I am a complete novice to the podcast game and just did not think that I had the talent to host one. However, during lockdown last year, a good friend of mine, Lindsey Stewart, celebrated his 20 year anniversary at one of the big accounting firms and he kindly asked me to interview him for a podcast to mark the milestone. I have to admit that I was a little apprehensive but we had such a great time recording the interview and received some positive feedback and this was the initial spark to start me thinking ...
I am a complete novice to the podcast game and just did not think that I had the talent to host one. However, during lockdown last year, a good friend of mine, Lindsey Stewart, celebrated his 20 year anniversary at one of the big accounting firms and he kindly asked me to interview him for a podcast to mark the milestone. I have to admit that I was a little apprehensive but we had such a great time recording the interview and received some positive feedback and this was the initial spark to start me thinking about hosting a podcast.
I am not a professional career coach, my background is in Finance and I have worked for over 15 years in front office and advisory roles in Investment Banking, the “big 4” accounting firms and Investment Management. However, probably similar to many of you, my career path has not been linear or smooth, there have been a number of peaks and troughs. Even though, I have worked hard and achieved some good qualifications, I have been through periods where I have struggled to find the right job and sometimes have felt stuck and dissatisfied.
This brought up two thoughts “is there a smarter more strategic way to approach career development as sometimes working harder is simply not enough?” and “is there a way of creating a systematic approach to the whole process?”
This started me on my journey to understanding and developing skills and strategies to assist the job search process but also helping career progression once we’re employed. One of the practical ways I did this was by volunteering for the last two years for the CFA UK Soft Skills Working Group and have helped organise a number of events and webinars on a range of topics from public speaking, changing habits to improving productivity.
I have also become fascinated by neuroscience and psychology, and was introduced to concepts such as mindset, neuroplasticity and and habit creation through wonderful seminars by Lucy Whitehall, a positive psychologist and Dr Gabija Toleikyte, a neuroscientist. I was intrigued by the notion that our brains are similar to those of our ancestors on the plains of Africa thousands of years ago. However, the life and death threats that our ancestors faced are very different from those that we face today.
It made me think that if we are able to gain a better understanding of our brains, it may help us to understand why we do the things that we do and provide insights as to how we might change.
In the podcast, I talk about the highlights of the first two episodes. Episode 1 is with Dr Gabija Toleikyte, is a neuroscientist, lecturer, and performance and wellbeing coach, and the author of “Why the F*ck can’t I change”. Episode 2 is with Dr Christian Busch, who directs the CGA Global Economy Program at New York University (NYU) and is the author of “The Serendipity Mindset The Art & Science of Creating Good Luck”.
Rather than simply talking you through my life and career, I talk about the following events and themes which have had a significant impact on my life and career:
Playing Cricket – I played for Middlesex, which is one of England’s professional teams and subsequently Essex from the under 11 to the under 19 sides and was lucky enough to play a couple of Essex Second Team matches. I was actually paid for one of the matches, so technically, I was a professional cricketer albeit with a very short career at the lowest level possible!
I talk about important life lessons which cricket taught me and I was able to apply to my professional career such as motivation, being resilient, learning to feal with failure, confidence, teamwork and gratitude.
Standing out from the crowd – I started my career as an Auditor at EY in London with over a 150 graduate trainees from the top universities in the UK, who were all ambitious and determined to succeed. It made me think how I would be able to distinguish myself from my peers. I discuss the ways in which I tried to do this and how learning new skills, such as speaking Japanese, and technical knowledge helped me.
Building relationships - much of my career progression has been based on being authentic and trying to build relationships based on having common interests rather than being transactional. I talk about Robert Cialdini, the renowned author of “Influence” and finding “commonalities”, how keeping in touch with a former colleague helped me find a job in banking and when building my network, the importance of a genuine connection, thinking long term and how both parties might benefit.
Luck – luck has played a huge role in my life. I was fortunate that my parents are both doctors who believed in education and was lucky to be educated at a great school and subsequently went to the London School of Economics. I talk about how it’s impossible to control luck but we are able to control how we react to bad luck and try not to dwell on it, thinking of it as a numbers game and the bad luck that I had when interviewing for jobs after university and how it turned around when I interviewed at EY.
Resources
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion – Dr Robert B. Cialdini
Mindset – Dr Carol Dweck
Contact
https://www.linkedin.com/company/reframe-reset-your-career/?viewAsMember=true
https://www.facebook.com/ReframeandResetYourCareer
https://twitter.com/HarshaBoralessa
*Reframe & Reset Your Career, including any comments made by the host and guests, is for informational purposes only and does not constitute advice of any description, including but not restricted to financial, legal, investing or medical advice.*
