Meet the accountants with more interesting lives than you
One sailed around the world – what have you done with your day?
Dull, boring, middle-aged men, number-crunchers… these are just a few of the stereotypes used to describe accountants – not very nice, right?
But if we told you that a beauty blogger, a cross-country cyclist, a baker extraordinaire and a woman who sailed around the world were all people with a career in accountancy, would you believe us? No? Well, you’re about to be mistaken.
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Lindsay Crawford – legit sailed around the world
What do you do when you have absolute no sailing experience? Sail around the world of course – which is exactly what Lindsay did when she decided to take a six-month sabbatical and take part in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.
Lindsay said: “I’ve always been into sports, so when I joined the Bank of Scotland Corporate (now part of Lloyds Banking Group) and found out they had a sailing club, I was definitely intrigued. So, after I completed all of my ACCA exams, I signed up.
“There were 14 separate races and I sailed in about 10 of them. Our yacht was approximately 70 foot, but with a crew of 14 to 18 people, finding alone time could be quite challenging.
“The crew had to do absolutely everything – all of the cooking, cleaning, maintenance and navigating. I got involved with the sails repair. I had a huge, old sewing machine to make the repairs, which could take up to five days to fix. The pressure was on to say the least!”
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The most challenging part for Lindsay was sailing across the North Pacific. She said: “There were enormous storms with both rain and snow, and it was unbearably cold. There was also an overwhelming feeling of isolation at times – they say the other closest human beings to you are the people in the space station.
“If I had to choose a standout moment, it would probably be the Sydney to Hobart (Tasmania’s capital) race. It commences on Boxing Day and there are hundreds upon hundreds of boats at the start line at Sydney Harbour. It’s huge – everyone comes out to watch it. Arriving in Seattle was also an incredibly satisfying feeling.”
Lindsay did not necessarily plan to go into accountancy. She said: “I actually studied sports management and architectural history at Edinburgh. I then realised I enjoyed the financial side of the sports management course, so decided then to do a Masters in Accounting and Finance at Napier University.
“I’ve definitely faced the stereotype that accountants are boring. People assume we sit in an office all day, crunching numbers and filling out spreadsheets, which is just not true – the range of work accountants can do is actually incredibly diverse.”
Molly Ashton – actually nailing this whole blogging thing
Remember that ‘great’ blog idea you had that one time and that Wordpress you set up which has been left in the barren wasteland of lost blogger dreams? Yeah, us too.
Well, despite being in her final year of her Finance, Accounting and Management (FAM) degree, having a part-time job and being the proud owner of a brand new puppy (his name is JJ and he’s obviously the cutest), Molly somehow miraculously managed to find the time to actually build and create an extremely successful beauty and lifestyle blog, The Rose Beauty Files.
Blogging has given Molly the opportunity to do a lot of things alongside her course you wouldn’t expect of your typical FAM student. She said: “I’ve been to salon openings, I’ve had products sent to me, I’ve met loads of new people and have earned a bit of money on the side – it’s really been so great.”
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With over 20,000 blog views and nearly 2,000 subscribers, the blog has really gone from strength to strength since it started in mid-2015. Molly’s even got to a point where she’ll only try out products that she genuinely likes.
She said: “I’ve worked with a whole bunch of brands, like Seventeen in Boots on their skincare range, as well as a sponsored post for EOS (the lip balm brand that the likes of Miley Cyrus and Kim Kardashian have used too).”
It seems unfair that Molly is also nailing her degree – the third year has a job lined up at PWC when she graduates and won the title, ‘Future CFO’ in Target Jobs’ Undergraduate of The Year competition sponsored by ACCA.
“Whenever anyone asks what degree you’re doing, I don’t think they ever expects it to be FAM, so you get that kind of pitying look of, “Oooh, poor you,” or, “Rather you than me.” I think you’ve just got to take it with a pinch of salt – people that are going to make the best accountants are the people that are going to be interested in doing it.”
Andi Lonnen – adventure cyclist who crosses mountain ranges
“I once got hypothermia in the mountains of Corsica – that was interesting. Definitely the last place you’d expect to get it.”
Andi has always loved the great outdoors, so joining a cycling club was a no-brainer. She said: “I’ve cycled Land’s End to John O’Groats, from the north of France down to the south and I did the Raid Pyrenean – you cycle across the entire Pyrenees taking on 28 of the range’s most famous mountains from the Atlantic all the way to the Med.”
In 2012, Andi embarked on her biggest trip yet – cycling solo across Switzerland and France in six weeks. She said: “I started on the Swiss-Austrian border, went across the Alps, Jura and Vosges ranges and then made my way back up to Calais.”
The trip was well over 2,000 miles which is no easy task. However, Andi of course did not want to make things easy for herself. She said: “I had to carry everything with me – my tent, cooking equipment, clothes, supplies, absolutely everything, so lugging all of that up a mountain took some doing.”
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However, the sheer beauty of her surroundings made everything worth it. Andi said: “I wrote a blog when I was there and posted a photo everyday. People would say to me, “Gosh, you’re really good at taking photos.” Actually, I’m no good at taking photos, the photos take themselves because wherever you looked was just extraordinary. The mountains were breathtaking, the weather, even some of the storms, were incredible – just everything.
“The whole experience from start to end was unbelievable and it’s definitely changed my life – having done the trip, I came home and had the confidence to set up my own financial training business, which has already gone international. It’s grown very quickly, I’ve been very lucky.”
Accountancy is absolutely not for dull people
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