Career transition experiences – from banking to counselling

Les Noble spent 25 years working for a major high-street bank, working his way up from managing in the branch network to the Head of the Affluent Client Business in head office, but made a switch to counselling and psychotherapy five years ago. He now works in a portfolio career, including local independent schools, private practice and one day a week at a West Midlands-based mental health charity. He talked to us about his experiences.

What inspired your switch after a career in banking and finance?

I worked in the banking sector in a variety of different roles, in branches and in head office – I worked my way up and I really enjoyed my job. It wasn't until the latter few years that I started to feel that I just wasn't adding any value, I wasn't getting satisfaction out of the role anymore. And I just thought, ‘you know what? I've had enough of this. I want to do something different’. Luckily about a year later, I got offered voluntary redundancy because the section I was working in was being closed down - I decided to take it. they were offering me other jobs, but I thought, ‘no, I want to take it. I want to do something different’.

How did you go about your transition to being a counsellor?

At that time to be honest, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. I spoke to some friends about what they were doing, to try and get a feel for different things. And one thing that really struck me was counselling and psychotherapy, which a friend was already studying for. You may not have a friend in the industry you are moving to, but I would always recommend talking to someone who is doing what you plan to do before investing time and energy. The reason why psychotherapy stood out for me was because whilst working in the bank, one of the areas that I really enjoyed was coaching and developing the people in my team, so it felt right to develop this skill and to take it forward in my career change. Financially, I was fortunate to be able to take a year out of work to study for my Levels to Two to Four in Counselling and Psychotherapy. I enjoyed in so much that I then enrolled for a three-year honours degree that I did alongside a placement at a local school. It was after the placement ended in January 2020 that I then joined The Kaleidoscope Plus Group – it wasn’t so much that I set out to work for a charity specifically, but that was how things fell into place.

Now, I also work at an independent school, and for a sixth-form college, alongside my own private practice. I've found that working in a variety of places helps me get a broader experience, a broader client base than if I were working in just one area. At the school, for example, you might get students with similar experiences, which might mean they bring similar problems to therapy. But working as a counsellor in multiple settings, you work with people from different backgrounds, different age groups and a variety of socio-economic situations. 

How does your working life now differ from your experiences in the corporate sector (both for better and for worse)?

On the positive side, I notice how the organisations I work for now take more care of you, compared to the bank. I no longer feel like I’m just another employee that must meet a deadline or achieve a task, which I did when I worked at the bank. When you're just one of thousands of people you sometimes feel like you don’t matter. We would hear about the organisation restructuring and making people and whole departments redundant - clearly a cost-cutting exercise at the time that affected many people’s lives - but then a few years later the same department would get rebuilt again. I would always think, ‘what about the good people we let go previously, what a waste of experience and skills’. Large corporates can be a stressful and tough place to be. Whereas in my experience, in the charity sector and in education, there's a lot more care for people. They seem to recognise your efforts and contribution more and they pay attention to your mental health needs. Simple things like making sure you get a break, making sure you're not working after-hours - all these little things make for a better work-life balance. All of these might be simple, but I think they are really important.

From a not so good perspective – for me, the corporate sector can be more professional, more organised and more structured and I liked that. If the bank planned to do something, it would be carefully and professionally costed and then a project team would be set up with trained project managers to run it through to delivery. At every step, meetings are held where decisions are made and signed off. You would understand your role in the project, know what you're expected to do and have a clear picture of what it is that you're trying to achieve. In the education and charity sectors, I haven't found this as much. What you are trying to achieve can be blurred and change. I feel that quite often in the charity sector you might be working towards something for a really good purpose, but because contracts can be short term, funds might get reallocated due to a change of priorities by the fund providers, and then you find you have to stop.  It can be frustrating.

What aspect of your roles now do you find the most rewarding?

I really like working directly with people. It’s a humbling experience being able to work directly with someone and support them through a difficult moment in their lives. In the bank there were a number of steps before anything I did would directly benefit the customer, whereas now it’s an absolute honour to work with someone directly and support that person. You can sometimes see the benefits immediately and the value you add to their lives.

What advice would you give someone considering the same change?

Definitely go for it, I say, because it’s changed my life! But be clear on the career path you choose and what will it take - what are the qualifications and courses you need to do, where is your work going to come from? And will you be able to sustain your lifestyle? Try to understand your new role as best you can and what you need to do in order to get yourself in a position where you can add value and where you are valued by prospective employers.

The financial implications are also clearly very important. The salary for working in the bank outweighed my salary now working as a psychotherapist, but there are other rewards. Whilst we all have bills to pay, there might be other benefits which can offset a drop in salary. This can include quality of life, being able to spend more time with your family and friends, or being more flexible and working the hours you want. It’s a balancing act, but sometimes these other benefits can outweigh the money whilst improving your own mental health.

How has your work shifted with COVID – is it harder to support people with counselling and build relationships when it’s had to be virtual?

Ideally counselling and psychotherapy works best face-to-face, but I've been surprised by the transition to online and how effective counselling continues to be. I have clients who I've only ever met online, and I have still been able to support them. I've got clients who started with me face-to-face and then switched to online, and again they have told me that they continue to feel supported despite the change of format. And for me, that's key - does it continue to enable clients to live their lives and be the best that they can be? If doing it online continues to support that, then that's fantastic, and it sounds like it does.

I think when the COVID situation eases and restrictions lighten, I'd definitely like to incorporate online working into my practice. I want to do face-to-face sessions again, but I won't drop the online element altogether.

In your recent video for Kaleidoscope you talked about BAME mental health and shared your perspective on how diversity in charities relates to ‘buy-in’ from potential BAME beneficiaries in need of mental health support from them. In your experience, how does the charity sector compare with the financial sector on diversity, and what more do you think charities could be doing to ensure they are inclusive of BAME staff and beneficiaries?

In the bank, I mostly worked from our head office sites in London, Milton Keynes and Leicester and there was very little diversity. You could be in a building of seven or eight floors and come across only maybe two or three other black people. It was much more diverse in the branch network, especially in lower paid roles such as cashiers and customer service assistants, but the higher you went up, the less diverse it became. However, in the charity sector where I now work, I was very pleased to find that other black people worked in important and higher paid roles, and roles which held a great deal of significance in the organisation. This means there is a better understanding of the mental health needs of black people, whether they be colleagues or service users.

Thinking about the charity sector and what more they can they do: I think it's about education, but I think that's true for all organisations? Education in terms of listening to and understanding what the needs are of the black people in the organisation and your customer base, if you have one. Listen to what they go through working for your organisation - are they fairly treated when it comes to promotion? Do they feel valued?  Could their diverse experience support your organisation in another role?

For me however, a diverse way of thinking and of attitude starts high up in an organisation.  Often, the higher up you go, the more likely you are to find that the real decision makers are going to be white and quite often, we recruit people who we are familiar with - that look like you - and this can cascade down through the company. It can be difficult to get people to notice their biases.

So how do we open up minds? I've seen evidence that when people are applying for jobs and the applicant’s name is - for example - an Asian or Black sounding name, they don't get shortlisted. But then if they change the name on their CV to sound more English, it gets shortlisted. So how do we move past that? However, I do think we are moving forward because the Black Lives Matter movement has highlighted the unfair things black people have to deal with every day and as a result, I think there is genuine concern amongst the British population now. People are talking about it and more importantly, they are beginning to do something about it. For me, it feels like there is a greater and a collective desire to change. The change however is slow and I want it to be faster, if not instant, because that’s right and what we all deserve.