This is another in a series of stories about recent college graduates and their first jobs in the financial advisory profession.
Ten years ago, Blake Pokley and his family were hit hard by the Great Recession. His father lost his job working as a salesman for an automotive supplier, and his family had to file for bankruptcy. More than anything else, that experience taught him the importance of a financial education.
"I've always been interested in doing what is most efficient with my money," said Mr. Pokley, who graduated with a finance degree from Oakland University in Michigan. "I don't want to mishandle it. I want to do the right thing."
Mr. Pokley is already a month into his job as a support adviser at LJPR Financial Advisors in Troy, Mich., where he had interned earlier. The 22-year-old Clarkston native is the first college graduate the firm has hired for an advisory position in more than 10 years.
"It's rare for us to hire a college graduate," said Bill Wednieski, controller at LJPR.
(More: For recent Temple grad, career as a financial adviser is a dream job)
Mr. Pokley was hired at LJPR after having already passed the Series 65 and certified financial planner exams, and he is already halfway toward satisfying the experience requirement to practice with a CFP designation. He has 3,100 hours left out of 6,000, which means he will likely qualify next year.
"Being so young, I felt it necessary to get credentials to reinforce my credibility," Mr. Pokley said.
Mr. Pokley went to Oakland University on a full academic scholarship. After his freshman year, he spent his summer interning at Merrill Lynch, where he researched economic indicators. However, he doesn't believe he was as productive as he could have been with his time there, and he wasn't asked to return.
(More: Advisers use tax planning as a hook to find more clients)
"The duties I had weren't super time consuming, so I had a lot of time where I could do pretty much whatever I wanted to. And instead of figuring out what I could have been doing, I just looked at the Wall Street Journal and stuff to kill time," said Mr. Pokley.
After Merrill Lynch, he started an internship at LJPR the summer after his sophomore year and started pursuing a career in financial advising in earnest. At LJPR, Mr. Pokley learned that there is more to financial planning than investments, and he especially admired the literature on financial literacy put out by the firm.
"The longer I live, the more I realize how little teaching there is in financial topics," Mr. Pokley said.
(More: Tax law: How to get the pass-through deduction by reducing taxable income)
As a support adviser, Mr. Pokley helps with tax planning and estate planning. He hopes to end up with a solid book of business himself one day and has already taken on two clients.
"Everything I've been given, I've tried to take really good care of," said Mr. Pokley.
