People often choose a career in financial services but for Old Mill head of wealth management Amanda Browning, she fell into it after she “just didn’t know what else to do”.
Speaking to FTAdviser, Browning, who was appointed as partner and head of wealth management at Old Mill in April, said she joined a retail bank straight after A Levels, having no idea what she wanted to do.
“I was waiting for a place in the armed forces services and was waitressing and someone asked me if I wanted a part time job in the bank.
“I thought that sounded better than waitressing but actually it didn't pay as well so I carried on waitressing around my full time job. That was my first entrance into banking.”
Browning said she really wasn't set on services but her family were from a services background and she didn’t know what else to do.
“We have no financial services in the family,” she said.
“It was just a cashiering job for me but actually, retail banking as it was then, had many faults in terms of it was really a sales environment that you entered into.
“But they did offer you the opportunity to take further qualifications and further yourself if you were enthusiastic and keen and I was relatively fresh out of school with very little by way of reasonable qualifications or direction.”
She explained that instead of studying at home or at college, she was able to study by herself and be supported by a company that paid for exams.
Study days were given which she found “invaluable” and said it was a complete turning point in terms of an appetite for learning, which she hadn't found before.
“In banking, I was very quickly able to start advising clients on simple banking arrangements, lending, things that are highly regulated now but arranged mortgages, giving people mortgage advice and life assurance and those sort of things.”
She then moved into financial planning about four years later when TSB and Lloyds merged.
“It was a tricky move,” she said.
“My career is dotted with people that have been inspirational informal mentors, as well as people that have tried to hold me back and prevented things from occurring.
“It was very difficult as a young woman in banking back then. When I first got the job, my mother said, don't go into banking - it's a man's world. Find something else.”
Browning laughed but said that it was very true, stating that as a cashier, she was an “object” and it was very difficult to be seen and taken seriously.
“You had to be a bit more assertive, and a more definite and it didn't come without some knockbacks,” she said.
“We've come a long, long way but we have a long way to go. Through education, I’d just like to think that the next generations will benefit and this will be an old wives tale.”
