I spent ten years working at IBM, received a brass carriage clock for my commitment, and then left.  I remember thinking that I should have been thrilled about the clock, but had to choose between doing another ten years for the next clock or moving on.  As nice as the clock was, it was not a difficult decision.  While I was doing well there, I wasn't compelled to stay given the worsening state of the company, and the new opportunities afforded me outside IBM.

I was 31 when I joined the bank knowing absolutely nothing about markets.  That meant joining with the usual intake of graduates who were much younger than I was.  To make matters worse I joined at the end of December, after much of the training for graduates was already complete. The first educational course I attended was an advanced derivatives, or rather algebra, seminar in Tokyo.  I had to make a presentation on something I knew almost nothing about.  It was understandably quite a stressful time.

My children think I've got the best job in the world.  They come to the trading floor every Christmas.  Last year they came in on the train, which they loved.  They ate normally disallowed sweet cereals in the canteen.  They came to the 18th floor to enjoy the stunning city views, saw a wine auction on the trading floor, watched television and played computer games at our work stations.

With five children, my time is largely taken up being with my family.  I also like to ski, sail and spend time working on our house near the sea in Chichester.

One day I will be a teacher.  I used to teach sailing and might do that again.  My mum, dad and sister are all teachers so I think there is an element of inevitability that I'll become a teacher as well.  I love seeing the dawn of understanding as I know what that feels like to me.  It's a great moment when the penny drops. I play the piano, badly, but when I play a tune right it makes me smile and feel good.

Money buys you choice.  Things like retiring early, a house on the sea, nice holidays and private education are hard to come by without money.  Whatever your level, people are relatively well-paid in investment banking.  I would defy anyone to work in investment banking and do well if they did not enjoy the job though.

Trading and managing risk is a massively multi-faceted daily challenge.  That challenge is exciting as there is always something that will affect the positions we hold meaning we will make or lose money.  You don't really know what is going to confront you from one day to the next.

Being such a big firm, we tend to be too committee-centric.  The obvious danger of such a large firm is asking the opinion of ten people rather than just trusting one person.  That level of bureaucracy can mean things can take too long to happen.  That theme of size can be detrimental to communications as well.  Our CEO can have the best message in the world, but needs to reach the most junior member of staff with the same level of energy and in a timely manner, which is inevitably a challenge in such a huge firm.

Graduates should not dismiss a career in trading without considering it carefully.  We have fantastic people from all walks of life from lawyers to historians to zoologists.  I find it frustrating that people predefine what's right for them without giving trading a chance.  It's perfectly natural for graduates to have plenty of questions, but it's fine to not have those answers just yet.  We don't expect people to have all the answers, but just to be honest so that we can work with them to decide what role would suit them best.