“I looked at the requirements for financial planners – experi- ence, education, et cetera – and I rang up a lot of recruitment companies who were recruiting for financial planners, to find out what kind of education and the ideal background I needed to have. I had the customer service and sales side; what I needed was a little bit of banking knowledge and some experience working in a bank or a financial institution, as well as some education around financial services.
“When I looked at that I thought, well, how am I supposed to get the experience, and the education, all at the same time, before getting into the role. That was a bit of a puzzle. Then I had a look at the careers site again, so I went back to Seek and started to search for the easiest way I knew to get a foot in the door. I applied for entry-level positions at major banks.
“I was employed by a bank, one of the Big Four, in their customer service, in a contact centre and I worked for over a year there, just servicing customers with their queries on credit cards, Internet banking, personal banking, that kind of thing.
And then I applied and got a job in premium banking, in the same financial institution. And I thought, great – this is a way I can come into contact with a lot of financial planners, mortgage specialists, and I should be able to find a way to get into financial planning from there.
“But what I did find was because I worked in a contact centre, I was getting a lot of responses, or excuses, to say I didn’t have enough face-to-face experience. That’s when I thought, well, I’m not going to waste my time and work in an area where they’re not going to appreciate the previous experience I have had, prior to joining the bank.
“So I started looking elsewhere…and a role came up for a wealth manager at NAB. I thought, well, you know what, at this stage I’ve done about two units of my PS146 – as it was – and I thought, I’m going to give it a go, and the worst thing that can happen to me is they say no, and I’d have gained more out of the interview than anything else.
“I came for an interview and then didn’t hear back for a couple of weeks, so I followed up and that’s when they said to me, because you’re external, would you like to come and join us in an administration and administrative capacity with the team, just to learn how we operate as a business?
“They gave me that opportunity to start from the ground up. It was a pay cut at the time, but that wasn’t a drawback for me. The drawback for me – I don’t know if I should say this – is I don’t like admin work. That’s the only thing I had to think on for a while.
“I got back to them and said, give me a foot in the door. I’m more than happy to come in with them from the ground up. So I had to push aside my personal preferences, but I think I made the right decision at that point. And I’m still in the same team.”
Liu says she can’t gauge if her entry to financial planning was as straightforward as it could have been, nor whether the industry generally should make it easier for those who want to join its ranks.
“I suppose the experience is different for everyone,” she says.
“My experience is as I’ve described it; I’ve heard of lots of other planners who have basically finished [studying] and… have been able to find a role like this. I guess it depends on, one, exposure, and two, knowing what you want to do to start with.
I went in a very roundabout way. If we’d been talking about IT and I was looking for an IT role, I’d have had a pretty clear idea of how to get to a certain IT role. To change industries without having started anywhere and not having that background knowledge, it was quite a challenge – but it was something that I wanted to do, and because I had that goal it helped me to get there.
“But the experience I have had is obviously unique to me, and I really couldn’t tell you if it could have been made any easier. It really just depends on what people understand about financial planning as a profession.”
Now three years into the job, Liu says parts of it are as she expected them to be, while other parts are not, but she says she is surprised by the variability of standards within the industry.
“Essentially, the purpose of the role is what I have found it to be – to help clients to reach their goals, improve their lives and make their money work harder for them,” she says.
“So in that respect the role is what I expected it to be.
“The business, and how financial planning businesses are run, wasn’t how I expected it to be. And the variation in standards within the industry also was something I wasn’t quite aware of, prior to joining the industry. Joining it in 2008 was a very interesting time. There were a lot of interesting things happening within the industry at the time. So I really got to see just how bad it can be, and I got to see how good it could be. The variation on standards, that’s what shocked me more than anything else. I’m thankful to be working with NAB.”
