She overcame her greatest career challenge by restructuring her work day
Like many brokers, Angeline He has experienced a challenging year – but not because of the pandemic. MPA spoke with the Xin Mortgage broker about how she got started in the industry and why 2020 marked a new chapter in her life.
Finding the best solutions
He launched her career as a broker in 2016 after working as a bank relationship manager. At the time, lending was getting tighter, and she found herself saying ‘no’ to many of her regular clients because their circumstances no longer fit in with the policies of the bank.
She knew other lenders could offer solutions for these clients and felt conflicted by not being able to assist them further within her role.
“I wanted to be a broker because then I would have access to all the panel lenders,” she said. “That way I could maintain my relationships with all my customers while finding the best solutions for them.”
She joined the team at Xin Mortgage, not really knowing what the future held. But, after writing more than $20 million in her first year and making MPA’s Young Gun list in 2018, He felt confident in her ability to excel as a self-employed broker.
These accomplishments have remained highlights for the Sydney broker, as has the positive feedback from her many happy clients over the past four years.
“It’s really rewarding,” she said. “I really feel like this job truly helps people.”
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A new arrival
While 2020 proved a challenging year for He, it wasn’t because of the pandemic and the global recession.
She gave birth to her first child five months ago and has since learned a whole new way to structure her working day.
“Ever since my daughter was born, I’ve found it really hard to juggle between family life and work,” she said.
This is because some weeks can be full of unexpected circumstances that require a broker’s attention, such as delays in settlement or in the application process. There are also important deadlines to consider, which means He could not keep customers waiting even though she had a newborn baby to look after.
“Even when I was in hospital after giving birth, I was still calling the banks,” she said.
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While the balancing act remains something of a struggle for He, she has learnt to structure her day around the needs of her baby as much as possible, working from 8pm to midnight while her daughter sleeps.
She also outsources data entry in order to focus on finding the best solution for clients, and makes sure the quality of her submissions are as seamless as possible in order to avoid having to go back and tidy things up.
