Rising through the ranks

By Craig Spratt

The culture of support and development at LB is well known, and I’ve seen it first hand. As one of a number of the senior team who has come up through the ranks at LB, I know just how much the company focuses on giving opportunities for staff to grow.

I joined LB in 2012 as a newly qualified senior. The impact was immediate. I came from a small firm and quickly noticed the step up in the level and expertise of the work at LB, as well as how the role was far more client-facing and consultative with each of the clients than I’d had before. It was a fantastic challenge.

Over my first couple of years in the role, I experienced just how LB earned their reputation as a training firm. The senior team were always thinking of how to structure client teams, projects and specialisms so that myself and others could broaden our experience and gain exposure to different client issues and accounting concepts. It’s a mindset I’ll always remember, and one I always try and replicate for my team now.

I became a joint manager soon after and worked with my fellow manager to provide the right solutions for our range of clients – including how to introduce new technologies to simplify and speed up a range of the accounting and tax responsibilities they have in their businesses. There are always new developments and things to learn both individually and as a team at LB.

This has been an important element of my own career path, as well as the paths of others from my team that I’ve been fortunate to be able to help with as I’ve moved up through the ranks here. Not only are there a number of qualification and formal training avenues that the company will support you to take, but also opportunities to be exposed to different clients and industries, and to find specialisms and areas of interest for people to make their own unique career plan.

This was encouraged to me when I joined, and it’s something I can now help others with – whether they are straight out of education, or a more senior person looking to revitalise their career in the industry. I certainly feel I’ve learned a lot from other people’s motivations and some of the new ideas they can bring – and that culture of sharing ideas will never go from LB.

My latest step on the ladder was to become an associate director last year, and at these higher levels the training and support hasn’t stopped. As I’ve moved to a more strategic position, I’ve had a range of mentoring support and personal training to enhance the new set of skills I’ll need in order to represent LB and our clients in this new capacity.

And I haven’t stopped having goals for myself either – which is something really important that I’ve seen from my first day at LB. I’m working towards becoming a director, learning new things from colleagues, clients and the industry that will help me to play my part in LB’s future.