Kieran McCurdy ACA

Find out why Kieran McCurdy chose to study for the ACA as a non-graduate.

Partner, Plummer Parsons, Brighton

The non graduate, football loving partner

I’m 28 and already a partner.I became a qualified ACA in 2002, and within a year became a Chartered Tax Accountant (CTA). For just over a year I have been a partner at PP, a 10 partner firm based in Eastbourne, Hailsham and Brighton. I am now running the Brighton office. I’m only 28 and I’m already a Partner!

I can’t say that I always wanted to be an accountant as when I was younger I wanted to be a footballer. Prior to choosing to study chartered accountancy I knew relatively little about it, but I did know that it was a job and qualification that allows people a large choice of future careers opportunities.

University of life

I studied for A-levels in Maths, Chemistry, Biology at Cardinal Newman School in Hove but I had never been as keen as my friends to go away to university. I did not feel I would enjoy the lifestyle, or the large amounts of free time I had heard there would be (as I like to stay occupied), not to mention the affect university has on your finances going into the future! 

I also knew that graduates doing the ACA had no real advantage on me other than being maybe a little older and more experienced. While I had gained a place at LSE to do an accountancy degree, I had also applied to any accountancy firms locally that were accepting school leavers for ACA. When I received a job offer in a firm I liked, I made the decision to go straight into chartered accountancy.

What does a partner do?

What does a partner not do! I am involved with the marketing of PP as a firm, and am the Member Responsible for Training, so I am now helping to support our current batch of students. I have a broad cross section of clients from small tax return compliance jobs, to being the audit partner on several large company clients.

The future

Partnership is a long-term commitment, so you will still find me at PP in five years time, hopefully continuing to grow our Brighton office, and at the same time helping to make PP as a whole and even more successful firm into the future.