What they really think

Head of Commercial Finance
Virgin Retail Group
London

Stage: Qualified CA
Trained with: PricewaterhouseCoopers
Degree: Law
University: UCL

“I decided to train as a CA because I felt it was a broad business qualification which would give me lots of exposure to different types of companies. I did look at one of the other chartered qualifications but chose ICAS because of the study options. For me, ICAS had the perfect combination of one or two weeks at class, but without a really hard slog where your entire summer would be taken up with studying for exams, so for me having a more balanced approach worked perfectly.

“I accepted an offer with PWC (Coopers & Lybrand as it was then). They stood out for me in terms of the personality of the place, the culture and the people. Who you train with is important. You need to know that you’ll get on with your colleagues. It’s funny looking back, but I remember on day one at PWC attempting to send a fax through the printer and asking how you dialed the number! When you come straight from university you don’t understand how an office works, so you find yourself making lots of stupid mistakes like that when you start.

“The actual CA training programme gave me a good grounding in the basics, with an emphasis on the commercial aspects. You’re not just sitting in a classroom, you’re actually going out into the real world and applying what you’re learning, with your own customers.

“After qualifying, I stayed with PWC for about nine months. By that stage I had been working on audits in various different industries with different companies. But by then I knew I wanted to work in retail. I’d been given the opportunity to be team leader on the Liberty audit that year so I stayed on to complete the job and get more exposure to the sector and understand what retail was all about.

“Shopping! It’s really sad but true – that was the main reason I was attracted to the sector. I’ve got a friend who works for a company that exports industrial gasses – now how can you relate to that, and how do you get passionate about it? It’s so easy with retail because it’s tangible, it’s something everybody understands, and I felt I was already an expert, from a customer perspective obviously!

“So from PwC I went to work at Debenhams for four years. I joined as an analyst and by that stage I’d decided that it was the commercial, analytical side that appealed to me. The analyst role was all about decision support, so it covers planning, forecasting, and understanding where the business is now, where we want to go, and how we’re going to get there.

"I started out looking at new store investments, carrying out a number of different property appraisals, and deciding which was the best option. Then, after the store had been open for six or 12 months I’d go back and look at the sales and profit margins that we’d generated and what the associated costs were. I was trying to establish whether or not it was going to pay back within the required time scale.

“After that I went on to support the international division. At the time Debehams was expanding and there were lots of different franchises overseas. They were looking to join up with a number of different countries, and enter deals with new partners. They needed someone from finance to support them, and understand which deals would be the most profitable. I looked at things like stock investment, and what commitment we had to make to them, in terms of staffing and marketing, versus the commission we got back from the products we were selling.

“I then moved to looking after the direct home shopping division which is internet and catalogue based. From there I went to support the buying and merchandising team. I looked at things like stock purchasing and space utilisation in stores, for example is it more profitable to fill this space with Jasper Conran or John Rocha? So really I had four different roles in the four years I was with Debenhams, and I felt it was just time for me to see how another retailer worked, and to consolidate my experience into a more senior role.

“That was when the Virgin job came up, which was a fantastic opportunity because they were looking to set up a commercial finance department from scratch. They’d never had it before, so they basically had the business operating on one side, and on the other, finance was doing the house-keeping, book-keeping, planning and forecasting side, but there was very little communication between the two. It was an absolute blank sheet of paper, and they were very much looking to me for direction. It was great because you get to write your own job spec – and it comes in handy because nobody yet knows what I do!

“I really enjoy working at Virgin, and one of the recent perks of the job was that I was invited to attend the Brit Awards. We’d been running a promotion with Mastercard offering a 10% discount if you paid for any Brit nominated artist with your Mastercard. It was a successful promotion and an even more successful evening for me!

“Finally I think if I were to offer advice to any graduates starting out it would be to make the most of your three years training. You can experience lots of different things which will help you make your mind up as to where you want to be - the worst thing in life is just to drift into something. In terms of is it worth it? Yes, absolutely. The feeling you get when you see your TPE results is pretty good. The feeling that you’re never ever going to have to sit another exam in your life is good. The hard work is definitely there, but in terms of rewards, you really see that compared to friends in other sectors. Once you’ve qualified your career really takes off, because it’s on your CV and it will get you through the front door. Even if you want to do something that isn’t specifically accountancy related I think the fact that you’ve shown the commitment, and you have the CA qualification, is what counts.”