- What experiences led you to work for WD Trust?
I moved to Bristol in 2013 to work for EY within their Corporate Tax department. During my time there I qualified as an accountant and was lucky enough to spend three months working in their India office (based in Bangalore). This was a brilliant opportunity to see what it was like to work within a completely different culture as well as spend weekends travelling around as much of the country as I could! I realised after coming back from the secondment that my heart wasn’t really in tax (and I don’t believe anyone who says theirs is!) so looked to move into a more ‘general’ finance role. This led me to work for IOP Publishing, a physics publisher (similar to The Economist) owned by the Institute of Physics which is also a charity. I had always planned to take some time out to travel before my 30th birthday so after 18 months at IOPP my boyfriend and I set off for six months of exploring South and Central America. After returning and spending a short time in London I realised I missed Bristol life and was fortunate to find out about the Financial Controller role at the Workforce Development Trust not long after moving back to the city – the rest, as they say, is history!
- What does an average day look like for you?
In Finance, we get up to all sorts – as well as the routine banking/payments/tax(!) we also look at budgeting for the exciting projects which the rest of the organisation are busy setting up. We also spend lots of time forecasting how the group is performing against budgets and analysing cash flow/foreign exchange requirements so we can ensure suppliers (and staff!) get paid accurately and on time.
- What do you enjoy most about your job?
The variety, the people – everyone is so friendly and helpful – and knowing we are working towards such a great purpose. I felt extremely proud of our organisation at the recent Our Health Heroes event – it was a great reminder of how important our work is.
- What upcoming projects are you working on?
We recently worked to complete on the purchase of our new office in Bristol which has been an exciting project and has provided plenty of new challenges for us to navigate.
We are also very close to implementing a telephone and online payment portal to speed up taking payment from customers – this should bring cash flow benefits and allow us to concentrate on improving other areas of our work!
- In a perfect world…
Everyone would have more time to spend outdoors – fresh air really is the best medicine!
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