In the technology ecosystem, we spend a great deal of time talking about attracting talent. Far less attention is given to what happens after someone joins a company: whether they are given room to learn, supported as their ambitions evolve and considered for opportunities beyond the role in which they started.

For Women’s Month, Innovation City is spotlighting the career of Phumza Mabokela, whose journey at member company Vault22 demonstrates what long-term employee development can look like in practice.

Phumza joined what was then 22seven in 2011. Fifteen years later, after working across operations, office support and customer service, completing a qualification in financial planning and growing alongside the business itself, she has moved into a new role in Business Development.

Her story is not one of overnight success or a perfectly mapped career. It is about the value of building experience over time, investing in your own development and working within a company willing to recognise the potential of someone already inside the organisation.

Learning Through Customers

In 2017, Phumza moved into Customer Support, where she would spend more than nine years helping people navigate budgeting, financial questions and the everyday challenges they encountered while managing their money.

The experience gave her far more than customer service expertise. It offered a direct view into the financial realities faced by South Africans and taught her that financial services are ultimately about people.

“Behind every query is someone trying to make a decision, solve a problem, understand their finances or plan for what comes next,” she says.

Over time, Phumza developed an extensive practical knowledge of budgeting and personal finance. Just as importantly, she learnt how to listen carefully, identify what someone genuinely needed and communicate financial information in a way that was clear and useful.

As her career developed, the business evolved alongside her. The company she had joined as 22seven became Vault22, expanding its focus from a consumer financial management app into a financial wellness platform helping employers support the financial health of their people.

Choosing to Invest in Herself

After years of learning through experience, Phumza decided to deepen her formal understanding of financial planning. In 2024, she completed a Higher Certificate in Financial Planning, covering areas including budgeting, investments, risk management and retirement planning.

Returning to her studies was a deliberate investment in her future. It allowed her to connect the knowledge she had accumulated through thousands of customer interactions with a broader understanding of the financial services industry.

“Experience teaches you a great deal, but there is also value in making the decision to develop yourself deliberately and prepare for opportunities that may not yet have arrived,” she says.

It is a lesson that speaks particularly clearly during Women’s Month. Career progression does not always happen through a single dramatic leap. More often, it is built gradually through experience, curiosity and the willingness to keep learning before the next opportunity is visible.

A New Chapter at Vault22

That opportunity recently arrived when Phumza was appointed to a Business Development role at Vault22.

Although the position places her in a new environment, she does not see it as leaving her previous experience behind. Instead, she is bringing everything she has learnt with her.

Her years in Customer Support taught her how to ask the right questions, understand people’s needs, solve problems and communicate with clarity. Her experience in personal finance gave her a strong customer perspective, while her financial planning qualification added deeper industry knowledge.

She can now apply that combination in conversations with prospective clients and business partners, identifying their needs and demonstrating how Vault22’s financial wellness solutions could support their organisations and employees.

Phumza’s progression also reflects the role employers can play in developing talent from within. Vault22 has supported her as she moved between different areas of the organisation, built her qualifications and prepared for a commercially focused role. Her story is a reminder that investing in employees is not simply a retention strategy. It allows businesses to benefit from people who possess years of institutional knowledge, understand their customers and are ready to contribute in new ways.

Building On What Came Before

Looking back, Phumza’s career has included temporary positions, operational roles, almost a decade in Customer Support, further study and now a move into Business Development. Not all of it could have been planned when she first joined the company in 2011.

What has remained constant is her willingness to learn and to build on every experience.

“The skills you develop in one part of your career don’t disappear when you move into another,” she says. “They become part of what you bring to the next opportunity.”

As she begins this chapter, Phumza hopes to combine her customer experience, personal finance knowledge and financial planning qualification to bring both a customer-focused and commercially minded perspective to her work. In time, she hopes to progress into more senior opportunities across business development, partnerships or financial services.

Her message to other women, particularly those near the beginning of their careers, is simple:

“Growth doesn’t always happen all at once, and your career doesn’t have to follow a perfectly straight path. Keep learning. Keep building on the experience you already have. Invest in yourself, even when you don’t yet know exactly where that investment will lead. Sometimes the experience you’re gaining today is preparing you for the opportunity of tomorrow.”