In a galaxy far, far away (well 1989 to be precise), I was sitting in a lecture hall in Cambridge listening to a rather dull lecture on Accountancy and I had said to a couple of my mates that if I ever became an accountant please shoot me if this is what it’s all about…
6 years later, I qualified as an ICAEW accountant, having loved the diversity of issues and challenges, and more importantly, having enjoyed the people interaction that the job required. It wasn’t what that lecture had presented it as at all!
I happily worked in a number of different roles and industries (Media, Banking, Business Management, Cost Controlling, Management Accountant) in the intervening time up to 2014 using my accounting knowledge and skills. However, by then I wanted a new challenge.
One area that I had really enjoyed in my last few years in the City was as Graduate Manager, since one of the key focusses for me was mentoring and coaching the graduates through the 3 year qualification process. I am known for being an empathetic listener, and helped them to get to a solution through questioning and validating.
I looked into understanding what Coaching was a bit more, so did a couple of introductory courses, and got hooked… it played to my strengths, so I undertook a formal Coaching training course, and in Dec 2014 received my coaching qualification from the Association for Coaching.
To date I have coached individuals across a number of industries with a number of different issues to deal with, and have done more than 300 coaching hours since qualifying. I set up my limited company, Kardooni Consulting at around the same time. I also applied for my ICAEW practising certificate in April 2017 so I am able to combine accounting and coaching under the Kardooni Consulting umbrella.
The last few years have been a challenge – setting up a new business, trying to build a client base, and you need to be patient! You need people to meet you, feel comfortable with you and trust you, so that’s why it’s so important to get yourself out there! All details about my business can be found at www.kardooniconsulting.co.uk