Case studies: Treasury analyst: Jamie

Jamie is a treasury analyst at Vodafone, where he began his career as a graduate trainee. He has a BA in Finance from Durham University.

I enjoyed my degree subject very much and had made my mind up to follow a career in finance but was not really sure where to specialise. I researched the graduate training opportunities in a range of large companies and was looking for schemes that integrated professional study for the CIMA qualification.

Vodafone offered exactly what I was looking for at their Newbury, Berkshire, head office. I joined as a graduate finance trainee and was lucky to obtain a placement within treasury finance (an accounting function within the corporate treasury). After about one year I moved into the treasury front office, aided by some serious networking with colleagues.

The treasury in a large, multinational company is an exciting place to be. You really are at the centre of the business and there are opportunities to interact with other departments and different areas of the firm’s activities both in the UK and globally.

As your career progresses, you can become involved with specialist functions such as funding, strategy and special projects. There is a certain amount of more routine, administrative work but this does not detract from the great variety of interesting and challenging tasks to be done.

Although you don’t have to study finance to work in the corporate treasury area it has helped me in my dealings with more experienced colleagues, especially presentations to managers from outside my department. Clearly, some relevant background helps during the recruitment process, although I got the impression that recruiters were looking for strong, all-round capabilities, especially interpersonal and communication skills, as much as subject knowledge.

I certainly recommend that students bear in mind the importance of strong communication skills and other interpersonal skills like teamworking, both in getting the job you want and in building your career once you are in the company. Try to develop a real understanding of your chosen employer’s business and what it takes to do the job well. Recruiters will look for candidates who are excited and enthusiastic about the opportunity and appear friendly and helpful. Just ask yourself what sort of person you would want on your team.

Since 2009 I have been responsible for managing the sterling and minor currency cashbooks. This means all cash flows, including dividend payments, emanating from the group’s activities in the UK, the Continent, central Europe, Australia and New Zealand. I have to follow the financial markets very closely and take a view on where the markets are moving. This means that I have to understand the way that financial products such as swaps, options and other sophisticated derivative products can be used to protect and improve the group’s cash flows.

I’m looking forward to consolidating my experience and gaining specialised knowledge within other areas of the head office treasury such as medium to long-term bond funding and interest rate management. In the future I might look for a move overseas, perhaps a project management or advisory role in an emerging market - we currently have businesses in South Africa and India that do not report directly through head office treasury.

In the meantime I will continue my studies for CIMA and then plan to take the Association of Corporate Treasurer’s professional qualifications.