Colonial First State

Overall I would’ve given it five stars but the micromanagement kind of brought it down as well as the rotating roster and not being able to kind of put a permanent I can’t work these hours. 

Overall it is a good experience to work here you get sufficient training. And an amazing environment. 

Everyone is super helpful except you kind of have a competitiveness because you’re in a different department than them however we are all friends. 

The interview process was slightly hard because we had to go through some questions that were extremely hard. However once being selected you then put into a training for about four weeks starting on the lower line which is called The bronze line. And as you progress further trying to go up to silver gold and platinum. This is an amazing pyramid because you only get to do what is comfortable and what you have been trained to do. 

My manager can micromanage a lot which can be a little bit concerning because if you do you have A lot of toilet breaks due to an illness you need to provide a note from the doctor explaining why you’re going to the toilet so many times. 

However it is a great environment and I would still love looking forward to working here

We pride ourselves on our values and accountability, at Colonial First State. I have people here, who I can now call life long friends and people that from a professional perspective, could confide in long after I leave CFS.

A typical day would be the case management of insurance queries from advisers and our Distribution teams via email and telephone. Calling on the relationships (Underwriting, Distribution and our Advisers) I have built over my time here, ultimately to get the best out come for the client.

I have learned that respect for your relationships is key and if you know your product well enough, you believe in yourself and your team, there are no obstacles.

CFS Management are Democratic, everybody's opinion matters and are always approachable. We are encouraged to develop and grow as employees and as people.

My team, is a key reason why I go to work every day. We are honest, support each other and not just in the workplace. We are seen by all (internal and external) as a great asset to the company who can be relied on.

The hardest part - not always being able to delivering a good outcome.

The most enjoyable part - the satisfaction of being able to see a strong contribution I've made to a successful project or case/process.

The role required extensive use of Microsoft Excel and VBA in performing daily asset and income reconciliations. Other duties include, placing fixed interest trades (negotiable certificates of deposits and term deposits) and managed funds trades, allocating income (coupons) and processing maturing investments. Conducting initial review and research of new investment requests from customers before submitting to the investment board committee for approval.

Enjoyed working with my colleagues and interacting with different departments and am very passionate about assisting customer’s with their enquires especially face to face. Learning new things every day and that makes you grow with knowledge and experience.

Start work at 6.30am and get all the 7.30am deadlines out of the way.  After 7.30am complete my days tasks until finish.  Finishing time can be from 3.00pm until 6.00pm.

Co-workers are pleasant to work with and we all pitch in to work together as a team.  The hardest part of my job is learning New Zealand tax rules.

Just working with a great bunch of people.

I have flexible hours at work, work part-time right now. There is a lot of learning opportunities, all you need is a desire. Management often do listen to what ordinary people are saying. Majority of people I work with are really great and friendly.

-Providing support to middle office teams
-Close interaction with other operational teams (e.g.corporate actions, trade processing)
-Providing accurate and timely data to stakeholders

The culture was based upon a CEO who had empathy with all employees and was highly visible to all staff. I learned the power of a powerful, accepted, integrated, collaborative and genuine "customer first brand" set of values

Have been taken over by another company that only cares about the bottom line. 
Some departments suffer from severe understaffing issues. KPIs are not customer-centric and staff certainly could be better looked after. 


CFS is a good place to learn how financial institutions run at the processing level.

You can achieve results by meeting KPI's, I also met some good workmates who were very helpfull.

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