She added that she “loved” this part of her job and that it compelled her to manage more people to help others progress further in their desired careers.
“To be able to give people opportunities, that’s the part of the job that I absolutely loved.”
Professional journey
Cook has always worked in financial services but in many different roles across sales, marketing, product, relationship, and operations.
However, despite spending so much time in the industry, she stated that she was not familiar with anyone in the industry before joining.
While her first financial services position was “a job to pay the bills” there were certain aspects of the industry that she found appealing.
“It was only once I was in the industry that I actually realised the opportunities.”
One of these opportunities mentioned by Cook was being involved in the process of buying a house which she described as a “really emotive process” that lenders and brokers have the solutions to.
“People want to be able to buy their house outright and live the life they want to, so that’s what really interested me and got me stuck in the industry. Once you’re in you’re always in.”
Taking action
Looking to the future, Cook said that, while the industry is currently better at supporting people in entry level positions than it was when she first started, this level of support is not consistent across all positions.
“The good work slightly goes askew around the middle of people’s careers when some of the female workforce leave to have children and find it harder to pick up their careers when they come back.”
Cook also called for more opinions to be collected saying: “We need to hear from those people who are in difficult situations at the moment.”
One way Cook suggested this could be accomplished was having forums which would allow for people to heard.
She also suggested an industry wide “temperature check” to understand the bigger problems that people find themselves at the moment.
Cook emphasised this understanding component as being important due to the challenging nature of the industry.
“Financial services is a really challenging industry and there are times when colleagues that I’ve spoken to have thought of walking away because of how challenging it is.
“The important thing is asking how we can be more supportive in times like that.”
tom.dunstan@ft.com
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