Helen Boylan, Fidelity Investments

What does a typical day look like for you?

I work within the operations unit at Fidelity Ireland, our function is to provide operational support and expertise for a variety of fidelity business units and partners. These include diverse areas such as data management, middle office support and brokerage operations.

I work within the performance reporting team within operations and my core responsibility is to address client inquiries about investment performance and statistically audit investment data generated by the back-end systems to ensure accuracy and integrity.

What are the main skills you need to be successful in your roles?

Attention to detail is crucial to ensure downstream efficiency and to ensure that the client experience is positive overall.

Being naturally curious and having a learning mindset will help you understand the daily processes. It also helps you identify areas where there is room for improvement.

Problem solving skills are also important as there will always be challenges along the way that need to be navigated.

What was your career break?

I studied physics at college, but I’ve always had a natural curiosity for finance and technology. I read about Fidelity, and I was drawn to the organisation as it combines both disciplines very well and it aligned to my long-term career interests. It was a completely different direction from what I had studied but I had transferrable skills.

I started in the operations graduate programme. This experience really helped me transition from college and gave me the skills to launch my career in the financial services.

What advice would you give to a student?

When you move into the industry you will need to leverage communication every day. You’ll be corresponding with colleagues and business partners and you’ll be doing presentations. Though they might seem scary, I would recommend that students embrace presentations. Practice speaking in front of family and friends. The more you practice, the more comfortable and confident you will be.

How have you adjusted to working from home?

It’s not something I had ever done before, so at first it was a bit difficult. It was a new experience, but it has been great!

There are pros and cons. One of the biggest pros is not having to commute every day. Fidelity gave us all the equipment that we need to work from home, and they were incredibly supportive. They made the transition very easy for me

What do you like about your job?

My team is very dynamic, we’re constantly evolving. We take on new project work and new tasks which helps me deepen my knowledge and grow personally. We work closely with our partners in technology which helps me grow my technical skills. I love getting to collaborate with several teams in Ireland and in the US. This has given me the opportunity to widen my network and get to know so many people across the organisation.