David Nicholls of ACCA: ‘Exam results don’t knock you down for life’

Can you tell us a little bit about your school years? Did you feel you were lacking direction upon finishing school?

I totally lacked direction, I didn’t have any sense of what I wanted to do after school, and I didn’t feel invested in school and learning at all. To sum it up, I was able to pass exams with decent results at the lower school levels, but I did poorly at university entrance exams, as I didn’t study for them – I had never really studied for exams. 

I got quite poor results that universities wouldn’t accept. I didn’t have a goal or a job in mind that I wanted to pursue a course for, but I grew up in a middle class family where that’s what everybody did. There was that expectation that I would go, so it was disappointing from that point of view and it felt embarrassing.

What made you decide to become an accountancy trainee after leaving education?

I didn’t straight away. I scraped into Glasgow University on a course I wasn’t interested in and left after the first year. Then I went and worked for six years. I got a job as a temp in an office doing admin work and ended up staying with that company for about six years. I worked my way up in that company, but really it was all admin work. I ended up being a team leader and running a team of people doing office admin work for a law firm.

Would you say your experience is what has led you to support the #NoWrongPath campaign? 

Yes, although I don’t feel like I took the wrong path; I didn’t have any path. The people I really feel for are the people that have their heart set on a particular career or university subjects, and they know they need a particular set of results for that, but don’t achieve them. I can feel their disappointment, but that’s definitely not the situation I was in. 

Looking back on it, I would say that I’m really happy with the way my career and life has turned out. I think anybody who gets bad exam results, they should be encouraged and reassured that life’s long and has lots and lots of twists and turns. When you’re 17 and you get your exam results, no matter what they are, they don’t necessarily set you up or knock you down for the rest of your life.

How are you supporting the campaign?

We were asked by ACCA to share a photograph and a snapshot of our path to support the social media campaign. I was also asked by ACCA to write a short piece for their website about my journey.

Do you think more people would go into accountancy if they were given opportunities like this, and why? 

I think you have to really want to be an accountant because it’s not a very glamorous profession. I personally really enjoy it, and I enjoy the work that I do, the clients, and the people that I work with, but there’s a general perception of accountants that is that they are quite boring, or their work is uninteresting. When somebody asks “what do you do?”, and you say you are an accountant, there aren’t any follow-up questions, whereas if you were to say you’re a graphic designer, for example, people would say, “oh, what sort of things do you design?” or “what kind of companies do you work for?”

I would say that for young people who are looking to get into accounting, there should be as few barriers to entry as possible, because if people are committed and enthusiastic about the work and are willing to try hard, then anybody can learn how to do it. It’s not rocket science.

What advice would you give your younger self upon leaving education and trying to find a career path?

I would tell myself to not bother with university or a trade or an apprenticeship, or anything else, because I was mentally and emotionally immature and unequipped for all of it. Instead, I would tell myself to go and explore the world, to not feel rushed to commit to a university course, until you feel that you actually want to do something. That’s the advice I’d give to myself. You have your life in front of you and if you don’t know what to do, then it’s okay to spend some time figuring it out.

How can accountancy professionals, such as yourself, continue to help young people who are looking to get into the industry?

I think that most people who hear about the idea of an accountant, accountant’s job or an accountant’s office, don’t actually know what it’s like. I think it would be really great if there could be a bit more work experience where people are able to go into offices and get a little bit of experience about what the job would be like day-to-day, so that they can make their mind up. I would be willing to do that for school leavers and I think all employers should do that.