Started at the bottom & walked up each & every step available.
Making the decision to change roles from Operational work to Compliance work was my first big step out of my comfort zone. This change of work was challenging but opened up so many future paths for career progression. More importantly it allowed me to learn new skills.
Once I was comfortable in my role & wiser to realise the skills I possessed, the next big move was joining a challenging tax professional course. This was a 2-year intense program of learning, exams & on the job training. This required a move of office & city; this challenged me personally as much a professionally and allowed me to grow in confidence exponentially.
After a number of roles as a compliance caseworker I took the step into management, realising that I am shaping the future of the department by passing on my own experience, mistakes I've made to aid my staff is the most rewarding experience of my career to date.
I am a Senior compliance manager of wonderful people.
I currently manage a team of mixed grade compliance officers who deal with varied, and complex enquires into the Wealthy population of HMRC. My people are required to produce accurate results, forecasting & technically proficient to HMRC standards. This in conjunction with demanding customers of significant wealth & influence who need to be managed firmly but respectfully.
My job is to ensure my team have everything they need to do this job without worrying about incidental requests, software issues/requirements, political demands & policy and budget issues.
I liaise with other managers, senior leader and external stakeholders to ensure that these issues don't impact the fine work that my team do on a daily basis.
I also make a great cup of tea.
I get to stand up for & support my Team when they need me most.
After having numerous years involved in multi aspects of compliance, ranging from Wealthy individuals, non-resident customers, counter avoidance issues & National Minimum Wage enquires into the country's largest employers I felt I needed to share this information & experience with colleagues.
The best position to do this is as a manager of a compliance team, I can support them on cases, identify learning & skill gaps but also make them aware of mistakes I personally made and how they can best avoid these.
This experience allows me to go to bat for my team and challenge on their behalf when they feel they might not have the experience or confidence to do so. But also allows me to challenge & push them to test their own boundaries.
Never be afraid to challenge or be challenged.
I have met & worked with so many people of the years in HMRC who have amazing ideas, wonderful insight & huge potential. However, a number of these people never get too been seen or heard because they don't feel confident enough to speak up. They my feel they aren't good enough, clever enough or they aren't a high enough grade.
Senior leaders in HMRC love a challenge, they love questions & discussion. As a manager my worse meetings are when no one has anything to say, tumbleweed moments.
Never be afraid to voice an opinion, if you have reasoning behind your thought or ideas then try and explain them as best you can. You may be wrong, no problem if you are, but you also more than likely will be right & people may be missing out on your wonderful ideas.
Failing my first technical exams. Then coming back and passing them.
The failure was a horrible, sombre & humbling moment. I thought my career was over, I was embarrassed to go back to colleagues and been seen as a failure.
However, once I settled myself & looked at the reasons why I failed, too cocky, not enough study & other personal issues I realised that I just needed to pick myself up again, apply myself to work & study correctly and I could do this again. And Succeed.
I worked hard, I reapplied for the course again & after 2 years passed my final exam. Happy & satisfied that it might have been tough, but it was worth it.
