This is a 2-part blog by Peter Wilford about supporting Finance Directors (FDs) to consider about whether to retire or not, and how a portfolio career can be a good career choice for the pre retirement life stag.
This is part 2.
The rest of this blog is in Peter’s own words.
Read part 1
https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/ready-to-be-put-out-to-grass-or-not-part-1-of-2/
How we help our clients
Success comes from a number of factors.
We help our clients to develop a Plan ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ for their job search and marketing activity.
Each plan is carefully crafted and the priorities assessed.
This gives the Financial Director (FD) confidence that he / she is not putting all their career ‘eggs in one basket’. This is especially important for the uncertain times in which we live.
We coach them at every stage and act as a sounding board to keep them on track.
Career plan ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’
Typically, career Plan ‘A’ might involve securing 2-3 pieces of paid consultancy work – often with an SME and where they were not likely to be seen as a threat to the incumbent CEO or Financial Director, but are able to add significant bottom line value.
Career Plan ‘B‘ might be to focus on obtaining some interim work, particularly if they have already worked in a sector where interims are required and / or in a Senior Finance project role.
Career Plan ‘C’ might be to set up their own business and to create a web site and look at building a portfolio career to include typically:
- non-executive director (NED) work
- mentoring of younger finance professionals
- voluntary work
- paid consultancy projects.
Also perhaps:
- supporting a friend in their local area with their own business, to broaden their experience, leading to new future opportunities.
Age bias towards employing 50somethings
Securing a full-time role as a finance director (FD) in a large organisation in your 50’s is both difficult and extremely time consuming, unless you have a strong business network and very well-established head-hunter contacts.
Opportunities for an FD to get work more easily lie in the Small Medium Enterprise (SME) sector.
Finding your niche and how we help
One FD client, whose experience was both corporate and SME based, identified that his niche market was medical devices companies.
We worked together to write 2-3 compelling direct approach letters and he drew up a list of 50 SME organisations within an agreed geographical area.
The letter was strong.
His value add proposition was convincing.
We coached him to be thoroughly interview prepared.
The result was a series of interviews with the MD / CEO of medical device companies.
Proactively helping our clients
We are proactive in our approach, providing a bespoke service, unlike the large career management companies/outplacement organisations which can be ‘sausage machine’ in nature, and relying primarily on on-line career portals and a standardized approach. One size does not fit all.
Ways in which we help our clients
We go the extra mile at Energise for our clients. Ways in which we support them include:
- Introducing them to relevant contacts in our own networks
- Encouraging them to adopt a proactive approach to marketing, often in new areas and outside their comfort zone
- Getting them to think ‘outside of the box’, for example to approach their Professional Institute e.g. ICAEW for possible mentoring
- Encouraging them to attend industry conferences to broaden/widen their network
- Sharpening up their technical skills
- Pointing them to non executive director (NED) membership organisations.
- Invited them to our local Institute of Director (IoD) group
- Introducing them to local employers
- Helping them build up their lists of head-hunters and to learn how to manage these conversations to the best effect
The result
All our clients have now been either placed or are enjoying a new phase of their working life.
Some have been introduced to our Independent Financial Advisor (IFA) contacts for fresh support with financial planning.
Several have kept in touch.
Our clients have told us that they would not have known what to do without our help, coaching, senior experience and reassurance.
More
‘The 100-year life’ by Lynda Gratton and Andrew J Scott: http://www.100yearlife.com/
‘The new long life’ by Lynda Gratton and Andrew J Scott: https://thenewlonglife.com/
‘Future skills for a life-long competitive advantage part 1’ for the award-winning Future of Work Hub: https://www.futureofworkhub.info/comment/2019/3/22/future-skills-for-a-life-long-competitive-advantage-part-1
‘Future skills for a life-long competitive advantage part 2’ for the award-winning Future of Work Hub: https://www.futureofworkhub.info/comment/2019/6/26/future-skills-for-a-life-long-competitive-advantage-part-2