If you’re offered the chance to learn something new at work, grab it with both hands, says Samantha Lazarus, who today clocks up 40 years at The Australian Industry Group.
“You just never know when it might be useful,” she said.
“Saying ‘yes’ has given me the opportunity to keep reinventing myself.”
Samantha, Ai Group’s National Cloud Applications Specialist (and longest serving member of staff), joined the Victorian Chamber of Manufactures, a precursor to Ai Group, as a Junior Accounts Receivable Clerk on Monday, October 3, 1983.
“During my first five years, the business moved from manual typewriters to word processing and from manual-based bookkeeping to a basic accounting and membership system,” she recalls.
“I learnt as much as I could during this time and in 1988, I was given the opportunity to work in the newly created IT department.
“For the next 30+ years, I did everything from helpdesk support, telephone system and network management, through to web production and marketing.
“Now in my 40th year, I’ll be delving headlong into the world of data sensitivity management.”
Ai Group’s Chief Executive Innes Willox, pictured with Samantha, and IT Director Mark Schmidt led tributes at a celebration in Melbourne this morning.
Wendy Larter is Communications Manager at the Australian Industry Group. She has more than 20 years’ experience as a reporter, features writer, contributor and sub-editor for newspapers and magazines including The Courier-Mail in Brisbane and Metro, the News of the World, The Times and Elle in the UK.
