had a property degree as well that would definitely help with my chances.

From there I applied and I was interviewed by my manager – the head of finance and partnerships here at Housing. I sat down with her for an interview, and she awarded me the position, and subsequently she explained the graduate program to me and told me that it would be a rotation among the different areas of finance, which really interested me because of my accounting and property qualifications – probably best suited into understanding how a particular area of Housing works.

That’s really how I started to get involved in the program itself – a taste of everything really and not just every area of finance and partnerships but the other teams that area related to finance – whether it be the Property Services division where they’re currently undergoing  a lot of construction of new social housing, which is currently what I am doing right now in my current role because I have a lot to do with them – the Capital  Finance team, I’m the project accountant and constantly reporting on all their projects.

The good thing about – at least my experience with the graduate program – was it was very beneficial because it wasn’t just accounting-related – although while I was working in finance and it was all accounting-based, a lot of it is to do with a wide range of areas, particularly the Property Services area, and customers and services, and so I would recommend other graduates to take part, even if they are not in finance – they can use their other skills in different aspects of the Authority.

I wanted to work in actual government, and so I felt that this was the best place to start out my career because I was able to understand broad aspects of how government works while working in the different areas of finance.

So, yes, it has been a good stepping stone for my career.

Still here within the Authority, perhaps in a greater capacity hopefully one day – that’s where I see myself in five years. I would like to use my property knowledge as well with the finance team. I’m currently working as an accountant and would like to use all my other skills to help the Authority as well. So in five years I’d like to still be here in a good capacity.”

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