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I have been working at Gascoynes since September 2018 and have really enjoyed the last 2 years learning and building a career with them.

After finishing my A levels in summer of 2018, I didn’t really have a clue what I wanted to do. Most of my friends were going off to university but I knew this was not the path for me. After speaking to my parents who recommended I look for a job that would enable me to have a career, and my grandad who was an accountant for the entirety of his working life, I decided to search for apprenticeships in the financial sector. I wanted to do something that would challenge me every day and allowed me to train whilst working full time. I found Gascoynes’ advert online and after looking on their website and reading the job description, I applied right away, and the rest is history!

On a day-to-day basis, my role is mostly preparing full accounts for client managers to then review and send onto our clients. But that is not all my job entails. I also help with tax returns, admin roles and other smaller jobs not associated with accountancy. I also get to run the website and all our social media with a small team. For me, this is great as not only do I get a break from working with numbers, but I get to put ideas forward and get a bit more creative when posting on Facebook and Instagram, writing articles for our website, and sending emails to our clients to keep them informed.

I wouldn’t say Gascoynes is what you would call a typical accountancy firm. I am working in an environment surrounded by colleagues at all different levels, including many other colleagues who are also training, who are only a year or two ahead of me working towards the same qualifications, AAT or ACCA. This has really helped me with not only getting advice about work aspects but also fitting into Gascoynes much more easily as I get to work with people closer to my age as well. As well as this, the client managers also make time to help with any queries you throw their way.

Working full time and working towards ACCA qualification may sound like a total overload, but I find it has been so useful to be able to apply what I learn at work to my college studies and what I learn on my courses to my work. It means I am basically being paid to become qualified which to me is a no brainer! Whilst it’s not the most exciting thing when an exam comes around every 3 months, I think it’s very rewarding to work towards this qualification, as well as improving my knowledge which is ultimately helping me to progress my career.

Soon there will be a new junior starting at Gascoynes and it will be partly my responsibility to train him. It’s crazy to think that he will be in the same position that I was in 2 years ago, and in these two years I have built up the knowledge to be able to train someone else. I think it definitely reflects how fast you can pick things up when you are learning on the job. Don’t get me wrong, I still have a lot to learn myself but it’s great to see how far I’ve already come. I was also trained by someone who had been at Gascoynes for 2 years before I joined and I think it really helped me as they have been in my shoes, they know what it’s like to be the newbie.

I am looking forward to what the next few months ahead will bring. Working towards becoming ACCA qualified, progressing in my role, and potentially starting my journey on getting clients of my own will all bring exciting new challenges but from starting my career clueless to where I am now, I think its safe to say I’ve made a good start!