Return to Work

After more than 8 years break from the workforce in 2014, today is my first day of work at Providend as a Solutions Specialist on a part-time 3-day week basis. My work days are Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.

My appointment is not a client-facing position. I would join the Solutions Team, which is responsible for developing wealth planning tools for the Advisory Team’s use. My role involves spending time researching on best practices in wealth planning solutions and bring them from theory to application. There is also the aspect of translating difficult concepts into simple language for internal and external communication.

Originally I applied for the Providend Associate Adviser Programme (position still open as of now, interested parties may check the Providend Careers page). What caught my attention to that position is the opportunity to undergo a systematic learning process, includes mentoring by a Senior Client Adviser and rotating to Advisory and Operations departments for a well-rounded exposure to wealth advisory.

As mentioned in my “About” page in this blog, I have developed strong interests in personal wealth management over the years, even though my education and career background was in engineering. I didn’t have any formal education and paper qualification in finance. I picked up financial knowledge through self-study by books, blogs and videos. In addition, I gained practical experience in investing and trading with various financial instruments.

In the past few years, I started getting involved in the 1M65, CPF Volunteering and Seedly communities, sharing my views and experiences, at the same time learning from others’ views and experiences. It was such a meaningful journey that propel me into thinking of joining the financial sector.

However, I was aware of my lack of necessary qualification to enter this industry. For this reason, I applied for the IBF‘s Career Conversion Programme, such as Technology in Finance Immersion Programme (TFIP) and Wealth Management Accelerator Programme (WMAP), but to no avail.

Then, I found out about the Providend’s programme. Its systematic learning programme with mentoring and job rotation attracted me, so I decided to apply. After a few rounds of interviews, I was offered the position of Solutions Specialist. I gladly accepted the offer and looking forward to a fulfilling journey with Providend, to be the light of the financial world.