Shawn McCarthy discusses interim treasury consulting work, covering what the role demands, how to hire for it, and why passion and relationships matter more than you'd expect in finance.
My whole thought process is I really like to bring sort of order out of chaos. I like project work, I like big projects or multiple projects that you're working on at the same time. So interim work really fits my skill set very well.
Or a permanent role.
When it's with a very acquisition oriented.
Company or a PE house or something.
Like that, where there's multiple transactions and there's a lot going on and you're trying to manage several different things at once, that's when I'm the most happy. Doing the same thing every day or generating the same reports every day or every week or every month or whatever and sort of business as usual. It's just not that interesting to me. I've done it for a lot of. And I prefer the sort of rock and roll of multiple transactions and things happening and I just don't like to be bored. And generally the day to day work after a while seems to be boring. Most of the time I'm called in or people want my skill set. When it's like two or three things. The company has grown so fast, organically or large organically, they realize that what they've been doing in the past isn't working and they get things in a better state of play or there's been a huge transaction and they either are hiving out a portion of the company for sale and they need to set up a whole separate treasury function or they've merged or acquired a large transaction and they realize, oh my gosh, our.
Footprint is not the same anymore.
We're in places we've never been before and we need to do things differently. You know, I don't know how we're going to merge the cash of the two legal entities. You know, how's that going to work? So that's when they call me in and I figure that out.
So if I have to hire a junior or someone in the role that I'm vacating when I leave an interim client, I find somebody who's genuinely excited about treasury, who finds it fascinating, interesting. Also somebody who's like a system hobbyist because it's really good. You know, you. I have some people who are so theoretical about all the wonderful things, bring in the socioeconomic and the economic thing. That is not going to get the job done. You know, I mean you need somebody who's feet are on the ground. Preferably that. I remember once I was helping a client look for a Treasury manager and the person that, that they liked was.
Very in his head, you know, was very like.
And, and because the corporate treasurer was sort of serene as well. They really liked them. I said, you hire in your own image many times.
Yeah.
I said, you know, I don't think that person is going to be good at all. And unfortunately, the CFO asked my opinion.
So I had to tell him. I don't think.
Because they had. Don't have they a dilettante, you know, they worked here, they worked there. Not all always worked in Treasury. This is not a Treasury special. This is a somebody who wants to try treasury because it sounds interesting, you know.
Yeah.
That's maybe not the kind of person we want.
So an excited doer, but not in your own image.
Yes, well.
Or in your own images.
That's what if you're excited to do it. Yeah.
But we ended up hiring an ex accountant who had very little experience but was really in the interview, was really excited about treasury, really thought it was interesting and was an IT hobbyist because we had a very complex treasury system. And I heard six months later he was like the God of all things Treasury. Being a Treasury consultant is the risky.
Business because I've been out of work five months and seven months in my career less than a year, so both.
Of those times are very scary. But I've always ended up finding a job and. But I would say, you know, if you have a passion for making things work, you know. Right.
And if you.
It is a bit of a people.
Job, although not the wider public, but.
You have to get on with the people in your group and all the people that you do business with.
So if you can. Oh, God, bankers move so much, you.
Know, so it may be that, you know, I have one banker that I knew at one bank and now he's on his third or fourth bank and.
I'm like, oh, hi, I know you.
You know, it is a bit of a people job than a relationship building job.
So.
And if you want to get the.
Data that you need out of the.
Systems of the company or the information of the company, you have to develop those relationships. We ended up hiring an ex accountant who had very little experience but was really in the interview, was really excited about treasury, really thought it was interesting and was an IT hobbyist because we had a very complex treasury system. And I heard six months later he was like the God of all things Treasury. Being a Treasury consultant is the risky.
Business because I've been out of work five months and seven months in my.
Career, so both of those times are very scary. But I've always ended up finding a job. But I would say, you know, if you have a passion for making.
