19
all the other stuff – the marketing, the an opportunity you’ll do your best with it.
operational management of the team and “It’s also about growing the contact base
the people development. “I do the sign-off of people who know who you are, so
on the numbers, but I don’t do all the you can pick up the phone to them and
detail myself. I am very numerate and I talk about what you’re doing. I’ve never
apply that to my clients, but I don’t do the been a hard-sell person – I’m much more
detail of the number crunching, I look at focused on networking relationships. If I
the bigger picture.” meet somebody five times and they never
give me anything, then fine, at least I’ve
Catherine left her school in Liverpool to got to know them. And you never know
study maths at Oxford University and by when they might need something or know
her own admission had a great time with someone who might need something.”
the social and society aspects, although
she admits she wasn’t so keen on the She adds: “I tell our junior people to start
academic work: “I loved university but my building their contacts from the outset.
degree wasn’t really the right one for me. I wasn’t encouraged to do that when I
I had a great time – I was on all sorts of Catherine Barton; Career success started and it was only after I qualified
college committees and coxed in a rowing that I was told I could take clients out to
squad. I probably didn’t spend enough
“If you
lunch – I wish I’d been doing that three
time studying.” years earlier. It’s also important you don’t
demonstrate network just for self-motivation or for a
Thanks to sponsorship from Royal specific goal because people can see
Insurance through university, arranged
your enthusiasm
through that.”
while she was at school, Catherine had
about something,
spent two summers in Liverpool working Business is never plain sailing, and
at the firm’s life insurance actuarial
good things do
overcoming challenging situations or
department. She emerged from Oxford
tend to follow”
difficult people is one of the key skills
with a maths degree but also with bucket necessary for a senior manager dealing
loads of practical experience and abilities with both clients and staff. “I always
as well as a CV packed with evidence of to senior manager in 2001, at the time remember the client is right,” says
people and ‘soft’ skills. her employer merged into Deloitte. She Catherine. “If the client isn’t happy then
admits: “It was an accident of history we’re not meeting their needs. I try to
Her background made her choice of career rather than a career decision but it has understand an issue from the other
straightforward: “When I came to the end worked out very well for me.” She was person’s side to help work out what’s
of my degree I didn’t know about anything made a director at Deloitte in 2003 and causing the problem. Usually it’s not down
but actuarial work so I thought I’d apply then a partner in 2005. to just not getting on – there’s often some
for that. I thought doing consultancy would sort of extra pressure that’s driving it.
be good because of the variety of work, The pathway to success
rather than working on the same project “I think I scraped through my interview “Good questioning skills are really
year in, year out.” Catherine applied to to make Senior Manager – I wasn’t used important – being able to gently probe
three firms and received job offers from all to the interview thing. But then I thought what’s actually wrong and what’s going to
of them. After meeting up with teams from ‘What do I need to do to get to Director? make things work. You sometimes need to
all three companies she chose to go with a What are the skills that I need, what do I accept that some people operate in a way
company based in Epsom, Surrey – need to demonstrate?’ that you don’t and you have to try to work
at the time one of the UK’s leading around it. You need a range of different
actuarial consultancies. “In 2001 I had worked for a large client – I skills and responses you can apply to
developed the client relationship myself different people.”
“There used to be a lot of under- and brought the work in and it generated
representation of women going into the a big chunk of fees. That was the Critical appraisals
actuarial profession, but it’s a lot more foundation for my promotion to Director. When it comes to criticism, Catherine says
balanced now – about 40 to 50 per cent It was more than a typical senior manager honesty is important. “I try to be straight with
of our graduate intake are women now. would do so it demonstrated certain skills people as that tends to help with conveying
I found it challenging during my first year relatively early.” a difficult message: ‘This is the feedback
but then I got a really interesting client you’ve got, let’s talk about how we can work
and loved it from there,” she says. “I had Success breeds success, as Catherine with it.’ Not being unnecessarily accusatory
a fantastic mentor and he coached me all found out: “If you demonstrate your is important.” In many ways Catherine sees
the way through.” Catherine qualified as enthusiasm about something, good things negative feedback as being as important as
an actuary in 1999. She was promoted tend to follow. People know that if you get positive praise.
GradJobs Magazine | Winter 08-09
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