Inside Careers Guide to Chartered Accountancy

EMPLOYER DIRECTORY
TRAINEE PROFILE
NAME
LOCATION
UNIVERSITY
DEGREE
ROLE
Emma Whitehead
London
Exeter
BA Geography
Manager
I always wanted to work for a firm where
I could gain a wide range of experience
and would be valued as an employee and
wasn't just a number. I found SWAT through
the ICAEW's website. As they specialise in
recruiting for a number of medium-sized
firms, it seemed sensible to apply through
them. I applied online before being invited
to an interview day where we did a maths
and English test. If you passed, you went on
to have a competency-based interview. We
were then asked to rank the SWAT firms in
order of preference we would like to work for.
Whilst I had no media experience other than
watching films and television, I liked the idea
of working with clients that would be looking
for a more human approach to finance than
your typical corporate environment. Also, as
the creative industry is worth £87bn a year to
the UK economy and 1 in 11 people in the UK
are employed by the entertainment industry, I
knew that there must be more to it than I was
aware of at that point.
I could see from Blinkhorn's website that
they had a number of Partners that focused
on high-profile individuals, production
companies, agents and other associated roles.
However, they also had a wealth of other
clients from other industries, meaning that I
would get a broad range of experience.
As a trainee at Blinkhorns you work your
way up; starting with simple bookkeeping
tasks for personal tax returns, through to
leading audits and preparing consolidated
statutory accounts. I think that variety at an
early stage is an important part of learning
to be a well-rounded professional. Within
the first six months you are allocated to
one of the Partners' teams. Each team has
at least two managers and several trainees
at different stages of their training, so there
is always someone who can help you. The
team members work closely together and
support each other through work and study.
The Partners are very approachable and are
genuinely interested in your progress.
Over the course of my training I undertook a
variety of tasks including preparing personal
tax returns; statutory accounts; corporation tax
returns; management accounts for dentists,
recruitment companies and start-ups; carrying
out audits of builders merchants, technology,
property, theatre and post-production
companies. You get to see the bigger
picture as well as understand the issues that
businesses face on a day to day basis.
As a trainee in a SWAT firm you go to college
together, which means you also get to know
other trainees in similar firms and positions
to you. I still see some of the people I trained
with on courses and at events we go to now
we are qualified.
Once I was qualified, I took on more
responsibility and shortly after gaining my
qualification I was promoted to a Manager of
the team I was in: just four years after I first
applied to SWAT. •
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