Inspiring career stories | Scottish Careers Week blog | Theresa Bradley, Barclays

Theresa Bradley
Global Market Operations
Barclays

As part of this year’s Scottish Careers Week we’re celebrating inspiring career stories that showcase diverse experiences and different career paths across our industry.

• What is your current role?

I currently work for Barclays in global market operations and recently moved from the settlements team into colleague services, focusing on people, wellbeing and overall colleague development. The remit of the team is to look at colleague engagement, enable networking and connect colleagues with senior leaders with a view of developing the next wave of future leaders.

• When did you first think about a career in financial services?

To be honest, a career in financial services is something I had never considered. As somebody who comes from a low socio-economic background, there was never a push for me or other pupils in my area to go to university. My assumption at the time was that to get into a career within financial services, you had to go through university, and therefore a career in FS never crossed my mind.

I instead worked in retail for around 7 years until my sister, who did pursue a university degree and worked in financial services, recommended that I look for opportunities within financial services. This then prompted me to start searching for temporary roles in the banking sector and I eventually came across a role at Barclays within their settlements team.

My initial years at Barclays were really enjoyable and I was looking to pursue something permanent but was disappointed to find out that most roles required applicants to have a university degree. I then decided to reach out to one of my managers for support and advice and to discuss my next steps. This was a big moment in my career as it’s when I found out that my manager didn't actually have a degree herself. During our conversation, she encouraged me to pursue the role regardless of my lack of degree, especially given my overall performance and experience.

• What career paths did you consider when you were in school?

I wanted to be a teacher for a while when I was younger and actually went to college for a few years to study teaching. At this point, I had started working within retail to earn some money as I went through education. As I was continuing to progress through college and in my training, I decided I was ready to apply for university and really dedicate myself towards becoming a teacher.

My university application was ultimately rejected however as I was already considered to be a mature student, despite only being 21 years old at the time of applying. This was a big blow for me, and I essentially gave up on my idea of pursuing a career as a teacher. I then went full time in my job in retail and closed off that chapter of my career.

• What career advice you would give to your younger self?

Reflecting on my career so far, I tend to find that people internalise things too much. A good example of this is from when I was rejected at first after applying for role at Barclays. I kept my emotions to myself and I internalised my true thoughts and intentions as I thought I didn't have what it takes to pursue the role. A lot of this stemmed from the fact that I didn't have a degree.

I feel like it’s extremely important to speak to people and vocalise what you actually want as this will enable you to surround yourself with the people that are willing and able to support you.

Another piece of advice I would give my younger self would be to surround yourself with positive role models. My most recent manager, also the one that gave me my first permanent role, is the person who prompted me to pursue a promotion in my first year as a permanent member of the team. Having that positive role model was critical in my career.

• Do you think you will stay in Financial Services?

Yes definitely. I would love to stay in financial services, and I'd love to stay at Barclays. I think there’s a stereotype that financial services is very cut-throat and as a self-proclaimed introvert, it put me off ever wanting to pursue a career within financial services. The culture here at Barclays really took me by surprise though and contributes to a working environment that makes me feel really comfortable and encourages me to speak up and stand up for others. That is a working culture that I want to continue to be a part of and one that everyone should strive for.