There was a candidate I met who had something unusual on his CV…
It was right at the bottom. It simply read:
- Python (evening course)
I asked him about it and he told me…
“I was bored with doing the cash reconciliations, so I did some research and discovered you can do it through Python. We didn’t have the in-house IT guys, so I did an eight-week course with the exams…”
Then he created a cash flow forecasting and reconciliation module.
It worked, and it saved him a few hours.
But then someone else noticed, and they clearly liked what they saw. Soon after, it was being rolled out across their global treasury centres.
That saved each centre half a day a month, minimum.
Basically, two days a month across all the centres. Or 24 days a year.
So in effect, he’d saved the company his entire wages.
And I immediately told him to put that at the top of his resume.
He did. And three weeks later, he had a new role.
Now, I’m not sharing this to tell you to become a developer. It’s not about that.
But what I am suggesting is that you should be looking for tools (like AI, Python, or Excel automation) to remove grunt work and increase your impact per week.
And if you’re thinking, “Where do I even start?” Try this:
- Pick one painful process (recons, FX exposure rollups, bank fee analysis).
- Spend 30 minutes a day for 6–8 weeks learning the basics.
- Build a tiny pilot. Measure the hours saved.
- Put the outcome in your CV summary.
The market is rewarding treasurers who can translate problems into simple, scalable tools.
If you can do that, you’ll prove your worth to any employer.
Best regards,
Mike
