This was extremely important for me since, coming from a Caribbean heritage and as the first person in my family to go to university, that professional environment wasn't in my DNA. Office working and the skills needed in that setting were new to me and this opens up a discussion about the wider gap between the knowledge a degree will give you and the skills you need to succeed in the working world. For example, you’ll likely encounter a really diverse range of personalities in your career and you need to be able to work and communicate with them, both upwards and downwards, and this isn’t something that is ‘taught’ at university.

What prompted the move from the private to public sector?

They were largely personal reasons, since Covid highlighted the importance of work-life balance, especially after being made redundant during the pandemic. With a newborn baby at home I wanted to take my time to explore different roles, and find the right position in terms of the people that I report to, the output that I'm generating and the career prospects, as well as being able to spend time with my son. I think Covid made a lot of people realise how important it is to have more time with family.

What is the biggest challenge for the public sector?

Even in the short time that I have been in the sector, the changes in Government have been considerable, and with those shifts come different views, visions, or directions, which means organisations of all types, shapes and sizes need to amend their forecasts, projections and future budgets. Fortunately, things seem to be settling down since the end of last year, giving businesses more stability.

More broadly, and this is based on my previous experience of working in the private sector, the public sector isn’t as fast paced, since there are additional levels of approval and decisions are made more slowly. Private companies are able to be more decisive on action plans and their delivery, allowing them to be more agile because of an entrepreneurial environment.

What has changed in finance since you started in the profession?

The style and the nature of finance work has changed in the time that I’ve been in the profession. If you look back ten years or so, there were not many FTSE Chief Finance Officers (CFOs) who were CIMA-qualified. The art of management accounting has grown hugely since then, with organisations recognising the value of exceptional leaders who aren’t just ‘numbers guys’, rather they are critical thinkers, driving value in terms of improving business efficiencies and growth. And that has had a positive impact from the top down, with the accountant role expanding to be more strategic and helping improve the bottom line, rather than just doing the books. Moving forward, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to advance that even further.
 

Developing the soft skills that will help you thrive in a business setting will be invaluable.

What can the finance sector do to encourage greater diversity and inclusion?

This is something we discuss at the family’s dining room table! It’s not a hoax that parents of the BAME community tell their kids to work harder and this is the case from the age of five through to board level. Many people of Caribbean and African descent, like myself, are first or second generation professionals, so we’re still gathering information in terms of the level of professionalism and level of knowledge needed in these roles, but there’s no question that there is enough talent in the workforce for things to be more balanced. From an educational perspective, much like there are initiatives striving for gender parity, more can be done to counteract the race gap, particularly raising awareness of the opportunities available to young people of colour across a multitude of sectors, for example finance and technology.

What advice would you give to someone starting out in finance?

I mentioned perseverance and communication earlier. You’ll come up against challenges throughout your career and tenacity and resilience are the key traits that all young people should be honing, because they determine your ability to control the environment around you.

And communication. Everyone digests information differently and all managers want information presented in a different way. Working with individuals requires determining these nuances so that you know exactly what‘s needed and not being afraid to ask questions – as many as it takes – to get a straight answer. It’s not going too far to say that you need to be one with your manager to know how they think, and this comes back to the difference between university and ‘real world’ teaching. The knowledge gained from a degree, especially if it is specialised such as in finance, will be extremely important, but developing the soft skills that will help you thrive in a business setting will be invaluable.