Hello, I’m Joanna. I’m 20 years old. My hobbies include Young Farmers and baking. I am a member of Marshwood Vale Young Farmers, where I have recently held the post of club secretary. I really enjoy competing in all the competitions on offer and have travelled all over the country competing. This year I’ve been up to the Great Yorkshire Show for dairy stock judging, the Malvern Show for Cookery and Staffordshire Showground for public speaking!

My Old Mill Journey

I joined the Old Mill family in February 2021 right in the midst of lockdown. I worked remotely for the first 6 months, which had its challenges and made meeting the team a little more difficult than normal! I am part of the Yeovil Rural team, which suited me really well having been brought up on the farm, I have a great rural knowledge.

Before joining Old Mill, I completed my A – Levels at the Woodroffe School in Lyme Regis, where I studied: Business, Finance, Geography and English Language.

Since joining a year and a half ago I have completed my Level 3 AAT and I have now just started working towards my Level 4 AAT since September.

Why Old Mill?

I chose Old Mill after completing work experience here whilst in lower 6^th. The team were extremely friendly, and I was made to feel extremely welcome. I was even given the opportunity to complete a set of manual accounts, so I knew from that point on that this was a team I really wanted to work with, and they would give me lots of opportunities. I’ve always loved numbers and problem solving and accountancy was definitely a career choice that would offer me a daily challenge.

Day to Day 

My day-to -day job is preparing annual accounts for a mixture of sole trades, partnerships, and companies for our rural clients alongside the relevant tax computations. As I have gained more experience my opportunities have widened, and I am now able to look at some of the tax saving opportunities such as farmers averaging that we are able to offer our clients. Recently I have attended client meetings alongside one of the teams’ advisers, which is a great way to develop my understanding for the industry and our client’s needs. I am a buddy to at the moment, so some of my day is taken up with helping to support some of the new trainees with their work. I am also on the team’s social committee, so I get to help organise some of the social activities we get up to!

Support

I receive lots of support internally and externally. Yeovil College is a great training centre and have made studying towards my AAT as easy as possible for me. Similarly, all my colleagues are always on hand to answer questions or show me new things. Meg my buddy was absolutely amazing when I started and guided me through all the processes within the firm.

Looking forward

My future ambitions will be to embark on my chartered accountancy training in a few years’ time. I would also love to go onto the Junior Advisor programme as I enjoy getting to speak to clients and build a great rapport with them. As farming is in my background, having the rural knowledge really helps with my relationship with clients.