Iain Opray CA 
Financial Accountant
Standard Life
Becoming an accountant was a natural choice for Iain. He wanted an exciting and dynamic career, which played to his interests in problem solving. Iain’s interest in accountancy initially stemmed from school and as a consequence he chose to study an ICAS accredited degree at the University of Strathclyde which meant he was fully exempt from the five subjects in Test of Competence (TC). After successfully completing a summer placement with Standard Life he secured a training contract with them where he became chartered through the Training Outwith Public Practice scheme (TOPPs).
What does being ICAS trained mean for you?
“It was apparent to me that a career in accountancy doesn’t necessarily limit you to working in a narrow field of business.
The CA qualification is recognised globally for the quality of its graduates and for the significant commercial contributions its graduates make to the business environment. On a personal level, the CA community is thriving and I’ve met some fantastic friends who have gone through the CA journey with me. The opportunities which open up once you gain the CA qualification are many, of huge variety and can take you all over the world. To me, CA stands for knowledge, experience and skills, all of which are transferable to any role that you choose on qualification.”
What do you enjoy the most about your job?
“There’s rarely such a thing as a typical day in Standard Life! Especially as I’m on a project secondment, things can, and tend to, crop up quickly, which makes it all the more interesting! One of my training secondments was in Standard Life’s Internal Audit department, within their International and Investments team. Because the company operates in many countries such as Germany, Ireland and the US, the team regularly work with those business teams based overseas. I was fortunate enough to be on the audit team working on insurance processes in Germany and got to fly out to Frankfurt for the week to meet, and gather information from, our German colleagues. It was brilliant to see both the similar and different aspects of the working culture of the same company working in different parts of Europe.”