People of Blenheim Chalcot: Verity Buck

Knowing when to quit is as essential as where to start

I have never imagined myself having a career in only one field. That is why I chose to study Management and graduated as an all-rounder. Unfortunately having a theoretic taste of various business functions I was still not sure what I really wanted to do. My first try to find a right career path was a rather unpleasant experience which only lasted for three months: turned out that back office equity settlements in the financial markets isn’t really my passion in life. Since then I always follow the rule to look for jobs that are rewarding in more than just salary.

Story of joining BC

I have started my BC journey in Agilisys which I joined shortly after graduating. There I had an opportunity to work in several consulting and business development roles and even played a part in winning some massive deals that doubled the size of the company. Nonetheless, a day came when I could not see an obvious next career step and decided to look into opportunities in other BC businesses. Fospha became the second, and luckily not the final, BC company that welcomed me afterwards.

Right now I feel very lucky to work in a business that has a social mission. In SalaryFinance we have discovered that a huge social issue can be solved with a help of a fintech solution. It should not be surprising that technology is able to bring a change – old ways do not work anymore and therefore we have to invent new ones. For anyone who wants to be a part of something big and exciting – tech is the place to be.

I found that working in any of the early stage BC companies is like an art of conjuring – we make outstanding products appear out of nothing. We know what we want to do, yet the tools that we need to achieve our goal do not exist yet. Therefore we have no other way than to build these tools ourselves. The audaciousness of such projects and the occasional thought that they might be too ambitious is what makes me love my job.

Honestly, the fact that I have worked in BC for the vast majority of my career is based on the great people and atmosphere in this company. It is both inspiring and humbling to work with people who are full of outstanding ideas and work hard to bring them to life. I actually find it  fascinating  when people join our group from outside – it is just surprising to find out what what they think of us and how things are done outside of BC. And from what I have heard so far, we are quite privileged here!  If I was to go somewhere else I would have to do a poorer job with people that I like less. So what is the point?

Juggling work, charities and family life

Having a full time job, being a trustee in two charities and having two young children does not leave a lot of free time in a day. Unfortunately I did not have a lot of female role models who had found the balance, so I had to figure out everything myself. One of the things I have learned on the way was to build enough help around you and not aim to do everything yourself. Trust builds capability in people. Of course, it does depend on how you prioritise your tasks and whether you can sleep at night knowing there is a a big ironing pile or not.

So I always look back at it and think what is it that is important in life? How do we build memories along the way? Or just take the time to say, that was amazing.

Doing lots and hoping for more

I follow the rule – the more tasks are in “to do” list, the more things will get done. If I believe in something and my input there could be useful I will make space for these things. You will find that this approach simply drives unproductive stuff away. And even though sometimes you might find yourself wondering “where I am going to get so much time to do all these things?”, everything has a tendency to gradually work out. Now I cannot imagine my life being any different. And as for the future –  I hope there will still be a lot of interesting work to do.