Actively take hold of your career and manage where you want to go and how to get there.
That was the key message from the Treasury Careers Evening on Thursday 25 June, attended by over 100 treasury and finance professionals
It’s not enough to simply let your careers develop, you have to take control of where you want to go. But what is the market like now, are there enough opportunities and what tried and tested tips are there to help you along the way?
The good news is that we are in a market that has the highest employment rates since 1974. According to a recent survey by Brewer Morris, 62% of companies are looking to recruit this year and there are more treasury opportunities coming to market. The suppressed market of the last few years hit accounting and many banking roles badly but treasury roles were still steady and more senior roles were created as the need for treasury skills was recognised.
The take home is that treasury is a safe profession to be in!
But what makes you stand out? Having ACT qualifications is becoming increasingly important for assistant treasurer and equivalent banking roles and above. According to Brewer Morris having the MCT brings financial benefits as it commonly leads to a pay rise or promotion and makes you more marketable to potential external employers. But is it better to be a generalist or a specialist? Should you focus in on one key skill or diversify your career portfolio? The panel discussion at the event felt that it was all down to the role. Look carefully at the specification – it will indicate what the organisation is looking for and help you to see how to sell yourself. Ask the recruitment consultant and the organisation questions about the job description so that you understand what to bring out in your answers. And when writing your CV make sure you relate it explicitly to the role you are applying for, show transferable skills and the ability to pick things up quickly.
Get out of your comfort zone. Do things you can learn from, even if they seem unattractive. If you can learn from the experience then it is worth taking the opportunity as it will make you stand out.
How do you ensure that you build the right skills? The panel all agreed that a key issue was to get out of your comfort zone. Do things you can learn from, even if they seem unattractive. If you can learn from the experience then it is worth taking the opportunity as it will make you stand out.
Deciding what choice to make can be difficult. How do you balance following your heart vs what is best for your career? Things don’t always work out the way you want them to, but if you prepare and plan carefully you will be building towards your end goal, and these building blocks will help you get there. All roles have a range of satisfaction around your personal median line. Above the line is ‘I’m challenged and happy’, too far below is ‘I’m bored and miserable’ – you need to move if you are consistently too far below the line!
The recruitment market has changed incredibly in the last 5 years. LinkedIn has changed the landscape of how individuals talk to each other. You can keep in touch with people you meet at events, use it to promote your profile and personal brand, see how people develop and use it as a resource database. But most companies find that relying solely on LinkedIn doesn’t work and that using an intermediary saves time and increases the quality of applicants. Make sure you are using all these resources to maximise your recruitment reach.
Treasury is increasingly about more than technical skills. Relationship management is key and this includes internal as well as external networking.
Grasp opportunities to talk to people but use that chance to showcase your opinions and show your technical skills. Be targeted in your approach, if you are at a conference look at the delegate list, target who you want to speak to and then talk about relevant finance issues. Remember to keep in touch – LinkedIn is a great way of doing this.
But how do you ensure your CV stands out? The biggest piece of advice is to prepare your CV for each role carefully. Don’t just list what you have done, bring to life what you have achieved, what is different about you and relate it to the role you are applying for.
The ACT is here to support members and students throughout their careers. We strive to develop knowledge and to better educate and train the treasury professionals of tomorrow. We have a number of initiatives that help members, such as the competency framework, mentoring scheme, policy and technical reports, webinars, networking events and treasury jobs information. We are developing a capability analysis tool (to launch in Q3, 2015) which will enable members to perform their own personal skills gap analysis.
So do come to the website to keep up to date with the latest initiatives, or better still drop us an email at membership@treasurers.org or pick up the phone and speak to a member of the membership team (+44 (0)20 7847 2540).
