The support is there to help you embrace the challenge.

Hitting the ground running – training with ifac’s Graduate Programme

I always knew of ifac, and when I went looking for my first role, they were definitely the first place I applied to. I looked at a few industry accountants, but my key interest was around the whole area of tax, and I knew I wouldn’t get the same exposure to tax cases in industry but with ifac I could get a little bit of everything.

We got very good training, but the biggest benefit was the open-door policy. I realised within the first couple of months that you can go to anyone in the office with any question and from then on, I knew this was going to be a great place to work.

So many avenues for growth

Coming up through the graduate programme everything is new at first, but between the training and the support you get over the three years, you gain so much experience. Then as I finished up my training, I started to look for positions coming up in the tax department. 

I knew that was where my interest lay from day one, but with ifacthere’s so many different areas – you have four or five different avenues you could go from the graduate programme. When the opportunity came up to work with the tax department there were no issues whatsoever in providing support to continue my training and tackle the tax exams to get me to where I wanted to be.

Making a difference in my community

I’m working near my home in Athenry, so 9 times out of 10 I knew who was coming in the door, they knew you and they could trust you. Even if I didn’t know them personally, from working withifac clients, I would say we are definitely someone that they confide in - they would never hesitate to contact us with anything that’s on their plate.

The work we do with our clients, it’s personal. You have face-to-face time with clients, and you have a real understanding of what’s going on and what they want to achieve. Providing a unique solution to a challenge they have and seeing the joy in their face, that’s brilliant so it is.