Financial accounting: project assistant

James Donegan is a project assistant with the Metropolitan Police. He studied accounting and financial management at Loughborough University and is now studying for CIPFA qualification.

During my degree I had a year’s placement working for Caterpillar (a large international manufacturing company). I gained a lot of experience and could see the importance of the advice and information that the finance staff gave to the business to help them make decisions.

My job

Currently I am working in a project team within finance. I get to interact with people from all over the organisation and my skills are put to the test daily, giving me an opportunity to test out what I have learned and also quiz the tutors when I get back to studying! By working in this sector I feel I am playing a key role in helping deliver effective public services and I am giving something back to the community.

Qualifying

My employer pays for all my course and exam fees but they also give me day release to study for my qualification in work time. I chose CIPFA as it was the accountancy body that was most relevant to my career, providing practical learning with a broad range of topics. CIPFA is the only accountancy body that specialises in public services so it didn’t make sense to choose any other qualification.