We’re starting 2021 with some good news. Jaspreet Lally is the latest team member to pass her final ACA exams and is officially a Chartered Accountant!
We asked Jaspreet about her experience working towards her chartership over the last three years and what her future plans are.
If you’re thinking of becoming an accountant yourself, this should give you a flavour of what the process is like…
Hi Jaspreet, firstly, congratulations on passing your final ACA exams – you’re a chartered accountant! How does it feel?
Amazing! Kind of surreal! It’s been a personal goal and target for so long I can’t believe I’ve finally done it!
Tell us about your Blu Sky journey so far…
I started at Blu Sky over 3 years ago now and its flown by so fast! Seems like yesterday I had my first interview.
Before I started I had quite a few interviews and Blu Sky really stood out from everyone else. They seemed really chilled, and were the only place where people wore hoodies! I just got a really good feeling about them, and liked the type of clients they worked with too.
When I first started at Blu Sky I spent a little over a year learning and working on things like bookkeeping, payroll, management accounts, and learning from others in the team.
So by the time I started studying for my ACA I already had quite a bit of experience that some of the others on my course weren’t lucky enough to have.
Since then it’s been great to gain experience of so many different areas of accounting. The clients at Blu Sky are so interesting and varied and it’s been nice to see some of them grow up from start ups over the years.
Why did you want to become an accountant?
I always liked working with numbers so it seemed like a natural path for me.
I went to Newcastle University to study maths and economics, then did a graduate diploma in accounting, business and finance which gave me a lot of exemptions for the ACA as well.
It gave me the knowledge that I definitely wanted to go into accounting before I got the job.
I also love helping people and I knew I would be able to help businesses to grow – which I’ve definitely been able to do since joining Blu Sky.
What was your favourite part of studying to become a chartered accountant?
How much more confident it makes you! When you learn something for the exams and you can relate it directly to a client is great. I liked gaining the knowledge that I knew would help me to be better day-to-day.
It’s been great to be able to answer client questions myself rather than passing them on to someone higher up, because I now have the knowledge and confidence to give our clients the good advice they need.
What was the most challenging part of your studies?
It was hard at first to balance study with work but I think the most challenging part has to be this year. With the pandemic and everything switching to working from home and online learning. Normally I’d go in to college and see the other people I was studying with, ask other students or speak with my tutors, so when it went to online it was quite hard to make the transition.
At times it was hard to stay motivated but I had lots of support around me which helped me through. It was also good to talk to others in the team who had already completed their ACA as they were able to give me advice too.
Any advice for aspiring accountants out there?
Everyone always says these are the hardest exams you’ll ever do, and they’re right! But keep working hard and it’ll all be worth it in the end to get those three letters after your name.
What does the future hold for you?
Lots of opportunities! ACA has opened a lot of doors for me.
I’ve found it hard to think about what I’m going to do after as I was so focused on achieving my ACA – so I need to decide which specialism I want to go into.
Blu Sky have been really good at letting me take my time to decide what specialism I want to go into. So I’m going to spend a bit more time working in the areas I’m more interested in before finally deciding on a specialism.
