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.

My main responsibilities as a CF Executive are to be involved in all day-to-day aspects of a transaction process from the initial research and pitch process, right through to deal negotiation and completion of a transaction.

The types of transactions we undertake would typically be business disposals and acquisitions (M&A), MBOs and refinancing. A typical client would be larger, privately owned businesses (£10m+ revenue).

The day-to-day job is quite varied depending on what transactions we have on and what stage we are at in each, but an idea of typical day-to-day activities might include:

- research and pitch preparation
- writing investment proposals
- performing financial / business analysis in the context of a deal
- attending client meetings to discuss various aspects of a deal
- meeting with intermediaries (ie banks, solicitors, private equity)

I enjoy the day-to-day variability of the job and the challenges of working with largely owner-managed businesses and helping the shareholders of those business realise their strategic ambitions.

While I enjoy the day-to-day variability, the job does require you to self motivate and be a self starter. Pursuing and winning new work is a requirement, particularly as you progress.

I enjoyed training as an audit graduate and getting a grounding in understanding finance but was more interested in the business and financing element of companies, as opposed to the compliance and financial reporting nature of audit.

I am a chartered accountant having studied and completed the ACA qualification at Grant Thornton (3 years post graduation) on the Audit graduate scheme. The underlying knowledge of business and finance that this gives is essential to my job, as well as a wider business and market understanding which I acquired through my Economics degree.

After graduating I re-joined Grant Thornton in Sheffield having previously done a placement year with them in their audit department while at UoS and securing a job offer at the end of that placement year. I re-joined Grant Thornton as an Audit Associate in August 2015 and started my ACA qualification. I was ACA qualified by August 2017 and was promoted to an Audit Executive, at which point a vacancy arose in the Advisory team for a Corporate Finance Executive. I have been with the CF team since March 2018.

I see myself progressing as a Corporate Finance professional. I'm not currently planning on undertaking any immediate further professional qualifications but instead focus on developing by understanding and experience in Corporate Finance.

Nicholas John  BA Economics (2010)
Teacher of Economics and Business Studies  (Education)

Accepts questions from students about their career