FY026: Analyzing the Ideal Job: Senior Finance Officer in UK

This essay presents an analysis of an ideal job, specifically focusing on the role of a Senior Finance Officer within the UK government, with a preference for the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (OFSTED). The paper details the responsibilities of the role, including financial analysis, budget management, and reporting, and outlines the required qualifications and skills, such as accounting certifications and communication abilities. The essay also discusses the benefits associated with the position, such as job security, competitive salary, and professional development opportunities, and includes a discussion of the job market and resources available for job searching, such as LinkedIn, Indeed, and Monster.com. The analysis emphasizes the importance of the job in achieving career goals and personal satisfaction.

Running head: FY026
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Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
An ideal job is something that every individual craves for. It is that job that gives a
satisfaction in the mind of the beholder of the job (Boffo, Federighi and Torlone 2015). It is
that work that the individual likes to do and is not forced to do. This drives the individual to
deliver more than his potential. A dream job is something that offer a chance for the
individual to learn new things in life and move ahead in future. A dream job is that job that
allows a wonderful working environment to the individual seeking such job thereby
empowering him to contribute more to the organizational success. It is that job that
guarantees job satisfaction to the employee along with job security for lifetime ensuring a
steady flow of income throughout his working life and beyond in the form of pension for old
age. It is that job which will ensure growth of the employee over the years in the form of
promotion and enhancement of salary (Cirillo and Guarascio 2015). It will ensure that the
employee works with the same zeal which was present within him before getting the job. A
dream job is not only a job, but it is considered something more than that. It not only provides
the employees with all the above written facilities but also provides a supportive environment
to work, achieved through friendly and cordial relationships between the staffs and the
management, collaborative efforts, updating of skills within the employees from time to time
through regularized training thereby keeping the employees updated with changing time and
environment. The aim of this paper is to portray one such dream job that everyone craves for.
Description
My Ideal Job
My ideal job is to work as a “Senior Finance Officer”, Civil Service, under the
Government of United Kingdom. It can be at any government organizations under the
Government of United Kingdom like “Health and Safety”, “Scottish Government”, “Ministry

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of Defence”, Home Office”, “Homes England” and many more, however, I want to work at
“Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills.” I am interested and have
chosen to work in this accounting and corporate finance field owing to many reasons. The
first primary reason behind choosing this field and organization is that it will fulfill my dream
to become a public accountant along with it will provide an handsome annual salary of
£31,074 accompanied with the desired respect that an Higher Executive of grade B gets.
Secondly, this organization will give a wonderful work environment which will enhance my
zeal to serve the people even further. Thirdly, this organization will provide enough learning
opportunities to me to excel in life and grow through the organization (Indeed.co.uk 2020).
This organization comes under the Government of the United Kingdom. So, it will ensure a
lifetime job security for me and will also ensure a steady flow of income throughout my work
life. This organization will allow me to demonstrate my better communication and team
management skills. I can maintain a team of accountants through this job role and can drive
those people and the organization as a whole towards its pre-determined goal and success.
Above all this job looks after all round development and wellbeing of its employees like a
pension scheme after retirement, arrangement of training facilities for enhancement of present
skills of the employees and to make them competent to perform their job roles with changing
business environment and job demands. Along with the above mentioned benefits this job
provides a considerable list of holidays containing a must of 32.5 leaves in addition to eight
public holidays and the organization also takes care of annual medical expenses and also
arranges for counselling and other advisory services if any such need arises for the employee
or for his family in future (Indeed.co.uk 2020). All the above mentioned benefits will dives
me to work as a senior accountant and join this prestigious organization under the
Government of United Kingdom.

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Job description
Senior Finance Officer (SFO) at “Office for Standards in Education, Children’s
Services and Skills” is required to assist the team of management accountants for carrying out
their daily routine and responsibilities in respect to providing analysis as well as supporting
them with information and data which is required by them in corporate and directorate
projects. The SFO and his team will work as a group having shared responsibilities driven
towards supporting the management accountants in accomplishing the goals of the
organization. There are some specific roles that needed to be fulfilled as an SFO are as
follows:
 The SFO is required to work closely with the budget holders in maintenance of the
“forecast workbooks” using current and up to date resource plans
(Civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk 2020). After maintenance of the forecast workbooks,
the SFO have to report to the manager of management accountants relating to the
trends, variances and the emerging risks.
 The SFO is required to work closely with the partners in Finance business in ensuring
that all of the available and allocated resources are reported accurately and in a proper
format. This also ensures timely identification of the resource needs and suitable
business cases could be placed in for its growth when such need arises.
 The SFO is required to provide adequate support and assistance to the partners in
Finance business in developing financial processes and systems.
 The SFO is required to assist the contract managers and also the budget holders in
fulfilment of their daily routine work that includes management of contracts also
fulfilment of financial aspects of a budget.
 The SFO is required to provide an insight analysis on the decisions relating to impact
of change on the current year’s budget as well as on any future year’s budget. This

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analysis by the SFO ensures that the opportunities as well as the risks are fully
explained and understood.
 Apart from the above mentioned roles, the SFO can be asked to fulfill other roles
which can be assigned to him by the “OFSTED” form time to time as per “B2” grade
whenever required or need arises. This may include sharing of the enormous
workload of the team or the management accountant team or any other task which
may be allocated to him as per his grade from time to time.
The SFO is entitled to get an annual salary of £31,074. The job placement will be of a
“Higher Executive Officer” as per grade “B2.” The contract type would be permanent in
nature and will be posted mainly in the Business area of “OFSTED” relating to “Finance,
Commercial and Property.” Apart from the above mentioned roles, the SFO has to perform
certain responsibilities bestowed on him by the “OFSTED” from time to time. Some of which
are mentioned below:
 The SFO must be experienced enough and should possess the required working
knowledge of business reporting and management accounting.
 The SFO should have the required ability to communicate all necessary financial
information and data to a wide range of stakeholders and other staff who might be
from non-financial backgrounds.
 The SFO should be able to work as per restricted and close-fitting deadlines and
should be able to primacies his own work pressure.
 The SFO should be able to work with utmost accuracy keeping close attention to
minute details regarding all aspects of his work (Civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk
2020).

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 The SFO should possess considerable ICT skills which includes the working
knowledge of Microsoft Office, mainly proficient in Microsoft Excel that includes
advanced Excel to be exact.
There are some necessary qualifications and technical skills that the candidate
applying for the post of SFO should possess. Some of the necessary qualifications and
technical skills are as follows:
 The first and the foremost qualification necessary for the post of a SFO is that he
should be a qualified accountant or is studying to achieve the desired qualification
required for the post which is recognized by a CCAB body.
 The post requires a working knowledge and experience in management accounting
and business reporting.
 It requires good communication skills with minute attention to details (GOV.UK
2020).
 Lastly but most importantly, working knowledge of financial ledger and CODA.
The job pattern will not change in the upcoming 4 years that is after completing my
graduation. However, it should be kept in mind that the level of competition will rise as per
the latest trend of increase in population, migration of people to the UK from other Asian and
European countries. Apart from the level of competition, the job role may demand additional
technical and professional skills or may demand a number of years work experience owing to
increase population and up gradation of technical and professional skills of graduates.
In order to cope with the changing job requirement, more and more people will start
to enhance professional and technical skills along with a degree of graduation to keep them
updated with requirements of the job. Some may even work as part time accountants to gain

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the required field experience and technical knowledge apart from pursuing the graduation
course.
Conclusion
Resources
In order to effectively find a dream job in a hassle-free way, the following tools are of
utmost importance:
LinkedIn: LinkedIn is considered amongst one of the biggest firms operating in the
employment outsourcing business. It was founded in 2002, however became operational
since 2003. Its parent company is Microsoft Corporation and operates through two of its
subsidiaries namely, Learning and Connectfier. It operates in employment outsourcing
business through its developed application and website using the internet. It has become
massively popular over the years as it connects millions of people consisting of both
employers and individuals or existing employees seeking for a new job. Its main source of
income comes from selling the user (job seekers) information to employers or sales
professionals operating on a worldwide basis on more than 150 countries. The registered
members or users of LinkedIn have crossed 630 million as of 2019.
It is mainly a professional networking website or mobile application that connects
millions of people worldwide (Linkedin.com 2020). It acts as a connection between the
employers and potential job seekers. This portal is of utmost importance to the jobseekers.
They can get a wide access to a number of job providers not only in their own area or country
but on a worldwide scale sitting at home. Here, the employers posts their job vacancies and
the jobseekers posts their CVs and hence gets connected through a common network and
eventually gets their dream job.

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Indeed: Indeed is one of the largest job search engines in the entire world. It became
operational in 2004. It is the subsidiary company of its parent company Recruit Co. located in
Japan. It has it’s headquarter situated in Austin, Texas. It operates in more than 60 countries
around the world in more than 28 languages proving its employment services (Indeed.co.uk
2020). Post 2010. It surpassed Monster.com to become world’s biggest employment
outsourcer.
Finding ones suitable job or dream job is really very easy. This website or mobile app
is very user friendly where one can just upload a CV or simply search by available filters of
job type, job location or salary.
Monster: Monster.com is one of the highest searched job portals in the world. It was
established in 1999 and headquartered in Weston, Massachusetts. It is operational in more
than 40 countries around the world and is operated in more than 20 languages (Monster.co.uk
2020). It provides a very user friendly interface for its users where they can search their job
from the already customized list of job searches as per their choice. It derives major portion
of its income from selling the user’s data to recruiters and job consulting firms.
One can easily get calls from major and famous firms by simply uploading their CV
on monster. They can also visit its website or mobile application to find their dream jobs
from a customized list of available jobs or by using the available filters relating to job
description, job location and salary.

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References and Bibliography
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