About to start Kaplan course, "professional"* views?

Hi Insan3,

It's good to see another eager planner helping our fellow Australians who need advice on planning their futures.

I know that another InvestEd member Temjin is also in QLD and was getting a bit disheartened by the crass approach taken by recruitment/personnel agencies.

After reading your success story about getting in to the industry, now it's all systems go.

PS Don't blame Kaplan for RG146 open book exams, it's ASICs fault. I think Mark L rang up ASIC asking some questions and they said that it's up to each individual licensee to interpret. From memory, AMP FP had their own interpretation and got hung out to dry...

Cheers,

Dan

Hi Dan,

It's a little sad, the industry has so much potential, but so much baggage from the past. The training really needs to be boosted to weed out some of the more questionable operators.

The major problem I found with recruitment agencies is they don't always understand the industry, or the requirements for the jobs they are trying to fill. Also, some companies are now advertising for support staff to have Dip.FP's! Now why would anyone with a Diploma and RG146 accred. spend time in a $40k/yr support role, knowing they are of equal qualifications to the Planners they support... They will try and chase the $75k/yr Big 4 Planning jobs

I personally knew with myself (and I feel the same about people who spend their personal time on forums like this learning and discussing) that if I got an opportunity of any kind, I would make the most of it and succeed. I have an interest that I want to build into a career. Usually I tell people applying for jobs (my fiancee just landed a new job yesterday!) to hold out for what you want, but in this industry I feel it is a matter of getting in, work hard for a year in whatever role and doors will open.

So to CJ, Temjin, everyone else, start the course and keep your head up even if you get knockbacks. I would have received about 15 NO's for the various roles I applied for (Ranging from Paraplanner to Planner Assistant, back to Banking roles such as BDM Support and Branch Management - my background is Banking, and I was considering going back there for 2 years and completing my Dip/AdvDip). Then I got a YES, and even though I am at the bottom, the organisation wants to grow which will present opportunities.

Sorry for the long post, good to talk about my struggles/experiences with others who understand.

Cheers,
Matt

Thanks for the reply Insan3. It's heartening to hear that there are opportunities outside of the capital cities.

I'm currently trudging my way through ELC 1. .

How did the exams work for you living in Cairns? Did Kaplan set up an superviser and location or did you have to (if so, where?)

Hi CJ,

For the exams, you need to have Submitted your Assignment and obtained a 'Competent' mark. Once passed, you go to the Forms & Kits section of the Kaplan website and download an Exam Booking form - http://www.kaplanprofessional.edu.au...oking_Form.pdf

You'll have 2 options:
1) Book an exam time at their offices in Brisbane. This means you will need to fly down and attend at your own cost. First sit exam is free (included in course fees.)
2) Book an exam time in Cairns, at a business address. Cost is $150 and they send a supervisor out to you.

Few other options, online exam or paper-based, etc, etc.

Give yourself plenty of time before the exam (3-4 weeks). Kaplan take about a week to do anything - Return emails, confirm exam booking, etc, etc.

I sat the exam at my parent's business office, online. The supervisor turns up, checks some ID, checks you correctly login, then sits there quietly for 2.5hrs while you do the exam.

Now that work is paying for me, they (my employers) will allow me to sit them at my place of work.

It becomes another motivation to study.... fail a couple of assignments and first sit exams and it ends up costing plenty of $$$.

Thanks again for the reply Matt. Looks like it'll be cheaper setting up an exam in Cairns (unless I manage to snag a few Jetstar cheapies). The biggest hurdle will be finding an appropriate place to do the exam, but that being said I haven't really looked.

Luckily I have family in Brissie, and plenty of time ahead of me, so I'll probably look at planning a holiday around exam time ... hopefully without too many distractions lol

Hey Insan3,

Congratulations on getting your foot into the industry! As AsxBroker have mentioned, I am still having difficulties with doing that. You were definitely be in a much better position than I am in getting a placement in the industry anyway. Your previous background in banking was definitely a big plus. Unfortunately, because I had NIL relevant industry experiences, I was repeatedly bounced back by these recruitment agents. My 2+ years experience as a mechanical engineer with contract management (lots of negotation, client facing and administration) and project management experiences were of little use.

In addition, the level of paycut you are willing to take is more..well..."believable and acceptable" TO the recruitment agents themselve. Yes, I meant to THEM, not to you. It's amazing that I have at least one agent coming back to me saying he hestiate to introduce me to his clients because he classified me as a high risk candidate who would be more easily poached as soon as I gained relevant experiences in the industry. This is because the level of pay cut I am facing here compared to my current level is quite significant. I'm on close to $60k at the moment, and I am willing to take a low $40k salary. I've tried applying for "support" roles on these salary but were bounched back because they weren't "entry" level role. Disheartening.

AsxBroker advised me to finish my diploma first before going back out on job hunting. I believe I had unrealistic expectations on what kind of roles I would be offered, especially when I have not completed my diploma yet. Trying to persuade a recruitment agent to get me a junior paraplanner role was next to impossible.

Right now, I am concentrating on targeting the hidden job market. I have done a fair bit of networking lately by attending various events, especially those organised by Finsia. In fact, I did meet a financial planner in one of the previous Finsia function. He has been, and still is currently, extremely helpful in assisting me to find a job. Just few days ago he rang me about a potential contact he got in touch with who might be interested in me. So fingers crossed with that one. Not to mention he has been inviting me to different networking functions that has financial planners in them. In fact, I will be going to another one with him next Wednesday.

Now someone would think, why not work for his firm? There was a position open for a financial planner assistant and I did went for the interview. However, I was not offered, or rather, I did not take the "offer" for certain reasons. On the good side, they gave me ALOT of compliments. Saying I was extremely well qualified for the role and have no doubts I would do a great job. On the other hand, they also believed they could not offer me the type of career path I was really looking for. This was a national firm with the majority of their staff in Sydney/Melbourne, including ALL of their paraplanners. Their Brisbane branch was rather small with only 3 FPs, so there was very little, if none, future prospect of promotion into a more technical role. They told me they were really looking for someone "less" qualified and is willing to take a $35-$38k salary and do it (without getting bored) for 3+ years. I couldn't hide from the fact that I need to be intellectual challenged and want to move onto a paraplanner role in a future. They believed that it was in my best interest to look elsewhere that could offer me that, and also in their best interest to not to waste resource by training me and then me having to leave after 6-12 months. The good thing I got out of all this was lots of career advises and gave me ALOT of confidence as the manager said he would seriously take me in NO SWEAT if I was in Sydney due to the amount of opportunities there. I do not think he was lying at all.

Anyway, I will be signing up for the Finsia Mentor program as a mentoree. This would be a great opportunity for me as having a senior financial planner to act as my mentor (EVEN before I start into the industry) should be an extremely rewarding experience. Not to mention it would provide me with alot more contacts to increase my chance of getting a job in the industry. So I would suggest anyone who is interested in being mentored should sign up for the program.

Sorry for the long post, just felt like talking about where I am going right now.

So it's time to speed up my studies first, get my diploma, then job hunt via DIRECT contact with employers and do tons of networking.

(P.S: I'm almost done with Investment Planning, probably will only take just a little less than 3 weeks. hahah Just realised it is the assignment that is taking most of my time, so I started working on it while I was going thru the modules)

Ohhh, and good luck too CJ.

Cheers,

Temjin

I'll put my 2 cents in for posterity purposes.

I was a research scientist for 3 years, and due to funding issues/boredom/politics of science community, i decided that it wasn't going to be a stable profession for me. I had a mate who had done his DFP through integratec (---> Tribeca ----> Kaplan ----> ????? ) after doing his science degree and had become a planner, so he suggested that as a worst case scenario, so ELC, i would learn a little about managing my own finances, and hopefully be able to get a job in the industry.

After i had finished, i tried applying for jobs, must have sent 50 resume's, not a single reply! But i enjoyed the course, decided it was what i wanted to do, found a lab that had a year of funding, so made a deal with them that i would work for another year, and did Super and Risk.

Once the year was nearly up and i had completed the 2 subjects, i sent off another 50 resume's and got 1 response. The recruiter asked me to come in, i blew his socks off, he sent me for the interview with the company, and they rang back an hour later offering me the job as a client service officer.

I was a CSO for around 9 months, company paid for 2 more DFP subjects, they put on a training planner role and promoted me into the job, got me accredited, promoted me, promoted me again, and it is all going very well as a planner.

So the DFP through Kaplan is a good place to start to get you a job. I have to say it didn't teach me a lot, i learnt mainly on the job, so find a FP who is willing to train you up, and you need to find a way to sell yourself to the planning companies to show them you will work out. If a scientist can talk his way into a planning company, anyone can!

After a DFP type course that gets your foot in the door, I am now doing a Masters of Fin Planning course (i should be studying for my tax planning exam instead of writing this!), all of which is paid for by the company (ALWAYS GET THE COMPANY TO PAY!!!!!), and "may" do the CFP down the line (although after 4 years i need a break from studying!).

Ben

P.S. if you need a job, just start ringing planning groups and asking for interviews. They ALWAYS need entry level staff! And if they don't, they will know someone who does (because they have probably been trying to head hunt staff away from them!).

Also agree with Nigel in regards to Advisers giving advice without experience or adequate knowledge of investments. It shouldnt be allowed!

I have completed the dip of FS through Finsia (now KAPLAN) and I have been paraplanning for a few years. (I have no interest in becoming an Adviser) Nowadays you need to have at least the Diploma before starting as a Paraplanner. Entry level in FP is usually a Planner Assistant where you learn as much as possible before moving up. Once your Dip is finished you can start paraplanning. It is standard practise (from my experience) for most businesses to only allow you to give advice to clients once you have started or near completion of the Advanced Dip. (Banks wont look at you for an advice role unless you have this)

In regards to your initial question, I highly recommend KAPLAN. They were very supportive when I was completing my diploma and it is the most comprehensive Diploma available. So you can have peace of mind knowing that you are getting the best information possible from them compared to other Financial Institutions.

Hope this helps.

Bennymarsh, can you please list some examples of these "planning groups" that have offices around Brisbane? I have compiled a list of FP firms in Brisbane CBD so far through yellow page but have yet to approach them directly. Just waiting to get my RG146 compliance before doing so as I believe it would give me a much better chance.

I totally given up on these recruitment agencies now. Approached another two today for some really entry level type role and heh, same story.

Will have to tackle this differently.

Cheers,

Temjin