Maths was always Sarah’s “thing”, but she didn’t know where to go with it. She majored in finance, but needed help getting the edge in order to further her career.
Sarah got a job right after college as a financial advisor, but knew that it wasn’t her passion. This is how she discovered mthree and took the opportunity.
Carry on reading below to find out more about Sarah’s story.
> Searching for that open door
“Everyday I would go into the office and scroll LinkedIn looking for that next opportunity.”
Sarah was then contacted by mthree on Linkedin, where she jumped at the opportunity. “I thought this might be my only opportunity, so I took it and I’m really glad I did.”
> Undertaking the interviews
The first steps for Sarah were taking part in interviews to ensure that she would be happy with the training and she understood the process ahead of her.
“The first initial call was more getting to know me, asking me about my education and work backgrounds and my strengths and weaknesses. I was then set up with an interview with a client to join once I’d finished the training.
They told me the client would ask more specific things, such as what is my background knowledge of financial instruments. From then, I joined the training.”
Within 2 weeks, Sarah was placed into a training cohort where she joined instructor-led training via Zoom.
> Beginning the training with a spring in her step
“There were so many people from around the world to learn from, plus we got paid to train which was really the seller for me.”
She enjoyed the way the course was structured, “The trainer would go through the financial instruments, the definition and application. Then we would do group projects that would simulate being in the workforce.
We would have to work with each other to present the solution to the team, or discuss what the problem is, or how we would present a portfolio for a client. Learning the real world application was very useful.”
> Starting her new career
“I was further ahead and had a deeper understanding of what the day to day role would be like than my co-workers who didn’t come through the mthree graduate program.” This meant that it didn’t take Sarah long to settle into her new career as a Senior Representative in the Client Processing team.
“The transition from training to the workplace and being on site with the client was pretty smooth. I was paired with a buddy who showed me the way. We had a teams call together every day where she shared her screen, walked me through the process of preparing the cash flows and researching the breaks. I would ask questions when I was confused and she would walk me through it until I could do it on my own.”
Sarah’s day to day role varies depending on the project she is undertaking. “When I first started, I was only focused on cash flows. So, when I signed on I’d look at all the wires that came in, label them accordingly and match them off with the projections.
I also took a month-long training course to be the asset admin person, so now I don’t deal with cash flows anymore!”
> Seeing it as a journey
Sarah finds what she’s doing now majorly fulfilling, so much so that she feels she’s on the right career trajectory for her. “Yeah, it’s very rewarding! For example, as part of our restructuring our loans are wonky.
It’s complicated and takes a lot of excel spreadsheets and math to figure it out. I couldn't do it. I spent ages trying to figure it out. I finally figured it out and was so happy. It was exciting to see that all that time I'd spent had actually paid off. Hopefully the next step is for me to be a Client Service Manager, it’s exciting to know that there’s a next step.”
> Grateful for the opportunity
Sarah doesn’t think it would be possible to be where she is without mthree, “I was so young and the only experience I had was my education. I needed a middleman to open the door for me and let me in. I could then show the workplace, “hey this is something that I can actually do!”, but I needed mthree to advocate for me.
They had my back the whole time. They knew I had the knowledge and the training. I just needed someone to give me a chance.”
> Advice for other graduates
When asked if she had any advice for graduates that want to follow in her footsteps, Sarah said, “I hated my first job out of college. I just took the chance and thought I’m going to jump all the way in and if it gets me somewhere, then it does.
So, I guess my advice would be to take any opportunity that comes your way because you don’t know where it will lead you!”
If you’re feeling inspired by Sarah’s story, check out our current vacancies and begin your new career today.