I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2015 with a BA in Economics. I took the opportunity that the US system allows, by developing a broad education that encompassed many areas of study including; Economics, Statistics, and Finance, which related to my degree major, as well as Humanities and the Sciences, which fulfilled the universities “breadth” of education requirement.

Once I graduated, I returned home to Guernsey to pursue a career in finance. I knew I wanted a strong professional qualification and a challenging environment, so I applied for a Transaction Services (TS) Graduate Scheme in PwC Guernsey which would give me support and training to obtain the ICAEW ACA qualification. Once I had accepted an offer to join the graduate intake in August 2016, I decided to sign up for Level I of the CFA Program (CFA) before I started my new career.

At PwC, I had an incredibly challenging but rewarding experience in their small TS team, taking on responsibilities that I, nor indeed the team leadership, had anticipated I would take on so early in my career. It gave me the opportunity to be in positions of great responsibility involving Initial Public Offerings and further share issues on the London Stock Exchange for transactions that regularly exceeded £200m.

My experience, at PWC, gave me great exposure to managing multiple external stakeholders under extreme time pressures, including some of the most prestigious Fund Managers and Investment Bankers in London and New York. I decided to leave PwC once I had fully qualified as an ACA, as I knew that I wanted to pursue a career in Financial Planning. A fact that was emphasised to me by the enjoyment I took from studying for the CFA Program.