Career Heroes - Angela Guiney

Tell us more about you

I’m 28 years old and come from a family of seven. I’ve three older brothers, an older sister, and nine nieces and nephews. I consider myself to be positive, outgoing, and always up for a laugh. In my spare time, I play piano and do some photography. I also enjoy running and playing Gaelic Football. I’m quite competitive and enjoy challenging myself.

I attended St Dominic’s Grammar School in Belfast where I studied Music, Spanish, and Maths at A Level. Throughout my school years, I’d always wanted to study Music at University and go on to become a music teacher. However, I ended up at Queen’s University studying Maths. During my degree, I studied different areas of mathematics including Pure Maths, Statistics, and Applied Maths, with my specialism being Statistics and Operational Research.

I applied for and received a conditional offer for a Maths PGCE, but at the end of my degree, I hadn’t performed as well as I had hoped and didn’t get the grades required to progress into PGCE. At this time I was extremely disappointed and my confidence was knocked. I began looking for jobs as a means to earn some money whilst I decided what I wanted to do going forward.

A few months later, I was offered a temporary job in Danske Bank. I accepted, thinking that it would be a stop-gap, but after a short time it became clear that there were opportunities to progress should I want to make a career with the company. I’ve now worked in Danske Bank for over seven years and have been offered endless support in my desire to progress.

What kind of work do you do?

I’m an Assistant Corporate Banking Manager, working within the Corporate Banking team in Danske Bank. I’m responsible for managing a portfolio of high net-worth business customers, attending to their day-to-day banking needs and facilitating their requests for lending facilities.

The most important aspect of my role is building and developing relationships with my customers. I’m their main point of contact and a representative for Danske Bank. It’s important to build trust so that they know I’m there to provide support when they need it and that they can reach out to me as and when required. Other aspects of my role include risk management, financial analysis, drawing up and presenting requests for lending facilities, and people management.

How did you become a Assistant Manager?

I started working in Danske Bank in 2015, shortly after I graduated from University. I worked in a branch for four years carrying out a number of roles such as Teller, Personal Banker, and a Branch Operational Support Official. The branches I worked in were on the Lisburn Road, Donegall Square West, and in the Kennedy Centre.

During this time, I took advantage of any opportunities that were presented to me and sought out opportunities to continuously develop myself and gain new skills. I reached out to other departments to build relationships and develop my knowledge. This enabled me to apply for the role of Corporate Banking Assistant in 2019. I was successful and stayed in this role for two years.

On top of carrying out this role, I also went for opportunities to shadow and learn about the role of the Relationship Manager, so I would have some experience and knowledge if I wanted to progress to the role of Corporate Banking Manager.

In 2021, the role of Assistant Corporate Banking Manager was advertised. I applied for it and was successful. Whilst it’s been somewhat of a learning curve, it’s a challenge I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and this has provided me with endless learning opportunities.

If you could do-over, What would you do differently?

I wouldn’t necessarily change how my career has panned out. Whilst the result I got in my degree and my profession is not exactly what I had planned, I believe it was the path that was meant for me and right now I’m where I am supposed to be.

The one thing I would change is how I choose to view what I deem as my ‘failures’ or shortcomings. Ultimately, no one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. Rather than being hard on myself and seeing myself as a failure, I would go back and tell my 21 year old self that this is just a temporary issue and something you can overcome and learn from.