From backpacker to
balance sheets.
My accountancy career did not really begin until my mid-twenties. Having studied ‘Culture and Communication’ at Lancaster University I spent the following few years working just to raise money for backpacking. Changing jobs every few months resulted in eclectic work experience ranging from warehouse and factory work to door-to-door sales. It was a fantastic few years but, arriving back in the UK, I decided that I needed to settle on a career.
It was a friend who persuaded me that accountancy would be a good path for me and so I wrote (yes, actual letters) to every accountancy practice within commuting distance. Many rejections and one interview soon showed me that I was too old to take this route and that I needed to find my way in industry, so I took an office junior role at an SME company specializing in asbestos audits. This was a great job for me because the finance department let me take on as much work and experience as I could handle. I was soon flying through my AAT exams, helping with the management accounts and found myself in charge of procurement and facility management.
My first role as a lead management accountant was with a chain of estate agents in an office that was purely Finance and IT. In addition to some fierce 5-a-side football matches between the two departments it was also a perfect place for me to learn from chartered accountants and hone my technical skills. I completed the majority of my CIMA studies during my time at this company – I had studied AAT in the classroom but decided that for CIMA I would buy the books and study at home and on the train. It was considered an eccentric approach by my colleagues but it worked for me, and passing the final exam was a proud moment. I would probably have stayed at the firm a lot longer, but they closed the office during the 2008 crash and I was made redundant a month before my wedding day.
I started my next role shortly after my honeymoon and, this time, I was the head of finance for a small firm in Barnsley that cultivated reed beds in Sudanese oil fields. I was even able to spend a week in Sudan watching this in action. The job taught me a lot about the operational side of accounts and I could not have stepped into my role at resource without the experience.
Resource hired me partly because my predecessor was retiring, but also because the company was growing and modernising. I felt at home in my new role almost straight away; I loved the company and its people and that feeling has only grown over the last 15 years.
Two of the four Directors that hired me, Gail and Asif, are now the owners of the business and so we have been through a lot of the company’s big moments together. Among the flagship moments that stand out are moving the entire company into our lovely premises in Leeds, acquiring Tebays Limited, and, just last year, the MBO. From a professional perspective these have all been challenging and rewarding in equal measure and I look back on them fondly. I am also looking forward to the next chapter because resource has a superb, unique commercial offering, a brilliant team that I have seen come together over the years and a great client base. I have also been here long enough that my department will soon need modernising again. Accountancy has led me into management, where there is always something new, and working in an SME allows me to get involved with many sides of the business. It is, if you will believe me, good fun!