"I was over the moon to win 'Female BDM of the Year' in 2018 and then again in 2019 at the Women's Recognition Awards."
To celebrate the voting period of our 2020 Women's Recognition Awards, our first interviews are with previous winners of the FRWRAs, and this week we spoke to Paula Mercer.
FR: What’s your current role and how long have you been in it?
Head of retail mortgages at Atom Bank. I have been in this role since September 2019. Prior to that I was a regional business development manager at Atom from January 2015 – September 2019. So all in all, around five and a half years.
FR: How did you first get into the financial services industry and why?
I started in financial services in March 2008 where I was a business development manager for Halifax Intermediaries at LBG. Why? Well, I was persuaded by an ex-colleague Maria Harris as she seemed to think ‘I would be good at it’ and I hold her responsible for all of this, especially when I am having a bad day!
FR: What achievement are you proudest of in your career to date?
I was over the moon to win 'Female BDM of the Year' in 2018 and then again in 2019 at the Women's Recognition Awards.
FR: Who’s had the biggest impact on your career to date?
I would never want to single anyone out as I have worked with some wonderful people along the way. So its more ‘what’ has had the biggest impact on my career and I would say surviving the financial crisis in 2008 which had an impact on my career for a good few years and required a lot of resilience.
I must also mention my current employer, Atom Bank, as when I joined it was a start up with no banking licence. I was employee number 35 (now have nearly 400 employees) and I was part of the build of the intermediary team where we started with just three of us and our mission was to be the first digital lender where the customer would have an app to track the mortgage. We built a team from scratch and in just under two years and took the proposition to market in December 2016. This has to be one of the most demanding yet exciting things I have ever done!
FR: What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve ever been given?
My old Boss at Halifax, Kevin Gaughan, was really big on trust and would always say something along the lines of ‘the best way to find out if you trust somebody is to trust them’. He also mentioned what he would do if that trust was broken, but I won’t mention that bit! I have always carried that with me and I also carry what I would do if the trust was broken, which was very similar to Kevin!
FR: If you had to sum up working in financial services in three words, what would they be?
'I'm always knackered', 'Pass the gin', 'Let's do this!' - take your pick!
To nominate yourself or a woman in financial services for a Women’s Recognition Award, please visit www.frwra.co.uk.
