|
Career Transformation--From Teaching to Successful Financial Services Professional…
Meet Susan Cooper, Executive Vice President of AXA Advisor, LLC. Read Susan’s interview that covers her professional transformation from being an elementary school teacher to managing 450 financial professionals. Susan shares her insights on the importance of communication and presentation skills – something that she learned as a kindergarten teacher. Read the interview...
|
|
|
Tell us briefly about your company, your area of expertise and responsibilities:
I have 21 years of experience in financial services. As a divisional executive vice president and manager of AXA Advisors’ New York Metro branch, I am responsible for managing 450 financial professionals, sales managers and staff. My primary responsibilities include recruiting individuals who want to build careers as entrepreneurial financial professionals, and providing ongoing training and development support to existing financial professionals and sales managers.
|
|
|
Describe a day in your professional life...
I get up at 5:30, work out and clear my head for the day. It is also important to me to see my kids before they go to school and wish them a good day. Then, I begin my commute into the office, which takes about an hour and a half. I speak to as many of my clients as I can during this time. I run a branch of 450 financial professionals, sales managers and staff ? these individuals are my clients. They know that they can always get me at this time.
Every day at the office I work with as many of the financial professionals as I can. My main role in running the branch is to help my financial professionals grow their practices, and helping my managers develop new financial professionals. Sometimes this entails going out with them to meet with their clients and potential clients and provide an extra level of support. Other times, it is providing advice or direction for a particular client?s case.
|
|
|
How is technology impacting the nature of your work and how you do your work?
Technology has a huge impact on my work. It’s almost like a double edged sword. On the positive side, since I get about 250 e-mails a day, this allows me to communicate efficiently with numerous people, and I can do so during off hours, hours that we consider non-revenue producing hours. I can send and receive e-mails late at night and early in the morning, stay on top of my communications and remain productive.
The downside is that technology never stops it’s very hard to escape and put it down.
|
|
|
What kind of traits/skills or characteristics will a person need to be successful in your industry/company?
In my opinion, to be successful in this business, someone has to be able to succeed in building trusted relationships. It isn’t necessary to have a background in finance or economics. We can train people to learn the technical aspects of becoming a financial professional. What is necessary is the ability to build strong relationships with other people. We are looking for people who build trusted relationships in their personal lives, professional lives and civic lives. This is the number one skill -- everything else can be taught.
|
|
|
Was there a lesson or skill learned from your first job that has been invaluable on your career path?
My background is as an elementary school teacher. In fact, I actually taught kindergarten. When I came into this business over 20 years ago, the most important thing for me was to be able to leverage my communications and presentation skills. These skills are key to this business. We educate people on how to make smart financial decisions. We need to be able to communicate complex financial issues, but make them simple enough for people to understand and take action.
|
|
|
Financial Careers—a Natural for Women!
"Being able to attract other people to this business, women specifically, is something for which I have always had a passion. I think that women are natural relationship builders, and naturals for this career. This is a terrific career path for women to be able to take their innate talents and skills and use them to help build successful businesses."
--Susan Cooper
--Susan M. Cooper, CFP, ChFC, CLU |
|
|
|
Has Higher Education been important in your career path? What educational advice would you give to viewers? Tell us the path you took to where you are today.
Education has always been critically important to me, but I think it is imperative to continue to further your knowledge in your particular industry. In the financial services industry, there are a number of certification programs individuals can complete and credentials they can obtain to further their knowledge and expertise. Completing these not only helps financial professionals to increase their technical knowledge, but these also provide a financial professional with additional credibility.
Toward this end, I have completed three of our industry’s professional designations ? the Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) and Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) from the American College, Bryn Mawr, PA; and the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER? (CFP) awarded by the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. These marks are awarded to individuals who successfully complete the CFP Board’s initial and ongoing certification requirements.
|
|
|
What is your work ethic, and how did it develop? Why do you get up to go to work everyday? What inspires you? i.e., money, power, challenge service, etc.
I’m very motivated by helping others to succeed, and I get a lot of satisfaction out of doing that. It is true that people who are successful in this career are very well compensated, but it’s never been all about compensation for me, and many financial professionals will tell you it’s never just about the money. For me, it’s been about being recognized for helping other succeed. It’s about doing a good job for clients, where you can positively impact their lives well into the future ? whether it’s for their personal life or professional life. This is what gets me going every day, what gets me excited, and what keeps me on top of my game.
Being able to attract other people to this business, women specifically, is something for which I have always had a passion. I think that women are natural relationship builders, and naturals for this career. This is a terrific career path for women to be able to take their innate talents and skills and use them to help build successful businesses.
|
|
|
What advice would you give to potential job applicants to help them succeed?
My advice – don’t rule out potential career opportunities because you think you might not have the right background for the job. Instead, look at the characteristics of what that career path entails, and see if those match your motivations. See if you think the career will be a fit for you. If it matches the vision you have for yourself and your future, you should give it a shot. The technical skills can be learned.
|
|
|
Are there any emerging trends in your industy/company that will impact your hiring criteria?
A career as a financial professional is one of the fastest growing career paths. There have been so many changes in demographics, and there are so many more people to work with. Not only are people worrying about whether or not they have enough money to retire, but they are also concerned that they might live too long and possibly outlive their retirement savings. Consumers need to be educated about their financial options and the financial tools that are available to them so they can make smart financial decisions. Financial professionals can provide the strategies and tools that help people retire successfully; educate their children; and pass on their wealth to future generations.
|
|
|
Tell us about your Corporate Diversity/Women’s Programs: What is your company doing to educate employees on valuing diversity in the workplace? FYI: Our viewers overwhelmingly state that Corporate Diversity Programs are important in attracting them for employment.
AXA Advisors has been focused for many years on attracting women and men of all ethnicities. This is important because we want to represent the public and our public is a diverse audience of consumers. We need financial professionals of all different backgrounds to able to successfully work with our clients -- relate to them, speak to them and understand their needs.
The company has a Women’s Markets Program that has two major goals --to be the first company a woman thinks of when in need of financial advice or when interested in a career in financial services.
AXA Advisors and our sister company, AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company, are committed to a workplace that is diverse, inclusive and merit-based. Characteristics that make people unique are valued as essential to our goals of growing the business, serving our clients and delivering long-term value to our shareholders. Our ambition to be the industry leader in providing financial advice and solutions to clients can only be achieved when all of our people are fully engaged around a shared vision for excellence.
|
|
|
What strategies does your company employ to retain, recruit &/or reach out to Women in the Workplace?
We actually have an entire department focused on both hiring and developing women in our business, while working with both men and women financial professionals to train them on how to reach women consumers so we can help them meet their financial goals.
In my operation, we use seminars specifically geared toward attracting women to this career, and we host these seminars in our branch on a weekly basis.
To attract and retain more women, we’ve also developed the Women’s Leadership Council (WLC). The WLC is a group of AXA’s top 50 women financial professionals nationwide. The council receives ongoing business training, best practice sharing and networking opportunities throughout the year, in return for agreeing to reach out to new and existing women financial professionals in a mentoring capacity.
To help provide our women financial professionals with continuous business building opportunities, and to build awareness of a career in financial services, AXA has also become a major sponsor of several national and well respected women’s organizations including: the National Association of Female Executives (NAFE), the National Association for Women Business Owners (NAWBO), and the Center for Women’s Business Research, a major research organization for women. Through these organizations, we build relationships with numerous women and serve as a resource for them if they ever need financial advice, or if they are considering a career change.
We also have a goal mentor program which pairs new women and men financial professionals with experienced professionals. They are mentored one-on-one as they learn the business and build their own practices.
|
|
|
What women have inspired you on your career path? How?
I would say that one of the women who has inspired me is Bernice Malamut. In the 1980s Bernice ran a women advisors study group at AXA Equitable. She brought women together to provide a support network. At the time, the organization was highly populated by men, and this gave the women in the organization a forum where we could communicate openly with other women; a place where we could share thoughts, ideas, and concerns. Her network brought women from all over the country together. It definitely helped me as I moved along on my career path, and I am excited to be able to do that for other women in our company through our Women’s Leadership Council.
Eileen MacDonald was also one of my mentors. She is the retired CEO of another company in the financial services industry. When I met her, she was a senior officer at AXA Equitable, and she went on to be a senior officer at several other companies. She was always a person I could go to for advice and counsel and a valuable mentor to me as my career continued to grow.
|
|
|
Advice for Job Seekers:
"My advice – don’t rule out potential career opportunities because you think you might not have the right background for the job. Instead, look at the characteristics of what that career path entails, and see if those match your motivations. See if you think the career will be a fit for you. If it matches the vision you have for yourself and your future, you should give it a shot. The technical skills can be learned."
--Susan Cooper
--Susan M. Cooper, CFP, ChFC, CLU |
|
|
|
How do you maintain balance in your life? or Do you?!
I think that the most important thing is to have realistic expectations. I think that most women, including myself, want to be all things to everyone at all times. This is an unrealistic expectation. Even if you can do this for a little while, it’s not sustainable.
I have learned that I don’t have to do everything myself ? that it’s OK to ask for help. I have a caregiver for my children, and I allow her to do things for my family - even if I think I can do them better - like food shopping, the laundry, and things that I just can?t get to.
The most important thing for me is my children and I want to do everything for them. It is important to me to spend quality time with them. That’s the only way I can truly have balance.
At work, I have learned to delegate and I’m very good at it. There are occasions where things could go wrong, but you can coach, counsel and train people to step up. If you do this, your people are going to do their jobs better because they are going to feel like they have more responsibility and that they have earned your trust. I am able to do my job better as a result, because I can focus my time and attention on the things most important for me to handle for my business.
|
|
|
About AXA Advisors
AXA Advisors, LLC, is a leading provider of financial services, helping individuals and businesses define and meet their financial goals. We provide services for asset allocation strategies, both fee and non-fee based planning, annuities, life insurance, mutual funds, education planning, brokerage account services.
AXA Advisors is a subsidiary of AXA Financial, Inc., one of the premier U.S. organizations providing financial protection and wealth management through its strong brands: AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company, AXA Advisors, LLC, AllianceBernstein, L.P., Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC, AXA Distributors, LLC, and the MONY family of companies, including MONY Life Insurance Company and U.S. Financial Life Insurance Company.
AXA Financial had approximately $643.4 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2005. AXA Financial is a member of the global AXA Group, a worldwide leader in financial protection and wealth management. AXA Group’s operations are diverse geographically, with major operations in Western Europe, North America and the Asia/Pacific region. AXA Group had $1.25 trillion in assets under management as of December 31, 2005.
|
|
|
Thank you Susan M. Cooper, CFP, ChFC, CLU for sharing your insights and experience!
|
|
|
|
