Insider profil
Keen to receive questions about
Top Insider Advice
Whatever you’re good at, whether it be organisation or leadership or analytics, try your best to draw on those skills within your current role to really showcase what you do well. And not just in your role, look at other roles such as championing or volunteering to provide additional opportunities to really highlight what you are good at. This may then give you the chance to consider where you have improvements to make and think about how that can be achieved through shadowing, mentoring or further education / courses. There are so many opportunities at First Central to shine a light on our talents or improve our weaknesses. Take them!
Career path
Risk & Compliance Governance Manager
First Central
Started 04/2022 to PresentCompliance Monitoring Manager
First Central
From 01/2020 to 04/2022Compliance Business Partner
First Central
From 06/2018 to 01/2020Company
What do you like about your job and the company?
I really enjoy that, while I have a series of tasks I must complete each month, I have so much variety in what I do because I am supporting different teams. Risk, Compliance and Data Protection are very different in terms of requirements as well as how they work and collaborate and I think my people management skills and co-ordination are effective here. I also feel like I am supporting the business, even if it’s only in a small way through the training of Protecht or the reporting of actions. A part of my role is to ensure rigour is applied and I can achieve that in those tasks.
Greatest achievements
I came up with the idea of needing a champion role in the business that would be a contact point in each pillar for the risk and compliance teams, driving improved risk culture and communication across pillars. This developed into the idea of having a ‘Rigorously Running Your Pillar Champion role’ which was presented to and approved by our Execs. Champions and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) from the risk and compliance teams will meet each month to discuss any initiatives they’re rolling out and track the progress of Strategic Driver KPIs discussing changes in performance and reasons for this. We’ve had two meetings so far which have been beneficial, already providing further knowledge about in-pillar activity and driving better awareness of risk and compliance.
Jemma R
Talent Manager
Top Insider Advice
I have rarely asked for or applied for promotions during my career, generally feeling I was happy where I was and not wanting loads more responsibility, especially since I lost my 21-month-old daughter in 2015. I wanted to come to work, enjoy it and then go home without any added pressures (plus I hate being interviewed!) I think I have naturally progressed and become involved in other things, specifically over the past 10 years. I’ve done it by working hard, being loyal and putting effort into everything I do. I’ve been lucky that my managers have always recognised my potential and pushed me to progress myself and my career. It’s definitely helped when working for the same company for a number of years! I could probably have progressed a bit quicker if I had pushed for it, but that’s not me and that’s ok. You don’t have to be pushy to get where you want to be; it might just take a little longer.
Alana R
Top Insider Advice
Throughout my career I’ve been on a learning journey regarding how I communicate. When I first started out, I was very shy and found it difficult to communicate confidently. I’d be nervous sending an email to someone I’d never met and spend hours over-analysing the content to make sure it was ‘perfect’ before sending it. As I sent more and more emails, met more people, and put myself out there for presentations, I grew in confidence but I still had a lot to learn. I’d often go into the specifics of everything and give people information overload because I was worried about missing something important. I got a lot of feedback around this and was regularly asked to “keep it high-level”. I really had to work at this, and I needed to get help from peers, mentors, managers and external research to understand what this meant, when it mattered and how to be effective at a higher level of detail. With years of practice, I am now much better at communicating and that’s helped me progress into a leadership position. This is just one example of me learning a skill which I thought was impossible. If I can do it, so can you!
Kerry D
Head of Home Underwriting
Top Insider Advice
Be open to change and grab opportunities that come your way to help you grow and develop yourself. Always have a growth mindset and don’t close down opportunities because you’re afraid that you can’t meet the challenge. Pushing yourself outside your usual skill set will help increase your confidence and show you what you’re capable of.
