reference nag

Alison Bailey
01795 416670
a.bailey@newappointmentsgroup.co.uk

Sittingbourne Office

Grid House
Crown Quay Lane
Sittingbourne
Kent
ME10 3HZ

+44 (0) 1795 416600

+44 (0) 1795 428546

nag.hq@newappointmentsgroup.co.uk

As a company that offers financial management, providing award-winning services to individuals, professional practices and non-profit organisations and with eleven UK offices you are the eighth largest accountancy firm with global reach through membership with the international accountancy network, Nexia International. Providing financial advisory, offering investment management accountancy services and private banking for medium to large businesses. The Southampton office is particularly attractive for specializing in providing assurance and business services to clients, as I have always been good with numbers. Although this job focuses on assurance and business services I will also be interested in learning about the tax investigations, corporate finance and restructuring and recovery, services to professional practices, and personal tax, trust and financial planning that the business undertakes. But I relish the opportunity to focus on your business and assurance services by learning about comprehensive financial advisory services across a diverse array of industries and external auditing working through Nexia audit the worldwide accounting and consulting network.

What makes you stand out from other accountancy firms is the size of your business. You are a large enough business to be one of the most successful and competitive firms in the UK, yet small enough to offer an atmosphere that fosters a friendly atmosphere among colleagues and clients, which is central to developing relationships to make the people in the firm trusted business advisers.

This type of atmosphere has been a big influence in my decision to make this application as I know I will be working closely with managing and financial directors

Motivation and commitment:

With a philosophy degree I think I offer the right skills to succeed as a chartered accountant, a degree that has developed my critical faculties and equipped me with a penchant for details and facts which are also considered to be virtues for an accountant who are:

"well known for their stable personalities and their probity. a psychological study of the personalities of accountants found that they are oriented toward 'facts and details,' are 'sceptical and critical' by nature, and like to 'work in a steady, orderly manner.' They too are the heroes of capitalism. They are the cool-minded sheriffs of its Wild West."

(Akerlof and Shiller, 2010 p. 29)

This skills should allow me to achieve both my short term and long term goals with the company

My short term goal will be to successful audit various organisations through closely inspecting the figures and information so that it can be professionally done in under two weeks, this short term goal should give me the valuable client experience, knowledge and skills required to be an effective auditor and trusted business adviser so that by my second year I can work in a more senior role with smaller clients as well as supervising the new intake of trainees so that I can reach my three year, long term goal to achieve the Associate Chartered Accountant qualification which this three year training program has allowed me to do by equipping me with the practical experience and the technical skills. 

I think this will be a very interesting three years for which I have the calibre to succeed.

Akerlof. G. A., Shiller. R. J., Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2010)

Teamwork:

2011-2013 committee member of a University of Southampton political club.

I have been active and engaged with one of the largest political clubs at the University of Southampton.

This has included discussion as to the weeks events and how we can recruit more members, thinking about how we can engage students to get them interested in politics, door to door canvassing for the local party for various elections, inviting the MP’s in the local area to give talks at the University.

During the recent Eastleigh by-election one of my jobs was to work with a group of four people, they spoke to voters in Eastleigh raising awareness about the upcoming by-election and inquiring as to their preference for voting, my job was to note down who they were going to vote for, who they voted for at the last general election and who they have voted for in the past, the purpose of this was to know how people were voting for so we knew who to post leaflets to.

I have also collaborated with the other committee members to contact the local MPs to give talks on various issues within politics my task was to contact them and arrange dates, times and the topic which they are going to discuss, I would report their information back to the committee and we would decide as a group if that would be an appropriate time, date and topic.

I was elected the delegate to represent the University at a students national conference in London this event involved debate and discussion on important political motions such as foreign aid, housing, student finance, fair pay, and women’s rights. As a representative of the political club it was my job to create a good impression and give thoughtful input to the discussions on the motions presented.

Working in the corporate catering franchise it was essentially to call up new potential clients on a weekly basis given the current customers might stop buying lunches from us at any moment.

Communication with clients over the phone, was the first point of contact. I knew it was crucial to create an excellent first impression, at first I was a little nervous with potential customers, but after a few weeks I began to ease into the role. Which began with explaining the nature of the business and the details of the products - providing lunches for corporate businesses, I politely inquired as to whether they might be interested if they were I would explain the details of what we did and ask them if and when they would like to place an order. This responsibility was crucial to maintain buyers and it was often a success by increasing the numbers of buyers by an average of two a month.

My philosophy degree has equipped me with an array of skills: Critical thinking and analytic reasoning skills.

Excellent written and communication skills.

Comprehension of complex texts and arguments.

The ability to analyze and solve complex problems.

The ability to collaborate with others in diverse group settings.

Group and individual projects successfully presented to peers and academic staff.

My Philosophy degree has been invaluable to me in cultivating my critical and rational faculties; both excellent written and communication skills are paramount. One of the key difficulties in philosophy involves reading old, abstruse, complex texts, understanding and comprehending said texts is central in succeeding in philosophy, this has equipped me with the skills to swiftly grasp complex pieces of text and provide critical commentary writing commentaries on these texts has also been central in cultivating excellent written communication.

One of the most interesting parts of the course involved collaborating with others in groups to present on a specific topic has been central to cultivating skills required to succeed with others, where consistent communication and delegating specific tasks has been crucial to successfully present to peers and academic staff.

We were a group of five who had to give a twenty minute presentation on some of the central ideas of the philosopher Martin Heidegger we each worked on a specific section, presenting both the arguments presented by Heidegger and then critically assessing his arguments. The presentation was given using 

both a script and using presentation slides with powerpoint.