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Your Questions
ANSWERED
Successful
Career?
by SIMON NASH,
HR DIRECTOR,
Where can I find one?
Carey Olsen
Don’t be taken in by the stories of doom and gloom in the daily partnership she doesn’t have a chance. The risks nowadays are
papers. The Offshore Finance Industry is still in a growth phase, simply too great to have people without superior leadership
although it is fair to say that the growth is steadier and more abilities in the senior positions.
purposeful than the rapid expansion we all saw in the recent
boom. This deliberate growth provides many opportunities for So we have three dimensions to career management. Technical
career development and personal growth for ambitious and skills are usually gained first. They can be acquired by diligent
talented industry professionals. But the opportunities are study and professional exams. It is your technical skills that
different to those of a couple of years ago, and the best make you an able Chartered Secretary, Lawyer, Accountant,
employers are seeking combinations of skills that were not Banker, Chartered Personnel Manager, or Trusts and Estates
necessarily required in the past. The skill sets you need are the Practitioner. The very best advice to any young professional is to
same if you are looking to switch employer for your next career qualify rapidly in their chosen discipline as a matter of urgency.
step or if you are looking for an internal promotion.
The second dimension is that of client skills, and it is potentially
So if you want to build a successful career in the offshore even more important than the first. Many finance professionals
finance industry what do you have to do? make a fundamental error, thinking that technical skills can be
Professional careers in the finance industry typically have three learnt, but client skills can only come naturally through
dimensions; technical skills, client skills and people skills. The experience and personality. This is a dangerous mistake and the
smartest people in the industry realise that to be successful at smarter young professionals invest time and money in
each stage in their career they need to make efforts to develop sharpening their presentation skills, selling skills, networking
all three of them. Less successful people tend to believe they skills and personal image. Of utmost importance in this
can be brilliant in one dimension and wing it when it comes to dimension is the establishment of a reputation for reliability,
the others – often with disastrous results. integrity and trust. An American General defined reliable as the
sum of “liable” – taking responsibility for results, and “re” – over
For example; Douglas is a Accountant with a big four firm. He and over again.
is really bright and an absolute technical wizard. Yes when it
comes to dealing with clients he can be negative, brooding, Going into the third dimension is where professionals learn the
even sullen. To Douglas all news is bad news, and he seems to incredible power of leverage. There are only 168 hours in a
find more problems for his clients than anyone else. Does his week, and even the most able professional needs to eat and
firm want to keep him? – absolutely. Will he be promoted to sleep, so the only way to elevate personal excellence into
lead client engagement teams? – not likely. scaleable profitability is through harnessing the power of
teamwork. Again these are not mystical talents that come
As a second example; Diana is a corporate lawyer. She qualified genetically or magically – good leadership comprises lots of little
at a good City firm and is working in an offshore firm now. Her skills that enable a leader to coach, develop, support,
technical knowledge and skills are well established, which is encourage, inspire and transform the capability of others. It’s
well appreciated by her clients. She is sufficiently confident in too late leaving it until you reach a senior position to begin
his abilities to bring in more work from her clients and to learning how to lead and develop teams.
introduce new and profitable clients to the firm. But when it
comes to leading people Diana hasn’t got a clue – everyone So, it’s a good time to re-assess your skills. Make sure you are
around her is trying to guess whether she will be in an angry current with technical knowledge and industry developments.
rage one day, or a withdrawn recluse the next, and neither is Appraise your own ability to win more business from new and
good for the juniors on the team whom the firm needs to learn, existing clients and, most importantly, invest in your ability to
develop and grow under her. Again, Diana is certainly someone develop other’s performance. Whether you are looking to switch
who will have job security, her fee income generating ability will jobs or progress in your own organisation, don’t be a one
ensure that; but when it comes to admitting her to the dimensional professional.
20/20 sixty six
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