Career Path U-Turn | by Harry Portch
If you’d told me 5 years ago that I’d be working in an office for one of the biggest Finance and Investment companies in the country, I would’ve laughed in your face. Finishing year 11, I was dead set on going to college, getting my Electrician qualification, and getting an apprenticeship in the trade industry. But once I left college, I was unsure of whether that was what I wanted to do. Whilst not an uncommon thing for people my age, I was genuinely lost as to what I wanted to do as a career.
After a few years of working random jobs in random industries, I found myself back working in the Trade Industry as a Network Engineer. Still though after a few months I was unhappy as I just didn’t feel as if this was what I wanted to do.
Leaving that job was a risk, as at the time of me handing in my notice I didn't have anything lined up to move on to after I had left. After a long time searching for a new job. Luckily I came across the opportunity of getting an apprenticeship at Hargreaves Lansdown. I'm currently on the Digital Business Accelerator. The program is providing valuable knowledge on how most businesses are run and all the important elements that they use in order to be successful.
There was a lot of self-doubt in the application process as to whether I would be the right fit for the job as I had no background in Finance which almost caused me to not bother to turn up to my interview. However, I was encouraged to just go for it and challenge myself to step outside my comfort zone and learn something new. Looking back, I had nothing to be worried about as everything has been great so far and I have enjoyed every second of it.
Whilst learning about how the Finance and Investment industry works, I have learnt a lot more about myself both personally and professionally. My apprenticeship coach Tose has been great with helping me identify these personal traits and pushing me to work on getting over the ones that were holding me back. I learnt to be less hesitant when asking for help and try to be more visible in my team so that I was not just known as ‘the apprentice’.
The team that I was placed on is Trading Enquires whose main focus is performing corrections on client’s accounts. What at first seemed like a long-winded and confusing process has now become second nature to me. I am now able to support my team in a valuable way by performing more corrections while they can focus on other things. As of writing this article, we have just finished the end of the tax year. Despite being very hectic at times, this was a very beneficial experience for me to learn and develop skills to help out the team more.
During my first few months, I did struggle with imposter syndrome which was tough to deal with at first but over time it gradually went away with the more confidence I got in my abilities and hearing positive feedback from people around me. Thankfully, imposter syndrome is a thing of the past for me now.
While it is still early doors for me at Hargreaves Lansdown, I hope that I will be able to stay here beyond my apprenticeship and forge a career from this chance that I have been given.
Harry Portch is in the Digital Business Accelerator programme.