PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT INSIGHT
Diary of a student…
colleagues and, more importantly, fellow students. I recall one assignment: I was full of flu; it was new year eve, and I wanted to be getting ready to go out; I was crying at my laptop and my angel (a fellow student) texted me and gave me some pointers. I managed to get the assignment flowing support of everyone and their constant encouragement – oh, and my cousin who became my cleaner. Did the fact that the CIPP is Chartered or recognised within the industry influence your decision to enrol with the CIPP? And were there any particular modules which were of interest prior to enrolling? Yes, it did influence my decision, and as it’s designed to be done whilst you are working in payroll you know that everyone doing it is in the same boat. This helped when at tutorials and talking through assignments. I would recommend anyone in payroll to register with CIPP as there is so much help available from them. The modules that were of interest to me prior to starting were the management ones and leading a team as these are quite different to everyday payroll. For someone who is thinking about studying for a CIPP qualification what would your advice be to them? Definitely do it, as the experience and knowledge that you gain is invaluable. It is a lot of work so be prepared for this, but it will help you progress in your career. After doing mine I have taken the next step and I’m now training to be a tutor with the CIPP – which shows how much I enjoyed doing it. n from then, and I got my night out. To be honest I don’t think I could have got through it without the
Denise Brown MCIPPDip Payroll Specialist, Arcadis LLP
Can you give us a brief background into your life? I live in a small town with just my cat – but I’m not a crazy cat lady, yet. I spend a lot of time with my parents and enjoy getting out and away with them and visiting new countries. In my free time I like live music, good food and a nice wine. Can you give us an insight into your career and qualifications background? When I finished my A-levels I went to work in a private accountancy practice and started studying towards an accounting qualification. Whilst there I started working on small payrolls and found that I enjoyed this much more than the actual accounts side, so fell into payroll like everyone does. I had a short stint working outside of payroll but drifted back into it. I have been with my current company for three years now and there is always a new project on the go and something new to get to grips with which I find quite exciting as well as sometimes a little daunting. Why did you choose to study the Foundation Degree? When I was looking for this current role I found that most payroll roles were looking for the payroll qualification as desirable. So, after fifteen years on and off in payroll I thought it was about time I had a qualification to show for what I knew. Also, as my role at Arcadis had then become
permanent I decided that it was the time to start as I knew I would get the support that I needed from my manager and colleagues. How important is this degree in relation to your career? You see roles now advertised more and more with the qualification as desirable, so this degree would hopefully give you more chance over other candidates to gain that role. Although I had years of experience it was nice to know when doing my studies that I knew more than I’d thought. People seem to think that payroll is just numbers but it’s much more and with ever-changing legislation keeping up to date is a challenge itself. The knowledge I have gained I can now also use as I progress to become a tutor for the CIPP. The contacts I made along the way have often helped with situations that don’t come up every day. In payroll there is always something different, and when you reach out to colleagues and contacts someone has almost certainly always had to deal with something similar so can help. In the world of payroll people will always help – that’s just what we do. How did you cope with the work life balance and your study? I’m not going to lie, I found this so hard; living on my own trying to study, do housework and see family and friends became very difficult. Luckily for me I had very supportive parents, friends, work
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | April 2018 | Issue 39 12
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