Dear future accountant,
As a young boy, I never intended to become an accountant. I was keen on doing something to do with engineering but doing my GCSE’S and A levels, I ended up doing accounting-related classes. In the beginning, I didn’t take accounting seriously, I then realised when the recession happened in England that I needed to pass my exams to ensure I could put my best foot forward. It took me quite a long time to become a qualified accountant, but if you start at 18, you could become qualified at 22 years old. It’s all changed from the ’90s, we didn’t have apprenticeships and many jobs were just for people with degrees but that has all changed now, you can cut out the degree.
I started my accountancy career in practice, but I didn’t want to stay in practice for long because I had plans to move into the industry. Many of my friends were in the industry and they were earning a lot of money, it made me want to work in the industry too, but that decision would have been purely money-based and I suppose that when you are young, that holds importance. To make the big transition into industry, I gave Raffingers my notice in 2017 but two of the partners, Gary and Barry convinced me not to leave, they both sat me down and gave me a lecture for an hour each and ultimately I realised that I wanted to stay put. Not long after, I was promoted to Partner which was never my intention but I absolutely love it.
Being an accountant is a rewarding job and the rewarding thing about it is that you get to see the direct impact of what you are doing. Money only takes you to a certain level but helping people from trainees to clients and helping them achieve is the best feeling. People tend to assume that accountants are boring but after spending the day with me you will know that I am not.
My advice if you are looking to join the accountancy profession is to work hard, nothing is going to come easy. Be dedicated. Maintain a strong mindset. Lastly, you need to think of solutions quickly and we are a trusted service, so you need a good personality because people buy people.
Good luck future accountant!
Suda Ratnam,
Partner
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