Many treasurers moved from accountancy or banking careers and stayed on because they found they enjoyed the work and the challenge. But the advice from career experts is not to wander but plan.
One of the key pieces of advice was to manage your career portfolio. Treasury professionals need to keep asking themselves where they want to be in five or 10 years’ time. If the answer is anywhere in the spectrum from “not sure” to ”haven’t a clue”, then that is simply not good enough. To create a career plan, start with a personal SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis. You need to work out what it is you enjoy in the work you currently do – that may help to decide what you would like to focus on in the future. You also need to be aware of what potential employers want. Each company may be looking for something different in a treasurer but all will probably be looking for a track record of adding value, understanding the business and being proactive.
Many treasurers are surprised that their role turns out to be very diferent from what they thought it would be. Being put in charge of a bottom line gives a very different perspective and understanding of how a business needs to operate. There are many sides to becoming the complete treasury professional. We would all probably list attributes such as technical skills and knowledge – as demonstrated, of course, by membership of the ACT – but it goes beyond understanding the business and possessing the right honed and up-todate technical ability.
There is an increasing emphasis on soft skills – in other words, showing initiative, leadership and the ability to manage change, the last being particularly valued in the current climate. But other skills are also being emphasised. The ability to communicate is one which has risen in importance.
You need to position yourself for the next move, if you think you want to do something, then find out about it, or volunteer to work on a project or programme in a related area. This is known as the “spiral career path” – a series of lateral moves between different functional areas in the same organisation. HR likes it because the company retains talent while challenging employees with new tasks and broadening their experience. The drawback for the individual is that progress up the career ladder may not be so swift.
Good treasurers need to have self-awareness. This comes back to the personal SWOT analysis. Whatever it is you’re bad at – delegating, supervising, presenting, etc – you can only start to address it if you know that you are poor at it.
Few careers progress continuously towards the desired goals. At times of economic volatility, you may find yourself made redundant. Everyone reacts differently to the prospect of redundancy: some are fearful and despondent, taking it as a personal blow. Others manage to welcome it as the closure of a chapter that at least rids them of a disliked employer. Whatever the reaction, you need to learn to cope with “feeling unloved” as the workshop described it. If you are made redundant, don’t take it to heart – it’s not personal, it’s just business.
Without rushing, what you need to do is to start using your networks.
The importance of developing connections with professionals that you meet in your career cannot be overstated. The time to start networking is while you are in a job. One of the key benefits that the ACT can offer – especially through its events programme – is the opportunity to meet other finance, banking and treasury professionals. Think widely about your colleagues, former colleagues, those you have done business with, bosses – most can introduce you to somebody useful and most will be willing to do so.
Combine networking with working hard on the skillset and the career plan and you should be able to place yourself on the track to success, however you choose to define it.
