As another cohort of students eagerly awaits their exam results, I find that August is always a time to reflect on my own academic journey and how far removed it appears, at least on the surface, to my role as Associate Director at Saffery Trust. 

I am from a family of high achievers. My older brothers and dad have each held Managing Director roles within the finance industry, with my dad also holding numerous non-executive directorships.

I, on the other hand, was adamant that I would never work in finance. That was partly because I never wanted to be stuck behind a desk and partly because I didn’t want to fall short of what my brothers and dad had achieved in business. I was overtly aware that I didn’t want anyone to think that I would go into finance and benefit from nepotism; an accusation which has always been a pet peeve of mine. 

I always enjoyed art at school, getting A grades at GCSE and A-Level, but I was never as good as my sister who is amazingly talented and holds a master’s degree in illustration. I’ve played some football and some hockey, while one brother played hockey for Guernsey and the other played football professionally. It felt to me, at least in my younger years, that everything about me was almost as good as everyone above me in my family. 

With the Gilligan Bar set high, I was determined to follow my own path after receiving my A-level results some… mumble mumble… years ago.

I aspired to work in television or radio either presenting or producing, and I went to Plymouth University to study media arts. After university I spent some time in the United States coaching children’s soccer at a summer camp and then travelled for a while, before returning to Guernsey with the intention of taking a temporary role in finance to build savings before moving to London to pursue by dream career.

Not one to cut my nose off to spite my face, I sought the advice of my brothers and dad, who suggested I might enjoy a role in trust because I have good personal skills, which they said would be valuable in building relationships. Until that point, I had imagined any role within finance to be tethered to a desk doing transactional work for faceless clients; I am happy to hold my hands up and say that I couldn’t have been more wrong. 

I joined the trust industry in 2008, amid the Global Financial Crisis. There was a lot of talk about redundancies, so I kept my head down, worked long hours and went on every course possible. I was a first aider, supported IT, and was a fire marshal. I basically did everything I could to show willing to keep my job and – to my surprise - I began to really enjoy the work in the process. What started as a temporary means to an end, led to finding a new dream career.

Little did I know at the time, but the skills I had acquired through my media arts degree – communication, creative thinking, project management, attention to detail, adaptability, and cultural awareness to name a few - aligned perfectly with a role in private client service. I have never had any regrets about the road-not-taken because I have found endless ways to redirect my creativity, approaching every scenario as a puzzle to be solved with the application of out-the-box thinking. 

In fact, many of my colleagues at Saffery Trust have incredibly varied backgrounds. From qualified teachers and mathematicians to a former-professional ballerina, the Saffery Trust workforce is a testament to the value of transferable skills and how beneficial diverse experiences are to the delivery of client service excellence.

To the countless students who may be filled with anticipation, and perhaps anxiety, about their results and what the future may hold, I would give one simple message: A career path is never a straight line. Whether you’ve known what you wanted to be when you grow up since you were four years old, or you find yourself still figuring things out at forty, take every experience as a learning opportunity. You really never know where you might end up.