How Megan Woodbury became a CFO after leaving school at 14

The Australian

14 hours ago

When Megan Woodbury left school at 14, becoming Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a global company wasn't part of her life plan. Neither was juggling three kids, full-time work and study, all while in her mid-20s.
Yet her inherent curiosity and drive to succeed took her from a work experience placement at an employment agency all the way to the top of global tech recruitment company Talent International, where she serves as both CFO and Chief Operating Officer.
Woodbury says her unique career trajectory began with watching her older brother go through the stress of Year 12, which prompted her to approach her school careers adviser.
'I said, 'I don't want to do that. What are the other options?''
'She suggested I do some work experience and got me a role in the local Commonwealth Employment Service (CES).
'It opened my eyes up to the corporate world.'
The CES helped Woodbury find a business administration traineeship with the NSW government.
'I loved it – I loved wearing a suit, I loved having an income and a little bit of independence,' she says.
Megan Woodbury is CFO and Chief Operating Officer at Talent International
When she turned 18 years old, she moved from her hometown of Lismore into the big smoke. That is, Brisbane.
'I didn't know a soul,' Woodbury says.
'But I was able to use my experience in employment agencies to my advantage and found a new job working as a receptionist at a trucking company.
'I used to enjoy working with and observing the company's accountant. I thought what he was doing sounded really interesting.
'I always just showed initiative. He taught me about accounts payable and accounts receivable.'
Building these skills helped Woodbury get her next role as an assistant collections officer, before working as the accounts receivable clerk and then in accounts payable and payroll.
'Along my career I've done almost every single job in the financial remit,' she says.
However, she still had no formal qualifications.
That changed when Woodbury was 23 years old, after a CFO pulled her aside and asked if she'd consider investing in herself.
It was a lightbulb moment. She signed up to her Bachelor of Business and Accounting, before going on to do her Chartered Accountant (CA) training.
'By 25 years old, I was working full time and studying full time. I also had three young children,' Woodbury says.
'I guess you could say I've done it the hard way, the journey to CFO.'
She says she got her big career break about 10 years ago, when her company's CFO and CEO both left overnight.
It was two weeks before the end of the financial year and the audit was about to start. The board of directors came and asked: 'Megan, would you step in and just, you know, do what you can?'
'I'd never been in the C-suite before, so it was a real sink or swim moment,' she says.
'I'm proud to say I swam, and I swam well.
'I've been doing C-suite roles ever since.'
While Woodbury's non-traditional path involved many trade-offs, it also had its benefits.
'I think I had an advantage in that my career hadn't taken flight before I had children,' she says.
'It happened after. The skills of being able to juggle family and study and home life taught me to juggle the pressures of being a CFO.
'It's also given me a deep understanding of what women in the workplace need, with flexibility obviously a key thing.
'I think the Covid-19 pandemic was a blessing in disguise for women in the workplace, with the flexibility in work-from-home arrangements.'
Woodbury explains that she tries to support part-time workers by providing learning and development opportunities, valuing them in the same way as full-time employees and making sure their remuneration is not overlooked.
'Often, part-time employees have to take roles at lower salary points or lower responsibility, but those skills are still there and the growth of the individual is often more present than ever,' she says.
'Now they've got new skills, like the ability to multi-task, the ability to take on additional pressure and still produce outcomes.
'It's actually an advantage to the employer.'
Woodbury says her biggest lesson in her journey to CFO was that you don't need to be the most technical person. Instead, it's the ability to see through the numbers and processes, to trust the people around you and get to the story behind it.
'It's really about building relationships and having a sense of curiosity,' she says.
'I never sat down and said, 'I want to be CFO'.
'I never even sat down and said, 'I want to be an accountant'.
'I just wanted work that empowers me, and that I enjoy, and it's led me here.'
Looking to the future, Woodbury says she sees AI as a major disruptor for the tech and recruitment industry. Yet she also believes recruitment will always be needed. Instead, it's the service delivery that will change.
'For a large organisation like Talent, we've got to be agile and respond quickly, but at the same time, it's difficult because we've got scale that we need to protect,' she says.
'While we might get improved efficiency through automation and AI agents, we're also going to need to change what humans do alongside AI – that is, using AI industry analytics to tell a bigger story and predict market changes ahead of seeing them in our own organisation.
'Those that show genuine curiosity towards new skills, new technology and new opportunities are the people and organisations that will be successful.'
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