Land Your Dream Job Podcast with Inspired Careers– Smart Job Search Strategies, Motivation & Inspiration for Career Success

http://inspiredcareerscoaching.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/lydj-04-barb-turley.mp3
This interview is a great one for anyone that is looking to turn career adversity into good times.  Our interviewee, Barbara Turley, had some difficult times in her career when the financial markets hit the skids.  She managed to capitalise on the opportunities presented and went onto flourish.  She has some great advise for anyone looking to gain employment overseas and women working in male dominated industries.  She is also an expert in generating wealth and shares her smarts on women and wealth with our listeners.
Interview Transcription
Kylie: (Introduction to Barbara) Barbara is a highly accomplished woman, shea was  a whiz in the financial market for 15 years trading for some of the world’s largest investment banks, managing relationships with some of Australia’s largest wealth management businesses and is a major shareholder in a 3 billion asset management business. The other thing she knows about is career success entrepreneurship. She inspired me to re-launch Inspired Careers.
Tell us more about your career journey from studying and right up to today.
Barbara: 15 years I was in the corporate world and I, for the most part, loved it and really had the career of my dreams. I always had a fascination with money – more about how money works. I was very fascinated by the financial markets. I want to work in trading floors.
I came out from the University and I struggled in getting initial jobs. I started in the funds management but in the back end group and doing jobs I hated. I eventually took a job on an execution desk – it was answering the phone and jotting down stock orders to buy shares and executing the trade. I got a lucky break when there was a big event for the institutional trading desk. The head of trading said we need young people so I jumped the chance. The next day I got a call from the Head of the Institutional Trading floor saying “we were impressed with how you interacted with clients and we think someone like you would be great as junior on our desk”.
Kylie: There’s the importance of building key relationships.
Barbara: You can be friendly and amazing and connect well even with male clients without being in any way provocative – just sending the wrong message. You have to send the right message and I know that’s something I always did. I was genuinely interested in the market so I think that’s what really landed the job for me.
Within a few years, I was working on the trading floor and absolutely loved it. I had this wish to travel so I decided after a few years to give up the amazing job and come to Australia.
I rang all my contacts in London and asked if they knew anybody in investment banks in Australia. So I marched down here with no contacts, no job, and no visa. I rang up the Head of Equities and I said I wanted to check out the landscape here and if there’s any chance he would have coffee with me and have a look at my resume and tell me if I have a chance in Sydney. When we met he hired me. So again it was just using that network.
Kylie: Another pivotal lesson there – the importance of making connections and using them. It’s wonderful that often when you reach out, people are more than happy to help.
Barbara: It’s all about how you position it. It’s like sales – there’s a bit of what’s in it for you but you have to get the other person on your side. And I did that. So I was sitting there for 13 years, 8 years of that on the trading floor I was in UBS and then I went to ABN AMRO then I finally did a few years of Merrill Lynch. I loved every minute of it. It was very hard in terms of hours and pressure. But I didn’t see a future for myself in that environment anymore. I started to get very burned out and thought I really need a break...