Put your questions to a financial accountant at Fidelity

Andrew Skipper is a financial accountant at Fidelity. We've asked him a few questions about his career and he's agreed to answer a few more from readers. If you're a student who wants to know more about working in asset management or accounting, post your question below. Andrew will be answering selected questions between Monday 14 July and Friday 18 July.

Where and what did you study?

I completed my master's in accounting & finance at Aston Business School in 2007. Now I'm studying for a professional accountancy qualification with the ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants).

When did you join Fidelity?

September 2007.

What does your role as a financial accountant involve?

At the moment, I'm the accountant for our Irish business - looking after regulatory reporting issues, liaising with the auditors, preparing our year-end financial statements and producing monthly performance reports. On the graduate scheme here, we get rotated around different areas of finance, such as treasury, group reporting, fund accounting or business finance. So I'll have had exposure to back, middle and front office roles by the time my training is finished; then I can focus on what I enjoy most and where my skills are best suited.

Why did you decide to go into financial services?

I'm originally an environmental biology graduate and had actually worked in science for three years before doing my master's. I realised I enjoyed the financial side of things and wanted to get a good business grounding first. The financial markets interested me, so I went along to a presentation that Fidelity held at my university. After talking to people from the company and hearing about their experience first-hand, I decided that the investment management sector was for me.

How did you come to be in your current role?

I applied through the website and was invited to an assessment centre after an initial telephone interview and some online tests. The assessment day involved various exercises to demonstrate communication and teamwork skills. It's an important part of the process and really puts you to the test.

What skills are required to do well?

You need to have a fairly investigative mind and enjoy analysis of numbers, identifying and explaining any movement in figures. It takes confidence to be able to interpret and present your findings to senior management, as they make decisions based on the information you provide for them - so it's crucial that they trust your judgement. That means communication skills are key. There's also a lot of inter-departmental liaison: you rely on other people getting figures and information sent through accurately and on time, therefore you need to have a strong working relationship with those people.

What tips have you learned that you could pass on to undergraduates thinking about getting into financial services?

Know the financial sector inside out - only by understanding the challenges faced by potential employers can you relate to your interviewers; it also helps you to ask informed questions.

Also, take responsibility for your own career path - things won't just fall into your lap. Financial services is highly competitive; the greater exposure you can proactively gain, the better equipped you'll be to get ahead.

Finally, if you're taking professional qualifications, you need total commitment. When you're working full-time - especially at busy reporting periods - it takes discipline to open your textbooks when you get home after a hard day's work.