Saturday, April 07, 2007

Make a career switch

Dear Mr Tan,

Thanks for your prior comments on future career prospects of financial advisor.

I'm a 35yr old mid career engineer earning 5k per month, looking for a switch to a career that is more meaningful, with a purpose in live.

However, I also think i'm quite introvert, not sure if i'm really suitable to be a financial advisor that requires face-to-face sales....

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My reply:

As you are drawing a fairly good salary and you are, as you indicated, an introvert, it may be better for you to stay in your current career, rather than make a career switch at this juncture.

To make a switch involve risk. This is all right, provided that the reward is attractive or the motivation is strong. It does not appear to be the case in this instance.

3 comments:

Thomas Phua's Blog said...

Introvert is more a perception, when I started as Insurance agent in 1988, I also do not think I can sell insurance, but it just go on until today. But I did it part time first.

It gave me a foothold, and in 2004, I was retrenched, and I have to decide on a second career.

Being in mid 40's , it is difficult to find another similar profession.

And behind my thought was whether my next job will allow me to continue my profession in insurance, thus become a full time Insurance Advisor since 2004.

It takes time and passion in any profession, same in insurance selling.

If you have a secured salaried job, I do not think you want to trade it for a commission based job without basic salary.

I am not discouraging you to be an insurance advisor, you can try and see how it goes.

If you intend to be an insurance advisor, give yourself 3 years to succeed.

Join NTUC INCOME. It is into the next phase of growth.

- Thomas Phua

Anonymous said...

I started off as an introvert person myself. Most of personal friends and family members can testify this, and I know if I want to succeed, I must open up myself to share and be open.

I used insurance as a starting ground for my character building. It shows that even as an introvert, if we want to do it, we can. What we believe we can, we will be able to achieve.

You can start off as part time advisors in NTUC INCOME. In that way, you can retain your current job and take the papers/gain some work experiences as a part time in this field.

Just register with ntuc income or walk in with an arranged interview. If you like to, you can approach the recruitment officer in charge and he can brief you the rest of the details

-Alvin Soong

Anonymous said...

Career switch is never a easy choice to make!!

No man can succeed in a line of endeavor which he does not like

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