Eleanor Banks, 71-75 Shelton Street, London (2026)

15/04/2026

"Busy isn't the same as productive."

07/04/2026

No replies. No interviews.

Just silence for 90 days.

If your CV isn’t getting responses, use these prompts 👇

Spot what’s wrong
“Act as a recruiter. Review my CV and tell me why it’s not getting interviews. Be brutally honest.”

Rewrite for impact
“Rewrite my CV to focus on achievements, measurable results, and business impact instead of responsibilities.”

Make it ATS-friendly
“Optimise my CV for Applicant Tracking Systems for [job title]. Include relevant keywords without keyword stuffing.”

Strengthen bullet points
“Turn these responsibilities into strong achievement-based bullet points with metrics where possible.”

Improve personal profile
“Write a compelling 4–5 line personal summary that positions me as a strong candidate for [target role].”

Tailor for a specific job
“Match my CV to this job description and highlight gaps or improvements needed to increase my chances.”

Make it sound senior / commercial
“Rewrite my CV to sound more senior, commercially aware, and results-driven.”

Truth:
Your experience isn’t usually the problem.
How it’s presented is.
Use these properly and your CV will feel completely different.

30/03/2026

7 years ago, I lost my dad.

He had an electrical engineering degree and a Master’s degree.

But what always stood out to me wasn’t just his knowledge —
it was what he did next.

At 50 years old, he went back to university to study for a maths degree.

Not because he needed to.

But to show me and my brothers one thing:

“If I can do it at 50, you can do it at your age.”

At the time… I didn’t appreciate it.

I fought it.
I was the creative one — surrounded by mathematicians and scientists — convinced I’d never need maths in my life.

He was also my GCSE and A-Level maths tutor…
which, as you can imagine, came with a few battles.

But he had a gift.

He took students predicted E grades…
and helped them achieve As.

And he took real pride in seeing them succeed.

In his final days, something happened that I’ll never forget.

The doctor who treated him…
was once his student.

Someone he had taught years before —
who came back, full circle, to care for him.

That’s when it really hit me…

the impact you have on people doesn’t end when you think it does.

Fast forward to today.

I’m now sitting at the table with my son, preparing him for his GCSE maths mocks.

And I hear myself saying the same things my dad used to say to me.

The same methods.
The same patience.
The same “this will matter later.”

My son said to me recently:
“I’ll just hire a tutor when I have kids.”

And in that moment, I smiled…

Because I realised —

I’m now sat in my dad’s seat.

And I can almost hear him laughing.

What’s even more ironic…

I built my career thinking I’d escaped maths completely.

Sales. People. Conversations.

Or so I thought.

Today, I specialise in finance recruitment.

And it made me realise something:

You don’t always choose your path. Sometimes it follows you.

The lessons you resist the most…
often become the ones that shape you.

My dad didn’t just teach me maths.

He taught me discipline.
Problem-solving.
And how to stick with something until it makes sense.

And that shows up every day —
in how I work, how I think, and how I help people move forward in their careers.

Legacy isn’t what you leave behind.

It’s what carries forward through others.

And it turns out…

I was listening more than I thought.

Even the illustration is hand drawn — because some things are worth doing yourself

24/03/2026

Why political and regulatory change is now a finance priority

Political decisions are no longer something businesses review once a year.

They’re shaping the day-to-day workload of finance teams.
From tax reform and reporting changes to sector-specific regulation,
finance functions are being asked to:

• Interpret new requirements quickly
• Assess commercial impact
• Advise leadership on risk and scenario planning
• Translate policy into operational decisions

That requires more than technical accounting.
The finance teams adding the most value right now are:

✔️ Agile in their planning
✔️ Commercial in their thinking
✔️ Confident influencing non-finance stakeholders
✔️ Equipped to model multiple scenarios

Supporting your finance function through regulatory change isn’t just about compliance.

It’s about protecting margin, managing risk and identifying opportunity early.
Businesses that treat finance as a strategic partner in this area
are making faster, better-informed decisions.

20/03/2026

What keeps you competitive in 2026?

Here’s what recruiters are actually looking for.

The shortlist conversation has changed.

It’s no longer just:

✔️ Qualified

✔️ Years of experience

✔️ Industry background

Strong candidates now show:

Commercial impact

Can you explain how your work improved margin, cash, cost or growth?

Systems exposure

ERP, Power BI, automation, data tools — even at user or project level.

Stakeholder influence

Examples of working with ops, sales, or senior leadership.

Change & transformation

Process improvements, system implementations, integrations, automation.

Storytelling with numbers

Turning analysis into recommendations.

Technical skills get you through the filter.

Evidence of business value gets you the interview.

If your CV is task-focused, you’re underselling yourself.

Shift it to:

➡️ outcomes

➡️ decisions supported

➡️ impact delivered

That’s what moves you from “available” to “in demand”.

What keeps you competitive in 2026?

Here’s what recruiters are actually looking for.

The shortlist conversation has changed.

It’s no longer just:

✔️ Qualified

✔️ Years of experience

✔️ Industry background

19/03/2026

The Finance Tools & Tech You Should Know in 2026

The market isn’t just asking for qualified accountants anymore.

It’s asking for finance professionals who understand systems, data and automation.

If you want to stay market-ready, these are the areas hiring managers are prioritising:

📊 Data & Visualisation
• Power BI
• Tableau
(Not just building dashboards — explaining the insight)

☁️ ERP Transformation
• SAP S/4HANA
• Oracle Cloud
• NetSuite

Experience with upgrades, migrations or testing is a major advantage.

⚙️ Automation
• Alteryx
• UiPath

Process improvement + workflow automation = high demand.

🤖 AI-Assisted Forecasting
Tools that enhance scenario planning and predictive modelling
→ especially in FP&A environments.

🗂️ Data Governance
Understanding data quality, controls and ownership
is becoming essential in regulated and scaling businesses.

You don’t need to master everything.
But you do need exposure + commercial application.

The strongest mid-senior candidates right now can show:
✔️ Systems experience
✔️ Process improvement
✔️ Insight delivery

That combination is what keeps you competitive in 2026.

10/03/2026

Your perfect finance candidate doesn’t exist.
But your competitor just hired a very good one.

The longer the brief stays open, the more the market moves.
What I’m seeing right now:

• Businesses holding out for 100% skill match
• Competitors hiring at 70–80% and developing
• Strong candidates choosing growth over perfection

The result?

The “perfect” candidate never appears.
The strong, high-potential one joins another business.

In this market, hiring for trajectory beats hiring for tick-box experience.
The question isn’t:

“Do they have everything?”

It’s:

“Can they deliver the outcomes we need in 6–12 months?”
That’s how the fastest-moving finance teams are building capability.

03/03/2026

Most finance professionals build reports.

Very few build narratives.

If you want to move into FP&A, commercial finance or business partnering, you need to practise explaining:

👉 What changed

👉 Why it changed

👉 What it means for the business

👉 What should happen next

That’s commercial storytelling.

You don’t need a new job to start developing it.

You can build this skill outside of work.

Try this:

• Take a set of public company results and write a 5-slide story

• Turn a dashboard into three business recommendations

• Explain a variance as if you’re talking to a non-finance director

• Record yourself presenting insights in under 2 minutes

Tools that help:

• Power BI → focus on the commentary, not just the visuals

• ChatGPT → practise turning numbers into executive summaries

• Annual reports → reverse engineer the narrative behind the KPIs

Do this consistently and you’ll build the one skill most CVs don’t show

but every hiring manager is looking for.

27/02/2026

Want to stand out in finance?

Learn commercial storytelling.

Most finance professionals can produce numbers.

Far fewer can explain what they mean.
That’s the gap hiring managers are looking for.
Commercial storytelling is the ability to:

• Translate data into business impact
• Explain why performance changed
• Link numbers to strategy and risk
• Influence decisions, not just report outcomes

This is what separates:

Good analysts → from → future Finance Business Partners
Report builders → from → decision influencers

In a Power BI and AI-driven world, dashboards are expected.

Insight is what gets you hired.

If you want to progress in FP&A, commercial finance or transformation roles, start practising how you present the story behind the numbers.

Because the people who can connect data to decisions are the ones moving fastest in this market.

hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag

24/02/2026

The Rise of the Prompt-Fluent Graduate

IBM has said it’s increasing graduate hiring because AI alone can’t meet business demand.

That’s the shift.

AI can analyse data at speed.

But it can’t interpret a messy finance process, challenge stakeholder assumptions, or understand commercial risk.

It needs people who can direct it.

The most valuable junior hires now aren’t just technically capable — they’re prompt-fluent:

▪ Turning business problems into structured AI prompts

▪ Refining and challenging outputs

▪ Understanding context, controls, and data ethics

▪ Combining human judgement with machine speed

In finance teams, these graduates don’t replace experience.

They amplify productivity and accelerate insight.

The organisations hiring for this capability now will outperform those still recruiting for yesterday’s skill sets.

AI isn’t reducing headcount value.

It’s increasing the value of the right people.

Eleanor Banks

15/04/2026

07/04/2026

30/03/2026

24/03/2026

20/03/2026

19/03/2026

10/03/2026

03/03/2026

27/02/2026

24/02/2026

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