Senior Manager
Fidelity International

Nikki A

00:00:02 My name’s Nikki, and I’m a Fair Value Senior Manager at Fidelity International. We look at all global markets which we have major investments in, so where we have funds with really big exposure, you become an expert on their current interest levels, their economic growth, and things like that.

00:01:38 When I was growing up I definitely didn’t have a dream job in mind, I just knew that I wanted to do something that would – that I could do well at. I come from a quite close family, and they just always made sure that you wanted to be happy, and do well, and never really pushed me into anything. Always made sure I achieved what I could achieve, but never over pushed me. I went through school loving sport, and always been quite good at Maths. I took a Maths degree at Portsmouth University. Maths with Financial Management, because I was slightly interested in doing something more than just straight Pure Maths. So this course offered a bit of variety, you looked at some Accounts, you looked at some Business Studies, and you also looked at the Stock Market. So it was my first exposure to a bit of investments. At that point the only thing I found interesting was it was just new, and I’m just one of these people that quite likes to be challenged, and learn new things. So I think that’s probably why it – at degree level – the investment analysis stood out for me, because it was the first time I’d had any exposure to that sort of area. When I was going through Uni I started applying for graduate schemes, because I was actually looking at Marketing. The reason I was looking at Marketing was I think that’s just from when I’d gone round all the graduate fairs it just seemed like a great graduate programme to go on. And I went on, and I actually ended up doing a graduate – graduate rotation scheme in Marketing. So I did a two year training programme, graduate scheme, and I rotated around Sales and Marketing. I managed to get a diploma in Management, and I also took my Financial Planning certificates. And when I got to the end of it, the area that the company offered me was in the Sales – in a Sales type of area. And I think that’s when I took a real hard look at myself and said – do I really want to do that job for a long time? And I still think one of the biggest decisions I ever made was to resign from the company that had given me this amazing training for two years, and I’d really seen through all the different things that it was the analytical side that kept coming back to be my strong point, the thing that motivated me, the thing that made me want to get out of bed in the morning and go to work.

00:02:04 Went and joined a temping agency that was based in Finance and so on, and they offered me a job as a Portfolio Analyst. My first job as a Portfolio Analyst was absolutely – probably my favourite job I’ve ever had. I got a real insight to the whole way that we value funds in the UK. And unfortunately that job – we got made redundant. They went through a phase and they outsourced all the investment administration. It’s not a nice experience being made redundant, but it is actually a good time to take stock and realise perhaps where you could go, and what you want to do.

00:02:35 In terms of a career highlight I’d probably say – I got my promotion to Senior Manager in July 2007, so just over fifteen, sixteen months ago. And that was my fourth promotion within five years at Fidelity. My confidence is growing just based on the fact that I’ve started seeing my own achievements in – and knowledge helps you as well. The more you learn about things, and the more you understand it, definitely gives you confidence to be able to know that you can do something well. I was lucky enough to have managers and mentors that were very open and honest with me, and encouraged me or not – and never actually made up their mind, well Vikki’s the quiet one in the corner, she won’t actually get on very far. I now stand up and give presentations in front of really senior people within the organisation, so if they’d had that thought of me a few years ago, I wouldn’t be where I was now.

00:03:21 ENDS