International Women's Day 2023 - My story: Stephanie Hurst

Tell us about your career to date and how you got to your current role in Monahans
At school and college I never really had any grand career plans but I did know two things; I liked numbers and logic, and I had no desire to go to university. Although university was an option the thought of having a fairly chunky amount of student debt at the end of it didn’t sit well with me.

Having obtained A levels in academic subjects I finally decided that accountancy was probably a good route for me. Although there are quite a few options for trainees now there certainly weren’t at that time and I struggled to find a suitable placement. There were, however, a few tax trainee roles available at RSM.

I joined RSM in 2005 as a personal tax trainee not really knowing what I was getting myself into but quickly realised that this was going to be the career for me. It had everything I enjoyed - numbers, logic, problem solving. I’d accidently stumbled across a career that was a perfect fit in an industry I didn’t know existed!

I spent a few years with RSM and a few with another smaller accountancy practice developing my skills and completing the ATT/CTA qualifications before deciding that I wanted to focus on business and corporate taxes. Unfortunately it wasn’t possible to do that with the firm I was working for at the time and joined Monahans as a Corporate Tax manager in July 2014.

It quickly became clear that this role was going to provide me with the learning opportunities I had been craving and I got involved in anything and everything that came along, even if it was outside of my current skill set. By expanding my abilities and through a lot of hard work I moved into more senior roles and was promoted to Director in August 2022.

Who has had the biggest impact on your career?
I’ve been very lucky to have worked with a lot of brilliant people over the years who have helped to not only to shape my career but have also helped to shape who I am today. They have all offered different perspectives, opinions and guidance and I don’t think I would be where I am now without those interactions.

I found joining a professional environment straight from college very difficult and I really struggled to adjust to it. At 18/19 I didn’t know how the world worked and for a period in the early part of my career I just couldn’t cope.

My manager at the time was brilliant and really helped me through those darker days. Without their support there is a real possibility that I would have completely given up on this career path. Although not an experience I would ever like to relive it was one of the biggest learning curves of my professional working life and had a profound impact on the way I now interact with others.

Every person you meet will have an impact on you or your career, even if you don’t realise it at the time.

What do you wish you’d known about yourself when you were starting your career?
Asking for help is a strength, not a weakness

So many people are reluctant to ask for help for a number of reasons; fear of imposing, fear of losing control, fear of appearing inadequate, to name of few. Everyone needs help from time to time and should never feel afraid to ask for it.

Stephanie Hurst