00:00:02 My name’s Richard Drage and I'm a Client Services Manager. We deal with organisations that have a lot of cash, so they tend to be Pension Funds, you know, high street shops, oil companies, telecommunication companies. We have clients in the Middle East who’ve got a lot of money from oil revenues, who like to invest it. And so – just anybody with a lot of cash.
00:00:25 The high point for me in getting the role was really being given the opportunity to work with some of the larger clients. When I first started off, one of the things that attracted me was the fact I’d be working with, you know, a lot of money. It’s nice to know that someone trusts you to make decisions over, you know, millions of pounds.
00:00:41 When I was at school, I had visions of going into medicine. I had visions of being a Cosmetic Surgeon to the stars, and doing a couple of hours work slicing and dicing a day, and then heading to the golf course and driving home in the Ferrari. I didn’t really like blood though, which was bit of a failing point in that career choice, I think.
00:01:02 It was quite worrying having no career – career choice mapped out or, you know, seeing people who were incredibly driven. So it was a concern to some degree, but also I knew I was in the same boat with a lot of other people, so there was at least some comfort in that.
00:01:15 I got my A-Levels and then realised medicine wasn't for me, wanted to know a little bit more about business in general, so studied Economics at University, because it seems fairly mathematical, something that I could employ and use the Maths that I was fairly good at. I kind of regret choosing Economics, ‘cause it wasn't something I enjoyed in the slightest, and I think I probably would have done better picking something that I liked, rather than trying to pick something that I thought would be useful.
00:01:42 Maybe working a little bit harder at University was the – would be the thing that I would change if I could turn back the clock. I was the classic University slacker, I think. Most of my housemates joked that if I’d have done a degree in Sofa Studies I’d have got First in that without any trouble at all.
00:02:01 I left University quite reluctantly. In the summer I’d worked as a door to door salesman, just earning commission on what I sold, here was no basic wage. And it was quite a pleasant environment, walking around in the sunshine. And I do remember one chap I was working with, we were working alternate doors, and I ended up getting stuck at one door with somebody who wanted to talk for a while. So he ended up doing the door that I would have done, and somebody had a pot-shot from the living room with an air rifle towards him so – I was quite glad that the person kept me chatting at the door for a while.
00:02:31 Friend of mine from University, one of my housemates, got a job working in a telesales office, working for BT. So I ended up in the telesales role for a couple of years. And then a friend of mine that was working there, got a job at Fidelity. So two or three years after starting in telesales, I kept the headset on and joined the Call Centre here, just doing Customer Service. And that's how I ended up in finance.
00:02:58 Outside of work, most of my time’s taken up playing rugby. I skipper a local side. Not only do I have to make sure I'm down there training two or three nights a week, and playing at the weekend, but I spend most of my spare time in between trying to cajole players who really don’t want to get out on a rainy Saturday afternoon, to put their boots on and stop being so soft. So I spend a lot of time doing that.
00:03:21 In five or ten years’ time, I’d like to be doing a similar role to that that I'm doing at the moment. But that said, my career to date’s been characterised by phone calls from the blue – so if something else comes up and Manchester United are short of a new manager, then – I’ll give it a go.
00:03:38 Most of my career choices and most of my career path has been determined by people I've met along the way, friends that I've made, advise that they’ve given me, and I wouldn’t have met those had I not been in some of the jobs that I’d been early on. I've definitely regained the ambition that I lost at University. It certainly – I've found something now that – that I enjoy so – I'm happy with where I'm at.
ENDS
Richard Drage
Richard Drage
My name’s Richard Drage and I'm a Client Services Manager. We deal with organisations that have a lot of cash, so they tend to be Pension Funds, you know, high street shops, oil companies, telecommunication companies. We have clients in the Middle East who’ve got a lot of money from oil revenues, who like to invest it. And so – just anybody with a lot of cash.
The high point for me in getting the role was really being given the opportunity to work with some of the larger clients. When I first started off, one of the things that attracted me was the fact I’d be working with, you know, a lot of money. It’s nice to know that someone trusts you to make decisions over, you know, millions of pounds.
When I was at school, I had visions of going into medicine. I had visions of being a Cosmetic Surgeon to the stars, and doing a couple of hours work slicing and dicing a day, and then heading to the golf course and driving home in the Ferrari. I didn’t really like blood though, which was bit of a failing point in that career choice, I think.
It was quite worrying having no career – career choice mapped out or, you know, seeing people who were incredibly driven. So it was a concern to some degree, but also I knew I was in the same boat with a lot of other people, so there was at least some comfort in that.
I got my A-Levels and then realised medicine wasn't for me, wanted to know a little bit more about business in general, so studied Economics at University, because it seems fairly mathematical, something that I could employ and use the Maths that I was fairly good at. I kind of regret choosing Economics, ‘cause it wasn't something I enjoyed in the slightest, and I think I probably would have done better picking something that I liked, rather than trying to pick something that I thought would be useful.
Maybe working a little bit harder at University was the – would be the thing that I would change if I could turn back the clock. I was the classic University slacker, I think. Most of my housemates joked that if I’d have done a degree in Sofa Studies I’d have got First in that without any trouble at all.
I left University quite reluctantly. In the summer I’d worked as a door to door salesman, just earning commission on what I sold, here was no basic wage. And it was quite a pleasant environment, walking around in the sunshine. And I do remember one chap I was working with, we were working alternate doors, and I ended up getting stuck at one door with somebody who wanted to talk for a while. So he ended up doing the door that I would have done, and somebody had a pot-shot from the living room with an air rifle towards him so – I was quite glad that the person kept me chatting at the door for a while.
Friend of mine from University, one of my housemates, got a job working in a telesales office, working for BT. So I ended up in the telesales role for a couple of years. And then a friend of mine that was working there, got a job at Fidelity. So two or three years after starting in telesales, I kept the headset on and joined the Call Centre here, just doing Customer Service. And that's how I ended up in finance.
Outside of work, most of my time’s taken up playing rugby. I skipper a local side. Not only do I have to make sure I'm down there training two or three nights a week, and playing at the weekend, but I spend most of my spare time in between trying to cajole players who really don’t want to get out on a rainy Saturday afternoon, to put their boots on and stop being so soft. So I spend a lot of time doing that.
In five or ten years’ time, I’d like to be doing a similar role to that that I'm doing at the moment. But that said, my career to date’s been characterised by phone calls from the blue – so if something else comes up and Manchester United are short of a new manager, then – I’ll give it a go.
Most of my career choices and most of my career path has been determined by people I've met along the way, friends that I've made, advise that they’ve given me, and I wouldn’t have met those had I not been in some of the jobs that I’d been early on. I've definitely regained the ambition that I lost at University. It certainly – I've found something now that – that I enjoy so – I'm happy with where I'm at.
ENDS
Richard Drage is a Client Services Manager for Fidelity, an investment management company. He gets a buzz from making decisions over millions of pounds. "Most of my career choices and most of my career path has been determined by people I've met along the way, friends that I've made, advice that they've given me, and I wouldn't have met those had I not been in some of the jobs that I'd been early on... I've found something now that I enjoy so I'm happy with where I'm at."
External links
Useful information about the financial services sector
As part of icould's continuous development, we plan to include additional material from icould storytellers in the form of Blogs and other information which will enrich their filmed stories. So watch this space!
Comment guidelines, terms and conditions
If you think that a comment that has been posted is offensive, unsuitable or has in some other way breached our terms and conditions, please email us at comments@icould.org.uk with a link to the comment and your reasons for objecting to it. Please note icould reserves the right to remove any comments that are not appropriate.
