From AAT student to finance manager at one of the largest UK supermarkets

Rob McClay has had an interesting and varied career in finance, working for large corporates and start-ups. He is currently on a short career break to travel around Spain and Portugal before he moves into a new role.

Here he tells us about his career journey and what it’s like working in finance for different types of companies.

Could you tell us about your recent roles?

Right now, I’m on a short career break, so I can take some time to recharge and do a bit of travelling before starting a new job. My last role, which I was in for 18 months, was Finance Manager working for one of the big grocery retailers in the Grocery Finance team. This role was split into two areas; the first was supporting my buying team with anything and everything they needed from a finance point of view, sort of being their CFO.

The other area was being the face for my buying team to the rest of the finance division and making sure the performance of my buying category was well understood. Before that, I spent two years working for a start-up drinks brand (called No.1 Living) as Finance and Operations Manager. I reported to the CEO and was responsible for all the financial and operational aspects of the company; everything from AP, AR, payroll, VAT, P&L, balance sheet, and cash-flow forecasting to production forecasts, packaging, insurance, IT, HR and legal to name a few!

What did a typical day look like in your last role?

Monday mornings are a big deal in grocery retail. I used to get up early (I was sometimes online for 7am) to kick off the reporting and analysis of the performance of the prior week. The world has been so volatile for the past couple of years (to put it lightly!); there are so many factors affecting performance. Covid skews our year-on-year metrics, not to mention inflation and global supply chain issues, which constantly affect the market. It was my job to piece it all together and pull together a story. The rest of the day was spent getting updates on company performance.

Whilst I was only responsible for my grocery category, it’s helpful to understand what’s going on in other areas and get a general overview of the business and market. On other days I could be supporting my category with their monthly forecasting of sales and profit for the rest of the year, or sitting in on strategy or project meetings that affect my category.

What was the best part of your job?

Everyone uses supermarkets, and groceries are an important part of everyone’s lives. This made my job so relatable and interesting, especially throughout the turbulent times we’re living through. Getting under the skin of how Brexit, Covid, inflation, heatwaves, etc. affect UK shopping habits is fascinating.

Why did you decide on a career in finance?

I got into finance by chance. It wasn’t my plan, but I got given an opportunity that I jumped at. I was studying Chemical Engineering in Manchester and was working part-time at a supermarket. I think it was safe to say I wasn’t giving my course as much focus as I should have been, and I ended up dropping out. I went full-time in the supermarket and was initially pursuing a career in retail management however, an entry-level opportunity came up to work in Finance Operations. With my maths and science background from college and university, finance felt like a career option where these skills would be transferrable; plus, I’ve always loved a spreadsheet!

What skills do you need to work in finance?

A willingness and openness to learning is a definite must. AAT provides a solid foundation for working in finance, but then systems, processes and how you might look at a set of numbers will vary massively between teams and organisations, so you need to be able to learn new ways of working as you move along your career journey to build up a repertoire of knowledge and experience along the way.

What are some of the myths about working in finance?

That you need to be as good as Rachel Riley (or Carol Vorderman) in Countdown! Despite getting an A in A-Level in Maths, I am personally terrible at mental arithmetic. What is needed is an understanding of how to get to an answer mathematically, not necessarily being able to work it out in your head – we have spreadsheets for that!

What aspects of accounting work are there that people might be surprised to hear about?

The usual stereotype is that we’re very introverted and process driven, but as a finance business partner, you have to be very engaging and communicative with the people you work with to help to translate finance for non-finance colleagues.

Accountants are also stereotyped as always wanting certainty however, over the past few years, we’ve had to become very comfortable with uncertainty – working with ambiguity and being able to provide financial support with very little information to base it on.

Why is finance a great career?

I love working in finance because it is such a varied career. Most, if not all, companies have a finance function, so there are always loads of career options wherever you are based in the world, and you can work for companies of any size. You also get a chance to work with a wide variety of business functions such as marketing, supply chain/logistics, IT, HR, legal, and buying, so you can make your journey as varied as you want it to be. And finance is such a transferrable career. I’ve seen many finance colleagues move into other areas such as buying, marketing, operations, supply chain, logistics, HR and teaching.

Is finance a good career for a young person or for someone considering changing careers?

Definitely! It is such a learning-based career that you can pick it up at any stage in your journey, whether it be straight from school or college, after university (regardless of what degree you did) or part way through your career. Any experience could be relevant to a job in finance. For example, I worked in a supermarket for seven years before I went into finance, and there was loads of knowledge that I could bring from that to working in finance.

What different benefits do you get working in a start-up versus a large business?

With a large business, there is a lot of variety in the different types of roles you can do. I started in finance operations, working in several roles that allowed me to build up my reconciliation skills, debits/credits and systems knowledge, and learned the importance of working within a control framework. I then took the opportunity to apply for a role in commercial finance. Commercial finance is an area that I think I would have struggled to get into without any commercial experience if I was applying externally, but the benefit of working for a big company is that I was given a chance to try something new even if I didn’t necessarily have experience in that area.

Working for a start-up allowed me to have loads of variety within the same role. My role at No.1 Living was so broad, and it was great to be able to apply my experience from all my roles working for a large business. I had so much responsibility and accountability and learned so much in my two years at No.1 Living.

Further reading:

• From AAT student to Chief Financial Officer – Marina Chase’s meteoric rise
• Starting your career in finance
• Is finance right for you?
• What’s it like being an accountant or a bookkeeper?

Sophie Cross is the Editor of Freelancer Magazine and a freelance writer and marketer at Thoughtfully.