My Interviewing Marathon

It has been about six years since I’ve last felt this way, but man, it is exhausting looking for a full time job. I am still with my current employer and for the better part of the last week my lunch breaks and after work extracurricular activities have been filled with meetings, appointments and interviews as I am looking to transition out of my current role. Ideally my goal is to get to a point where I can work as a financial advisor, but there are a lot of sharks out there whom make the process of becoming a suce$$ful financial advisor sound way too easy and assume that every applicant is after a sizable paycheck as opposed to being on a crusade to change household personal finances forever. Perhaps if I was fresh out of college with no work experience I might have fallen for some of these traps, but thankfully I’ve been able to weed out a lot of those sharks during the interview process.

But a few avenues and doors have opened as a result of my extensively detailed search. At the risk of jinxing anything, 2 firms in particular enthusiastically stand at my opportunistic door step.  One is for a large wealth management firm doing similar work to what I am doing now, with the kicker of having a track to become a portfolio manager. Which in turn would require me to earn the FINRA Series 7 (to become a stockbroker) and 66 (to be certified to be an investment advisor) licenses!  The other opportunity is for a reputable and well known Midwestern regional bank in which I would be tracked to become a financial advisor after learning the ins and outs of the company as a personal banker.

Both opportunities are engaging and lucrative, and I don’t mean that in a monetary kind of way! Although I am still very much in the early stages with both of these opportunities (interview with one and early informative talks with the other) I feel great about my future career. I feel like for the first time in my life I am taking ownership of my career and where I want to go and spend my time. Even if both turn me down or don’t feel that a business relationship would be a good fit, I am ecstatic to have found a vocation to pursue after with vigor and to be taking charge of my own career path.  

In essence I am learning that life after financial peace is whatever I want it to be. Through therapy I have brought a lot of healing and forgiveness to my life. With intention I try my best to be connected with my wife and have a strong, healthy and transparent marriage (as a matter of fact, I am taking my wife out for a date night tonight at a French restaurant paid for out of our date night envelope…planned spontaneity truly is the best kind of spontaneity J). And now that I have the money thing figured out I have been able to throw more attention and care towards where I want to be vocationally. I don’t know where I will specifically end up or the precise path I will take to get there, but in the last week the ride has been growing in fun with each passing day.