Moving around
Careers need not be boring if staff are willing to try different posts
If you think working with a bank is a boring career choice, consider Mary Huen Wai-yi, Standard Chartered Bank's general manager for customer experience, consumer banking.
'I'm a good example of how the bank has good opportunities to train one individual to do many different types of work,' she said. 'This is my seventh position and I've been with Standard Chartered for 17 years.
'Most of my time was spent in consumer banking products - advertising, personal loans, mortgages, credit cards, wealth management, and now I look after distribution channels, which is customer experience.
'It goes to show how the bank can groom someone to do many different things. The bank has the belief to groom leaders, and that's why they're providing all sorts of opportunities to suit individual strengths.'
Ms Huen said pursuing such variety in a career sometimes meant taking positions which might not be in a favoured area.
'But you perform in this role. You learn something and you take the good away with you. If the bank takes a risk on you, you have to be open-minded to opportunity and have some trust in the system. With this you will see more opportunities opening up. If you say no to offers every time, you won't get too many offers.'
Ms Huen said her greatest rewards came from achieving business success, but also watching the success of the teams she worked with. 'Seeing fresh graduates growing and pursuing successful career paths really gives me great satisfaction.'
She said recruits should be open-minded and think of their long-term career aspirations.
