Ashleigh Gurney, 26, began her career at Deloitte as a trainee analyst in the Brisbane office in 2009, while completing her university studies. She stayed with Deloitte Australia until 2015 before moving to the UK to become an audit manager in the firm’s London office. In September 2017, she was promoted to senior manager in the investment management and private equity group within the audit practice.

What made you want to go into audit?

I have always been interested in business and finance but wanted to do something where I could learn more about accounting, so I choose to go into audit.

Do you have any regrets?

Definitely not. I started at Deloitte Australia when I was 18 on its trainee programme and have been working at the firm for a long time now. I have learnt so much in that time and I would not do anything differently.

What is the biggest challenge you have faced?

Studying and working at the same time was definitely a challenge but there is a culture at Deloitte where your own development and professional learning is a priority so that made it a lot easier to deal with.

More recently, working towards my audit manager promotion, where I faced the challenge of taking on new roles etc.

Why have you stayed at Deloitte?

I have enjoyed that everyone I work with is young, equally ambitious and always up for learning and furthering their career. Another aspect is the career progression opportunities as I have never felt stagnated or that I haven’t been learning. I am not the same person that I was when I was 18, I have grown so much as a person and as a professional.

What qualifications do you have?

When I first started at Deloitte I was doing my undergraduate degree in business and accounting, when I finished that I completed my professional qualification as a chartered accountant in Australia.

How did you get to current position?

There has been some clear skills that I have had to learn and demonstrate to be able to be an audit manager eg, being able to work with people and be skilled across a wide range of areas, not just technically.

My qualifications help with the technical side but as an audit manager you need to be able to extend theses skills beyond technical knowledge. The people skills which I developed and have been able to demonstrate is what got me to the position of audit manager.

What is the most important skill to have?

That’s a tricky one because I would not be where I am today without the technical skills, but my role now involves a lot more people and leadership skills. The technical skills are needed to get people into senior roles but from then on people skills are used more frequently.

What’s your dream role?

This goes without saying, I would love to become an audit partner one day.

What is your least favourite part of the job?

Sometimes the day to day tasks in audit can be mundane. Coming through the rankings you get to learn new things and take on different roles so you don’t end up doing the same things you would have done as a graduate.

Are you worried about automation?

I actually see it as a great opportunity as it takes all of those mundane tasks out of the job. People will be able to do the more interesting aspects of audit earlier on in their career. The things that we can automated are the tasks that people don’t necessarily enjoy doing.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

Well I wonder if I can make it to partner in five years. If you asked me five years ago whether I would be living and working in London I would have never dreamed that it would have been possible.

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