London, UK

Business Manager. Mum of two. Yoga Enthusiast. And, Dynamic Worker.

I joined Barclays Credit Risk after leaving university and worked my way around several roles in my first few years, before taking a role in Environmental Risk. I loved it, and before long I was working on risk assessments for corporate and investment banking deals, where environmental risks can be a significant consideration. For me, this is one of the most interesting jobs in the bank, and I spent 14 years in this global role, dealing with both sophisticated large-scale clients and much smaller ones.

After I was promoted to Director, I took a year’s maternity leave. When I returned, I was able to adopt a more dynamic working pattern to suit the changes in my life, and this way of working continued after my second maternity leave. There was never any issue with dynamic working – one of the ways Barclays is so different is the way you can be trusted to work in a way that suits your life outside the bank as long as it is mutually beneficial.

Soon, I was ready to move into a more challenging role, and when the opportunity arose for a Business Manager supporting our Risk ExCo, I boldly put myself forward for being right for the job and was offered the position. It was a more stretching role, and after six years of working part-time, I decided it was the right time to work full-time again. I decided what, when, how on all of these career changes. If you are clear on your preferences, it helps the bank to support you in achieving them. The leadership are very focussed on lateral moves and talent development.

Since then, my career has continued upwards: I was encouraged to take on the additional role of Head of Environmental Risk and I even interviewed our former CEO, Jes Staley at a Risk Town Hall meeting. In the last couple of years, since I made the decision to step up, I’ve been met time and time again with support. If you come to work for Barclays, there are over 3,000 people in Risk globally: you can move from being a subject matter expert to a more general field. On the flip side, if you don’t want to move up, that’s OK, your personal decisions and circumstances are respected and lateral moves provide a wealth of opportunities also.