Financial Planner Life, Career Accelerator program
Episode 2: How to Approach your Financial Planning Job Search
Financial planning jobs can seem daunting and overwhelming to apply for, which is why the help of a recruitment consultant is essential in launching a successful job search. With their expertise and guidance, into the job market and what employers are looking for in candidates will ensure your CV reflects your skills and experience properly. They also offer essential advice on which roles and opportunities to pursue, helping you to start your search in the most effective way possible. Plus, they can provide tips on how best to market yourself – regardless of whether you have financial planning experience or not. All in all, connecting with the right recruitment consultants will no doubt, make taking that important first step toward achieving career success a lot easier.
Knowing all this makes it possible to start your job search in the most positive manner by ensuring that you’re equipped with the right tools to succeed in finding the perfect Financial Planning job, whether you’re an administrator, paraplanner, compliance manager or adviser.
What can I do to approach my financial planning job search?
For Financial Planners or those within the financial planning profession looking to get hired, optimising your LinkedIn profile can be a great way to generate inbound interest. A professional recruitment consultant can help you set up and define the right strategies to get noticed by potential employers. This includes tailoring your descriptions, selecting relevant keywords, and determining which past experiences and accomplishments are worth featuring on your profile. Refining the overall layout of your page is key too – aiming for the right balance between formality and creativity can make all the difference when it comes to getting noticed for financial planning jobs.
To stand out, create a compelling summary that demonstrates why you are the ideal Financial Planner/ professional for a role and be sure to include any keywords associated with Financial Planning topics throughout your profile. Recruitment consultants can help guide you on how to optimize your profile by tailoring it to Financial Planning roles based on current trends and resources available, as well as helping you network more efficiently within the profession. So, don’t miss out – maximise your potential by making sure that your LinkedIn profile is up-to-date and tailored for Financial Planning job search success!
Why a recruitment consultant can help elevate me above the noise…
A recruitment consultant can help you build your professional portfolio to make you attractive to financial planning employers. They can provide insights on how to market yourself through professional networks and social media channels, as well as offer career advice and guidance on which financial planning roles are best suited for your experience, skillset and objectives. Additionally, they can assist with establishing a professional online presence, including creating a polished and comprehensive portfolio of your financial planning examples. In this way, they can help you to stand out from other active candidates and make yourself more attractive to financial planning clients and employers.
When applying for jobs, go online and have a look at what’s out there already. It’s your digital shop window! So, take advantage of this and research companies that interest you. This is your chance to compare your values with theirs and see if they align. It’s a brilliant opportunity to check out the financial planning firm’s marketing, does it stand out for you? Could you trust this company with your money? Have they got reviews or boast any success stories?
Doing this will help you save a lot of time before you commit to going forward with a job application that is the wrong fit for you. Remember, this is a financial planning recruiter’s bread and butter!! Their close connections with a broad range of employers within the financial planning profession are what makes a recruiter so fundamental to the job search process.
Should I put my CV on a job board like Reed and Indeed?
Job boards can be a fantastic way to put your CV out there and attract recruiters to you. Nowadays, with ease of access via apps on our phones, it makes it easier than ever to apply for a new job. However, if you are an experienced financial planning professional, with a well-sought-after skillset putting your CV on job boards can open the floodgates. This can be particularly tedious for more experienced financial planning candidates due to the high volume of calls they will receive from recruitment consultants.
Some recruitment consultants that aren’t working for a niche profession, or don’t have the morals and values that specialists have, can see a great CV on a job board and send it out to all their clients without your permission. We’ve even heard stories of recruiters sending candidates CVs to their own employer! Which, as I’m sure you can imagine, creates a whole load of issues!
It also means that they haven’t taken the time to get to know you, your values, your career goals, your non-negotiables when it comes to things like work/ life balance etc. All the things we mentioned in the previous article.
Our advice to you would be:
- Window shop on these job boards before posting your CV
- Look at the opportunities on the market
- Reach out to the recruitment companies which align with your values
- Speak to a recruitment consultant who has a deep understanding of the profession you’re in, to put you forward to the roles that are best matched for you
Research
We created the financial planner life podcast because we wanted to bring to life the careers of those individuals who have lived experience of working within the financial planning profession. So many of our listeners reach out to share their gratitude with us. They owe a lot of their success to taking the time out to listen and research what the role of an adviser/ paraplanner/administrator/compliance manager is, by listening to the podcast and understanding from those that do the job.
When you’ve got no experience, you’ve got to do that research into the profession and find your reasons why you want to become a financial planning professional and discover the roles and routes you could take.
For grads and second careerists, the Financial Planner Life Academies is a brilliant way to start your job search in financial planning. Click here to find out more.
A final piece of advice…
When job seeking in financial planning, it is essential to make sure you have a clean digital footprint. Recruitment consultants can help you manage your online presence and ensure potential employers are seeing the best version of yourself. They can point out any mistakes or information that could be seen as unprofessional or damaging to your career prospects.
It wouldn’t be the first time that someone doesn’t get placed because of an unprofessional WhatsApp picture, or some drunken pictures of you on your Facebook page!
It is your choice how you live your private life, but it may not align with a company’s values, so be conscious of your digital footprint when trying to land your ideal financial planning job.
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