Employee Stories
Anne-Sophie Kelder
My career journey
How have you got to where you are now in your career? Tell us about your career journey so far?
At Standard Chartered, my journey has been like refining a delicate recipe — adding complexity over time, without ever losing sight of the essentials.
I joined in early 2019 as Business Office Manager and PA to the CEO. From this unique vantage point, I was exposed to the inner workings of the bank — strategy meetings, planning processes, and daily operations. My role was to keep everything running smoothly behind the scenes: coordinating teams, anticipating needs, and ensuring priorities were executed efficiently. It was a role that required agility, and a strong sense of structure.
In 2023, I stepped into the role of Business Planning Manager — a progression that allowed me to go deeper into performance tracking and planning cycles. I now focus on helping teams stay aligned with strategic objectives, bringing clarity and coherence to complex timelines and cross-functional initiatives.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever been given?
“It’s life.” I once heard these words not as resignation, but as quiet strength. They reminded me that nothing truly meaningful comes easy — you have to stay resilient, keep learning, and accept that uncertainty is part of the journey. Careers, like life, are rarely linear. What matters is how you adapt, how you grow, and how you keep showing up with curiosity and intent, even when the path is unclear.
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced when working?
Switching roles after becoming confident in one is always a challenge. You want to deliver the same level of quality and impact, but suddenly you find yourself in learning mode again — uncertain, slower, and sometimes frustrated. It can be unsettling to go from feeling fully in control to feeling like you’re starting over. But I’ve learnt that this discomfort is part of growth. It pushes you to reassess your habits, stay humble, and build new skills with intention.
If you didn’t do the job you do now, what would be your other career choice?
What matters most to me is growth — learning something new, stepping outside my comfort zone, and evolving along the way. “Never Settle” fits me quite well: I get restless when things stop moving.
At different times, I’ve considered all sorts of jobs — each reflecting a part of who I am:
- Hotel Manager (abroad) – for the structure, the cultural immersion, and the controlled chaos (preferably somewhere warm).
- Chef – for the intensity, creativity, and the thrill of perfection on a plate.
- Psychologist – out of sheer fascination for the complexity of human emotions, and the invisible mechanics behind people’s choices and reactions.
- Lawyer – for the intellectual challenge, the strategic thinking, and the satisfaction of building arguments to win.
- Helicopter Pilot – for the adrenaline, the sense of adventure, and the unique feeling of observing the world from above — calm, focused, and completely alone, just for a moment.
- Mountain Guide – to share the beauty of silence, effort, and nature with others, and remind people (myself included) that the most powerful views often come after the hardest climbs.
Clearly, I never lacked curiosity — just a bit of focus. Good or bad, I believe every experience teaches you something — or at the very least, makes a great story later. As long as I’m moving forward, I’m where I need to be.