How to take ownership of your career

In an AAT Connect panel hosted by Becky Glover, AAT members discussed how they created the careers they wanted.

A session at the recent AAT Connect event in London highlighted the changing ways that accountants are managing their career progression. Three panellists joined chairperson Becky Glover to discuss the different journeys they have been on as they grow and develop.

Owning your career and your practice

For Jess Brindle FMAAT, a former AAT apprentice whose career has taken her from a start-up to her own practice via the venture capital world, the focus has changed over the years: “My career goals and my aspirations are changing all the time,” she told delegates.

“My life has changed quite drastically over the last five years, but what keeps me going is wanting to be better, wanting to do more, earn more money and have more flexibility.”

As a new business owner, she was blunt about the demands of starting a practice while still working full time: “That was hard work, working weekends to start the business” she said.

“But now I’ve got the flexibility of working when I want, for who I want. I don’t work with people I don’t want to work with. So that keeps the drive going. It means that when I am working long hours, I’m doing something that I’m passionate about, helping people that I’m passionate about, and making friends along the way and getting something really rewarding from helping business owners.”

Breaking bad habits

In the early years of starting his business, Ellis Harris-Boulter MAAT shared Jess’s sense of being trapped in a long-hours culture. Although running his own practice had long been his dream, Ellis admitted the reality of sprawling workloads and unhealthy habits was taking its toll on his health – both mental and physical. “I would fall asleep on my desk chair at 3am for the first couple of years of practice,” he told delegates.

“And after a few years of that, I thought, I can’t keep going like this. So I realised the reward I was aiming for just wasn’t worth what I was sacrificing to do it. And so while I wanted to do well, equally I found that actually I needed to calm it down a little bit.”

Breaking his unhealthy patterns wasn’t easy, and required Ellis to do some soul searching: “I looked at myself and thought, ‘Am I actually happy with what I’m trying to do here?’ And I found the answer was no.

The first step was to actually recognize where his weaknesses lay.

“So for example, I used to sleep like a teenager. And I thought, well, actually, I need to change that. So I found, weirdly, an alarm clock with a QR code to switch it off. And I have to get out of bed and go to the kitchen to switch it off.

“And similarly, I was terrible for scrolling social media, so I’ve got an app now that makes you pay £5 if you want to scroll social media during the week and it’s not a weekend. And again, that stops me pretty fast.”

Having adjusted, Ellis is closer to achieving a healthier work-life balance. “I strive for that 9 to 5, and actually find things outside of work as well to have that balance, which is sometimes difficult to achieve.”

Making your style work for you

A common theme running through the session was the need to carve out a path that suits your unique needs and strengths. For Narpreet Bhamra MAAT, that meant finding a role that allowed her to bring an intensity of focus to work, but also switch off outside working hours.

“I’m completely different end of the spectrum, in that I enjoy the 9-5,” she said. “I like having that structure in my life: I am one of those people I do like going into the office rather than working from home. As soon as I shut my laptop down, that’s it – I go home and that’s my ‘me’ time.

“I feel like if I wanted to work for myself, I’d be working all day and all night. So for me, having that 9-5, having a routine in place is what makes me enjoy my role, makes me want to progress further.”

For adopting a more ‘traditional’ approach, Narpreet has found that having that structure and routine in place is probably what’s more important and valuable. Her journey to finance business partner at Google has seen her focus more on building networks within the workplace.

“Working for large corporations, the opportunities are endless. You can get involved in different areas, non-finance-based areas, and it’s just a great experience, networking with multiple people, and just really building your personal image and personal values as well along the way.”

Networking for rewards

But – critically – she stressed the need for accountants to leave their comfort zone and build a strong network across the profession. “I feel like networking has probably made my career what it is today. In fact I’m sitting here on stage because I spoke to somebody at an AAT event many, many years ago, who I then kept in touch with, who then made an AT video about me, who then got me involved in more content and then asked me to present it.

“So from that one person, I’m now here.”

Jess agreed: “AAT has given me so many opportunities to build and grow a network. Things like this event, I’ve been in all the videos and done all the fun social stuff. Again, it gives you more skills, more understanding, rather than just looking at spreadsheet all the time.

“So I think the community that AAT especially builds – the branch network and things like that – is everything; just having conversations with people is building relationships. That’s what makes business interesting.”

Christian Doherty is a business journalist and freelance writer for AAT.