Having studied languages at Durham, I've now started my career in Tax.
For A Levels, I studied Spanish, English, Maths and Geography, with a view to study law at university. However, I found I enjoyed Spanish A level so much, that I ended up applying for Spanish and Italian at Durham University. I spent a wonderful 4 years at Durham, including a year abroad in Barcelona and Siena.
Throughout school and university, I mainly did work experience related to commercial law.
During my third year, I was looking at EY's careers site and decided that I was interested in learning more about Tax, as it seemed to have some similarities to Law. I applied for the Tax Summer Internship and loved both the firm's culture and the work itself.
Now, I have been working at EY for 1.5 years in the Tax - Global Compliance and Reporting team.
Assistant Tax Advisor
I have now been at EY for 1.5 years, and have spent that time within our Global Reporting & Compliance team in our Financial Services office.
I do both tax audits and tax compliance. For tax audits, I work on large banks and asset managers. For tax compliance, I specialize in Wealth & Asset Management and Real Estate clients. In particular, I really enjoy REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) and NRL (Non-Resident Landlord) compliance/tax regimes, and have started looking at QAHCs (Qualifying Asset Holding Company) more recently.
My day to day includes reviewing client-provided information, being the client contact for my engagements, doing tax technical work and research and a variety of other things - no day is ever the same!
Developing my own tax knowledge while assisting our clients
I came into this job with zero knowledge of tax, accounting or finance. When I started, I felt like I had a lot of catching up to do! However, for me, the process of learning and developing is part of the fun. I love that in the 1.5 years I've been at EY, not one day has gone past where I haven't learnt something new, or at least consolidated my understanding of a new concept.
An understanding of corporate tax is a unique skill that is employable in many different scenarios and jobs. As they say, the only two certainties in life are taxes and death! For those are motivated by the intellectual challenge and an ever-changing landscape, tax provides an exciting career path.
Take note of your skills and leverage them in the workplace
Everyone has certain personality traits or skills which they develop throughout school or university, which they might not even be aware of - they do not have to be technical/academic! Soft skills are so important in the world of work, and it's important to reflect on what you are good at and what sort of roles will sort this skill set.
For example, if you're a friendly person who is good at making others feel comfortable, a client facing role might suit you better. On the other hand, if you have high organizational skills, you might excel in a job where you work on several projects/clients at one time.
It might seem obvious, but excelling at work, especially in your first few years, is usually much more to do with your personality than your technical knowledge or understanding. Find a job where the working style comes naturally to you, and you'll be able to dedicate more effort to learning and developing.
Developing my portfolio to include a variety of clients
In my first year at EY, I went from being assigned to two audits only to having a portfolio of 15 clients, including coordination, compliance and audit clients. I have in particular built up my Real Estate compliance clients to a point where I am now stepping up into a senior/reviewer role on these accounts, managing junior team members and being the main client contact. This has accelerated my development, meant I now get to work with fantastic people and am genuinely enjoying the work I do. My industry knowledge is growing every day and I am increasingly able to support our clients with the unique challenges faced in the Real Estate sector.
