Management accountant and CIMA student Adam Dovey was surprised by the variety of roles available for those studying the qualification. In this interview and video, he tells Velocity’s Victoria Dannreuther about his work at innovative creative design agency Weapon7.
How do your friends react when you tell them you are an accountant?
My friends are mostly surprised! I don’t always tell people I’m an accountant but focus on the fact that I work at a design agency.
I thought accountants worked in accountancy practices. I wasn’t aware of an accountancy position existing in a design agency such as this until I started looking at CIMA. Working on the qualification makes me feel a lot safer in this kind of role because it means I am qualified to do this job. It gives me more job security.
The CIMA qualification has a good career progression to it and has been really relevant to what I do. It’s sometimes hard to find the time to study, but when it is relevant to work, it is easier to learn.
Tell us about your role.
I am responsible for the P&L, balance sheet, day to day invoicing, POs and our cash flow. The most interesting project for our team recently was moving holding companies, which meant rebuilding and adjusting our reporting. Nothing teaches you better about your own accounts than having to restructure the reporting of them. You become much more aware of what is in there.
What’s it like working at a creative design agency?
Some of the strategic stuff is quite interesting even if I am not directly involved with it. It is interesting to know what the creatives are doing.
Weapon7 has a wide variety of clients – we’ve worked on computer games, Mercedes is a big client, [also] DHL, social media – and I like the informality of working in a design agency. No one sticks at their desk for too long.
I can pick up my laptop and do the accounts anywhere – in the kitchen or living room. (The agency was conceived by guys talking about it in their living room, and they wanted to keep that sense of home as part of the agency.) For me, doing quite a dry role as an accountant, it is nice to be in a creative atmosphere and get a bit of variety.
Weapon7 has a small finance team. Is that better than working in a bigger company?
Absolutely. It is nice working in a smaller company because I see every financial transaction that we make. In terms of experience that is fantastic because there is nothing in this business that I am not aware of. I don’t expect you would get that sort of exposure at a bigger agency.
Being in a small team has been good for my development because I am so close to the financial director. They stop and explain things that are new to me, and make sure that I am getting the progression I need and they are getting what they need from me. I think that would be lost in a bigger team.
It is nice getting exposure in the agency as well. The finance team doesn’t sit separately from the rest of the agency, we sit with everyone else.
Have the CIMA skills you are picking up helped to shape future career thoughts?
Studying has given me the confidence to keep my options open. The knowledge I’m getting in the course means that I know enough about general business, so I’ll be able to decide on a more analytical role or a more hands on role when I need to choose.
What do you think about the new CGMA qualification?
The new partnership will help the global recognition of the qualification and bring together the disciplines. I am an American citizen and if I ever worked in America, hopefully this new partnership will mean that the qualification will be better recognised than the single CIMA qualification.
Weapon7’s holding company is an American company, as are a lot of the ad agencies. Having a more global qualification will have more weight with them if they know what you are qualified in. The awareness can only be better for us.
Video
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