The IFP conference this year was once again held at Celtic Manor resort in Cardiff. A beautiful setting near Newport in Wales and home of the Ryder Cup golf competition in 2010. Held over three days, 1^st – 3^rd October the conference was sold out. It included the IFP’s AGM on the first evening and then included various keynote speeches and breakout sessions which covered a number of different topics. This allowed the delegates to choose the most appropriate session for their needs or the needs of their business.

The IFP have, particularly over the last few years, actively encouraged paraplanners to attend and have tried to ensure that there are sessions which would be of interest to paraplanners. This year was no exception with a greater number of paraplanners in attendance.

On Tuesday morning Theparaplanner.com had the pleasure of presenting the Paraplanner of the Year Award to this year’s winner, Gary Tunstall, in the opening speeches. This lends support to the belief that Paraplanners are an integral part of the Financial Planning team. It is extremely pleasing to be able to present this award at a conference where the level of support for paraplanners and paraplanning has always been extremely positive.

 The key note speeches on Tuesday, particularly those by Dan Sullivan and Nick Murray were some of the best I have ever seen. They were inspiring, educational, humorous and informative and will no doubt be remembered by all who heard them for many years.

In addition I attended a session given by our own Richard Allum on assessing risk and the role of cash flow planning. The room was filled to capacity and was excellent. Richard looked at risk, how risk is measured, the FSA assessing suitability paper and how this interacts with Lifetime Cashflow Planning. All those who attended were thoroughly engaged and came away enlightened and keen to go back to their own practices to review their own systems and risk profiling tools.

Apart from the sessions as important at any conference is the opportunity to network; to meet old friends and to make new friends. The IFP has a habit of making conferences feel like you are part of a family, part of a community and this is something we have tried to do here at theparaplanner.com.

Having attended a number of conferences over the years I have to say that this was one of the best I have ever attended. Not only because of the breakout sessions; not only because of the key note speeches which were particularly inspiring this year; not only because of the fact that the IFP warmly welcomes, encourages and provides sessions particularly for paraplanners but mostly because of the friendly, helpful and enthusiastic nature of the delegates.

Achieving any of the above would be a credit in its own right but to achieve them all is truly amazing. Nick, Katherine and the IFP team along with the extremely hard working conference organizing committee should be duly proud.

It’s the start of 2011 and we would like to wish all of you a Happy and prosperous New Year. We hope that 2011 will be a really good year for all of you personally and also that it will prove to be an even more productive year for all paraplanners and administrators.

There are a number of really exciting developments happening for paraplanners and administrators in the first half of the coming year so watch this space. If you haven’t subscribed to the RSS feed make sure you do so that you get an email every time the site is updated.

Happy New Year.

All of sudden I appear to be a successful fund manager, albeit in a fantasy league. I entered the JPM Fantasy Fund Manager and currently stand in 31st place out of 8,000+ entries. My portfolio has adopted a ’shoot the lights out’ objective with a risk profile of ‘highly likely to crash and burn’ but it seems to be doing OK so far. Wondering if I could sneak this model into a real client’s portfolio.

Svenja Keller is presented with her award as Paraplanner of the Year. Better picture to follow!

Throughout our working lives we are often called upon to attend an interview of some description. Even if this may not be for a new position of employment there are many techniques used throughout an interview that can prove very useful in numerous situations.

E-volve consulting have very kindly supplied us with their useful guide to giving yourself the best chance possible during a behavioural based interview. This is the most common type of interview and asks you to talk about how you reacted in certain situations in the past. E-volve also offer some guidance for what you should do prior to the interview and then list a number of different questions that you may be asked during the interview.

We hope that you may find this useful.

The Behavioural Based Interview

Before the Interview

Most candidates tend to arrive at the exact time for their pending interview. It is good practice to arrive 20mins early as this gives you time to settle any nerves and it also has a calming effect as you are not running around rushing to get to the interview location. Most candidates who rush to make their interview time tend to also feel flustered and full of adrenalin at the interview – not a good start. Arrive 20 minutes early, even if it does mean you have to go for a coffee at a local café/coffee shop.

Background of the behavioural based interview

Most blue chip organisations now utilise the behavioural based interview in the selection process. To set you up for success we have outlined the structure of the interview and provided some helpful tips because:

• It is the most predictive form of interviewing
• Predicts future performance based on past behaviours
• If you reacted one way in a certain situation, the rule of thumb is you will react again the same way when presented with a similar problem
• The behaviours are often indicated in a job specification and this will give you an idea of what behavioural questions they could possibly ask

The beginning of the interview

Generally an interview will start with you being asked to go through your work history

• Be able to talk through in detail your CV and education,
• Be able to talk through notable accomplishments, skills, technical knowledge etc

Potential Questions

Why does this company appeal to you?

“I have looked on your website, spoken with others in the market and what really strikes me is……….” So talk about how you come to think the client is your employer of choice and choose things that drive the company culture like….

• Training and development
• Employee recognition
• Internal and external Client Focus
• Opportunity to contribute to improves processes etc
• Team Focus

Why does the role interest you and what strengths can you bring to the team?

Make sure you back strengths up with some evidence. An example is

• I am a team player – I always ask others before I leave for the day is there anything I can help them with

Reason for leaving last role / looking for new role?

Don’t go into unnecessary detail.

What are your weakness / area for improvement?

Good examples of these are:

• Desk can get messy
• Can find it hard to say no to people
• Find it hard to delegate
• Like to see things through to completion but sometimes can be a little obsessive with this
• Can sometimes take on too much to handle

Behavioural Based questions

Answer should be structured in 4 parts outlined in the STAR method

STAR method for answering a behavioural based question (same as 4 point method)

Situation – describe the situation or setting

Task – outline what needed to be done

Action – Describe in detail the action your took (illustrate the skill clearly)

Result – Outline the positive results of your action, especially the benefits to the organisation

- if you make the results quantifiable that is even better

Task and Action is the most important part as this is where you describe the behaviours

Sample Behavioural Competencies

Behavioural questions will generally begin with “Tell me about a time when…” or “When have you….”etc. Questions could be based around the following behavioural competencies and below you will find points to touch on when answering the questions.

Questions about Team Work

Make sure you touch on some of the following behaviours:

• Managing others expectations
• Motivate others
• Constructive
• Escalation of issues when necessary
• Interdepartmental relationship building
• Proactive in Self training
• Networking Ability
• Offering to help others
• Take a genuine interest in your colleagues
• Good listener
• Can be relied upon

Questions about using your Initiative / Improving or streamlining processes

Make sure you touch on some of the following behaviours:

• Control focus
• Testing
• Proactive
• Leader not a follower
• Writing procedural manuals
• Gaining authority
• Training others
• Committed to improving productivity
• Adapt or change behaviour to better achieve target/objective
• Confidence to challenge decisions
• Planning or using a Project Plan
• Automating Manual processes / Streamlining Systems or processes

Questions about Coping under pressure / coping with stress / time management

Make sure you touch on some of the following behaviours:

• Managing others expectations on timelines
• Delegate
• Prioritise
• To do list
• Flexible
• Don’t take it personally
• Not afraid to take work back
• Have a clear appreciation for Strengths and limitations
• Shows good judgement under pressure
• Multitask

Questions about Internal and External Client Focus

Make sure you touch on some of the following behaviours:

• Follow up
• Learn and address needs
• Empathise
• Use their words when communicating
• Reconfirmation
• Confident at dealing with all levels
• Manage others expectations

Questions about Analytical Skills / Problem Solving

Make sure you touch on some of the following behaviours:

• Escalate issues when required
• Take into account risks and potential business impact
• Ability to make decisions based on information
• Analyse diverse alternatives
• Trend analysis
• Attention detail

Questions about Operations Control

Make sure you touch on some of the following behaviours:

• Attention to detail
• Understand why control is in place
• Addressing risk
• Able to verbalise implications of what happens when controls are not in place
• Knowing when to escalate

FOR SUPERVISORY AND MANAGER ROLES THAT INVOLVE PEOPLE MANAGEMENT ONLY –

Questions about People Management

Behaviours are

• Managing others expectations on timelines
• Using different mediums to communicate
• Team meetings, one on ones, Personal Development Plans
• Succession Planning
• Cross Training
• Motivating others
• Able to plan or prioritise work to meet deadlines
• Strategic thinking ability to analyse to anticipate the impact of decisions on people,departments etc
• Setting goals, targets of key performance indicators
• Accountable
• Managing upwards
• Recognising achievements and knowing how staff like to be recognised
• Lead by example / Be willing to get hands on
• Having an impact on bottom line profit and loss
• Setting self and department targets i.e: Reducing Failed trades etc

Questions for the client

Have some prepared and if you want take them in with you. Good examples are:

• Opportunities for further training / education
• Ask about the structure of the team you’d be working in – how many people their backgrounds
• What issues if any they are currently facing,
• What they think the most challenging part of the role is,
• Ask the interviewer what they like

We hope this short guide is useful and gives you some idea of the types of things interviewers may ask during an interview.

Remember…….do your research and prepare well !