💻 Career Compass #1

Diving into the paths of other modern millennial women.

Feb 04, 2024

Something new and exciting for 2024: a monthly series exploring other women’s musings, meanderings and methods for navigating life, with a focus on their career paths. Through short interviews with twenty- or thirty-something women, we’ll explore linear and non-linear career paths, how they approach work to make it work for them, and the blurred lines between hobbies and hustles.

Welcome to Career Compass on

The Navigation

💻🧭

I feel lucky to have an eclectic mix of fabulous friends whose expertise and insights I can draw from, and who I truly believe have something valuable to share with you, dear reader. But I’m also open to adding new voices here, voices I might not have heard yet, so if you have an interesting story to share around your career path, how you’ve pursued your passion, or can somehow already afford to retire, then do reach out and let’s chat!

Guests in this series will also be invited to share their Cultural Compass recommendations, so you’ll have some interesting follow up reads/listens/watches too.

I considered putting this new series partially behind a paywall, both to signify the value of insights from those sharing their perspectives, and because of the extra time I will need to find to add this new addition into The Navigation’s offering. But after a bit of back-and-forth internal dialogue I have decided to keep the posts fully free to read for now, because ultimately I want to amplify the stories of those sharing their wisdom here, and for as many readers as possible to get something out of this Substack.

That said, to celebrate the first birthday of The Navigation (it all started back in February 2023), you'll find a 50% discount on paid subscriptions for the month of February, should you wish to financially support this venture that you (hopefully!) enjoy reading. If you did, it would honestly mean the absolute world to me, but if you forever remain a free subscriber, or a quiet browser, your presence and support is still much appreciated.

I’m really excited to bring you some fresh new perspectives this year, and I hope they’ll offer inspiration, guidance, or at the very least a meaningful scroll as you go about your day.

Get 50% off for 1 year

So, without further ado, let me introduce our inaugural guest: Charlotte Fletcher, a Business Development Actuary at Standard Life UK. As a disclaimer, Charlotte is a close friend who I’ve known for most of my life, and has been a generous supporter of

The Navigation

since I plucked up the courage to tell her about it.

We come from the same Welsh Valleys village, she was a key character in last year’s Meanderings with Mamma Mia! Vibes, and we can talk for days about everything and nothing. But while we’ve both ended up in London for work, and built lives here through our 20s, our professional paths and wider interests rarely cross over. That said, she is my go-to gal for financial advice, and she hasn’t steered me wrong yet.

Let’s learn a bit more about how and why she exudes such wisdom…

Thank you Charlotte for being a guest on The Navigation! Could we start off with you sharing some musings on working in the world of pensions and insurance, what this has opened your eyes to, and how has it influenced your approach to personal finance?

Thank you very much for having me Lauren!
I started working in the pensions industry just over eight years ago at the age of 21, and after qualifying as an Actuary in 2020, I moved to the insurance industry in 2021.
Pensions gets a bit of a bad rep. There’s a lot of negative media surrounding pensions, and the UK Government’s pension policies are at best unhelpful to the masses looking to save for an adequate level of income in retirement. There’s a lot of onus on individuals to plan carefully and ensure they can afford to retire comfortably.
When I started working at 21, I joined a pensions consultancy, and most of my time was spent projecting individuals’ pension amounts to retirement. I quickly learnt how important it is to plan for the future, even when it feels so far away.
My area of specialist knowledge is defined benefit (DB) pensions, which are pretty much extinct, save for the public sector. These legacy pension schemes provided generous benefits, where former employees would receive an income in retirement equal to a proportion of their final salary. Loyalty to an employer for a prolonged period of service was rewarded in retirement via a pension linked to a higher proportion of that final salary. Unfortunately, our generation are not so lucky when it comes to pensions.
It is difficult for many young people in the current economic climate to prioritise saving into a pension. The cost of living crisis means some people are opting out of contributing to their pension to increase their take home pay each month, which is understandable when there are bills to pay and near-term priorities to save for. That being said, I would strongly encourage people to think hard before they opt out of contributing to their pension. There is a tax benefit of contributing to your pension, 20% for a basic rate tax payer in the UK, and 40% if you are a higher rate tax payer. Saving even a little now can make a huge difference later down the line due to the power of compound interest!

Yeah for our generation, who often wonder if retirement will even ever be an option, it’s so easy to think about the shorter term wins. But I have also been pretty concerned about my pension pot even through my 20s - perhaps a positive side effect of being such a planner!

Could you share a bit more insight into the meanderings that led you to the world of pensions/insurance?

I always enjoyed and was good at maths at school, so pursuing it at A Level and university was a natural choice. I studied at the University of Warwick, where there was a lot of emphasis on career planning from day one. I am not ashamed to admit I have always been motivated by money, so with my skills I decided upon a career in finance.
I explored the possibility of working at an investment bank, but came to the conclusion the personal sacrifice would not be worth the financial reward. A lot of actuarial firms promoted themselves at Warwick, so I went along to a couple of talks from those employers, and applied for a summer internship at (what was then) Towers Watson. I got the internship, which I completed at the end of my second year of university, and secured a job offer for when I finished my studies. I started my career at Towers Watson properly in 2015, where I worked and studied alongside for the professional actuarial qualification. I qualified as an Actuary in 2020, and moved to the insurer, Phoenix Group, in 2021.
I’ve only been working for just over eight years, but I already feel like I’ve had a varied career. What we want to do evolves over time. At school, I LOVED maths, and thought I’d want to do a technical job forever. I would never describe myself as shy, but I am nervous in the spotlight, and that’s something I’ve worked really hard to overcome.
I’ve learned that whenever you feel scared, it’s the right time to put your hand up, and over the past 6 years I have really sung from that hymn sheet.
It started in my previous role, volunteering for presentations I didn’t want to do and speaking at a conference in front of 100 people. This was a particular career highlight for me, as I never thought I’d have the confidence to speak in front of that many people, and I got to interview Laura Whateley, author of Money: A User’s Guide (a personal finance book I would really recommend!). It’s now developed into a much bigger part of my job, with my current role at Phoenix Group being focused on new business and client relationships.

I’ve said this to you before, but it’s so great to see how your confidence has grown in this way in recent years, and how pushing yourself has opened a whole new set of doors.

And yes to Laura Whateley’s book - I’ve also previously recommended this!

So, after earning your spot in the world of finance at the grand old age of 21, instead of going down the path of working 70-hour weeks or putting career progression above and beyond personal relationships, it feels like you've made a real effort to make work work for you, being an advocate for not staying late at the office unnecessarily, saving annual leave and monthly wages for extended trips, and being savvy enough with your money to buy your first home, alone, at 27.

While not everyone is going to be in a sector that is known for paying salaries as high as they are in insurance, do you have any tips or methods for how others can make work and wages work for them?

I think it’s important to take enjoyment from aspects from your job, and to feel like you’re being challenged and growing as a person, even if you don’t feel like you’re changing the world. That being said, I have always seen work as work, and as an enabler for me to do the things that I enjoy most in life.
Think about what adds value to your life and brings you happiness. I recently realised eating out regularly is not something that brings me joy – I drop £50 on a main, dessert and a diet coke, and then I spend the next week thinking about what a waste of money that was. My favourite way to spend money is on big trips.
Alongside working for the past eight years, I’ve managed to travel around lots of Europe, South East Asia, Central America, Southern Africa, the United States, and most recently completed the Everest Base Camp Trek. I never regret that spend because they’re ‘once in a lifetime’ experiences and I’m making memories I’ll never forget.

My 4 top tips for getting your money to work FOR YOU:

1. Set yourself a goal. This goal needs to be realistic, allowing yourself some budget for fun, otherwise you will go off track in the first week if it feels unattainable and unenjoyable. If your goal is to save £30k over the next 5 years for a house deposit, you’ll need to save £500 per month, which leads onto my next tip…

2. Pay yourself first. Set up a standing order to your savings account, which transfers the amount you want to save each month as soon as you get paid.

3. Live beneath your means. Hopefully as you progress at work, promotions and salary increases will come. As your salary goes up, try not to let your expenditure go up, so you can save more money.

4. Invest! You work hard for your money, so make that money work hard for you! Opening a Stocks and Shares ISA is a great way to start, even with just a small amount, and gives you access to investing without requiring an in-depth knowledge of the stock market.

Think a friend would be interested in The Navigation’s Career Compass series too? Click share to spread the word!

Also your Instagram really does read like a Lonely Planet guide…

To round off, as you know, the Cultural Compass series is a key feature of The Navigation, so do you have anything you've read/watched/listened to lately that you'd like to recommend for readers?

I have probably listened to every episode of Grace Beverley’s Working Hard, Hardly Working, a podcast (also previously featured on The Navigation) I feel was named just for me. I would recommend most of them, but one in particular I enjoyed recently was the episode with Gabby Logan, the sports TV powerhouse (and how did I not know she is also Welsh?!). A really inspiring story of how talent coupled with a tenacious attitude leads to brilliance.

Well of course, a Welsh woman’s talents know no bounds!

Thank you so much for being the first guest of the Career Compass series, and sharing your insights from the world of finance!

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