Yahoo Finance 'If you want to progress into senior roles, leave your education at the door'
My First Boss: The people who helped shape business leaders
Luke Hamm is UK managing director of tax incentive specialists Source Advisors, with offices in St Albans and Texas. He has more than 10 years of commercial and general management experience with the UK's largest insurance broker Aon.
I dropped out of university studying law and signed up with an agency and got a data entry temp job with one of Aon's regional offices.
I was an ambitious university drop out, but Janette Redding's number one skill was having a genuine interest with the individuals in front of her, to balance with the commercial goals of her team.
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The criticism large businesses have is that you are only just a number. Janette, as service delivery director, went above and beyond this and got me thinking far more about how to get where you need to as your career progresses.
I sold insurance to accountants and what got me the job was doing four weeks work in two. I had perseverance, a strong academic background, confidence, tenacity and the ability to walk round the office to say hello to people, which surprisingly makes you stick out.
University is a brilliant experience for personal and educational development, but it’s not the be all and end all. The issue for me is that it creates a slightly robotic nature of expectation. You have to be measured in your decisions today. We are getting a bit more sophisticated now as employers in terms of the talent pipeline and who you want to apply.
There is an acumen to how to navigate business. Education might have got your ticket in the door, but if you want that progression line into senior roles you have to leave that behind.
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When I started to progress at Aon, thanks to Janette’s progression routes and freedom to spread my wings within a controlled environment, the managing director of the business unit, Andrew Gough, told me to write the job description of what I wanted to be doing in my next career.
There would be two outcomes, he said. Either that it added value to the business and he would find me a role in the business or that I would find another job.
While Janette curated talent, Andrew was an accountant by trade, business focused and incredibly direct. This was great in a corporate environment where it was starting to ease off and he brought that confidence to what he was saying through his knowledge.
He wasn’t ostentatious, gregarious or had an agenda; he formed an opinion because he knew his stuff, not because he was the loudest voice in the room. I shadowed him aged 23 and was effectively being mentored by a senior MD who kept me to task.
His weakness, which was a strength, was recognising that he hated being politically savvy. To navigate a large business is the nature of the beast. You need to have an appetite to be successful in a big organisation. But he saw me as someone who could do the diplomacy and political manoeuvering needed.
Today, I say you will always be hired for your strengths not weaknesses, so double down what you are good at, be aware what you're good at. Andrew kept me sharp, saying there was a reason why I was in the room 'so do it and show it'.
I later understood how to come into conversations with a problem statement or opportunity to test. Not to do it for tick box exercise, but to go with a valuable action. The young person who goes in with a nice chat over tea and biscuits just doesn’t make an impression.
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Andrew, who had retired by now, later told me to think about private equity-backed business which is what I did. I joined the founder-led business GovGrant, established in 2006, when I was 30 and we exited and sold to a trade buyer in 2023, six years later.
We were purchased by US-based Source Advisors, who have been trading for 40 years. Aon gave me global exposure and what I would say to my two boys today is to work for a big business.
There are thousands of people where management has had to think in ways a small business wouldn’t. It is a competitive space, you can learn so much and have to navigate and be clever. I say to my team today that you have to think about your bucket of competencies and what you enjoy doing the most.
I have had a track record of finding a great boss at every turn. That’s fluke and sometimes luck has to go your way. Janette and Andrew were savvy to notice that I was ambitious enough to keep pushing.
Watch: My First Boss — Bianca Zwart, chief of staff at Bunq
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