Our culture is your story - Simba Makwembere

While I was training to be an accountant, I knew that instead of auditing, I wanted to be in forward looking roles and using my skills to help businesses make decisions about the future. Post qualification, as I applied for roles in industry, it was soon evident to me that most companies or firms at the time were not prepared to take a risk / trust a junior with the type of roles I wanted.

And then I interviewed with AG. Rather than being told what I was not yet able to do, they listened to me, looked at my skills and decided to give me an opportunity to prove myself in commercial finance. I was trusted, given responsibility, sufficient support and mentorship; I have not looked back since.

That moment was ten years ago, and my role within the business has evolved from supporting F&P as a Commercial Finance Accountant to a promotion to Commercial Finance Manager looking after our non-UK offices, to most recently where I am Executive Business Manager supporting the Executive team on their strategic initiatives. While that is a very easy and neat description of a decade’s work, I can assure you that the route between those two points required a lot of hard work, more than a measure of patience and luck. But I can also assure you AG has been consistent at every turn, by providing me valuable feedback on what I need to do next, an opportunity to learn and add to my skills, and more importantly support.

At the beginning of my career, I thought I would need to move between firms every three or four years to try and generate new opportunities. At AG I have not needed that strategy as I have consistently been trusted with interesting roles/tasks and encouraged to develop within them so that I am ready for the next role whenever the opportunity arises. At AG I am challenged, I gain new skills, and I enjoy the career path I am on.