What's your job about?
McGrathNicol is a professional services firm specialising in Restructuring, Forensics, Governance, Risk & Compliance, Cyber, Strategy & Business Improvement, and Deals.
As a member of the Deals team, I’ve had the opportunity to work on a range of transaction due diligence, valuation and strategic modelling projects. The nature of our work is short-term project-based and ultimately fluctuates week to week, with clients ranging from mid-market private equity to SMEs looking to mitigate transactional risk or maximise the value of their business.
Whilst the primary component of our work is financial analysis (excel), it is important to understand the impact of our findings from a commercial perspective. For example, a typical due diligence project will involve a deep dive into a company’s financials to understand and report on key value drivers or risks to a client ahead of their proposed transaction. Our role is to critically analyse historical and forecast performance against a range of key internal and industry metrics and communicate our findings to the client.
Our team is relatively small compared to other service lines at McGrathNicol however, this does come with the benefit of exposure to senior management and clients, which is invaluable as a junior member looking to build commercial awareness and industry contacts.
What's your background?
I grew up, went to school and still live in Cronulla to this day. As a child/teenager, I was heavily involved in sports, however, it wasn’t until my later years in school that I discovered a passion for financial mathematics and economics. The Count was my favourite character on Sesame Street growing up, so I think I was destined for a career in accounting.
I worked as a Duty Manager at a local golf club while I completed my degree, where I received an opportunity to participate in a 3-day leadership course at the Disney Institute in Anaheim, California.
I received a Graduate offer for a position in the Restructuring team after successfully completing a four-week vacation program in January 2021. I returned in May 2021 for a part-time role in the Forensic practice, before commencing as a Graduate in Restructuring six months later. With my background in economics and finance, I was keen to gain exposure to the Deals service line. After getting to know the team and working together on a few projects, I ultimately received an offer to transfer to the Deals team in February 2022.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Yes, McGrathNicol’s service offering is niche and attracts a wide variety of unique engagements, so the skillset required for a junior role is rarely addressed by a university degree. In addition to on-the-job training, Graduates undertake a 12-month program when they commence at McGrathNicol with a focus on the development of professional and soft skills, which tend to take priority in our role.
As an economics and finance student, I also had a limited accounting background upon commencing as a Graduate. However, I am currently being supported by the firm to complete the Chartered Accountants (CA) program.
What’s the coolest thing about your job?
The short and intimate nature of Deals engagements means that juniors are often afforded a level of responsibility and freedom to get the job done in a tight window. Looking back at a completed report or a clean model is incredibly satisfying after unpicking a business from the inside out and communicating valuable findings to our clients.
What are the limitations of your job?
While the added level of responsibility as a junior member of the Deals team has been invaluable to my development in the early stages of my career, there is a relatively high level of commitment required when an engagement is in full swing. Clients are often bounded by exclusivity windows when a transaction is taking place, so it is important to extract as much information of value as possible, as quickly as possible. We may therefore be required to work beyond standard office hours or occasionally on weekends however, the hard work is often rewarded with a lunch or a function at the conclusion of a project.
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