What makes a company such a great place to be that some employees are happy to spend two decades working there? Pinnacle’s Finance Manager, Sarah Chambers, has been with our company for an incredible 20 years now and is still excited to see where we are heading next.
Here she explains how she started her Pinnacle journey, how things have changed along the way, and why she’s looking forward to the next Pinnacle chapter.
“I moved to Norwich in 2001 with my family. I was looking for work in accounting; previously I had been a care assistant in a nursing home so it was a complete career change and building a new career from scratch.
After a bit of temping, Pinnacle offered me a job, which I wasn’t expecting, as the role was a bit bigger than I thought a ‘first’ accounting job would be. I wasn’t sure I was ready, but my head was telling me it was a really good opportunity so I thought “I’ll do it” and literally have been here ever since!
I’d already put myself through the first level of the AAT accounting course, and Pinnacle continued paying for my training. The rest of it I completed in stages, as I had another child in the meantime and it’s not always easy juggling babies and qualifications. I vowed I wouldn’t do any more studying, but knowing that there was still the certified accounting qualification, I didn’t feel like I’d finished, so I decided to go for that. I currently have one more level to go.
Even with people coming and going I’ve always found Pinnacle to be a really good place to work. The company is really understanding of people having young families. I was still always able to go to school plays and sports days and it is important to get that work-life balance.
As time went on I could see that we did really have the potential to grow, and I wanted to be there to see us becoming bigger and better.
Pinnacle has had various growth spurts as businesses do – we’re on quite another big one at the moment. We’ve grown significantly since I first started, moving into bigger offices is always quite a milestone, and for us in the Accounts team branching into overseas projects and dealing with new currencies was a great challenge.
We once had a transition period of about 6 months where we were between Finance Directors. In that period I got involved in lots of accounting tasks I’d never done before and kept the accounts going. I got a personal thank you from the Directors; it was great to know that I was doing a good job and taking on the challenge gave me a bit more self-belief that I do sometimes struggle with.
Coming in as an Accounts Assistant, very new and with very little experience and working my way through to Finance Manager has been a big highlight for me, it’s certainly something that I didn’t ever think I would achieve. If I could go back 20 years I’d advise me to believe in myself a bit more!
I’ve always enjoyed working with my colleagues. We always work really well together,
We have a laugh too. We’re looking to recruit someone new very soon, so I’m looking forward to getting some growth in our team and taking a new person on board.”
