Even though many of our graduates will have progressed in their careers since completing a case study, they are still of interest to students who wish to gain an understanding of the world of work.

I am part of the Regional Operational Restructuring team within Business Recovery Services in the Midlands region at PwC.

I am based in the Birmingham office and typically work with companies with turnover of £20m+

Depending on the project I am working on I could be on a client site involved in improving an element of their operations. Recent examples are working with a credit control team to improve their processes so that they can collect more cash or project managing a number of different teams towards a large organisational restructure.

Other projects could include administrations where a company has failed and needs to go through a formal process with parts of the business sold or possibly closed down completely.

The variety of different work is probably the best thing about my job. Although some projects may last 6 months it is rare that the next project is similar to the previous one.

Travel and time away from home can be difficult but the work is rewarding so it is worth the trade off.

I started in insolvency as it offered a route to professional qualifications. Since I became a qualified accountant I wanted to use my qualifications on a more regular basis so became involved in the operational restructuring type of projects as well.

I am a member of the Association of Accountancy Technicians (AAT) and Associataion of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA). In more recent projects i have also found that my Management degree and the organisational behaviour elements of this have also come in useful.

I received support for AAT in my previous job with a similar firm and ACCA with Grant Thornton. In due course I shall also be supported through insolvency qualifications.

AAT- Basic Accountancy Qualification. Gained while at Zolfo Cooper.

ACCA - Full Professional qualification gained during my time at Grant Thornton

While at Zolfo Cooper I dealt with large scale insolvencies such as XL Airways.

At Grant Thornton I concentrated more on Tax Fraud cases.

Working at PwC has been a mix of insolvencies such as Phones 4 U and Brantano and advisory type work at General Electric and Travis Perkins amongst others.

I could look to specialise in insolvency and take formal insolvency exams with the JIEB or I could concentrate more on operational restructuring where project management qualifications may be more useful.

Students should look ahead to any professional qualifications they may want to do and ensure any exemptions are claimed by doing the correct modules at university.

Also, not to be afraid to try something for a couple of years to gain experience. Any experience gained can be used to your advantage at a later point in time if it is adding to your skillset.