Case studies : Business Restructuring at BDO: Ollie Mills

Ollie studied politics with international business at the University of Liverpool and works in Business Restructuring (BR) in Birmingham.

There is no such thing as a typical day in BR. Some days you are in the office, maybe dealing with correspondence from stakeholders or investigating missing assets, and the next day you will be out on site doing the day-to-day activities of running a business; for example making new agreements with suppliers and customers. Alternatively you may be dealing with potential purchasers of a business, answering questions and taking them on a guided tour. In BR no two weeks are the same and it is impossible to predict what will be happening from one day to the next.

I enjoy the variety that BR offers, as well as the real hands-on experience that you gain. I feel it’s the department where you are given the most responsibility early on - as within my first few weeks I was out on site, on my own, dealing with employees and creditors.

Although the work is good fun, it is very challenging and you need to be willing to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. As far as the studying goes, you need to be aware of the commitment you are taking on. Although BDO offers exam support to rival all other firms, you will still need to dedicate a lot of your own time to studying.

The opportunities BDO offers are what you make of them. If you want to stay where you are and keep doing what you are doing, the firm will support that choice. However, if you are ambitious and looking to take on new challenges, the firm will also support that. In my appraisal, I requested more experience of trading administrations and since then my manager has arranged that, whenever possible, I get involved with trading jobs even working for other offices.