What career advice would you give to someone who is just about to qualify?
I was always told that the most important move of your career is the first one post qualification. With that in mind, and although it sounds clichéd and obvious, I would always advise putting considered thought behind where you see yourself career wise 5 or 10 years down the line. Once you have a career goal in mind, you can begin to think about what experience you should be looking to gain in the intervening period and which role/ industry will help you do this. This will help shape a core portfolio of experience that will benefit you most professionally in your career. In other words, think long term rather than just role to role.
Why did you choose your career path- the role and the industry?
Although I undertook a graduate traineeship within the Further Education sector, and have now taken up a position with a privately run charity in the National Trust for Scotland, the fact that they are ‘public sector’ organisations was not forefront in my decision. I was and still am most concerned with what the organisation can offer me in terms of experience, and whether I feel I can contribute positively to a role.
The former role was within a medium sized organisation and allowed me to gain technical experience in many different areas of Finance. Following this, I was keen to gain experience in a larger, multi-faceted, multi-site organisation, which my current role within the National Trust for Scotland offers me. From a personal perspective, I am always keen to focus on what experience I can gain within a certain role, including how it fits in with my long term career goals, and hold less of a preoccupation with the industry to which it is attached.
What skills or attributes do you think someone needs to be successful in your new role?
There are a number of attributes that are key to the success of this role. The first is a core technical knowledge of a wide range of accounting techniques and principles. My role relies on an understanding of how each sub-section within a Finance department contributes to the overall finance process. My role interacts heavily with a variety of other finance professionals, including Management Accountants, Financial Accountants, Projects Accountants, Payroll and Ledgers teams. In order to maximise my contribution to the organisation, an understanding of how each of these roles operates is vital.
In addition, other key attributes include the ability to manage my workload as well as oversee that of my direct line reports, being able to communicate complex financial information to a variety of people (financial and non-financial) across the organisation, and to be able to produce accurate and concise financial reports for review by Senior Management and Directorate.
What does your role involve?
My role is primarily one of financial control and support. I look after a portfolio of properties across the Edinburgh & East and Glasgow & West regions, supporting all aspects of month end reporting, budgeting, forecasting, as well as direction and guidance on a variety of financial and non-financial matters relating to the Trust. Key to fulfilling the aforementioned duties is getting out and about to the properties to gain an understanding of the bespoke nature of how each is run.
I also line manager a small team who support both myself and the Property Managers in ensuring effective financial management and control of Trust resources.
What do you enjoy most about your role? The industry?
The variety of work offered within the National Trust for Scotland, due in most part to the diversity of its business, is what attracted me to the role the most. Additionally, whilst it might not be high priority to a lot of accountants, what the numbers represent is important to me. If I have an interest in the core purpose of the organisation/ industry, I find my output and motivation at all levels of work is much greater.
From a personal perspective, the role allows me to travel across Scotland, seeing and experiencing areas and landmarks of great historical and national significance.
Anything else you think might be useful career advice to a qualifying accountant?
The best bit of advice I could give any accountant in the midst of qualifying would be to embrace and look for as much responsibility and variety of experience as possible. Employers looking to recruit newly qualified accountants will seldom be looking for a candidate to possess only one or two areas of experience. The more diverse a portfolio you can put forward the better chance you will stand against other candidates.
From personal experience, possessing line management responsibility within a finance team will always stand you in good stead. Even if you feel it is not a pre-requisite for a job you are thinking of applying for now, it could be important in the future. Senior positions in any organisation will seldom come without management responsibility; therefore the sooner in your career you can add this to your CV the better.
Additionally, experience of reporting to and conversing with senior management across the organisation will show a prospective employer that although you might be highly competent operationally, you are also able to operate at a more senior level. This can be anything from producing reports for high level review to representing finance at Senior Management Team and/ or Directorate meetings.