An informative and inspirational event was held recently in Southampton for Final Year trainee members of the Southern Chartered Accountant Student Society (SCASS) . The group of 40 from some of the South's leading accounting firms, were invited to hear two industry figureheads' experiences of working in professional accounting profession and industry. The Profession or Industry event, run by leading financial recruitment specialist 'Hudson Cooper ~ Professional People' in association with SCASS, offered trainees a chance to receive unbiased advice for their careers, and meet two experts who have successfully chosen different career paths within the same profession.
The speakers at the event were Steve Mills, partner at Grant Thornton who spoke for working in practice and Lee Blunden, financial director at Britannia Parking who presented the case for working in industry . Both speakers have extensive knowledge of their specialist field and gave the students an honest account of the impact their choices have had on their careers. Lee Cooper, Director of Hudson Cooper was on hand to provide recruitment advice for attendees.
Lee Cooper commented; "The very fact that the event was oversubscribed highlights the lack of advice some trainees feel they are getting with regard to their career path on completion of their training contract. This event presented a great opportunity to hear unbiased first-hand experiences from 2 of the regions leading Finance professionals.
A spokesperson for SCASS commented; "We have had a fantastic response from the trainee accountants who attended the Profession or Industry event. They were impressed with how much they learnt about the breadth of opportunities available to them on completion of their training contracts We're looking forward to working with Hudson Cooper on similar events in the near future." | 
