Ok, strictly speaking this is about my second job in finance, which is the one that most mattered to me from a career perspective.

To get my first job out of the way, I joined a large retail bank out of University, applying – like most people – through the standard “milk round” of applications and interviews. Everyone at the time wanted to go into finance and I was no different. With hindsight, I realise that I had not analysed my motivation – you should always question why you want a certain type of job and find out what it actually involves. This will reduce the risk of a bad decision that could, at best, waste a few years of your professional life and, at worst, result in you being thoroughly miserable.

Having moved to London, found accommodation and presented myself for work, it took me only a couple of months to realise that I had no interest whatsoever in retail banking and the thought of being trapped in the sector filled me with dread. As a result, I did what I should have done earlier and looked into what would actually excite me and make me want to get out of bed in the morning. For me, the key requirements were that it should be intellectually challenging, involve decision making and not be purely sales oriented (not my strength). An additional benefit would be the possibility of moving back to my favourite city (Edinburgh), although that was not a deal breaker. The solution seemed to be – and indeed was – fund management, less sexy and certainly less remunerative than, say, stock broking, but a discipline which ticked all my requirements.

Having worked this out, I needed a plan of action. As I was motivated by the prospect of doing something I would really enjoy, I poured a lot of effort into this, including finding out in detail what the job entailed, discovering the entry routes and requirements, compiling a list of potential employers and researching what differentiated each one.

Having done my desk research, I needed to work out how I could most effectively approach my potential employers. This was without a doubt the most challenging part of the process. Just sending off CVs and hoping for a response seemed unlikely to succeed, so I decided to hit the phone as well. As I said, am not a natural salesman, so this was by far the most nerve-wracking part of the process for me, but it ultimately paid dividends. I was focusing on relatively small companies, so I decided to aim to speak to the CEO or CIO and it was surprising how many I got through to (this would not be the obvious strategy if applying to, say, Blackrock – you need to tailor your strategy to circumstances).

My blitz approach resulted in several interviews and I landed a trainee position with one of the oldest and most venerable names in Scottish fund management (now subsumed into a much larger company). While they must have thought I had what it would take to do the job, I subsequently learned that they had recently formed a JV with an Italian fund management company, so the fact that Italian is one of my languages was a significant factor in getting the job – never underestimate the importance of luck!

All this was a few decades ago and things have of course changed since then, not least the Scottish fund management environment. Nevertheless, I believe that there are several lessons that can be learnt from my experience (and I wish I had learned them sooner), namely:

• Question your motives. First, are you sure that you really want to work in finance (and you’re not just following a fashion). If the answer is yes, what branch of finance? What would you really enjoy doing, not just being able to brag about doing?
  
• What are your strengths and weaknesses? Be objective – ask your friends and family if you want an independent view. Play to your strengths.
  
• Do your research – find out what different jobs really entail. Would you, for example, be happy to give up most of your (limited) spare time to study for a CFA? This might be a requirement.
  
• Do your research (again) – find out which companies offer the roles you are interested in. Learn about them in detail.
  
• Create an action plan for getting a job and stick to it – work hard at this. Don’t give up.
  
• Engage with people – this is harder in the days of large companies. Network if you can. Call in favours to get introductions. Use family or school connections if you have them – this may seem unfair to others, but would you rather someone else got the job? If you can help an employer meet diversity targets in some way, use that too – the same logic applies.
  
• With regard to luck, remember the words of Sam Goldwyn: “The harder I work, the luckier I get”. The more you persist, the more likely you are to find yourself in the right place at the right time.
  

The whole process took me the best part of a year, but I then spent a wonderful couple of decades working in Fund Management before moving into my current role (more about fund management itself and my current role in future articles). I only got there as a result of honest self-evaluation and determination – you can do the same if you try.