Oliver Jordan

I’m lucky that I knew early on what I wanted to do for work. I met my first employer when I was at school – he drove up in a Jaguar and that was my mind, settled.

I’ve always been good at maths and I studied a business and financial studies BTEC at college. Although my older brother went to university, I decided that I could achieve what I wanted more efficiently by going straight into work.

So, having done my Level 3 AAT accounting qualifications at college, I was taken on straight out of college by a small firm near my home in Cullompton, in Devon. I stayed with them for a couple of years, passed my Level 4, then was taken on as an apprentice at Haines Watts in Bristol in 2019.

It was quite a big jump to move from a practice dealing with sole traders and microbusinesses, to living in a new city and working with bigger firms. Even though Haines Watts is a small business specialist, the work here is on a larger scale.

Everyone at the office made it really easy to integrate. There were training plans and mentoring schemes in place, so all the right structures were here to make my progress as easy as possible.

And I quickly learned that although I was working for larger companies, with bigger processes going on, the theories and principles are all the same. That’s something which gives you a lot of confidence and helps your perspectives to widen.

Three years later and, having moved on to the three-year ACA course when I arrived here, I am now exam qualified.

It’s been the quickest possible route, sitting my exams while currently gaining professional experience.

I’m only 26 and free of university debt. Of course I’m really grateful to Haines Watts for the support they’ve given me. With training on the job it’s been a brilliant platform from which to start my career. Hopefully I’m repaying the trust and the investment that they’ve put into my development.

Do I feel like I missed out? Not really. I’ve been able to socialise with friendship groups I’ve met through work, and of course I’ve had more money to spend than I would have done as a student or a university graduate. There’s so much to do in Bristol so I feel like I’ve been able to really enjoy my early twenties.

And the work is fascinating. I really like working directly with business owners – in fact it’s a real key feature of this job because you’re almost like a business adviser. Even as a junior member of the team you get exposure to the more important elements of the work, rather than just being given admin roles like you might do in a bigger company.

Outside work, I do a lot of walking and every month I walk to the top of Pen-y-Fan in the Brecon Beacons. I’m trying a different route each time – I guess it’s another way of showing there are many ways of getting to where you want to be.