We’re All In Sales – 5 Career Tips From A Financial Services SVP

“What’s in the future for you?” That’s the first key question Kathleen McQuiggan suggesting asking yourself at any stage in your career. Then think about what you need to get you “there.” 

When I interviewed her recently on my podcast, about her specialty – aligning your money with your values through ESG investing – she also gave insightful career advice from her vantage point of a 30-year career climbing the leadership ladder in the male-dominated financial services industry to Senior Vice President, and from working with hundreds of successful women across all industries.

ESG investing is investing with a focus on Environment, Social and Governance issues, which means assessing the impact that the company you’re considering investing in is having on the planet, and on all their stakeholders, and assessing their leadership both in people and practices, including how transparent and competent. A key component of ESG investing is valuing women in leadership, and all diversity. 

McQuiggan was Senior Vice President of Pax World Investments heading Global Women’s Investing and managing their Global Women’s Index Fund for many years and is now a wealth advisor at Artemis Advisors. Before PaxWorld, she spent about 18 years in the thicket of institutional investing at Goldman Sachs and Alex Brown. Today, she calls herself a “Financial Ally for Women.”

Her career advice is focused on what you want to do and what you’re going to need to be able to do it.

Here are McQuiggan’s five pieces of career advice, especially for mid-career women:

1.     “You need to have a wealth plan”:  McQuiggan says it’s important to know what money you have “coming in, what you have going out. How much money you need to make and what you need to be investing for.” That is, what do you want to be able to do in your professional life? She calls it “career latitude,” and said, “we’re seeing more women want to use their wealth for career latitudes and you can’t use your wealth for career latitudes unless you know how much you have, what you spend, and make sure you have a retirement plan in place.” It’s never too late to start.

2.     “Relationship capital is extremely valuable”:  Most of us call this our network, but there are various elements to this network, and we have more than one. We have a professional network of people outside our current job. We have a professional network inside the organization we currently work in, even if it’s our own business (it might include staff, vendors and contractors). We have a personal support network, what I call our “kitchen cabinet,” of people we have close relationships with, trust, confide in and can call on for support on a variety of things, both personal and professional.

McQuiggan advised “what is your personal brand and how are you building the relationship capital you have?” And added, “Make sure you’re nurturing that network, adding to it, growing it, weeding it out. Your relationship is a phenomenal tool that you control and that you can always take with you.”

3.     Have what she calls a “PE Ratio”: It’s not price-earnings either. McQuiggan calls it your “puke to excitement ratio,” that is, the things that scare you so badly you’re nauseas, and the things that excite you so much you’re giddy. When you know these boundaries, McQuiggan suggests, you can make choices that are fulfilling, challenge you and help you grow personally, professionally and financially. It’s about knowing how you manage risk and your risk boundaries.

4.     Accept that you’re in sales: “Everybody is in sales, whether you think you’re a salesperson or not. You are always going to have to be in some sort of negotiation,” even figuring out where to go to dinner with someone, or “how you can solve a problem for a client.” So, she says, look at “sales” as solving problems.

5.     Define “the business you want to be in in the future”: It can be an employer you work for, and maybe climb the ladder to top leadership, or having your own business, or doing volunteer work. Think about how you want to spend your time in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, and start building a foundation for it today – no matter what your current circumstances or career stage, McQuiggan suggests.

Your plans will change – no one was prepared for a global pandemic transforming our lives and livelihoods literally overnight. So, it’s important to remain nimble, and to seize opportunities that appear along the way. A job you planned to seek in a few years opens up today, for example, or you’re unexpectedly laid off and consider using this time to explore starting your own business.  

Or, maybe you’ll decide to serve a community need as a side hustle, like Jennifer “JJ” Lee did. At the start of the pandemic when face masks were in short supply especially for low-income communities, she started United We Mask outside her day job as a Global Innovation Skincare Program Manager to manufacture face masks from recycled fabric to help fill the need in an eco-friendly way.  

As McQuiggan puts it, understanding your financial parameters, nurturing your network, and reframing “sales,” can give you the tools you need for “career latitude,” no matter what’s going on today.