My career journey: from tea pots to pension pots

Travel takes us out of our comfort zone and inspires us to see, taste and try new things. It constantly challenges us, not only to adapt to and explore new surroundings, but to engage with different people, to embrace adventures as and when they come, and to share new and meaningful experiences. It was my love of travel attracted me to study a HND in Business Administration with Travel & Tourism at Dundee College. I then went onto study for my Bachelor of Arts in Travel and Tourism Development at the University of Abertay.

Once I graduated, finding a travel-related job was challenging, but due to my course having a business element, I was able to look into other industries. I started working in retail and worked my way up to become a restaurant manager. After moving to Edinburgh and deciding the long hours that come with working in the industry were taking its toll on me, I decided the time was right for a change.

I wanted to get an office job to better utilise my degree and so I applied for jobs in a variety of different fields. Being honest, you could say I fell into financial services, as I had very little knowledge of the sector when I started my first role in a Personal Pension department. Two years later I returned home to Dundee and transferred over to a client facing role.

Since then, I have worked for various financial services companies both in Dundee and Aberdeen. It was an unexpected career for me, but I found I had an aptitude for it and really enjoyed what my role involved, especially working closely with colleagues to help our clients achieve their goals and objectives.

Leading up to joining AAB Wealth I lived on Queens Road and passed the old office on a daily basis. The firm had a reputation locally as well as within the financial services community for offering high quality advice which was a big draw. The interview process gave me a good insight into the company and what my role at the firm would entail. I was impressed by AAB Wealth’s great work culture and recognised that they had the same investment philosophy as my previous employer, it felt like a perfect fit.

Since joining, a key aspect of my day-to-day role is teamwork and being able to work closely with financial planners to provide recommendation reports & analysis for our clients with the aim of providing a first-class service. To achieve this goal, I also work closely with CSS to make sure that information and recommendations are processed in an accurate and timely manner.

Before COVID-19, I had never worked from home and was sceptical of it at first, but now I find it quite enjoyable. I enjoy the concentration you can achieve without the distractions that a busy office can bring; and I utilise my time no longer spent commuting to complete tasks around the house which has freed up my evenings. Over the next year, I expect my role to remain similar, but our overall interactions with our clients to change as we return to face to face meetings, something we have all really missed!

If I could describe working at AAB Wealth in five words I would say: enjoyable, collaborative, rewarding, supportive and sociable, all traits that I also value in my spare time. I enjoy travelling, going out for a nice meal and a few drinks, meeting up with family and friends and watching sports, all of which I look forward to doing more of post-pandemic. Although I don’t work in travel my love for it hasn’t wavered. I hope to visit Japan in the near future as my around the world trip was cut short, so I still plan to tick it off my bucket list!