FAI Named one of Baltimore's Best Places to work by Baltimore Magazine

Mary Thompson worked at the highest level of IT in the financial industry for many years, then put her career on hold when she had two children. When her youngest entered kindergarten, she faced what many women dread: reentering the workforce. She was hired at Financial Advantage to do client services, for which she was overqualified, but the company let her work the part-time schedule she wanted.

Before long, though, management at Financial Advantage saw potential in Thompson that she hadn’t even seen herself. “Once I started working here, the company spoke to me about whether I’d be interested in pursing a career as a financial planner and adviser,” she recalls. The company supported her through the Certified Financial Planner exam, which she passed in July, and honored her certification by making her a financial planning associate full time.

“Being able to reenter the workforce and have someone take you seriously and be willing to work with you and build your skill set is rare,” she says.

Training the right person for the right job—or creating a job when the right candidate comes along—is standard operating procedure, according to Lyn Dippel, vice president and senior adviser at Financial Advantage. In January 2010, she also became a principal in the firm. “We really try not to pigeonhole people,” she explains. “We try to create the job around the person’s interests and skill sets.”

Financial Advantage’s small size and commitment to grow quickly (yet sensibly) makes it perhaps more open to trying new things, like writing flexible-work job descriptions and finding unusual ways to divide responsibility. Thompson has seen that firsthand. “At a big company, you might get put on a path and it’s harder to jump out of it,” she states. “Here, if you’re interested in doing something, they’ll give you the opportunity and support you in pursuing that opportunity.”