Breaking Through Career Ceilings: Advice for Aspiring Treasurers

Has your career literally hit a ceiling? This came from a conversation I had recently. It was a conversation, more structural, not an emotional one, about a senior treasury professional who felt that his career, if you like, had hit a ceiling. Now, he wasn't quite the treasurer, not yet. So, Mike, I'm concerned I might not get the number one job. He was working really hard. There was internal competition, there was external competition and he wanted a reality check, if you like. So we talked through some what if scenarios. So what if your treasurer leaves, were to leave and your CFO were to look to you, but what if they also look at external candidates and you don't get that promotion? Maybe what happens if the CFO and treasurer were to move at the same time? Now, none of those are personal things, they're structural things. So the advice, the first thing I said to him was, look around you. Does the company itself tend to promote from within? That's a good first sign. Or do they always look external? Because some companies, they want to retain the knowledge and develop people. If you like, maybe you don't immediately get a promotion. Maybe you could also look at a different role internally so not just set your sights on just, I've got to get the treasurer role. It could be within treasury or wider. Maybe it's a related function. So it could be internal movement. I shared the example of Pat McCartin. Pat, who's going to be on my Textpo panel in April. We talked about him on his, we talked about his treasury career on my podcast. He's been 30 years at Caterpillar and one job. No, we joked about it on the, you know, he's moved all the way through, but he's ended up being the treasurer. So the fact is you could make a lot of internal moves. That's one of the things. But then the other thing was I said, look, at the end of the day, you're not a rock. You can move, you can look internal, but maybe there's also an external route for you. He said, wow. Yeah. And that's one of the reasons he and I were talking, said, at the end of the day, you're in control. Don't let other people dictate your treasury curry, you're in charge of it. So just take a moment to think, am I definitely going to get my boss's job? Great, if you are, if that's not a nail down guarantee, then you need to be considering what you might be doing. Look, get advice from me, talk to other people, but let's keep on talking. And if you need advice. Reach out to me anytime. Thanks.