I somewhat fell into accounting and finance after speaking with some people at a careers fair, after university I joined Anderson Anderson & Brown as a trainee chartered accountant and thoroughly enjoyed the variety of clients and the broad experience I was exposed to during my three years of training.

After qualifying I was approached by a friend and former colleague from AAB who asked if I was interested in applying to join KCA Deutag, a chance I jumped at and I was fortunate enough to join a great team in the corporate accounting function. I stayed at KCA Deutag for 8 years, moving from the corporate team to the offshore drilling business unit, gaining fantastic experience of the energy services industry and working with some terrific people along the way.

With a desire to experience something new, I decided to move on and joined Swire as Financial Controller responsible for the Middle East business, Swire was great too but I quickly realised I hadn’t fully considered what I wanted from that move – the job I was doing was very similar to what I had been doing in my previous role and I got itchy feet to try something different.

Along came an opportunity to join the brilliant finance team at Net Zero Technology Centre – a very unique proposition to work in an interesting organisation, a collaboration between government and industry championing and investing in new technologies. The finance team at NZTC were an absolute joy to work with – the culture of fun, trust and encouragement is something I cannot underemphasise.

After three-and-a-bit years with NZTC I was approached about an exciting new role with Restrata, an emergency response and consulting company that developed an exciting piece of software. The opportunity to work with a growing technology company was something I really wanted to get my teeth into and I’ve enjoyed 10 months at Restrata so far and love the learning curve.

Without doubt the variety and the challenge, over the years I’ve found that if I’m not in a role where I’m learning something new it can become a bit of a drag and it’s difficult for me to fully engage. In my current role I’m enjoying experiencing the different aspects of working in a SaaS company. I also thrive being part of a team that is dedicated to achieving something, and if you can have some laughs along the way that definitely helps.

I often say that I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up…but after so many years I suppose I really should know by now! I am a bit of a petrolhead / car nerd, so when I was younger I always wanted to do something with cars, that hasn’t come to fruition yet but you never know what the future holds.

Absolutely, I’ve worked in a few roles where processes are still a bit too manual and it’s always a bit of a challenge to adopt new technologies which allow us to adapt and improve. Finance technologies are constantly advancing and embedding these into processes will undoubtedly improve finance functions…I’m sure our Excel comfort blanket will still keep us warm though!

Before the pandemic I had never worked from home before, I remember leaving the office in March 2020 with my IT equipment in a box thinking ‘well this is a bit weird, but we’ll be back in a few weeks’… A few months later and I left that job and started a new one completely remote, and I have to say it was absolutely seamless. Over time I have gradually migrated back to being in the office pretty much full time, however that’s just the way I like to work and I believe it’s important to give people the freedom to choose. A hybrid model works fantastically well, allowing for in-office collaboration and to focus at home with less distractions.

The most important thing is to really consider your reasons for wanting to make a change, focus on what you want to get out of a new role and emphasise this when you speak to your recruiter and during interviews. Also remember to ask lots of questions during your interviews to make sure the potential role meets your requirements and that the organisation is the right fit. If something doesn’t feel right during the process, you’ll know that you won’t want to accept a position with that company – I was in an interview once which felt more like an interrogation and I knew within 5 minutes that it wasn’t for me!

Although it doesn’t come naturally, try to be more outgoing in unfamiliar situations because stepping out of your comfort zone really isn’t so bad. Also, a fantastic piece of advice I received (and was gently reminded of regularly) from an exceptional team leader “don’t be lazy!”

It’d be great to have a stint working overseas, I’ve travelled to quite a few countries for work in the past but always short visits, staying somewhere for longer to get a more comprehensive experience in the future would be fantastic.

I try to be as protective of my work-life balance as I possibly can, I really enjoy downtime with friends and family, I love to travel (airports are great places to watch the world go by!) and I very rarely miss a Formula 1 race.

I’m proud to be an honorary “Newfie” (Newfoundlander) after being screeched in during one of my trips to St John’s – the process involves reciting a speech in the local dialect, drinking a shot of Screech rum and kissing a cod fish!