Career Heroes - James McClelland

Tell us more about you

I’m from Derry/Londonderry. I have two older sisters; Ashleigh is 25 and lives in Liverpool working as a Mortgage Advisor and Kirsty is 29 living in Belfast and is an Anesthesiologist. My girlfriend, Jess, has just started at Ulster University studying Law.

In school, I never applied myself as much as I could have but I did manage to achieve good GCSEs. I didn’t really have a career plan but I knew I wanted to work with my hands and would definitely never consider an office job. I chose A Levels that I thought were the easiest - PE, Technology & Design, and Business Studies.

I ended up dropping out of my A Levels at the end of my first year, as my father died suddenly from a heart attack at the age of 50. I fell into a long period of depression and crushing anxiety. I eventually arranged to go back to complete my exams, but only returned for three weeks before I decided it wasn’t right for me at that point in my life. I was lucky to get two A Grades in PE and Technology & Design for my AS Levels, but I never actually left school with full A Levels that would allow me to go to university.

My first job at the age of 16 was working in my local Pizza Takeaway. This gave me an initial understanding of customer service, hard work, time management, and ensuring there is quality in everything you do. Following this, I worked in a Spar for a period of time and then got a job in a call centre. When the opportunity at Danske Bank came up, I used experience from my previous jobs in the interview, as well as my willingness to learn. I was successful in getting the job as a Financial Crime Analyst, even though I had no experience in Banking or financial crime.

I joined Danske Bank in August 2018. I never imagined that by the age of 23 I would be a Manager in Danske Bank, have achieved a first-class honours degree from Ulster University, and also purchased my own home.

What kind of work do you do?

My role is essentially to manage and lead a team of ten financial crime analysts that protect both the Bank and our customers from fraud, money laundering, and terrorist financing. My day-to-day work consists of holding morning meetings with the team, discussing their daily targets, and assigning each individual their workload tailored to suit their day. Each analyst may have different priorities on given days.

My team of analysts conduct Ongoing Due Diligence reviews of business customers' bank accounts to ensure all information we hold is up to date and accurate, this allows us to reduce any risks to the Bank and to the customer.
Each analyst has a competency to meet for their review. Therefore, I must carry out checks of their work to ensure what they are doing is correct and report both positive and negative findings to my own manager. I often share these findings with the team, to learn from mistakes as a group but to also praise and recognise hard work when an analyst has done a great job. If my team of analysts can do their jobs successfully we are able to prevent financial crime.

I also have the responsibility of making sure that each individual in my team is taking the necessary steps in their career progression. I hold regular one-to-one conversations with each of my analysts, discussing their short and long-term goals and objectives to help develop their career paths.

As a leader within the Bank, I also attend regular training sessions and various charity events and volunteering days throughout the year. We, as a bank, have a charity partner this year, AWARE NI, which supports people with mental health problems such as anxiety and depression, something that is close to my heart. Through our fundraisers and volunteering days, we can raise money for AWARE NI, which can help vulnerable people in our local community.

How did you become a Quality Controller?

A few years after dropping out of school I joined Danske Bank and enrolled in Level 7 professional certificates that were relevant to my role via the Institute of Banking. The Institute of Banking offers a range of courses that are fully accredited by the University College of Dublin.

Once I completed my Financial Crime Certificate I got an interest in learning again. Combined with becoming a manager within the Bank, I wanted to further my education and completed another two certificates on Lean Operations within the financial services industry, which has helped me understand how myself, my team, and my department can become more effective and efficient. This course has allowed me to put forward ideas to manage to implement into the department.

In April 2020, the Bank was offering internal positions that would allow you to complete a three year degree (The Futures Programme) with Ulster University whilst working full time. I was accepted onto the Futures Programme. As I was already working for the bank for over a year at this point, the University took into consideration my role and experience and allowed me to skip year one of the degree. I worked hard throughout my two years and now have a full BSc (Hons) degree in Leading on Customer Operations. I achieved a first class honours in my degree, something I would have never imagined was possible after dropping out of school a few years prior.

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

I think a starting place for me would have been to pay more attention in school and give my career choices and subjects more thought. I should have reached out to more people in school such as careers advisors and people outside of school to get an understanding of what possibilities there are out there.

I never took any of that seriously during school and it was only when I arrived at Danske Bank that I realised the opportunities that were in front of me to grasp with both hands.