It’s been an eventful five years since Akshay Khanna immigrated to Australia – he’s settled into a new life in Sydney, welcomed his first child and advanced his career as a Rabobank IT specialist.
And behind the scenes Akshay has been equally productive.
Over the past half-decade he has worked on a number of projects that have significantly eased the process for hundreds of thousands of Rabobank clients using the online banking platform.
Akshay, part of the ITI Cloud and Platform team, helps create the automation infrastructure and resources, test, and deploy hardware and software to support the bank’s IT projects.
It’s a highly technical role, and one in which he has extensive experience thanks to a successful career in his homeland, India.
“My wife and I have always enjoyed travelling, she lived in China for a year and caught the travel bug and I have always been very fond of Australia, so five years ago we packed up our life and moved here.”
Fortunate to gain employment with Rabobank, in his chosen field, within weeks, Akshay said he felt privileged to work alongside great people on genuinely meaningful projects.
“Often in IT the roles are support-based, which can get a little boring. However my role is project-focussed, which is really exciting, challenging and provides so much opportunity to learn new technology and apps,” Akshay said.
Instrumental in the launch of three major IT projects – the ‘FutureTech’ project for Rabobank Online Savings (formally RaboDirect) clientele began in 2017 and went live to customers in April 2019, DCA, for Country Banking clients, went live in 2020 and he is currently working with the cloud-based system, ‘Open Banking’.
They’re projects Akshay is extremely proud of, helping streamline digital processes for both staff and clients.
“The FutureTech & DCA projects were really ground-breaking and improved our system greatly,” he said. “They paved enormous progression and made a huge advance in the bank’s technology, ensuring all systems onboarded are up-to-the-minute, integrated and talk to each other – as well as being comprehensive to use, and are safe against cyber attacks.”
A new interface for online banking was also part of these projects, greatly improving online and mobile banking services.
“And thanks to our current Open Banking project, Rabobank has taken a further giant step towards hosting infrastructure on Public Clouds,” he said.
“Within the past five years Rabobank has taken enormous leaps from its traditional roots, progressing into very technologically sophisticated and cloud focussed systems, all thanks to the vision of our senior leaders.”
However without a doubt, Akshay’s most exciting project since moving to Australia has been the birth of his daughter, now three.
“Working from home has given me a wonderful opportunity to spend time with my family, and I’m so excited to be giving my daughter the opportunity to enjoy the Australian lifestyle,” he said.
The greatest culture shock upon arriving in Australia, he said, was the quiet nightlife, eerie in contrast to India’s bustling evening streetscapes.
“In India the streets come alive at night, where as in Sydney after 6pm you don’t see many people outside, and everything feels very quiet, so that took a bit of getting used to, but we love Sydney and have found the people so polite and kind.”
And while Akshay and his wife continue to maintain much of their Indian culture despite their move to Australia, their daughter is already displaying some Aussie tendencies.
“My wife and I prepare traditional Indian meals each night, but our little one can’t bear any spices – I’m pretty sure she’d prefer vegemite on toast!” he laughed.