Holly: Training to be an accountant is hard work and it’s not like you clock off at 5, and it’s all done for the day. But there are really good perks to being an accountant, working at Francis Clark means that you can try loads of different departments, working with different people, gaining loads of different experience.
Chloe: We get paid to work and learn at the same time; we can apply everything that we learn in our day to day. Working and training at the same time is really beneficial because it allows you to have access to a range of different people within the office, who have got the knowledge there to help you and support your through training.
Brandon: My team always pushed me forward as much as they can, praising me and reviewing my work making sure that, you know, I am doing the best that I can.
Holly: I’ve been able to work in audit, business services and landed estates. This means that I have been able to try loads of different types of work. With examinations, it’s also really guided me on the areas that I’ve excelled at and really enjoyed.
Chloe: I have regular meetings with my manager on top of our formal annual appraisals who just discuss, you know progress, day to day activities, things that I can learn on and things that I’ve done well.
Holly: The best way to think about ACA accountancy training is it’s a mix of examinations, professional development and ethics. Professional development is all the things you do at work, so training courses; we go and learn about our personalities, our traits, what works well for us in a working environment, and it also means that we get to meet lots of different people as well.
Brandon: The culture of Francis Clark is you know, one big family, everybody is just lovely and welcoming and it’s diverse as well, there’s so many different people. One thing that you don’t expect coming into an accountancy firm is that the people are fun, we have socials and staff parties and everybody’s just really good to get along with.
Holly: So, if you’re moving or joining the area, I did I didn’t live in Exeter before, there’s always loads of people to meet and get to know.
Chloe: The firm are really supportive and caring, provide a lot of health and wellbeing resources, webinars and things like that.
Brandon: I’ve got constant support from the managers, even the partners and obviously because I’m doing my AAT studies, my tutor anytime I need to pick up the phone to anyone their there.
Holly: Nothing is ever too much trouble and when it comes to training that is so important because when your brand new, straight out of university or straight out of school, you probably don’t know what you’re meant to be doing, and I certainly didn’t. I’d done a Politics and French degree and limited work in financial services, and there were so many different areas of business that I found interesting and what every business has is financial services. That means you can work with businesses that work in fashion, environment, economics, whatever it is that you’re interested in, they will have a financial services department, which means that wherever you start or wherever you choose to go with your ACA qualification, means that you can always work in an area of business that you enjoy.
Chloe: My ambitions would be to finish my ATT qualification and then looking forward consider my other options for further qualifications, as I know the firm will support me through that.
Brandon: I just want to go all the way that I can with it, you know be the best that I can be, earn as much money as I can and just be happy in a career that I am enjoying doing.
