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• Senior accountant: David

Senior accountant: David

This Case Study belongs to Chartered public finance accountant.

David wanted a job that would allow him to apply analytical and problem-solving skills in a purposeful way. Accountancy offered him a wide range of career options, as the training provided him with a broad range of financial and management skills that can be applied in any business environment. The public sector particularly appealed to him because of the complex and diverse nature of the sector.

He started working for Wolverhampton City Council as a trainee accountant. Public sector jobs are generally advertised in a variety of places, including professional journals, sector-specific publications, and on employer websites. David’s post was advertised in a local newspaper. The application process was in three stages: first a written application, then numeracy and reasoning tests, followed by an interview. Training took three years, and once he was qualified he was promoted to a full accountant role with responsibility for the finances of a department of the council. Though some people work in accountancy roles without a formal accountancy qualification, David thinks it is a major advantage to have one. He advises that the best way to do this is to start out in a trainee role, where your employer will usually pay your course fees, and allow you to attend college during work time. Getting qualified is hard work, but David says it pays off in the end. He says flexibility is a valuable asset, so it is useful to try and seek experience in a range of specialisms.

David’s mathematics degree helped him to develop the numeric and analytical skills required in his job. Studying for his accountancy qualification was hard work and required considerable time and self-discipline, and the process of studying for a degree was excellent preparation for this. He says you don’t have to have a degree in a mathematical subject to be an accountant, just sound numerical skills.

Since starting his job, his range of duties and responsibilities has constantly increased, so there have always been new challenges and new things to get involved in. Technology and changes in management thinking has meant that David’s role is moving away from the traditional view of someone who just does the numbers to being a facilitator and adviser for the business. David’s core duties are preparing budgets and monitoring expenditure and income against them, preparing financial statements for publication, and providing advice to managers on anything that has financial implications. He also has to manage a team, which means devising work plans, supervising and reviewing the work of others as well as supporting team members.

From a technical point of view, his work is varied and challenging, but it’s not all about the numbers. David also has to deal with a wide range of people from across the council and beyond with differing levels of knowledge and expectations, so it’s an opportunity to develop and apply interpersonal skills too. The public sector as a whole is constantly evolving to meet the changing needs of society, so there’s always something new happening. Ultimately, David has the satisfaction of knowing that his job contributes to benefiting people across the whole community. The job is demanding, and sometimes balancing the many requirements placed on him can be difficult.

David hopes to progress to a senior management post in local government finance. At the end of his career, he wants to be able to say that he made a significant and positive contribution to both the public sector and the accountancy profession in general.

Case Study sourced by Tina Lannin of AGCAS, 25 September 2008.