The Top 3 Reasons I Have The Best Job

August 19, 2015

For my inaugural post on the Financial Wellness @ Work blog, I thought I’d give a little insight into how I landed at Financial Finesse. Here are the top 3 reasons I LOVE my job:

The mission. As you may have read in this Q&A blog post, my whole career I’ve sought a way to help “everyday people” with their burning money questions without having to sell them a product or manage investments while still making a comfortable living. When I found Financial Finesse, I knew I had finally found the solution. My personal mission is fully aligned with that of Financial Finesse, which makes it like kismet that I’m here.

I started my personal finance career as a trust officer. I loved the relationships I built with my clients (I’m still friends with many of them!), but I was limited by increasing regulatory burdens that required me to spend too much time filling out compliance paperwork and not enough time easing people’s minds about their finances. I tried being a financial advisor at a large brokerage firm, but timing was bad. About six weeks before I was licensed to actually talk with clients, the market crashed and I don’t blame anyone for their unwillingness to trust a “rookie” when even the experts seemed to be getting it wrong. But the lessons I learned about how financial products work combined with the networking skills I was forced to develop have served more useful than any class or degree program could have taught me.

So I struck out on my own as a financial coach, charging people by the hour for unbiased financial guidance. This worked, but it was not a scalable model. There are only so many hours in a day and raising rates would have priced me out of being able to help those who needed it.

After a unique but useful turn as the director of marketing for a CPA firm, I stumbled upon the Financial Finesse job posting and knew immediately that this was what I had been seeking. The ability to spend my days answering questions about money from people who may not have a trusted place to turn, while still being involved in aspects of running the business, is exactly what I was looking for. Not only am I on the planner team, I run our social media, serve as a spokesperson in the media and am a member of our consulting team. Never a dull moment!

The people. Financial Finesse employs a 7-step interview process that thoroughly vets applicants against company culture, tests their skill set and ensures that all team members truly have passion for our mission. In fact, only 2 percent of those applying actually end up working at Financial Finesse. This means that I have the honor and privilege of working with a group of the kindest, most like-minded, principled humans that I have encountered in my career.

Each member of our Planner Team brings a different talent along with more than ten years of experience in financial planning to the team. When we gather for our quarterly all-company Planner Training Weeks, our home office brims with love. My colleagues and I truly support each other and want each other to succeed. It is a true blessing to be a part of such an encouraging, hard-working group.

The flexibility. Yes, working from home has its own set of unique challenges. While it is nice to work in my favorite bathrobe (although I quickly found I get sweaty and need to put on “real” clothes before noon), I have had to become very mindful of boundaries. I live in Chicago, but my colleagues are all over the country and our company is on Pacific time. If I’m not careful, I could easily work from 8AM until 8PM without standing up.

However, the ability to structure my day around what works best for me is something that I take full advantage of. There are conference calls I have to be on and client service delivery takes priority, but otherwise, I am at liberty to work when and from where I please. This takes some mindfulness about priorities, but when I plan properly, I find tremendous reward in the culture of flexibility at Financial Finesse. (For example, I’m typing this at a sidewalk café on a gorgeous summer afternoon.)

These are just the top three reasons I love my job. I could go on and on! What do you love most about your job and what questions do you have about the Financial Finesse culture? Please leave them in the comments and I will do my best to respond.