My Career Journey

I’ve always been drawn to do things I enjoy and find interesting rather than an ultimate ‘Career goal’. I’ve not had the “I would like to be a….(insert job)” moment, but never say never!

This approach has taken me to many different places – Sports Science, Gymnastics coaching, Physics, Physics Education Research, Business Technology Change, Financial Planning, Learning and Development, Cash Flow Planning.

It’s a nice exercise to look for common themes across all your past and current experiences/jobs, for example, from the above there emerges coaching and teaching people about something technical as a thread throughout.

Why Financial Planning?

There are many different jobs in Financial Services something I didn’t realise until I was in the industry! I started on a Technology graduate programme at a large savings and investments company before moving to the Financial Planning profession.

I think one of the draws to Financial Planning for me was the professional acknowledgement and reward to learn and continue learning. This includes all topics of learning from the CII exams to people skills/behaviours.

I did a ‘What are my values?’ exercise with my first mentor in financial services and as learning is one of my values this attraction makes sense. There are online resources to help you discover your values e.g. Click here to view 7 Steps to discover your personal core value

My Study Journey

It’s very rewarding when learning for an exam directly improves your abilities at work and how you perform and help others. After doing many exams I know that I need to be intrinsically motivated to learn and being curious about the topic helps me here, see Exam Approach below.

I study best in the mornings, but after having children, I can’t study in the morning anymore, so I have to push studying to the evenings. I’m tired and it takes longer for me to get into it, but it’s do-able. Saying that, I do call it quits on a study session that is just not working. I am better taking an evening off then looking at a page and nothing going in.

I started my CII exams in my previous employment and the Academy were a great resource for exam support. Doing the Diploma in Financial Planning gave me the foundational knowledge to build further learning, the right terminology to use and the insight to ask relevant questions.

More recently, I used Expert Pensions for AF1 and really enjoyed the supported study journey for such a broad exam. Being able to ask questions on the forum was one of my favourite parts – having never actively participated in a forum before this point I didn’t think in advance that this would be the case. After the Diploma, I’ve sat AF7, AF4, AF8, AF1, J10, J02 over the last 3 or so years. My next goal is AF5.

Exam Approach

Everyone is different and even different types of exams require a different sort of preparation. For any new exam type I would ask myself the following questions:

  • Am I being curious? “Why is that rule in place, what is it trying to achieve for the client/ planner/ government? How does x relate to y? What does this mean? I don’t totally understand this – note to google, YouTube later.”
  • Am I being curious in the right areas? I don’t want to spend hours on something that isn’t regularly used or examined.
  • Could I explain this to someone else? See this article inspired by the Physicist Richard Feyman: How to use he Feynman Technique (to understand something explain it simply)
  • How well have I learnt this section?
  • Did that approach I just used work? What worked well, what didn’t?

These are metacognition type questions, which means thinking about your own thinking, for more info on how it helps you improve how you study and learn see this link: Click here to view the article on Metacognition

Once I’m happy that my approach works, I can stop thinking about the approach itself and start doing!

What else?

If you’re looking at a career change, you will have consciously or unconsciously picked up more than you think from your previous experiences. It is a skill in itself explaining your strengths, behaviours and skills in a way that someone in a new Profession, than the one you have come from, can understand. Perhaps get in touch with people in the industry to find out what is important, the right terminology to use and think how your skills fit and what makes you stand out with that before applying.

This is an example of a great LinkedIn group for those trying to get started in the industry: Click here to read about the Mentorship Group launched by Benjamin Beck

To Summarise

  • Look for themes in your experiences
  • Think about what your values are
  • Ask for help
  • Be curious
  • Get connected

Best of luck everyone and enjoy your journey!