Varied Perspectives Shape Jess’s Career

With her Dad farming in China and her Mum selling macadamia’s directly into large retail outlets, it’s no wonder Jess Ziesemer’s career interest comes with lots of variety.

Her earliest memories of agriculture were alongside her Dad on their family cattle and cropping property in South-West Queensland, while her sisters were off at school, Jess fondly remembers,

“going around with him in the ute and I could name every breed of cattle!”

While she mastered the different breeds of cattle, it was a new adventure on a macadamia farm that would become the next challenge for the family.

“It was pretty eye-opening going from South Western Queensland to the coast. It was a good lifestyle change and we were near the beach all the time which was unreal.”

“Macadamia production is pretty intense. Mum had her own line which she would sell into the likes of David Jones.”

With her Dad heading off to pursue an opportunity in China, Jess’s perspective of Agriculture would become even more broad,

“It was really cool. It was such a different life. We went over there and visited him a few times which really opened our eyes.”

“there's so many different things that you can do. There's so much more opportunity in other places. So that probably started my mind going ‘what else can you do’”

After finishing high school and unsure what to do next, her older sister suggested that life on a cattle station could be of interest, next thing you know, Jess was headed straight to the Northern Territory.

“I learnt heaps and it was so good. It taught me to work and I really liked the hard work.”

“I loved mustering, yarding up was my favourite, when the sun’s going down it was always good.”

After a year in the Territory, she moved across into the gulf,

“It was really good. But it was so different to the territory as in like working wise, like, yeah, the territory was like, it taught me to work.

I'd done three years in the north full-time which was good, probably a pretty long stint for a girl up there and was probably ready to go.”

After three years on cattle stations across Northern Australia, Jess decided the time was right for further education and she settled on an Agribusiness degree at Marcus Oldham in Geelong, VIC.

“I loved my second year Marcus, because it was a lot more concentrated on different ideas within agriculture, not just fully on-farm, which I had probably done my on farm stuff. I was keen to do something different and learn more about different operations”

“We then started to look at overseas stuff. And I was always really interested in overseas, like farming and potential, I think because Dad was in China. And I would always talk to him when I was at Marcus and throw around silly ideas by him and every presentation we ever did, I'd always do mine on Romania or something, and everyone would always laugh at what I was doing.”

Keen to head home, Jess headed back to Queensland after graduating,

“I bumped into Nick Turnbull one day, and he said ‘we're looking for someone at LAWD’, it was very relaxed, then two days after I had a coffee with Tim [McKinnon]”

“he had my resume printed out and he just ticked off people that we knew and places that I've worked”

“I always knew I wanted to do something that had like that [valuations]. You get to see a lot of operations and it had like the variety with the job which so then when I started I was like, Oh, I honestly fell in love. They always say that they [opportunities] don't fall in your lap, but this job honestly fell in my lap and it was the perfect one for me as such because you get to see so much, it's so diverse.”

Now an Assistant Valuer, Jess is completing a post-grad in Property to become fully accredited.

She heads along to most property inspections and writes valuations with the senior members of the team.

The team at LAWD have turned into great mentors for Jess, “They’re definitely something I aspire to be and they help me so much.”

Now 18-months in, Jess mentions that there is pressure in the job and quite a lot of travel. However, it’s the experience and exposure early on in her career that she is relishing.

“I’m in the office at 7am and work pretty late to get things done, especially at the moment. I like that though, the environment of working hard.”

“And we have a lot of fun as well which is really good and I think it’s pretty important. I think LAWD attracts people like that, that want to work hard. And I think that’s why it has grown so much and been so successful, because the people want to work hard.”

- Jess

Images supplied by Jess.