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Group accountant: Tom

This Case Study belongs to Chartered public finance accountant.

Tom studied engineering at Surrey University, but realised for the sake of mankind, he shouldn’t ever build or design anything for use by humans. As a result, he sought a different career. He applied for a number of roles including one for the Tube as a safety officer and even one as a car salesman. At the time, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and a number of councils in London were running the Society of London Treasurers recruitment drive under the guise of ‘Finance the Future’. These opportunities included a job with a local authority with fully-funded professional accountancy training. Tom luckily got a place and has worked at the London Borough of Havering since 2004 and completed his studies in July 2007.

As it was a central scheme, there was a fairly rigorous assessment process. Tom had to fill in a comprehensive application form from which candidates were long-listed for a telephone interview. After this, they were short-listed and asked to attend an assessment day in London’s City Hall with a number of group exercises and individual tests including a presentation. After this selection round, they were invited for interviews in up to two London boroughs. Tom was successful with Havering and was duly employed.

Tom’s particular scheme was dependent on obtaining the CIPFA qualification. If he hadn’t been prepared to undertake that (or an equivalent accounting body’s qualification), then his options in public finance would have been more limited. Obtaining the accountancy qualification wasn’t the stroll in the park Tom thought it would be. He found it comparable to a full degree. He had to work while studying, and as the pass mark was 50%, he needed to be motivated to get through it. He feels that the job itself, however, suits a wide range of individuals. Depending on the role, a good eye for detail or the wider picture is required. Sometimes it is necessary to be inward looking and other times outward looking. It may be necessary to be forward thinking as well as able to follow established procedures. It's important to be good with people and also able to work on your own. It's often necessary to be all of the above. Tom says you don’t need to be good at mathematics; a logical mind and being organised counts for far more. He also thinks if you’ve got a bit of gumption, are able to speak well in front of people and establish relationships quickly, you’ll go far.

Tom is able to use the skills and experience he gained during his degree. Engineering is all about problem-solving and finding ways of achieving something with the available resources. Finance is much the same really as he’s trying to maximize the money he manages. Even as he's administering the work, Tom is always trying to come up with a new way of doing things that saves time and makes things easier to manage. He feels his degree subject was not particularly relevant in securing his position, but as a well-respected degree subject that is renowned for being one of the harder technical subjects, it may have put him ahead of someone with a different, unrelated background. That said, his scheme required a 2:2 minimum in any subject, so that didn’t limit him.

Tom’s role has developed fairly dramatically. He started out processing payments, reconciling the money received from car park machines and moving money around to different budgets. Now, only four years later, he is managing a team of four staff, advising on a budget of over £27 million and liaising with senior managers within the authority. His advancement has been a direct benefit of his time working in different placements and getting a wider understanding of the council as a whole. Additionally, Tom attends budget monitoring meetings with staff, manages and leads his team, attends various meetings to discuss all manner of financial issues, sets the budgets for the coming year, closes down the accounts in his area, and gives presentations.

Tom enjoys his job and the work within his particular service area (Children’s Social Services). He says his colleagues are great as well. Through his work, Tom has realised that the money they have is not limitless, and that any spending they do undertake has a very real consequence at the end of it. However, Tom also states that the work can become very pressurised at times, and the workload can go through the roof, which is very challenging. Overall, Tom likes the finance profession and his time in local government has been incredibly rewarding.

In the future, Tom would like to see a bit more of the other sectors that are open to him within the public arena, such as roles within the NHS, government agencies, and charities. He thinks his next move will be to one of those areas where he hopes to consolidate his learning before returning to local government later in his career. At that time, he hopes to be able to assume an executive position and set about driving real change. Most people tell him he should take his time in doing this, but he’s not one who likes to hang around.

Tom doesn't think anyone is born a natural accountant, and he says it's not the most inspiring job one could possibly ever undertake. He says that a set of figures is a set of figures whichever way you look at it. There is a degree of repetition in what he does, and while the pressure can be fun, sometimes it can be too much. That said, he says there is always something to do within accountancy. It’s a massively respected, portable profession, and if you take the maxim that one works to live not lives to work, the rewards allow for a very well-balanced life.

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