Career Insights: Adam Stephenson
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| Adam and his partner Gemma in Iceland |
Adam
Stephenson is a European Management Accountant and has been at our Bridgehead
offices for five years. In his spare time he’s an Assistant Scout Leader, runs a
table-top gaming club in the centre of Hull, and refers to himself as a massive
Star Wars geek. We caught up with him to have a chat about his role, career progression
and future plans within SGS Packaging Europe.
When
he first started at the company, Adam was employed as an accounts assistant
working on the purchase ledger, which involved processing all of the invoices the
office receives from its suppliers. Over time, our company grew and Adam became
a credit controller, looking after one of our major customers.
Since
then, Adam’s ambition and drive has led to the completion of his CIMA
qualification and he’s been a management accountant for over two and a half
years.
“My day-to-day role involves supporting both the credit control and purchase ledger teams,” he tells us. “I complete cashflow forecasts and provide detailed information to managers that helps them to make informed financial decisions.”
Adam
is also involved in training groups of colleagues to fully understand our digital
resources. This responsibility has seen him recently training a team in our
Hong Kong office on effective use of the company’s accounts system.
We
also asked him about his favourite part of working at SGS: “I'm surrounded by a
great team and get to work with people all around the world. I'm lucky that I
get to travel to the other sites around the UK and meet people all over the business.
I'm hoping to travel abroad with work over the coming years.”
Adam
points out that the management team at SGS has recognised the changing way that
people around the world buy things, how this affects our customers, and the impact
it will have on how we operate: “This way of forward thinking is causing
exciting changes within the business! The company also has a big focus on HR
and training. They sponsored me through my CIMA qualification for three years
and are now putting me through a CMI qualification.”
With
any evolving role there are always challenges and Adam’s is no exception: “On
my first day working in the credit control department, the person who was
supposed to be training me went on long-term leave. With the team only having three
credit controllers to start with, I really had to hit the ground running!”
He
adds that it was a challenge learning the advanced software and working in an
entirely new role, but that it really gave him the chance to get to know the
business and develop his own style of working. Our company culture has a strong
focus on offering support and guidance as well as ensuring ownership over
responsibilities, with Adam being a prime example of how an individual can
progress in their career very quickly.
And
his journey is far from its end, as Adam has many more goals to tick off his
list: “I plan to continue developing my skills as a Management Accountant and
progress through my CMI qualification. I'd also like to gain the experience required
to become a Qualified Chartered Global Management Accountant.”
Finally,
we asked Adam what he would say to someone considering a role at SGS in order
to motivate them to apply, and we loved his answer: “DO IT! SGS is a supportive
environment with bold ideas in a fast-moving consumer-driven environment.
Joining the company is the best thing I ever did!
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