Paraplanning had never been high on 19-year-old Naomi Draycott's list of things she'd like to do in life, but nine years on she knows it was her life calling.
However, the 28-year-old paraplanner at Colyer Associates says her nerves gave way even before she got to the advice firm's door for her interview as an apprentice.
"I knew I had made a fool of myself from the start. I was wearing kitten heels on a gravel drive.
"I had spent ages on my outfit for the interview - I had even gone so far as to reflect their brand in the colours I was wearing. But I got out of the car in my interview shoes, and immediately thought 'Oh no! I’ve made a life error'."
Draycott, who was recently a finallist in the Personal Finance Society's paraplanner of the year award, describes her entry into the profession as "an accident" - in common with many who say they "fell into it".
But she always had an interest in finance. "Mum and dad both used to work in banking. People used to tell me I would get into banking.
"After school I did not want to go to university - I wanted to get a job, and a car and a house."
Pot washing to paraplanning
She started out in a clothes shop, which she loved. "I thought retail might be my career, but the shop closed down. I desperately wanted to earn and a friend of mine said if I needed money and free cake, I could wash pots", Draycott says.
"So three days a week, downstairs in the basement kitchen, I washed pots for a ridiculously low pay, though I did get free cake. And while I was doing that I was applying for jobs everywhere, particularly in estate agency and accountancy."
But the interviews got her nowhere. One lunchtime, Draycott's mum phoned her and said she had seen a job advertised on a local news site. She emailed it to me.
"It was a financial advice firm looking for a full-time apprentice, on a competitive salary, and just 20 minutes from where I lived at the time. I applied for it with just two days before the deadline.
"Within a day, I was invited for an interview. Mum and I did a test drive to check how long it would take me to get there."
The day of the interview, her mum drove onto the gravelled driveway and Draycott got out. "I didn't know if they were looking at me but as I tottered up to the front door, I thought I had blown it.
"And then the floor inside was polished stone - so I was clacking all the way through and echoing everywhere. I figured I'd blown it at the start."
The interview was three hours long. "I didn't know whether that was a good or bad thing at the time. Mum told me not to get my hopes up but as soon as I got in the car I said 'Mum, I want that job'.
