Lead Partner - Sophie Hill

Well, it turns out that accounting isn’t that boring after all. Although those considering audit might want to take a careful look at what’s involved.

Accountancy was cited by almost everyone as a brilliant place to get a solid understanding of business and many people exploit the training as a springboard into other careers both within finance and more broadly (such as management consultancy). This makes it a pretty good option for those who aren’t entirely sure which direction to take but who want a solid qualification from which to build.

The exact qualification you sign-up to will depend on what interests you and what slant you want your training to have. Typically at the big 4 you’ll be going for the ACA, which probably has the edge in terms of prestige. If you’re interested in being an accountant within a business then you’ll be heading in the direction of CIMA. Public service has its own specialised training and that’s CIPFA.

Something that may seem a little counter intuitive is that you don’t actually have to be a math geek to be successful in this industry. Whilst it might help for more specialized areas such as tax and actuarial work, most people we spoke to didn’t have a clue what the whole top row of a calculator does!

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Sophie Hill; I'm lead partner for the Southern Region of BDO Stoy Hayward. Our office is in Gatwick and Epson comprising some 400 people. I started as a graduate and I started in audit and shortly after qualifying I did a 3-year contract. I moved to corporate finance where I spent some 5 years doing transaction services and lead advisory work. I moved out of the profession for a year but soon came back because I didn't get the broad range of client experience or meeting different types of people that meet on a day to day basis so I came back into corporate finance but shortly after that I decided to go back to audit which is quite unusual actually but I really enjoyed those relationships that I established, and those recurring relationships, those long term relationships that you can have with a client in audit and 6 years ago, whilst remaining as an audit partner I moved into a management role as a lead partner and that has become a large part of my day to day role over time.

What is Accountancy?

Accountancy to me is about advising businesses. It's about understanding the challenges they face not just from a financial perspective but from all different challenges that management face and whether that's to do with people, systems, financial but the whole range of day to day issues which management have to deal with within their business. That's why it's really important to select a firm that will give you that rounded experience. I think it's about perceptions and what people perceive accountancy to be. To me accountancy is a business adviser, it's somebody who really understands the different challenges in business in different types of businesses and at different points of their evolution and for me personally I find that exciting because the variety never stops.

What attracted you to this career?

Actually while I was doing my degree I really wanted a career in business and advising businesses but I wasn't quite sure what type of business or what role I wanted to play so I felt accountancy would give me quite a broad understanding of different types of businesses, a good grounding and really keep my options open. It certainly does do that, if you want to say in the profession or you want to go into a particular sector but it gives you a very good understanding of the sector and different service lines.

What does your job involve?

As lead partner I am a business assurance partner so I am an audit partner. I look after a number of client relationships and that really involves me ensuring that I am responsible for coordinating the services I deliver to clients. My lead partner role is very different. It's much more a leadership role and I am responsible for the development and implementation of strategy in the region. What that really means on a day to day basis is working with my management team, my partners and people to deliver a successful performance for the business. My job is really largely to do with engaging with people both internally and externally. On a practical level what I do is work very closely with the core management team in the business unit and that's made up of partners that lead the service lines in our business unit but also management that look after core functions of HR, marketing and finance. I also engage closely with the 30 partners which I have in that business unit and as far as possible with our people, but it really is about people engagement and driving business performance through creating a culture within that business for a successful business. The way BDO is structured is that we have offices outside London which are separate business units and some are combined together to form a business unit. A business unit is one which has accountability for its profit and loss of that whole part of the business so I'm responsible for the development and implementation of strategy of that business unit in the wider context of the firm but also for the overall financial performance of that unit and the development of our people.

What do you do on a typical day?

Generally my day can vary from being in meetings with management, people, interviewing, being out to see clients, prospective clients. What I generally try and do is keep one day free a week when I can be in the office and catch up with everything. It really does vary. Many people think that perhaps accountancy is just financial but it certainly isn't. We see insights into all types of business and the challenges they face at different points of their evolution so when we're with clients we can be discussing a whole broad range of subjects whether it's people matters, systems matters, their overall aspirations as individual owners or for the management, succession planning. It can be a whole range of different matters that impact on a business at their different stages of development.

What are the speicialisms within your industry?

Once people qualify there are various service lines that they can select to training and in fact many of our people we have programmes where people have secondments to the various departments or indeed they can go through a 2 year programme where they spend 3 to 6 months in order to give them the experience, then they can decide which line to go into. That may include forensics, corporate finance, tax, audit, because some people may come in as a tax or corporate finance graduate, consultancy and indeed secondments to our marketing departments and people development department and many others within the firm but it's the choice that's there.

What are the best bits about your job?

I find it really rewarding when I see others around me being successful. I'm the lead of a business unit so therefore I'm responsible for the overall performance of that unit and the development of our people so I find it really rewarding when I see success happening in the business and that can take all different forms, whether its winning a new client, a team delivering a fantastic piece of work on a client, exam success, promotions. It can take all different forms but it's how different parts of the business are doing in different teams.

What are the worst bits about your job?

Very difficult that one actually because obviously in the role that I do there's bound to be frustrations and challenges. I wouldn't quite say they are bad bits but there are moments when you feel perhaps that could have gone better or perhaps we should have done that but I think it comes with the role and the job really and things aren't always the best parts of a job.

What has been your greatest achievement?

I find it difficult to relate to personal achievement because I get a huge sense of satisfaction out of seeing the success I spoke about earlier. At a personal level at BDO I've had great opportunities and one of those is that I went to Harvard 2 years ago and that was a really great experience and fantastic opportunity. I suppose also on a personal level I wake up in the morning and want to go to work, I enjoy my job and for me therefore I feel that I have personal achieved because I'm doing a job that I love and enjoy.

Any regrets?

I've also spent time out of the profession where I spent 12 months in a re- insurance broker actually. I soon returned to the profession because I missed the variety of work and the engagement of people. I don't' regret doing that actually because it gave me an insight into working outside the profession and possibly placed a higher value on the profession itself. I don't have any regrets really.

How did you get into your job?

I started with a degree in accountancy and I suppose the one thing I would have done differently is to have done a different degree, something totally unrelated to accountancy because you certainly don't need an accountancy degree to enter the profession. I then I went through the milk round and chose the firms I wanted to apply to. This is taking me back 20 years so I'm trying to recall the process but I'm sure it's not dissimilar in terms of the process and the interview rounds you go through.

How long is a working day and do you have to work out of hours?

Our business is delivering an excellent service to our clients and that means we have to be flexible around how we work. It's about trusting our people and people taking responsibility for their role and what they have to deliver. So that means that whilst at times it may require some longer hours outside of the core hours there are other times when it's quieter so people can take time off. It really is about ensuring that each individual contributes to deliver that service. Also I would say the profession has become more flexible and BDO encourages flexible working and it's become more flexible through the providing technology. For instance, I have 3 young children so I very much like to be at home to read the youngest his bedtime story but through technology, if I want to, I can log on and do some work. So it's a far more flexible structure.

Do you have to be based anywhere in particular?

Absolutely. We have offices across the country; in fact BDO has 600 offices in 100 countries and it depends what type of role, what type of clients you want but you can work on a variety of clients actually from many of our offices in the UK and also through technology you don't physically have to be based in an office. Many people can review a report or files at home and log onto the firms network through technology at home. I personally, because I'm a leader in the business find it difficult to work the core hours at home but that's my personal preference in the role I do. I feel I need to be visible in the business and engaging with the people.

Is there much in the way of travel?

Again travel depends on the type of role you do and also the aspirations that the individual has and how that fits into their work life pattern. I personally don't do enormous travel - I travel between the offices that I lead and I also do come up to London on a regular basis. But if people want international offices as I say we are 600 offices in 100 countries and there is the variety of clients there for people to have international travel and also international secondment. Many of our people go on secondment to our international offices.

What is the working environment like?

Our business is actually very mixed both by gender and age. We do obviously have a large proportion of younger people because we take on a number of graduates each year but across the organisation it is quite mixed. The working environment itself I feel is quite relaxed. It's informal and yet challenging and we also have a very flat hierarchical structure and what I mean by that is that we have a very open plan working environment, partners don't have offices so it's a real team feel and that's really important because the way we work with our clients is by working in teams and we try to encourage that working environment in our offices.

What is the pay like and are there any perks?

Our business is really dependent on the quality of our people and we have to attract the best people to deliver an excellent client service. That means we've got to pay competitively. The way BDO pay this is that we also have our "Flexcell" so people can choose from a menu of benefits as to what fits with their own personal circumstances and they can also buy and sell days of holiday. I think the profession has really moved in terms of allowing people to be themselves including fitting the reward structures around what suits the individual people.

What are the key skills required for your job?

I think the core skills we look for are people who communicate well and even more importantly, people who can engage with people. It's really important that whilst everybody has their own style they can be flexible with both internally with people and externally with clients and also I think a sense of humour actually. Most other skills can be trained. I think the process in terms of going through for a contract and the application, people have gone through their degree and have probably achieved some sort of hygiene level in terms of their ability on maths, English and key communication skills, most other skills then come through then the contract, training and qualification they achieve. I suppose the process and exams for that really do test it along the way and there are milestones along the way that people have to get over in order to qualify and develop those skills.

What's your top tip for breaking into your industry?

What we look for in people when we are looking at our graduates is coming back to those core skills of communication and engagement but also energy and commitment and a willingness to learn because I think those people skills are absolutely fundamental but it's a willingness to then learn the different skills that firm can help you develop to really make a successful career in accountancy.

What's the career progress and how quickly can you move up the career ladder?

At a graduate level when people come in post contract they generally move to supervisor within 12 to 18 months and then manager 12 to 18 months. We can fast track people as well so they will go from contract to supervisor, manager, senior manager, director and then partner. There is no fixed term for this because it's very important that we reward people merit but one can also say that there is nothing that replaces experience so there are a certain amount of experiences that people need to get before they move onto the next level.

How does the role change over time?

That's one of the really great things about working in a large professional firm because it gives you so many options. You can stay front of line with clients, which I still am because I'm very much responsible for leading pitches, responsible for going out and speaking and getting feedback from our clients and I still do audit work. It also gives you the opportunity to go into management. We have graduates who have come in and decided they want to go into the marketing side of the profession, the people development side of the profession or indeed select one of the different service lines in the profession so they may have come in as an audit graduate then later gone into corporate finance or transferred into tax, consultancy or forensics so it really does give you a whole range of different types of career paths you can follow.

Is there scope for movement during or after this career?

If you want to take a break in accountancy, we have many people taking breaks because of maternity, because they want to take a break to spend more time with younger children. In fact I have a senior manager who's got a baby under one and he's decided to take a year out. I was actually invited into partnership when I was on maternity leave so it certainly isn't a barrier to your career within BDO. The skills are transferable, very much so. We have people transferring to all different service lines within the business and as I said earlier they may be going into marketing or people development but also many people transfer out into different roles in industry. Many people who come into the profession subsequently leave to join a particular company as a financial controller or finance director. I've chosen to stay in the profession and I suppose that comes from my personal preference because I really like dealing with the variety of different clients and different people I meet on a day to day basis.

What are the industry resources that someone interested in joining must know about?

Accountancy Age and Accountancy does give you some good insights into the profession and challenges and some of the key issues coming up but really in terms of our day to day roles and advisors of business it's really the general press and I think it's very important for people to read the general press because it keeps them up to date and it gives them a good awareness of the day to day issues that are facing our clients.

If you weren't in this career, what would you be doing?

I always wanted to have a role as a business advisor. I think I would have ended up somewhere in a professional services firm, whether that would have been law, which at one point I did consider, or accountancy or some form of other consultancy practice but I believe I would have ended up in the professional services.