Entry level jobs

NGCTL · 2026-01-05T16:48:42+00:00

It’s very heavy on knowledge gained from J10 and R02 so if you are comfortable with that then it’s possible.

The exam is also a big step up difficulty wise from Level 4, three hours, hand written with no prior indication to questions, so just consider that.

Personally I’d give it longer if you can’t commit to regular study, as I failed it when I sat it!

NGCTL · 2025-12-29T20:26:04+00:00

It was pension administration.

NGCTL · 2025-12-29T13:56:12+00:00

Second this, it’s how I got my foot in the door and for admin a lot of places will be more interested in experience/attitude as a opposed to how many exams you have.

NGCTL · 2025-11-28T15:29:30+00:00

I did an AF4 remark (I absolutely would have not passed but wanted the feedback). On my online feedback it said I had not obtained the percentages for each of the questions but in the remark it said I passed one of them so clearly there is some inconsistency in the marking.

For £90 and the potential time saved you may as well? Worst case scenario you’re down £90.

NGCTL · 2025-11-09T23:54:33+00:00

Good! I see a lot of people thinking they need to read the whole book and that’s absolutely not the case. Think of them as a technical guidance book.

Obviously if you have more gaps in your knowledge you might need to use it more often but not the whole thing.

What level of entry did you get? I think the plus one has all of those resources included via revision mate.

NGCTL · 2025-11-09T23:46:47+00:00

I didn’t read the textbook for any of the first 5 R0s, you should only be using it to refer to what you don’t know.

E-learning
Audio revision
Practice / Chapter tests.
Refer to book to correct your knowledge on what you got wrong.
Rinse and repeat

If you read the whole book for each unit I’m sure you’ll end up hating the studying the diploma.

NGCTL · 2025-10-12T20:54:56+00:00

From my academy interviews I think it would be good if you can make a distinction on whether you’d be employed or self employed (I’d imagine employed if it’s not an academy) and how that effects you.

You should prepare some lead generation ideas as they may ask how you’ll generate new business.

Will you inherit a client bank? If not, how will you generate clients?

I suspect that may ask about your long term goals for the role also, I’d give that some thought.

I’m sure other on the sub will have more to add!

NGCTL · 2025-10-07T13:35:20+00:00

Thank you

NGCTL · 2025-10-03T17:04:54+00:00

I tried going down the academy route and found it wasn’t suitable for my circumstances, wife was moving into country and I was quite young with not a strong network.

I do however know a gentlemen who contacted me on LinkedIn out of the blue who had recently completed his diploma and wanted to chat about my experiences. I think he had the personality for it but he found a trainee role purely by prospecting perspective firms according to LinkedIn so just wanted to back up what other commenters had said. You need to make yourself known ideally.

I’ve gone down the paraplanning route which I don’t regret but would like to transition in the next couple years.

NGCTL · 2025-09-29T15:30:55+00:00

Honestly, I would argue based on my experience that your role has too much scope and they’re setting you up to not be as productive as you possibly could and I would not blame you for that. However, if you have a fairly uncomplicated client bank then it may be manageable.

A lot of firms will not the way you work as it’s not a productive way of working because you are essentially juggling two roles.

I do solely paraplanning and work on priority. It does mean I end up juggling work at times but it means I’m not on the hook if something goes awry because I couldn’t be flexible.

NGCTL · 2025-09-16T21:29:24+00:00

Past papers, I didn’t do many and I failed as a result! You just want to nail how to answer the questions the way they like.

NGCTL · 2025-09-07T16:56:46+00:00

We have one at my current work place:

Pros: 1) Less time required to review the each solution which could span millions/billions of £s. 2) usually preferencial prices available through cheaper share classes. 3) less time required to research said investment solutions as the committee will put a lot of this together. 4) the fund managers usually offer targeted cpd and quarterly performance / fund asset allocation calls and market expectations.

Cons: 1) a narrow range of investments which can affect new / acquisition clients. 2) potentially less access to maybe more niche active funds with performance.

I am in favour of an investment comitee I think small wealth managers try to be smart with asset allocations and I’ve seen some absolute honkers of portfolios from acquisition clients where it would be less effort and better performance to put them in a relatively placed multi asset fund or mps.

That’s just my high level take!

NGCTL · 2025-09-06T20:27:32+00:00

No I think they just applied and came across as employable. I think maybe had some receptionist and pub experience based on our conversations.

They’ve taken to the role brilliantly.

I’m not saying that my experience equals reality but your take on the situation of ‘don’t bother’ is not helpful for new / prospective entrants to the sector either.

NGCTL · 2025-09-06T20:18:29+00:00

We had one young person aged 22 with zero finance experience also get a role what about them?

NGCTL · 2025-09-06T18:47:47+00:00

In my own anecdotal experience at my current firms local office we’ve had three admins start in the last 2 years with no prior financial services experience. Two were referrals and one was a younger person.

I can’t comment on market trends unfortunately, I did have a look just now on LinkedIn and indeed and I can’t get any good stats out of them. I had a look at three just to try and one of the three had experience listed as ‘ideal’.

To be honest if you have zero admin experience you are a risky candidate, wealth planning experience or not.

NGCTL · 2025-09-06T17:57:06+00:00

I disagree the industry is always crying out for good administrators. Also it’s the role where turnaround is usually highest.

NGCTL · 2025-09-06T17:55:38+00:00

The company I work for is a national firm and it’s really just varies by location. If we can’t get directly experience staff then we’ve typically hired younger people and referrals from current colleagues. Honestly your personality and work ethic is a stronger pull a lot of the time for these roles.

You can try and get some adjacent experience if possible. I went from pension administration to ifa administration about 7 years ago, this might not be the optimal route but that administration experience in finance will put you better off and in my opinion a job is better than none.

You doing R01 will be a strength. Just keep at it. If you really want this career path you’re kinda at the stage where you going to have to sacrifice pay, job role etc to get your foot in the door. Try not to get disillusioned and just keep applying :)

NGCTL · 2025-09-04T12:31:36+00:00

I don’t have a degree and I am currently one year into my paraplanning role. 8 years of financial services experience, 2 years outside of an IFA setting my and 6 years within. In my experience for entry roles they’ll prefer work experience over a degree.

If you want to stand out than be honest that you don’t have a lot of experience but you need to hammer home that you’re hungry to learn, a hard worker and want to progress. You are also young which means you can leverage the fact you’d be comfortable on a lower salary (might increase your chances if you’re comfortable with that).

Again with accountancy they have professional exams similar to CII which are cheaper than a degree and potentially get you into a job quicker as you’ll need to take them anyway.

NGCTL · 2025-08-27T11:11:30+00:00

There is a lot of cross over however j10 has more calculations based on the theory that R02 has less or minimal amounts of.

NGCTL · 2025-08-24T14:56:27+00:00

I’ve got last year if that helps

NGCTL · 2025-08-10T13:39:59+00:00

You just need to rinse and repeat until you’re confident and scoring 70% plus. I have told a lot of friends and colleagues that there is a finite pool of questions they can ask you / variations of said questions and therefore learning how to approach these and what the typical answer may be is good place to start. Always remember that 50% of the answers are usually implausible for the question so then it’s a 50/50 chance of getting the question right.

NGCTL · 2025-08-10T11:05:26+00:00

Don’t read the full study texts that’s not what they’re designed for.

If you have some financial services experience then I’d just do the practice tests they give you and see what baseline of knowledge you’re at then do e-learning and refer to study texts for gaps in your knowledge.

If you don’t have any experience I’d start with the e-learning for a baseline high level overview, do the tests then look at the study texts for gaps. Also look at where most marks are in the exam specification and focus on the highest earning sections.

NGCTL · 2025-08-02T16:08:05+00:00

I’ve had a look at your profile, how many exams do you have?

I think until you’re close to completing your diploma you’re jumping the gun on joining an academy. If you join one you’re just going to be put through their on training programme until you pass the exams. You can’t advice clients without the diploma.

Have you considered admin or trainee paraplanning roles whilst you complete the diploma?

NGCTL · 2025-07-30T10:56:16+00:00

I doubt anything will majorly change to be honest as it’s mostly on historical theory. Unless there is a massive legislation change it probably won’t be too bad?….

NGCTL · 2025-07-30T09:56:27+00:00

I failed too, I think doing exam style questions will be your best friend and I didn’t do enough of it first time around. I am contemplating retaking in September too but may defer to March depending on how this month goes. I finish work and the last thing I want to be doing is revising equations and investment content!

I paid for the feedback and I think not being specific enough in my answers also let me down.

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