I first arrived in Sydney in 1997 as an international student from Vietnam.
Greeting me were my grandparents and eight uncles and aunties, who have been calling Australia home since the early 1980's, so I immediately felt like home.
In 2002, after graduating from Sydney University with a Bachelor of Commerce degree, I applied to become Australian resident under skilled immigration program.
I joined NAB in 2005 and spent 10 years developing my banking career with the bank. I am what they call a "NAB born" banker, as I joined as a teller and worked my way through various roles in the organisation from retails to business banking, from managing a branch to managing business customer relationship.
I have 2 children, age 9 and 6. When the elder one started school, I wanted to have flexibility in working hours to allow me more time to attend to my children, so I decided to quit NAB and started my own financial consulting business, primarily focusing on the Vietnamese community.
That was in July 2015. Fast forward 4 years, I am happy with my decision, although I have seen bright days and gloomy days. The key objective of my business has always been helping our customer to achieve their financial dreams sooner, and I focus on that when there were days that you'd really want to ask yourself "why bother?".
And when you take that extra leap, to go above and beyond, the reward is your customer's satisfaction, and the grateful feedback you will receive. My advice to junior brokers: if you don't like helping people (from the bottom of your heart), then financial broker isn't the job for you.
