In my 30+ years in corporate world, I have grown my career in only three companies (out of 11), and it all ended because of bad career decisions - transferring to another company for more "growth opportunities (bigger paycheck)"!!!
The first is with a commodity futures broker in the 90s, I was in my early 20s and in our batch of new recruits I was deemed to be the least likely to succeed because I was the only one without a college degree, the rest came armed with degrees from prestigious universities and we even have a lawyer in our group.
Three months - this is our probationary period wherein we are expected to bring in at least ONE client. In the end, I was the only one left standing with two clients.
After two years I was promoted to be (the youngest) Branch Manager of a new branch the company opened in North Luzon, business was good and soon I was SAVP and reassigned back to our head office in Makati.
A competitor somehow heard of this young sales hotshot, and I was offered to become a Vice President (at 24) and handle my very own department, and guess what, I moved.
I was fired after three months because of poor performance. First lesson I learned from this debacle is "a good salesman does not necessarily make a good manager" and confidence and belief in one's abilities should be matched with REAL skills, so much has been said about the need to be self-confident and going all out, the reality is that without real skills to do a job, failure is inevitable.
Drifted along for a while, taking odd jobs here and there to support my young family. Joined a company that gave me the opportunity to work abroad which brought me to assignments in various Asian cities, the company eventually closes.
I met a President/CEO of a mutual fund company in one of the seminars I attended while overseas, she told me to look her up when I return to the Philippines and work for her.
I promptly did after two months; final interview was with the Chairman who turned me down because... I did not finish college!
She referred me to her friend who happens to be the GM of another mutual fund company, final interview was again with the Chairman of the company, key issue is again my lack of a completed college degree.
I was given a chance however to prove myself, I was told that if I pass the licensure exam for mutual fund solicitors, I would be accepted on a probation basis. I aced the exams, getting the highest score in our batch of examinees.
Soon afterwards I was leading in terms of personal sales, was promoted to sales manager by my new boss who took over from the GM who moved on.
The growth trajectory of mutual fund companies is measured by AUM (assets under management) because revenues is generated by management fees, more AUM translates to more fees.
From around 250M (mostly investments from affiliate companies), our sales team which I headed was able to grow it to over 20B by the time I left in the early 2000s... to transfer to start-up mutual fund company. My second major career blunder!
Second lesson I learned is that the success of an individual can be influenced by the size/stature of the company he represents, looking back, I realized that a lot of the successes I achieved is helped by the company's industry reputation and not so much my personal skills.
This became apparent months after being promoted to Pres/CEO of this "small" mutual fund company, business opportunities and alliances that are open to me in my previous company now seems unavailable.
Soon afterwards, I was asked to resign...
By this time, I have already gained enough skill and experience in the field of personal investment management that I was able to make a living by offering talks/seminar to financial services companies, one of the companies that engaged me - a life insurance company, offered me a consultancy position to train their agency force.
My consultancy was soon upgraded to a more permanent appointment as the training and seminars I am conducting for the company's agency force began to show positive results.
I was recognized as the company's "investment guru" and soon I was contributing to the development of new "investment linked" products, I was able to make substantial contribution in the introduction of structured VULs for the company which resulted in meaningful contribution to the company's topline numbers, this cemented my tenure with the company.
But 9 years after I was approached by one of the newer players in the life insurance industry to head agency sales, and guess what, I moved again because of a bigger paycheck.
This turns out to be my shortest career stint, because i resigned short of two months into this job because of the difference in opinion with my immediate superior on the way the agency sales management will be run, ironically, these are exactly what we have agreed on during my final interview.
All the best my friends!!
#acgadvice
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