T+O+M BLOG

FOTOM Jadie Petch talks to Keith Ryan about her career path after starting out in audit. 

'I would be willing to give her a shot once she's had experience at the company or in a similar role'. These were the words spoken by the FP&A Manager of an ASX 200 company when a qualified CA, working as an Assistant Manager in KPMG Audit, applied for a Finance Analyst position in their team.

So, how do you get a role in industry after qualifying as a Chartered Accountant if your experience is limited to audit? If most managers in industry value experience over potential, then unless there is excessive demand, or you are fortunate enough to get that ‘lucky break’, there is always going to be someone who has prior experience, putting you at a disadvantage.

Even if you are offered a job in industry, how do you know that it is the right role? You may know that audit isn’t your desired career path forever. But what is?

Being an auditor no doubt teaches us an invaluable skillset - one that can be adapted and applied successfully across many roles. In audit, we are exposed to high volumes of people across multiple clients and industries giving auditors a wealth of knowledge and usually excellent communication, collaboration, and critical thinking skills. Despite this, how do you get to where you want to be when 1) you likely haven’t figured this out yet and 2) you don’t have the required expertise?

My first experience interviewing for a role in industry was very different from that described above. It was for a pharmaceutical company that needed a finance professional to assume a broader role covering FP&A, Management Accounting and Financial Accounting. I spoke to a recruiter who explained the position was a short-term contract and encouraged me to take the role until I found something longer-term. I loved this role! I loved it so much that I ended up extending my contract there – twice!

Having come from the “Big Four” to a company with an annual turnover of c.$50m and a finance function of around 15 employees, the Financial Controller valued my opinion and trusted me to work independently. When I arrived, there were a lot of fixes required as the company had undergone a technical outage. More importantly for me, there was so much I could learn from working at this company. The size of the team meant I got to know everyone on a personal level and understand exactly how their roles sat within the finance function. Understanding processes from the other end, working daily within finance systems, performing reconciliations, creating budgets and forecasts, running a P&L, and providing analysis were all things I had never done before and was now doing daily.

The sense of community and my understanding of the business model made me question what I wanted from an organisation. We often have an ideal perception, but it is experiences that help refine our ideology.

For me the more contract roles I explored the closer I was to refining what I wanted long term. 

Figuring out your career path is extremely personal – what is right for me may not be for someone else. I thought I would find success in working for a large worldwide company - and so I did that. I contracted for a large tech company and found it wasn’t the right fit for me. Being part of a big organisation, things were less intimate than in previous roles I had worked in, and I personally felt I added less value. The hours were more demanding, and I was not learning as quickly as I did when part of a small integral team. The company I worked for was ironically consumed with ‘technical debt’. The advancement of their technology and ever evolving products which made the company so exciting were not replicated in their back-end systems which could not keep up. This meant that an increasing number of finance staff were required to manually calculate and report the company’s results. In my first two roles outside of audit I was surprised to find that the role I thought I would get most out of was not the one I did.

After that I tried to answer the question ‘where do I want to be?’ My approach was if it sounds interesting, if there is a new avenue to explore or something new to learn from the experience, then do it! You get a gut feeling when going through the interview process and we should listen to this whilst asking ourselves relevant questions. Are the people I am going to be working with inspiring? Are they selling this role and their organisation?  Do they seem happy? Am I excited?

I turned down two great positions because I didn’t think the culture matched what I was looking for. I turned down the chance to return to my pharmaceutical company (referenced in part 1) because whilst I loved it, the speed at which I was learning and the value I was able to add was diminishing. There are so many things to consider such as the size of a company, culture, role specifics, the industry you are working in and who you are working with.

It took four contract roles to find Domain (the organisation I currently work for and love) through T+O+M Executive Recruitment (the best recruitment firm I have partnered with). You talk to so many people in finance who don’t like their job but are sticking it out because they think it looks bad to leave or because they are lost as where to go next, and there are many instances where individuals even return to professional services.

This is why in my opinion contracting is the solution to figure out what drives you and how you can land a role you love. 

After a career in audit there are hundreds of routes we can take to ensure a successful career in finance. The following are reasons why contracting is, in my view, a perfect solution to figure out what drives you and how you can land a role you love.  

O P P O R T U N I T Y

The entry level requirements aren’t as high when it comes to contract roles. Often a contract role exists because there is an urgency to fill a position. It may be because someone has gone on parental leave, someone has suddenly left the organisation, the function is expanding, there are changes in the organisational structure of a company and they need extra resources to establish this, there is specific project work, or often something has gone wrong. This sense of urgency usually means several things:

1. The organisation cannot be as particular- they need to focus on what you can bring to the table (that invaluable auditor skill set) as opposed any knowledge gaps (those things can be taught!)
2. The interview process is usually simplified - perhaps one interview instead of two and case studies/examination style questions are more likely to be dismissed
3. The candidates you are up against are significantly fewer – contract roles often move very quickly. For example, a company may have someone leaving in a month’s time so need to do a handover in two weeks - this already eliminates a significant percentage of the workforce who are tied in with longer notice periods

An organisation is likely to give someone more of a chance when the role is temporary as they are not committing long term – so take advantage of this! Speaking from experience all you need is your foot in that door and the opportunity to prove yourself and who knows, maybe that dream permanent opportunity will soon arise.

S E C U R I T Y

I strongly believe that the lack of security linked to contract roles is a misconception. Yes, you may not be secure in a single role, but you can take security from the fact that there are a multitude of opportunities out there waiting for you when a current contract comes to an end. Companies are constantly changing and when we apply change, we expose ourselves to risk. There is a risk that something will go wrong and therefore more resources are needed, or that we don’t have enough/the right resources to implement a change and therefore contracts arise.

Taking COVID-19 as an example, many companies implemented a hiring freeze. However, things still need to get done and in finance there are immovable demands. During COVID-19 there was an increase in the number of contracts compared to full time positions because they represented both greater flexibility and a more cost-effective solution. Things such as parental leave cover don’t go away during a pandemic and the COVID-19 baby boom resulted in more parental leave contracts than before. In this instance can we argue that a contract position offers more security than a permanent position?

L E A R N I N G  &  D E V E L O P M E N T

Anyone coming from the Big 4 (or likely any audit firm) will be able to relate to the statement ‘you learn more in three months at year end than you do during the remainder of the year.’ It is certainly true that under these periods of intense pressure, we are forced to step outside of our comfort zone to successfully deliver. I started my audit career at 18 years old and was part of KPMG’s School Leaver Programme. This consisted of five years working in audit at the end of which you got both your CA and a degree in accounting. If we break those five years down, you get 60 months, 18 of which I spent at university and six of which I spent at ICAS studying for my CA. There are then 36 months remaining which is the same number of months a graduate would work over a three-year scheme. So why was it that those with a School Leaver background tended to accelerate into management positions faster than audit graduates who qualified in the same year? Simple – because they had worked five busy seasons versus three.

The same can be acknowledged when it comes to contract roles. Often a position is created because we are going through a period of change, when something has gone wrong, or an element of urgency exists. In these situations, we are required to get up to speed with things very quickly and you will find yourself asking lots of questions and challenging things to help build the required understanding. Contractors can experience a breadth of different roles which means that when (or if) you do opt for a permanent job, you take with you invaluable insights (what to do and what not to do) into how other teams operate - positioning you to make better business decisions.

C O M P E N S A T I O N

An undeniable benefit of contracting is more desirable pay. Given the role is not permanent, there is a lack of perceived security and fewer employee entitlements contractors are generally paid a premium and often an hourly rate. So, you either end up working overtime which is not uncommon within finance (and taking home a nice big cheque) or you will be working 9-5 - so what is there to complain about?

F L E X I B I L I T Y

One of the most important benefits of contracting for me has always been flexibility. Having started my professional career at a relatively young age there was still so much I wanted to do and achieve outside of the workplace. In 2016 I relocated from London to Sydney and in one pivotal moment realised that I didn’t want to be sat on level 39 of an office block staring at one of the most beautiful landscapes I’d ever seen when I could be out there enjoying what Sydney, Australia and beyond has to offer. Since that day I have spent 4 months travelling Asia, 2 months working my way down Australia’s East Coast and back up through the West Coast, a month island hopping in Greece and a month travelling through the USA. I was also able to travel home for the birth of both my nieces and walk down the aisle with both my sister and several of my best friends because I negotiated the timing of my contracts to allow for that flexibility.

When interviewing for any contract role I was always honest about my intentions, and I think the employer always respects this. Given that you are ‘filling a gap’ the employer’s attitude is often different toward you than a permanent employee. I generally always felt appreciated when contracting and, in most instances, people are extremely thankful because you are providing support during a period of uncertainty and consequently willing to be more flexible.

O F F I C E   P O L I T I C S  (O R   L A C K  T H E R E O F)

Ask any professional and they will agree office politics are an element of work we wish we could all avoid. Working as a contractor you are not exposed to this. Your role exists within a controlled remit and people are generally very grateful for the additional support you are providing temporarily and therefore reluctant to expose you to political decisions.

C L O S I N G   R E M A R K S

My key takeaway would be to trust the process. I am not sure why there are not more people taking up contracting as the next step after their career in audit. Sometimes people are reluctant to embrace change. Maybe people aren’t educated enough on the concept of contracting. Perhaps it’s the lack of perceived security? Or the fact there is a negative stigma associated with ‘chopping and changing’ jobs. To be clear, in the world of contracting you are not quitting anything – the whole concept of contracting encapsulates change. You have an expert skillset; you perform a service for a company and when that service is complete you move on to the next contract. We see this all the time when it comes to legal and consultancy professionals so why should that perception be any different in finance?

Finally, hardworking people with the right attitude and ability can be hard to come by. As someone who takes pride in what I do and wants to learn, develop and continuously achieve more, I have never been out of work, and I have never had to settle for any role. That’s certainly not to say I haven't missed out on jobs, but there are always plenty of opportunities, and each time you go through the interview process, whether successful or not you learn more about what that next step looks like and put yourself in better stead to make sure you achieve this.

If you are looking to make your next career move, whether it be staying in audit or making a leap, please get in touch with one of our friendly Accounting & Finance team members.