My parents had returned to the UK in 1977, the year before I did, and my Dad said he was "semi-retired" at 51. They bought a small village grocery store in Norfolk, and my sister joined them, and they kept on a lady who had worked for the previous owners for many years so knew the ropes, and all the local customers! I don't think any of them imagined how hard running a village shop was, but everyone seemed to enjoy it - this was in the days before Sunday trading was prevalent, so it was only a 6-day a week job, though they all git an extra day off in the week (but Dad generally worked through most of his!).
The plan was that upon my return I would help out, while looking for a job in accountancy, though I soon realised that they really needed my help - Dad was the only driver back then, so had to do the weekly "cash and carry" runs on Monday, as well as the twice-weekly runs to the bank. The business was growing apace, mainly due to the fact that we were novices, so had no preconceptions, and provided the sort of service that we would have expected as customers - and it paid dividends! With 4 "partners" the business still was not really generating enough profit for all of us (Mum, Dad, my sister and me), despite the fact that we all lived in the attached house above/behind the shop.
I started putting out feelers, and had a few interviews, but soon realised a huge problem that I had not foreseen - in the UK manual accounts was a thing of the past, and my lack of computerised accounting experience was a huge issue! Time and again my lack of knowledge in that field was the stumbling block, and even though I was pitching for jobs well below my experience in other areas, I was being turned down - even for "starter" jobs, as I was "too old" - at 25!
The shop was actually a double-fronted one (it was a converted semi-detached house) and the other half we rented out to a hairdresser, and when she decided move on we looked for ways we could utilise that second shop to our advantage. Initially Dad was keen on a mini garden centre - he always had green fingers - but one of our grocery supply reps suggested a bakery! There was a national bread strike on at the time, and he serviced a couple of small bakeries and said they were doing extremely well. We all fell about laughing as we had no baking history in the family, but the idea caught on - it would complement the grocery business, and also provide a draw to a new customer base. I was tasked with doing some research - a feasibility study, if you like! Eventually I found a local bakery where they would "teach" me the ropes and after only two nights decided that we could make a success of it! To cut a long story short here is the link to that Opening a bakery which we opened in 1979, and traded very successfully alongside the grocery business, increasing shop turnover by an additional pound for every pound value of bread we sold as customers came for bakery goods, and bought other things in the shop!
My change in career direction from aspiring accountant to baker had been seamless, I really enjoyed baking - it was very satisfying to create something from raw materials rather than just being a small cog somewhere along a process! I did leave the family business briefly (for around 6 months) in 1982 for personal reasons, and got a job with a large UK supermarket chain as a trainee bakery manager - they used small-scale industrial processes, with machines doing most of the "manual" work, and with chemical additives to speed up the processing time, resulting in, at that time, a product that could not really be called "bread"! However I did return to the family business, and started developing the bakery side further, increasing our confectionery range.
In 1986 Dad decided to retire - he had turned 60 and discovered that he was no longer liable for capital gains tax on the sale of the business - and we (my sister and I) realised that we could not realistically keep the business going with just the two of us, if we lost half our labour force, as the cost of replacing both our parents' work contributions would be unsustainable, especially as they needed to withdraw capital also (so effectively we would have had to buy them out!) to buy a house to retire to. So the business was put up for sale. It did not take that long to find a buyer, either, and as part of the deal I agreed to stay on for up to 6 months to help with the transition (as he also had no prior grocery or bakery experience!)
Despite trying to convince the new owner that he, or a family member, should be the main baker - the most "expensive" job - he immediately started looking to employ a bakery manager (after offering it to me first!), who was being paid more than a partner's share had been under our ownership! He made quite a few more changes to the way the grocery business was run, too, most of which had a detrimental effect on customers, as prices started rising considerably. By the end of my 6 month "transition" I was pleased to be moving on, and embarked on another change of career - this time into engineering!!
Circumstances made me move to Brazil in 2009, and I spent 6 months of the year there, and the remaining time in Peru, until 2020 when the Covid hit, trapping me in Peru for 14 months, before I managed to return to the UK, where I now reside permanently. I see the world through slightly rose-tinted glasses, but maybe because I have been fortunate in not suffering too many hardships along the way, and maintaining an optimistic, but realistic outlook on life.
Thursday 9 January 2020
Choosing a career - Part 2
That first year of accountancy in Beira, Mozambique, was awesome - the work was interesting (I know that accountancy has a reputation for being boring, but not to those who work in that field!), and I got to visit some amazing places as part of the job. We used to fly to clients in distant parts of the country, all expenses paid, including an "out of town" allowance (which paid for drinks!!), though we had to work long hours - often finishing after 22.00, returning to work after our dinner - to minimise the amount of time we were away, and always flying back home for the weekends.
At the end of that year I managed to get a transfer to our Johannesburg, South Africa, office. Independence was looming in Mozambique and an uncertain future, so I requested a transfer and set off on a new adventure. Johannesburg was, however, for an "outsider" a nightmare place to live. I knew no-one, and though the work was still interesting, I felt incredibly lonely - more so than I have ever felt in my life, before or since. Our firm was taken over by a larger firm of accountants, and we all were feeling a bit lost in the new organisation. Some of our senior staff members were "demoted" to semi-senior (each team consisted of a senior (a qualified accountant), a semi-senior (often time served but not yet qualified), and a junior (still in articles), but the team I was allocated was headed by an office manager (our senior, who only occasionally came on the audits), Vincent, who was time served and waiting to take his final exams, and me. It meant that Vincent and I were often the only two at the client's premises, so Vincent was doing the "senior" role, and I was doing a combination of "junior" and "semi-senior", despite my relatively novice status in terms of time served. I was more than up to the task, and was treated almost like an equal, even when Bill, our team leader, did turn up! It did mean that I was learning far more quickly than my peers, and proving my abilities.
I still hated living in Johannesburg, though, and towards the end of that year put in for a transfer to our offices in Durban. I had spent my university years in Pietermaritzburg, some 45 miles from Durban, and still had many friends there, so felt that the move would be good for me. Two days after my request was submitted, Bill - my team leader and one of the office managers - called me in and told me he had denied the request - he felt that I had so much potential that Johannesburg was a better place for me, than a "provincial" city like Durban. I was extremely flattered, especially as Bill was dry-humoured Scotsman not given to lavishing praise on anyone, but I explained that I was unhappy living in Johannesburg, and that I just felt I could not remain there, so would probably leave anyway. The following day my transfer was approved, thanks to Bill, but he stressed that I was always welcome back on his team in Jo'burg!!
There followed two and a half wonderful years in Durban. I continued to progress ahead of my peers, helped in no small part by the fact that I was always willing to take on travelling audits, even from other sections, something many of the young auditors in Durban were unwilling to undertake. Working in an unfamiliar team worked in my favour, too, as they treated me as a more senior member than my "time served", and I always stepped up to the plate and out-performed my peers.
My progress with the university qualification was slow-going - distance learning was not as easy as attending the local university, but was a lot cheaper, though still a strain on my articled salary. I arrived in Durban earning more than similar time served colleagues (and more than the "recommended" salary suggested by the Accountancy Board), and my pay had been frozen for 18 months, so 12 months after arriving in Durban I spoke to the staff partner about cancelling my articles, and giving up aspirations of qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, as the financial cost at that stage was too much for me. I was offered a 2 year interest-free loan, but would have been in the same position the following year, with new fees due, and still a year left on this year's loan! I intended to swap to a Chartered Secretary qualification (more of a Bookkeeping qualification, but still a serious accountancy qualification - and the one held by my team leader/office manager in Durban), and eventually they agreed to this, and rewarded me with a very substantial pay rise! As I was now out of Articles my pay grade and promotion within the firm was no longer limited by the Accountancy Board rules, and I soon was leading some small audits of my own, and being relied on very heavily by my direct manager - I was always prepared to put myself out, and test my limits, and he appreciated not having to "supervise" me any more.
At the end of 1977 it had been three years since I had seen my family, who had now returned to the UK, and keeping in touch not nearly so easy as now. Mail took around 3 weeks, so urgent communications were either by Telex or Telegram, as phone calls were very expensive, and not that reliable. I was considering a holiday in 1978 to see them, but the cost was a major stumbling block, so I was also wondering whether a permanent move back to the UK might be advisable, continuing my accountancy career there. South Africa was also by then heading towards independence and a somewhat uncertain future for "whites", especially foreigners, so it was possibly a good time to consider a move. I was in a quandary - if I went for a holiday and liked it the cost of returning to Durban, packing up, and then relocating to the UK was prohibitive, so in the end I decided to make the move when my holiday was due, and so in May 1978, I left Durban, and Africa, and my burgeoning career, and returned to the UK.
At the end of that year I managed to get a transfer to our Johannesburg, South Africa, office. Independence was looming in Mozambique and an uncertain future, so I requested a transfer and set off on a new adventure. Johannesburg was, however, for an "outsider" a nightmare place to live. I knew no-one, and though the work was still interesting, I felt incredibly lonely - more so than I have ever felt in my life, before or since. Our firm was taken over by a larger firm of accountants, and we all were feeling a bit lost in the new organisation. Some of our senior staff members were "demoted" to semi-senior (each team consisted of a senior (a qualified accountant), a semi-senior (often time served but not yet qualified), and a junior (still in articles), but the team I was allocated was headed by an office manager (our senior, who only occasionally came on the audits), Vincent, who was time served and waiting to take his final exams, and me. It meant that Vincent and I were often the only two at the client's premises, so Vincent was doing the "senior" role, and I was doing a combination of "junior" and "semi-senior", despite my relatively novice status in terms of time served. I was more than up to the task, and was treated almost like an equal, even when Bill, our team leader, did turn up! It did mean that I was learning far more quickly than my peers, and proving my abilities.
I still hated living in Johannesburg, though, and towards the end of that year put in for a transfer to our offices in Durban. I had spent my university years in Pietermaritzburg, some 45 miles from Durban, and still had many friends there, so felt that the move would be good for me. Two days after my request was submitted, Bill - my team leader and one of the office managers - called me in and told me he had denied the request - he felt that I had so much potential that Johannesburg was a better place for me, than a "provincial" city like Durban. I was extremely flattered, especially as Bill was dry-humoured Scotsman not given to lavishing praise on anyone, but I explained that I was unhappy living in Johannesburg, and that I just felt I could not remain there, so would probably leave anyway. The following day my transfer was approved, thanks to Bill, but he stressed that I was always welcome back on his team in Jo'burg!!
There followed two and a half wonderful years in Durban. I continued to progress ahead of my peers, helped in no small part by the fact that I was always willing to take on travelling audits, even from other sections, something many of the young auditors in Durban were unwilling to undertake. Working in an unfamiliar team worked in my favour, too, as they treated me as a more senior member than my "time served", and I always stepped up to the plate and out-performed my peers.
My progress with the university qualification was slow-going - distance learning was not as easy as attending the local university, but was a lot cheaper, though still a strain on my articled salary. I arrived in Durban earning more than similar time served colleagues (and more than the "recommended" salary suggested by the Accountancy Board), and my pay had been frozen for 18 months, so 12 months after arriving in Durban I spoke to the staff partner about cancelling my articles, and giving up aspirations of qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, as the financial cost at that stage was too much for me. I was offered a 2 year interest-free loan, but would have been in the same position the following year, with new fees due, and still a year left on this year's loan! I intended to swap to a Chartered Secretary qualification (more of a Bookkeeping qualification, but still a serious accountancy qualification - and the one held by my team leader/office manager in Durban), and eventually they agreed to this, and rewarded me with a very substantial pay rise! As I was now out of Articles my pay grade and promotion within the firm was no longer limited by the Accountancy Board rules, and I soon was leading some small audits of my own, and being relied on very heavily by my direct manager - I was always prepared to put myself out, and test my limits, and he appreciated not having to "supervise" me any more.
At the end of 1977 it had been three years since I had seen my family, who had now returned to the UK, and keeping in touch not nearly so easy as now. Mail took around 3 weeks, so urgent communications were either by Telex or Telegram, as phone calls were very expensive, and not that reliable. I was considering a holiday in 1978 to see them, but the cost was a major stumbling block, so I was also wondering whether a permanent move back to the UK might be advisable, continuing my accountancy career there. South Africa was also by then heading towards independence and a somewhat uncertain future for "whites", especially foreigners, so it was possibly a good time to consider a move. I was in a quandary - if I went for a holiday and liked it the cost of returning to Durban, packing up, and then relocating to the UK was prohibitive, so in the end I decided to make the move when my holiday was due, and so in May 1978, I left Durban, and Africa, and my burgeoning career, and returned to the UK.
Friday 3 January 2020
Choosing a career - Part 1
Choosing your future career is a really big deal - it could be the job you are going to be doing for the next 40 years or so, so is not something to take on lightly. I know that it is always possible to change your mind, and your career path, at any stage in your life, but since some careers require years of study and then specialised training (medicine, law, etc.) making the right choice as early as possible is quite important.
When I was young I wanted to be a vet - I have always loved animals, and felt that working with them would be great, but the realisation that sometimes you might have to euthanize them, or deal with horrific injuries, something I didn't think I could cope with emotionally, changed my mind. I considered marine biology, something I am still very interested in, but I have a fair skin that burns very easily (and very badly!) and decided that an outdoor water-based career was probably not a good idea. That was about as far as my career plans went until I was in my mid-teens.
At school we studied a variety of subjects until "O" (ordinary) level, and then switched to just 3 subjects for "A" (advanced) level, and generally these three were subjects required for the degree we planned to study at university, and this degree was going to be the foundation of our career path, so by "O" level we were supposed to have a good idea of what we wanted to do. I had no idea at all by then! A year before "O" level we were interviewed by a Careers Master who talked through our options, but for a few of us, like me, we sat an aptitude test to help with our career decision.
This test consisted of about 100 multiple choice questions, with things like: What would you rather do? 1. Cook a meal, 2. Read a book, 3. Play sport, and we had to stick a pin through the box next to our selected answer. Turning over the paper at the end (the Careers Master did this) the pinholes had made a pattern on the back, they actually corresponded to points on a graph, and this was supposed to indicate where our strengths lay. Mine was pretty much a flat line! This meant I showed no particular tendencies, preferences or strengths, and was of no help whatsoever! I was told, however, that this was no problem and that we could revisit it a year later on completion of "O" level.
I loved languages, and had an aptitude for maths, but my shyness made me disregard a teaching career, and I could not really see many options open to me. My father was an accountant, so I was gravitating towards that, following in his footsteps, but with no particular enthusiasm at that stage, though by the time I re-sat the aptitude test - a different one - my responses were slightly more focused and indicated that a career in accountancy might be a good choice! English and Maths were pretty much pre-requisites for a degree leading to an accountancy qualification, so that was easy, but selecting the third "A" level subject was proving difficult. I wanted to do French, but it was what they called a "subject block" meaning that, due to insufficient teachers at our relatively small school, French and Maths could not be taken together (at least the year I, and two others, wanted to do them!) - and my other options were limited to History and Geography! I had not taken either subject up to "O" level, and neither held much interest for me, but I chose History, though swapped to Geography after one term as I was struggling and not enjoying History, though didn't fare much better with Geography either!
The first year (of 3) at University studying for a Bachelor of Commerce degree - with a BComm you still had to do 3 years "articles" with a firm of chartered accountants before sitting your board exam - was tough. Subjects like Accountancy, Economics and Business Law were new to all of us (Maths and English made up the other two), and at first might as well have been Chinese. I was really struggling, especially with Law, and at the end of the first year was not doing well, and decided to change track the following year to a Bachelor of Arts with a view to teaching Modern Languages.
Subjects for year 2 were English, French, German (never done it before!) and Psychology (again new to me!), with Maths thrown in as my 5th! I was not totally sold on the idea of teaching, but basically had chosen subjects I felt I could do well in, and then looked at careers' options using those! It was not a good basis for a degree path, and I did not, to my sham, try very hard that year either. I have always had an aptitude for languages and my German professor could not believe I had no prior knowledge, as I picked up the basics very easily, but Psychology was another mystery to me - I prefer right or wrong answers rather than different interpretations!
At the end of year two I dropped out of University and decided to join a firm of Chartered Accountants, going the longer route to qualification - 5 years articles while doing a degree through distance learning (UNISA - University of South Africa), and I wished I had considered this before, because actually working with real life accounts it all made sense rather than the theoretical work in a classroom! I started work in Beira, Mozambique, for the firm that used to audit the company my father worked for, and soon discovered that I had a real aptitude for the work, despite the fact that I was having to speak Portuguese (my second language that I have been speaking since I was 7!) and learn the terminology in a foreign tongue!
When I was young I wanted to be a vet - I have always loved animals, and felt that working with them would be great, but the realisation that sometimes you might have to euthanize them, or deal with horrific injuries, something I didn't think I could cope with emotionally, changed my mind. I considered marine biology, something I am still very interested in, but I have a fair skin that burns very easily (and very badly!) and decided that an outdoor water-based career was probably not a good idea. That was about as far as my career plans went until I was in my mid-teens.
At school we studied a variety of subjects until "O" (ordinary) level, and then switched to just 3 subjects for "A" (advanced) level, and generally these three were subjects required for the degree we planned to study at university, and this degree was going to be the foundation of our career path, so by "O" level we were supposed to have a good idea of what we wanted to do. I had no idea at all by then! A year before "O" level we were interviewed by a Careers Master who talked through our options, but for a few of us, like me, we sat an aptitude test to help with our career decision.
This test consisted of about 100 multiple choice questions, with things like: What would you rather do? 1. Cook a meal, 2. Read a book, 3. Play sport, and we had to stick a pin through the box next to our selected answer. Turning over the paper at the end (the Careers Master did this) the pinholes had made a pattern on the back, they actually corresponded to points on a graph, and this was supposed to indicate where our strengths lay. Mine was pretty much a flat line! This meant I showed no particular tendencies, preferences or strengths, and was of no help whatsoever! I was told, however, that this was no problem and that we could revisit it a year later on completion of "O" level.
I loved languages, and had an aptitude for maths, but my shyness made me disregard a teaching career, and I could not really see many options open to me. My father was an accountant, so I was gravitating towards that, following in his footsteps, but with no particular enthusiasm at that stage, though by the time I re-sat the aptitude test - a different one - my responses were slightly more focused and indicated that a career in accountancy might be a good choice! English and Maths were pretty much pre-requisites for a degree leading to an accountancy qualification, so that was easy, but selecting the third "A" level subject was proving difficult. I wanted to do French, but it was what they called a "subject block" meaning that, due to insufficient teachers at our relatively small school, French and Maths could not be taken together (at least the year I, and two others, wanted to do them!) - and my other options were limited to History and Geography! I had not taken either subject up to "O" level, and neither held much interest for me, but I chose History, though swapped to Geography after one term as I was struggling and not enjoying History, though didn't fare much better with Geography either!
The first year (of 3) at University studying for a Bachelor of Commerce degree - with a BComm you still had to do 3 years "articles" with a firm of chartered accountants before sitting your board exam - was tough. Subjects like Accountancy, Economics and Business Law were new to all of us (Maths and English made up the other two), and at first might as well have been Chinese. I was really struggling, especially with Law, and at the end of the first year was not doing well, and decided to change track the following year to a Bachelor of Arts with a view to teaching Modern Languages.
Subjects for year 2 were English, French, German (never done it before!) and Psychology (again new to me!), with Maths thrown in as my 5th! I was not totally sold on the idea of teaching, but basically had chosen subjects I felt I could do well in, and then looked at careers' options using those! It was not a good basis for a degree path, and I did not, to my sham, try very hard that year either. I have always had an aptitude for languages and my German professor could not believe I had no prior knowledge, as I picked up the basics very easily, but Psychology was another mystery to me - I prefer right or wrong answers rather than different interpretations!
At the end of year two I dropped out of University and decided to join a firm of Chartered Accountants, going the longer route to qualification - 5 years articles while doing a degree through distance learning (UNISA - University of South Africa), and I wished I had considered this before, because actually working with real life accounts it all made sense rather than the theoretical work in a classroom! I started work in Beira, Mozambique, for the firm that used to audit the company my father worked for, and soon discovered that I had a real aptitude for the work, despite the fact that I was having to speak Portuguese (my second language that I have been speaking since I was 7!) and learn the terminology in a foreign tongue!
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