There can only be one topic for me in this edition of Eclipse and that is New Talent. With capital letters. Partly inspired by a dreadful article, which I called out
via this post, which opened a big old can of worms that I’ll come back to!
Partly because we launched a brand spanking
new recruitment platform last Friday to help new talent choosing a career in finance to get their first job in the sector, and make it super efficient and low cost for employers to find their perfect person.
But let’s take a step back. In all the time I’ve been in finance (somehow over 20 years) we’ve all banged on about needing to make it a more attractive place for people to choose as a career. We need fresh talent, new blood, younger people, more women, career changers, those who want to advise, those who want to coach, those who want to make the magic happen behind the scenes (hey there, paraplanners). We need and want them all.
And yet. What exactly were we, as an industry, doing about it? Absolutely bugger all.
The big academies had, and still have, their own programmes, to bring people into their own firm and their own (restricted) proposition. Great for them. But what about the 5,000 or so smaller firms, who can’t run a full training programme and so need to somehow make finance seem appealing, and find someone, and train them up, all alongside the day job. How does that work?
In accountancy and audit the big 4 historically (things are changing) brought on thousands of grads each year; not because they needed thousands of grads, but because they could train them at scale, attempt to keep the really good ones, but know that the rest would venture out to other companies in the sector. They’d be literally bringing the talent in for others to benefit from. And why? Because we all know that if you make something bigger, then everyone gets to benefit. A larger accountancy pie means more slices for a Deloitte, and so they’re not worried about others taking the people they’ve trained. Because that helps those companies to grow, brings more money into their sector, and allows it to continue to thrive.
But in finance? For decades we’ve looked after our own and locked them down as tightly as we possibly could and then wondered why nothing was progressing. Why the sector wasn’t flourishing.
Hmm.
There was also a lazy trope of “no-one chooses to be a financial adviser”. And therefore the perception it’s just impossible to get people into finance. Absolute nonsense. Every time we open a programme, a grad scheme, a funded course we get hundreds of applications. People want to come into finance. But they can’t find a small firm that will take a punt on them. And they don’t want to go to a large, restricted, tied in to the point of giving them their first new-born, kind of company. But they are there and they do want to join us.
So I got sick of hearing the talk, and seeing none of the action and firstly launched the Verve Foundation and our New Talent programme, and now the recruitment platform. And it’s been doing good. Not industry shaking (yet). But bringing new people, raising profiles, sharing success stories.
And then a journalist decides to twist an innocent enough comment (about having to take a pay drop to change sector - which is true of every sector and something every working adult understands) and turn it into the most depressing, patronising, off-putting of articles. With the inevitable pile on in the comments not helping in the slightest.
If there was an issue here, a real problem, then I’d be all for the journalist calling it out. News shouldn’t just be there to put a shiny spin on things if they’re not shiny. But this is the reverse - all of the people quoted in that article love their new careers! They love being in finance. They’ve been guests on our podcast talking about how brilliant it is. So the article wasn’t uncovering some hidden truth. It was just telling an absolute lie about a career in finance.
And the issue with this is that, if we’re not all pulling together in the same direction, and if we don’t have the big boys doing their part to create independent trainees with the flex to enter the sector more widely, then we’re going to get nowhere. And in a world of AI, standing still (as we have done for decades) will no longer suffice. Standing still means we will be going backwards. And I doubt that will end well.
We will continue to do our part, however small it is. You can see more on the platform below and we’ll keep sharing the good news stories. Loads of other goodies below, including a bunch of CPD events and a podcast on why compliance can be class 🤗
And my wine choice (not a recommendation as I haven’t tried it yet) is
this lil number which seems to be going viral and no fewer than 3 people have sent it to me to ask if I’ve had any yet. No idea why I’m the first person they think of when they see new wines…
Have a wonderful weekend all!
.png?upscale=true&width=1120&upscale=true&name=Blog%20%26%20Eclipse%20GIFS%20(19).png)
.png?upscale=true&width=560&upscale=true&name=Comp%20roundup%20Dec25%20(5).png)
.png?upscale=true&width=560&upscale=true&name=Compliance%20connect%20-%20Q1%20(8).png)
.png?upscale=true&width=560&upscale=true&name=Switching%20blog%20holly%20(80).png)
.png?upscale=true&width=560&upscale=true&name=Switching%20blog%20holly%20(77).png)
.png?upscale=true&width=560&upscale=true&name=Switching%20blog%20holly%20(78).png)
.png?upscale=true&width=560&upscale=true&name=Comp%20roundup%20Dec25%20(7).png)
/linkedin.png?upscale=true&height=50&upscale=true&name=linkedin.png){kind=small}
