Mike: knowing I could return
I originally joined Grant Thornton in 2017 as a Tax Manager within the Real Estate Tax team, before leaving for a year in industry on a contract basis, and re-joining as a Director within the same team. Even though I left the firm, I always knew there was high chance I would return after my contract ended, I was honest with my manager here about why I was leaving and he was always open to discussions about returning.
Returning to Grant Thornton
There were two main reasons I wanted to return to Grant Thornton, the variety of work and the team and working environment.
Firstly, the variety of work within Real Estate Tax isn’t something I have experienced elsewhere. We work with both UK and international businesses, assisting on their UK real estate operations so have a very varied client base including, funds, institutional investors, high net wealth investors, UK listed property investors and developers.
You spend so much of your life at work it’s important to not only enjoy what you do but who you work alongside. When I first joined the firm, the team was so welcoming and we worked together in a collaborative way, everyone supported and helped each other where needed. As a new joiner, I was assigned a ‘buddy’ in the Real Estate team who helped me settle in with any questions and was there for support.
When I re-joined the firm whilst everyone was still working from home, so being able to re-join a team where I knew most of the people and had experience of the systems made the process really smooth. And even though we work we were all working from home, you still had the feel for the working environment.
Encouraged to take time for me
Particularly when people are working from home, it can be easy to slip into bad work habits and not giving yourself the opportunity to switch off. As a firm, Grant Thornton does a lot to encourage everyone to make sure they keep a distinction between work and home life, and to take time off when needed.
It isn’t always easy, but I try to set boundaries between work and life outside of work. Doing things like closing my laptop at the end of the day and keeping it closed on weekends helps me to avoid the temptation to do ‘just one more thing’. That said with the nature of the work, sometimes it means that the boundaries are more blurred depending on a particular project or assignment, but I always know it’s short lived.
The opportunity for more
For me, one of the great things about Grant Thornton is the career development opportunities and how you are encouraged and supported to develop your career in line with your aspirations. Everyone has different goals, managers respect that and you aren’t pigeon-holed into a particular area or held back from progressing. With a firm the size of Grant Thornton, it’s large enough that you can be involved with complex and interesting work but not so large that you become siloed and removed from the process.
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