Meet Issy! She recently wrapped up a 6-week internship with us at Income Solutions. We had the pleasure of sitting down with her to chat about her experience and insights gained during her time here…

Name: Isabelle Black

Course you are studying: Bachelor of Commerce Majoring in Financial Planning at Deakin University

Do you have any pets?
I have 3 dogs.
A Mini poodle x Italian greyhound named Nigel
A Havanese x Shitzu named Quigley
A Beagle named Copper

If you could star in any movie, which one would you pick?
I would star in the Taylor Swift Eras tour movie as one of the backup dancers!

What inspired you to undertake an internship in Financial Planning?
After spending 2 years studying at Deakin and one year focusing on my major in financial planning, I really wanted to gain some real-world experience in the field. Ultimately, my goal for the future is to become a financial advisor and gaining the practical experience helps me ensure I am better prepared to enter the industry. I was able to put the skills I have gained from my previous employment and my units at Deakin University into this internship, while also allowing my employers to see my capabilities and what skills I can offer their business.

What were the most valuable skills or knowledge you gained during your internship?
Some of the valuable skills I gained was being able to work in a productive team environment alongside other employees where I was able to ask questions and gain feedback on how I could improve file notes and other tasks I was completing.
I was able to use the ‘Planner’ board in office 365 to manage my tasks and create a tracker board for the team, which is now a useful platform I am currently using in my final year of studying.
I was able to gain insight into how a client meeting is conducted with 3 different financial advisors and how each had a different style of structuring these meetings tailored to the type of meeting and the client they were catching up with.

Can you share any specific projects or tasks that you found challenging or rewarding?

One of the tasks was implementing a Term deposit tracker for a 12-month period for Income Solutions clients. This was something new being brought in to simplify due dates for the supporting staff members of the Financial advisors. I received positive feedback from doing this in the Office 365 planner board and was glad to make a valuable impact for the team before finishing up my Internship.