Welcome back to Inside IFP – the series where I sit down with members of our team over a coffee and chat about their career journey. This week, I caught up with Jack, our Finance Manager, who joined IFP as a Finance Assistant at just 20 years old. Almost seven years later, after completing 26 accountancy exams and progressing through the business, Jack has recently stepped into the Finance Manager role. We chat about his career journey, what he’s learned along the way and what has kept him at IFP for so long.
Let’s start at the beginning – how did you first get into accountancy and finance?
When I was at college I was actually looking into civil engineering, so I did maths, physics and business to gear towards that. I realised I was rubbish at applied physics, but I was good with the numbers. My Dad was an accountant, so that had always been in the back of my mind as an option.
I left college still unsure what to do, so I was applying for all sorts. Two options came up at basically the same time; I was offered an electrician apprenticeship and accountancy apprenticeship. I obviously ended up going with the accountancy apprenticeship, where I completed my AAT Level 2 and Level 3.
Am I right in thinking that was at a relatively small firm and you wanted to move for more opportunities?
Yeah, I wanted more opportunities for progression.
What brought you to IFP specifically?
I had a friend who worked here and he’d always said how good it was working at the office. He’d been at IFP for 2/3 years; over that time whenever we’d spoke about work, he’d said how much he enjoyed it. So, I’d always thought it sounded like a really great place to work, but I wasn’t actively looking to move at the time.
Then at the back end of 2019, I started to think “I don’t really see any progression here, I’m always going to be seen as the apprentice”. My friend who worked here mentioned that IFP were looking for a new finance assistant who had done AAT Level 3, which I’d just finished. So it kind of fell into my lap! I applied for it, interviewed and thankfully was offered the role.
Do you feel you’ve had the opportunities you’d hoped for so far?
Oh yeah, definitely! If anything, it’s maybe happened faster than I would have expected in some parts. I feel like everything that Sarah has promised me so far has come to fruition.
That’s great to hear. You were promoted to Finance Manager this year, congratulations! How did it feel to step into the leadership team?
I felt privileged; it felt good to be trusted by the Board. I was only 20 when I started here, but I’ve never felt like ‘just the youngest’. I really appreciate the trust that’s been put on me.
Has becoming Finance Manager been what you expected, or has anything surprised you about the role?
I think the role itself has surprised me a little bit, in a sense. Moving from Finance Technician to Finance Manager, I actually deal with less finance on a day-to-day basis. It’s a lot more people based currently, but I don’t know whether that is partly due to the leadership team being smaller, with Sam and Ellie on maternity leave. So, I’ve been involved in things that aren’t strictly finance, like organising team building day and things like that.
How are you finding that change?
I’m really enjoying it at the minute! I think it will get slightly easier when the team is back to full strength. It will be nice to have support in those areas so I can focus a bit more on finance too.
What have you found most rewarding about becoming a manager so far?
Definitely being able to have nice conversations with Elliott. Being able to do one-to-ones with him and talk about his progression; I’ve really enjoyed that. I’m really looking forward to his one-to-one next week because we’re offering him a permanent role. It’ll be great to go through his contract and tell him about his salary and benefits and stuff like that.
How important do you think the behind-the-scenes roles are to the client experience?
They’re definitely very important! Clients only really see the end product, they don’t get to see everything that goes into getting that result. It can be so indirect, for example, without a finance department, you can’t put together decent budgets. Without decent budgets, you can’t offer the best packages and remuneration for staff, so you can’t attract the best quality people. But because we can do all of that, we are able to offer an excellent service to our clients by getting the best people in the right positions to create the end product.
Can we dive into your whopping 26 exams? How did you find doing them?
I did 5 exams at Level 2, 5 at Level 3, 6 at Level 4, then 10 ACCA exams to get Chartered. My first 10 exams were through my apprenticeship at the previous firm I worked at, so it required less studying outside of work.
But I did 16 of the exams at IFP, and flexible working helped me quite a lot. I was able to start at 7am, study for an hour on lunch, finish work at 3, then study for an hour before going home. So, I don’t feel as though it massively affected my personal life. Unless I was close to doing an exam, then I would add in evening or weekend study, but in general I was always done before 5pm.
Do you have any tips for anyone who might be studying for exams at the minute?
Personally, I think little and often works better, both for motivation and for retaining information. You don’t want to do 20-minute blocks because by the time you get started, you’ve finished. But 45 minutes to an hour is enough time to get your head into it, without feeling drained. I think the quality dips when people try to do 3-to-4-hour long study sessions.
That’s great advice! I want to go into the personal side now because you met both your best friend, Lew, and your partner, Lyd, here. Did you ever expect that joining IFP would lead to friendships and relationships outside of work?
Not to the extent that is has. I already knew a couple of people here, so I was expecting it to be a bit more social than what I was used to. But no, I was never expecting it to be like this. For me personally, as sad as it sounds, there isn’t loads of separation between work and personal life; it is all just my life. I don’t shut one out from the other, and I like it that way.
I don’t think it’s sad! You spend so much of your life at work, why not be friends with your colleagues? You joined almost 7 years ago now, what is it about the firm that has kept you here for so long?
The fact that I enjoy the day-to-day helps a lot, but I think there’s two aspects to keeping you at a job. I think it’s the actual enjoyment of your role, which I think is the main thing that keeps you going, but then also long-term prospects. I’ve always had faith in the long-term prospects here, and I’ve never been promised something that hasn’t come into fruition. I’ve always been motivated to become more qualified and I’ve been moving up the ladder continuously for the last 6,7 years, so that’s helped me as well as enjoying the day-to-day. And like you say, obviously with having people I’m close to here – and it’s not just Lyd and Lew, I’m close to a lot of people here!
What do you think makes IFP different?
I genuinely feel like the staff aren’t just a secondary thought for the majority of decisions that are made here. Our clients are front of mind for all business decisions, but if there’s roads that we’re going to go down to create a better client experience, the staff as considered just as much. And obviously our benefits offerings and things.
Yeah I love our benefits package!
Even just down to how good the flexible working is. I know a lot of people advertise as hybrid nowadays, but when you actually talk to the people, they’re not very flexible at all. Whereas here, it’s genuinely flexible. I don’t think you can put a price on being able to leave a 3 o’clock and get my son from nursery. It would take a lot of money for me to go somewhere that would be a 9-5!
What kind of person do you think does well at IFP?
Someone who has a bit of drive, and that can look different for everybody. It doesn’t have to be ‘I want to go and get Chartered’, but just taking pride in your work and having the drive to learn your role well. I think being social and able to engage with the team helps too.
Thank you Jack! I just have 6 more quick questions before I let you go…
Describe IFP in 3 words or less – jack to fill in
Tea or coffee? Flat white.
Office or remote? I prefer being in the office day-to-day but I like the flexibility of work from home.
Early start or late finish? Early start.
Quick lunch or long lunch? Quick, but sometimes long if we go out for dinner!
Smarter or more casual style? More casual.
If Jack’s career or advice has inspired you, head to our Careers Page to see our current vacancies. See you next time for another edition of Inside IFP!
