Profile: FSA associate goes for promotion

As a student I wanted to work in financial services, but I didn't fancy the 12-hour days endemic to investment banking. I also wanted to do something in the public sector, but I didn't want to become a teacher or a social worker. Working for the financial services regulator somehow seemed the perfect option.

I've finished my graduate training, which involved two rotations around different parts of the FSA, plus a secondment in industry. My first rotation was in the policy implementation division, where I looked at the implications of the Freedom of Information Act for the regulator.

My next rotation was in the supervisory area. I supervised independent financial advisors (IFAs ) and small investment management firms on a day-to-day basis. They called us when they had issues to discuss, and we would contact them to give advice. At that time, the big issue was professional indemnity insurance - IFAs were obliged to have it, but few companies were providing it.

At the end of the rotation I went on secondment to Bradford and Bingley, a UK building society. I was part of their compliance team, which was interesting as I got to see the FSA from the perspective of the business.

Now I'm back at the FSA and working in the small firms division, which is responsible for supervising around 21,000 small financial services firms in the UK. Similar to my work in the supervisory division, I work with small firms and I spend my days helping to design systems to communicate with these firms and analyse the data they provide to the FSA.

Like all junior staff at the FSA, I'm known as an associate. The next step is to become a manager of a team of associates. That's what I aspire to, but it typically takes five or six years to make promotion so I've got a few more to go!

To read about the FSA and other regulators' hiring, click here.