Caitlyn Desanges

Caitlyn Desanges has always enjoyed maths and problem solving, but was keen to stop studying and switch from part-time wages to a full-time job when she left school. 

She started chasing full-time retail roles, without success.

“This opened my eyes a little bit to what it was going to take for me to actually get a job. Someone I knew at the time handed me the ad for the one-year diploma in accounting. I thought: ‘Sure, why not? At least then I’ll be doing something productive.’ So I enrolled.”

Fast forward eight years and Caitlyn is now the management accountant at an ahu whenua trust which is involved in the geothermal power, farming, horticulture and tourism sectors.

The trust employed and supported Caitlyn all the way through her Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology studies, giving her the income she craved, as she completed two diplomas and a Bachelor of Applied Management majoring in accounting.  

“I began my first year of study as a full-time student. Someone I knew sent me an ad for a full-time junior accounts person, because they knew it was what I had started studying. I applied for the job and was successful. My employer was very flexible and allowed me to start part-time, so I could still attend my classes as a full-time student and finish the level 5 diploma.”  

When Caitlyn finished the course, her work hours increased to full-time but she knew she wanted to learn more.

“I realised how much I loved what I was doing and I wanted to make a real future and career out of it. The following year I enrolled in the level 6 diploma, working full-time and studying part-time instead.”

It took Caitlyn two years to complete the additional diploma and when she finished she was quickly promoted to assistant accountant. The diploma also enabled her to become a registered accounting technician with the Chartered Accountants Australia and NZ (CAANZ).

Caitlyn was grateful for the promotion, but her ambition kept rising. 

“Once I got a taste for how far this could end up taking me, after my first promotion, this gave me the real motivation and fire to work hard and keep progressing, which meant continuing on to the end and completing the degree.” 

Caitlyn was able to cross-credit her diplomas to count as the first two years of the Bachelor of Applied Management, which meant she needed to complete seven more papers, the equivalent of one year of full-time study, to gain the degree. She chose the longer route, continuing to work full-time and study part-time. 

“I enjoyed the fact that the majority of my degree was in a classroom setting. I was lucky enough to be allowed to work flexible hours so I could attend my classes and make the time for learning. If I had needed to do study via correspondence it would have been a lot harder,” says Caitlyn.

When she completed the degree, she was promoted to her current role of management accountant. She loves the challenges that each work day brings: “No one day is the same”. Her tasks include completing annual management budgets, reporting weekly and monthly financial performance to the board, and writing internal control procedures. 

“I get extreme satisfaction seeing something come together, that I have produced from start to finish. I enjoying problem solving and finding solutions to streamline activities. I have been lucky in that I did start from the ‘bottom’ here, so I have been able to learn a very broad range of tasks across the finance department.”

Caitlyn says learning while she was earning in the same industry was hugely beneficial, because it gave her extra opportunities to apply her new knowledge in the real world and also means she now doesn’t have to pay back a student loan.

She’s even ticked off some more study since her degree. She’s turned her new-found love of exercise into a personal training qualification and her ultimate goal is to one day combine her passions for accountancy, business, health and exercise by owning and operating her own gym.