Career Journeys - Clare De Arostegui

What inspired you to pursue your current path?

I actually have a degree in Geography (I was swayed by the field trips!) but I had contemplated accountancy as a potential career as I’ve always liked numbers and logic. When I was finishing my degree, I decided I wanted to work in London and there were lots of opportunities to train as an accountant there; as it was a profession that had always appealed, I gave it a go! I applied to train as an accountant and was lucky enough to get an offer from PricewaterhouseCoopers to train in their London audit practice. 

Describe a typical day.

Every day can be quite different. I can usually guarantee having a least one meeting but the purpose of the meeting can be very varied.  Sometimes it is meeting with my finance leadership team to ensure we are agreed on our current priorities in finance, it can be an Investment Board where we decide what projects (digital, estate or people) we wish to invest in, or it could be a formal Board meeting where I present the financial position of the university to the Board of Governors. 

My typical day also varies according to the time of year, in March and April I tend to busy looking at the financial outlook for the next five years as we look to set the budget for the next financial year (our financial year runs from 1 August to 31st July). In September and October, we are focused on getting ready for our year-end audit. This is when an external audit firm comes in and reviews our financial results for the last year to ensure they give a true and fair view of the university’s financial position. 

What three words best sum up your career so far?

 Loved every second! 

What advice would you give someone considering a role in your field?

Don’t worry about what your background is. Doing a business or finance degree can be helpful, (as it gets you exemptions from some of the accountancy exams), but it is not essential. You don’t even need a degree, there are opportunities to work in finance straight from school and you can progress as you gain experience and get your qualifications as you work. 

You do need to be confident with numbers as you will use them every day but it is only part of the job. You also need to be good at communication as you’ll need to write reports, explain financial matters to non-finance specialists and build relationships across the organisation you work in to ensure finance is providing the support and service needed.  

I would recommend finance, my career to date has been varied and interesting and I am still learning!