Happier Compliance
Over the last months I have interviewed many compliance experts who wanted (or at least considered) making a career change, living their corporate jobs and moving into a FinTech startup. One of the common reasons was “my job no longer makes me happy” – and it was not about money.
People don’t feel they have been learning and growing, they have not felt appreciated, they did not see many opportunities in their current environment. Frankly, many of them did not even care what happens to their bank or their fund or their insurance company. They felt disposable and irrelevant. Many of them finished the interview saying how surprised and pleased they were to see how excited and happy and engaged I am and how obvious it is that I absolutely love what I do (which is compliance). Essentially, I was living their dream: working with people I absolutely love, learning, adding value, travelling, attending conferences, and making more money than I could ever get at PayPal (at least over a short term).
When at the end of each interview I asked if my candidates had questions for me, the most common questions asked were:
- Were you scared when you decided to leave your safe corporate job and how do I know this is the right move for me?
- Do you ever worry that your startup may go under and you won’t have your income?
- What do you need to know to do what you do? Especially – how much do you need to understand about technology?
- Where did you learn about FinTech?
- How do you choose the right startups to know they won’t get into troubles and worth of your time and effort?
It’s crazy to realize that I am actually really popular at the FinTech scene, mainly because I work with amazing companies and they are doing really well. I receive continuous invitations to speak at conferences and regulatory panels, and I have more requests for help than I could possibly handle.
As many of you, to feel happy, I need to live in the atmosphere of growth and learning and accomplishments, I need to feel productive and useful, and I need to see clearly that whatever I do makes a difference in the organization.
Below are my thoughts on why some people may feel overwhelmed by GDPR and privacy topics. Hope it helps!
