Jane Pilcher explains what makes a treasury career work: qualifications matter, but adaptability matters more. She stresses that treasury teams need people willing to learn continuously and flex with a changing profession, whether you're starting out or senior.
One of the things that we are trying to kind of focus on at the moment is kind of home growing talent. So bringing people in at a junior level, as I said, we've now got two apprentices in the scheme, in the team and looking to bring in then people who have got good degrees, who are looking to do something different. So we're looking for high levels of kind of university graduates, but with an aptitude and a passion to do something differently. So that's, I think what we're looking for at kind of the most junior levels in terms of the more senior levels. I think it's looking for people who want to grow, want to develop and want to do something that's different from the mainstream. I often say to people, if you want to kind of come in every day, know what you're going to do exactly the same every single day and then go home at a set time, well, then treasury is not the same. Not the place for, for you. Yeah. If you want to, to come into, to somewhere where you might think you're going to do something today, but then suddenly energy prices fall and we want to kind of purchase some forward energy, you've got to be adaptable and excited by, wow, great, that's an opportunity, I'm then going to take it. And that stuff that I was going to do today, I'll manage expectations and I'll try and do that tomorrow. And so it's people who, it's aptitude, I think, for people. So people who are wanting to grow, wanting to learn. They've got a base level of education which obviously is at a high level, but that they, it's that adaptability and an enthusiasm that I'm looking for. I think what it does, it gives you a level of knowledge, a level of training to understand the kind of the risks for an organisation and the stewardship that we're providing in Treasury. So for me that's why that training is so important. I think the courses, the conferences that the treasurers, association, corporate treasurers organise are a great way for people to understand what other people were doing, whether it's on systems, whether it's on cash flow management, on debt management, it brings together kind of like minded people who can then kind of learn and grow from each other.
