Your Questions Answered - 5 top tips for development

I began my Deloitte career in 2015, through a Deloitte programme for school leavers which allowed me to gain work experience before heading to university. After university I joined the graduate scheme, following the audit path. I started in the insurance team, a subset of financial services, and qualified as a Chartered Accountant. My career advice for anyone starting out is to keep an open mind and explore different options. Whatever your interests, there’s so many different paths available. I suggest looking at what you want to get out of your career and finding roles that match your skills.

I started my career by working on the external audits of insurance companies, which essentially meant checking the information they’d provided was correct. When I obtained my qualification, it felt like it was a good time for a change. Audit offers a fantastic way to get a broad understanding of different areas and processes within finance functions, but I also wanted to gain exposure to different areas of finance, so I began searching for advisory focussed roles. I knew other people who’d moved to the Insurance Accounting Advisory team from audit, and they explained the role to me and the different experiences they’d had since moving. That’s one reason networks are so important - the people you meet can support you in the next stages of your career, whatever you choose to do.

Deloitte offers a lot of development opportunities. I’ve taken advantage of Deloitte University, the firm’s development centre. It offers great courses and is a good way to meet other people across the firm. There’s also a lot of online learning you can do, above and beyond your compliance training, as well as making the most of informal learnings from your colleagues. There are many networks you can join, internal career events and much more. I recommend speaking to senior members of your department, as well as using the internal intranet and networks to find things that you might be interested in. My advice is to get involved in as much as possible.

It’s important to start building your reputation early on. You can do this by being open to opportunities and attending events wherever you can. Once you start building contacts, it opens doors as they begin to connect you to their contacts. When it comes to asking people to help and support your career development, I suggest having a purpose in mind and preparing your questions in advance. People are giving up their time to speak to you, so make sure you use that time wisely. It’s good to be engaged and ready to put your point of view across.

Firstly, you need to recognise when you’re ready for a new challenge. Make sure you’ve proven yourself in a role before you start looking for the next steps. I would advise being open minded, because challenges can look different to how you envisioned them. For example, some things I expected to be easy have been harder and vice versa. The great thing about Deloitte is that you can always ask for help and advice.