Personal Career Strategy as a Financial Consultant - Research Paper Example

Introduction to Occupation I will be interested in the occupation of financial consultant or the financial adviser i.e. both words are used interchangeably. Financial consultant is one who renders financial services to the clients and is often engaged in recommending the financial products based upon the overall needs of the clients. (MULLEN, 2009). Financial consultant comes under a wider range of professionals who are entitled, as per law, to render financial services to their clients. Other professions included in this are brokers, financial planners, investment advisers, accountants and insurance agents. It is also critical to note that financial consultants require license to practice as a financial consultant and often have to pass certain professional qualifications before they can actually start to practice as financial consultants. The nature of professional qualifications however, can be different based upon the local requirements. What I like about this Occupation One of the key reasons as to why I like this profession is the direct interaction with the clients and solving their problems. I consider myself as a person who is social and can easily interact with the customers therefore it will become easier for me to interact with the clients easily and recommend solutions to their money problems. Further, this profession requires strong analytical skills to analyze the existing situation of the clients and recommend the new and innovative solutions based upon the current as well as future needs of the customers. This makes this profession a challenging and important enough to be pursued as a career. (Fitch, 2007) What I dislike about this Profession One of the key reasons for disliking this profession is the fact that working in this profession requires a constant upgradation of knowledge and skills practiced in this profession. Since this is a knowledge driven profession therefore one not only has to keep track with the constantly changing regulations, financial products but will have to manage the transition to the new and challenging requirements of the profession. (Ainsworth, 1997) Another important reason as to why I don’t like this profession is that it requires to time to establish oneself as the skilled and solution oriented consultant. Since this profession requires direct interaction with the public therefore creating and maintaining goodwill is important to retain and grow the business. It requires a constant level of maintaining good public relations to seek new business and maintain it. Fit between me and the Profession It is critical that one must be able to have a fit between the personality and the profession as same often increases the overall chances of success in profession. Professionals therefore need to make sure that the profession is the right fit for the personality. Considering this, I believe that following are my strengths which can help me to succeed in the profession: Strengths One of the key aspects of my personality is my being the social person according to one of the tests I did. Since this profession requires a consistent interaction with clients, it becomes important to be social and open in communication. My social skills actually allow me to easily understand people and develop rapport with them. Effectively creating rapport is important due to the fact that a job of financial consultant requires making the clients at ease so that they can provide sufficient information to make a decision on their behalf. My Quality of extraversion is also one of my strengths because it allows me to easily develop a better rapport with the clients. I believe that it is more important to involve clients at each stage of the consultancy therefore being an introvert may not be sufficient. To be a successful consultant, it is important that consultant engages her customers at each stage of the decision making process. This not only results into having consent of the clients at each stage but also improves the chances of retaining the customers for longer period of time. I consider community as high and considering the fact that more and more people are looking for smart and efficient ways to get out of the debt and improve their financial matters therefore I believe my services can be a great contribution to the community. Since service to the community is important part of contributing to the society therefore I believe my preference for community service is my strength. My Neuroticism is on average however, I believe it is also one of my strengths as it allows me to successfully deal with the professional situations. It also allows me to develop better professional network because I’m not generally bothered by the professional jealousy and feel anxiety in different social situations. On the concluding note, I can easily suggest that I’m an extrovert who loves to develop better rapport with the clients. My ability to tolerate others also makes me competent enough to develop professional networks which can help me to gain more clients. Weaknesses A professional though has strengths to use to gain competitive advantage in the profession however, it is also possible that weaknesses may also result into hampering the overall growth in career. To overcome such weaknesses it is important to use strengths to achieve the required growth in career. I value intellectualism at average which I believe is one of my critical weaknesses and may not allow me to find out new material and information to continue to upgrade my skills. Though having curiosity and penchant for intellectualism is critical for success in this field however, the lack of this ability may slow down my progress. It is also important to note that in order to move ahead in the career ladder, it is most important to pass new and advance qualifications. As such, for not valuing the intellectualism, I may not be able to gain more exposure as for as education is concerned. My professional values are at average which may suggest that I may not be great at maintaining consistent professional values. At times, this may result into situations where my overall relationships with clients may not be sustainable in longer term. Having high value for the professionalism makes one somewhat ethical practioner also who can protect the interests of the clients. Having low scores on the professional values therefore may suggest that I may not be able to protect the interests of the clients for longer period of time. I also value financial success at average which suggests that for me things other than money can be relatively more important. Since I value spirituality higher than money and other things therefore I may not be able to have an effective fit between my personality and my values. It is therefore clear that I need to focus more on developing a balance between my values for the spirituality and money. I believe that it is more important for an individual to value equally the money and the spiritualty if one is in the field of financial consultancy. Successful financial consultancy requires a balance between both the values as without this, it may not be entirely possible to develop the business or career on longer term basis. Though I consider myself as a social person however, I perform average on the openness. This may not allow me to actually be open and communicate honestly with my clients on all the matters. At times, it may be difficult for me to actually communicate all the aspects of my decision process with my clients. Above weaknesses therefore suggests that I need to focus more on utilizing my strengths to overcome these weaknesses to succeed in this profession. Interest in career Considering the above discussion and the critical highlighting of my weaknesses I believe that I may not be successful in this profession. The key reason for this due to my lack of having high level of interest in the intellectualism as this profession requires consistent upgradation of skills and abilities to success. Though I consider myself as social however, my values may be in direct conflict with the overall interests of my clients. Non- alignment of these interests therefore may not result into delivering on the expectations of the customers. (Rowan, 2012) I strongly believe that to be successful in a career one also need to enjoy the same and must be willing to put in extra efforts to achieve the required goals. When there is no alignment between the personal traits and that of the career requirements, it is often result into poor performance in the career and slow progress. As such it is more important that one must be able to enjoy the career and without such combination, it may result into mediocre performance on the job. I therefore believe that I may not be a better fit with this profession and need to look for alternative careers to make a successful progression in my life. I believe that a career either in marketing and sales or social and volunteering work may be more suitable for me to pursue as delivering back to the community seems one of my important personal values to pursue in my life. Steps to make a change In order to make a successful change in my decision to choose an alternative career, I may take following steps: 1. Identify the careers which are in line with my strengths and overall values. Identification of this fit requires me to actually look for careers which can give me higher chances to be successful. 2. One of the key steps to take in this regard is to first identify some of the careers which are in better sync with my values and personality. I believe that I can be successful in marketing or sales job as it requires low level of intellectualism and better social and communication skills. 3. After identifying some of the careers in which I can be successful, I will then find the required information including that of finding about the education qualification requirements, experience, career progression ladder, major companies offering high paying jobs etc. 4. After this I will be looking for as to whether I have the required qualifications and if not, how can get one. Deciding on getting the education through regular degree or through evening degree. 5. I will also conduct some informational interviews from the people who have already successfully achieved certain degree of success in the profession. I will find people who can offer me help and hands-on information regarding what makes a successful sales person what is required to be successful in this. 6. Setting the goals is also critical step in this regard because it will help me to set the future targets. Setting up future goals will help me to actually make career plans and carefully follow them. 7. Writing a career plan action is also an important step to be taken because it will help me to set out a clear action plan as to how I’m going to achieve success in this career. My career action plan will outline as to how I m going to achieve my career goals, what qualifications I need to achieve, what organizations I need to look for making a career and how will I make moves from one organization to another. Alternative career choices Though I believe a career in sales and marketing may be right for me however, I believe some of other careers such as social or volunteering work may also be a better career choice for me. Volunteering or working in the non-profit social work can be a better alternative because I value more the social issues and community. Delivering better services through community services can be effective for me because through this career I may be able to communicate better with others and serve those more. Apart from the above two, I believe a career in administrative jobs can be successful also as it requires more physical abilities than that of the intellectual. Besides, it may also offer me a better career alternative to choose from the available list of careers. Bibliography Ainsworth, J. H. (1997). How to Become a Successful Financial Consultant: Making a Living Investing Other Peoples Money. Washington: John Wiley & Sons. Fitch, T. (2007). Career Opportunities in Banking, Finance, and Insurance. New York: Infobase Publishing. MULLEN, D. J. (2009). The Million-Dollar Financial Advisor: Powerful Lessons and Proven Strategies from Top Producers. New York: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Rowan, S. (2012). Brilliant Career Coach: How to find and follow your dream career. London: Pearson. Read More