A journey isn’t always a straight road | Graduate

Meet Emily

Emily Howarth, an Assistant Manager in audit at the firm since 2019, shares her journey from studying Economics to joining. 

Emily’s route to joining the firm wasn’t totally straight forward but her journey has brought her here today and this year she even presented to this year’s new recruits at our induction day, offering insight and advice on resilience and studying.

Emily’s story should act as a means of support and reassurance in what can often be a daunting period of time for young professionals. So if you’re reading this, we hope that you will be able to relate with her story, take comfort and be assured that MHA is a firm that is right for you!

Emily begins by telling us about her journey that led to be with us today: “I studied Economics at UCLAN and as I’ve always lived in Preston, the firm was always on my radar as they’re well recognised in the area.

“However, it wasn’t my first role after university. I first ended up at EY, but found my time there a little difficult as I struggled a little with my exams, due to lack of exposure to the accountancy side of my work.

“I therefore took the decision to pause and having decided that EY was perhaps was not the right place for me, I decided instead to look at joining a firm that would allow me to focus more on that accountancy skills set and where I could settle into my role and develop.”

This then takes us onto the topic of MHA and what made us the right firm for her. Emily continues: “What attracted me to the firm was that I could gain exposure to lots of different specialisms, including accounts, tax and audit depending on what I wanted and needed experience in at that time.

“In addition the firm has this great balance between being a rapidly growing, progressive and dynamic firm, while also retaining a strong family and community feel to it, which helps make you feel really settled in and a part of a wider team.”

Reflecting back onto her earlier days as she embarked on her career, we ask Emily what the best piece of professional advice is that she has received, she continues: “Let go of perfection, at school, college and university you have weeks and months to perfect your coursework, but when you enter working life things pick up pace and you won’t necessarily have that luxury of time, so it’s really important to manage your time well, but not let the need for perfection result in causing delays in what you need to do.”

We continue the theme by asking what advice she would give to her younger self, Emily continues: “Speak up and ask all of the questions. There’s no such thing as a silly question. If you’re in a room and have a question to ask, it’s more than likely that someone else is thinking the same thing.

By speaking up you’re getting your voice heard and ultimately that will open up doors to more opportunities down the road as colleagues begin to know who you are and where your skillset and expertise lay.”

As our conversation wraps up, we ask Emily to describe the firm in one word, she finishes with…

“Supportive”

Outside of work Emily is very sporty, particularly enjoying road and trail running and having entered a number of 5K and 10K races, she also takes part in functional fitness classes including weightlifting. 

She enjoys going on walks around the Lakes with her family and loves travelling, with China being her favourite place that she has visited to date.