A lot of firms talk-the-talk when it comes to career planning for their staff. BridgePoint Group not only walks-the-walk but lays out a career pathway, so staff know exactly where they are heading on their career journey.
Eileen Teo commenced her role at BridgePoint Group, starting in late November 2021. We had a chat with her about her recent promotion to Client Director to find out what had led her to this well-deserved promotion.
Delivering on a promise
“When I started, I knew that BridgePoint Group was committed to ongoing training to develop professional skills. Neil and Mitchell made it very clear in the interview that the training provided will help me in my role and help develop the team.
Over the past eight months, there has been monthly tax training, taxation updates and a special focus each session. These technical skills mean that BridgePoint Group can provide the most up to date advice and service to our clients. It helps me as a taxation expert to keep my knowledge up-to-date. A further part of the training program has been developing my ‘soft skills’ such as delegation, managing teams. We have also focused on how to advise and align other BridgePoint Group services to clients in an appropriate manner.”
“The culture at BPG affords a lot of autonomy in my role. This allows me to make a lot of decisions and to deal with clients directly. Having this level of responsibility has allowed me to grow my interpersonal and professional skills and be able to apply these skills in my day-to-day interactions with staff and clients. Every day my experiences help me learn and develop these skills. I feel that under the training and culture at BPG, my professional skills have developed more than in any other work environment.”
Eileen’s Career Pathway
Eileen and Neil had a discussion about Eileen’s career pathway in May, six months after starting at BridgePoint Group. It was mutually agreed that it may have been a bit early to move to a Client Director role, which is less about the technical stuff, and more about relationships, advice and ‘stewardship’ of the client journey. However, a discussion two months later changed that. Eileen tells us what changed in that two-month period.
“Mitchell went on leave for a well-deserved break. I was given the opportunity to step into his role while Mitchell was on leave. That period proved to me that I was ready and had the capability to move into the Client Director role. It was a chance to grab an opportunity.”
That opportunity prompted a discussion with the management team, which led to the Client Director role being offered to Eileen within 24 hours. “Management was totally supportive and offered me the role. They said run with it and you have our total support”.
What makes working at BridgePoint Group unique?
“The culture at BridgePoint Group is very open. Everyone is very open in discussions and there’s a no-door policy which means anyone on the team can talk to management when they need to run things past them or need to discuss any issues. It’s a very friendly group who work here and we have some very strong, independent characters in the team. That leads to great discussions, especially around the lunch table.
Management gives us a lot of autonomy which allows us to get on with the job, run the teams and not be afraid to make decisions. I really enjoy the team-based environment at BridgePoint Group. Everyone gets along really well together; we have a good laugh.”
Congratulations Eileen, your promotion is well deserved and grabbing the opportunity when it presents itself is exactly the attitude we love at BridgePoint Group.