Far North Queensland
I am writing this from my verandah in Far North Queensland, looking out at the rainforest. I am a career changer, a mother of two, studying a Bachelor of Business majoring in Financial Planning, and I have just started my first role as a Client Services Officer with an employer in Melbourne. I am right at the beginning, and already the reality of this career looks different to what I imagined.
There is no single mould
Midway through the first year of my degree I made a deliberate decision to ditch the “mum clothes” and start dressing a little more professionally. I wanted to fit the mould and look like the person I hoped to become. Little did I know the Financial Advice Profession is as diverse as the clients who need our help. There is no single mould. There is not even a standard cookie cutter. It is more like a Tupperware drawer, a chaotic mix of shapes, sizes and personalities that somehow all fit together.
Building a Career Around Real Life
I went around my little hometown handing out resumes and honestly became disheartened. Every practice wanted someone in the office most days, which I understand. Plenty of businesses need a steady nine-to-five presence and there is nothing wrong with that. But for me, as the primary carer of two young kids with years of study still ahead, it felt impossible. I was not looking for a free pass. I just wanted a day or two a week where I could keep up with my studies and bolster my education without everything else falling apart. Instead, it sounded like signing up for a routine that would leave no space for anything except work and childcare. That was the moment I realised that if I was going to make this career change work, I needed a practice that understood the reality of my life, not the corporate version of it.
My first ever Financial Advice Association Australia event in Cairns helped settle my worries that I would not fit in. I am formerly a financially incompetent wandering tour guide whose idea of a risk assessment was considering throwing myself out of a plane as a possible career path. For this event, I wore the brightest dress I owned, bought new shoes and put on clip on nails. I was dressed to impress. To my horror, mid event one of my nails flew off across the table and everyone noticed. It did not matter. The advisers and other attendees were not only welcoming, they had me laughing through their presentations. I felt like I had found my tribe.
A Profession with Room for Everyone
Coming into financial advice, it is easy to picture the usual nine-to-five office job. The commute, the cubicle, the corporate dress code. But the profession is as fluid and diverse as the clients who need it. There are practices that embrace the corporate life and others that bend around real life, the messy, unpredictable, kid sick on a Tuesday kind of life.
Every adviser and every client has a different story. Many advisers will refer clients to others if they think it will be a better fit. No two advisers and no two plans are the same. But most share a similar goal, better financial literacy and capability for their clients. The real value of advice is in untangling complicated situations and finding a path to financial freedom and stability.
One thing I have learned from attending the FAAA Congress and other events is that this profession is genuinely inclusive. There are niches for every personality and clients who connect with all kinds of advisers. I have even turned down employers because I knew their client base would not connect with advice given by someone who has formally been likened to “Crocodile Dundee”. There is space for the polished, the relaxed, the creative, the introverted and the extroverted. There is space for people in cities and people in small rural towns. There is space for anyone who wants to help.
So, while I have still not returned to my “mum clothes”, I have settled into a more relaxed business style. I work from home around my children’s lives. I am still studying, still learning, still figuring out where I fit. Financial advice is about people. It is about listening, asking questions that matter and helping someone make sense of their situation. And from here, even at the very beginning, I can see the impact this work has.
The best way to be part of that impact is to be authentically yourself. There is no mould. This is a profession for anyone, from anywhere.
Curious to learn more? Explore the Become A Financial Planner Now and Roles in Financial Advice pages of this website or contact FAAA at [email protected].
