30-year-old Ewa Miller moved to Southampton five years ago from her hometown of Brzegin south-western Poland, joining Meachers shortly afterwards as Carnival Admin Clerk.
After doing her Master’s degree in French Studies in Poland, Ewa continued her educational experience by obtaining her AAT Qualification whilst working at Meachers. “I was lucky to be chosen for the company’s Personal Development Programme, not long after I started” Ewa explains. “After a few weeks of shadowing people from all departments of the business, I decided to start an accountancy qualification, which would allow me to join the Accounts team in the future.”
After a year of working as Carnival Admin Clerk, Ewa was moved to help the busy warehouse team with admin tasks and raising invoices to all warehouse customers. It was a big step towards her future in the Accounts team, to where she moved in April 2019. “I started as an Accounts Assistant, and recently my job title was changed to Divisional Management Accountant.”
Ewa’s current role entails preparing monthly management accounts for the Freight Forwarding Department and helping with the preparation of Transport and Warehouse accounts. “Recently, I also started preparing management accounts for the newly acquired A.F.S. Haulage, which turned out to be challenging and very interesting at the same time, requiring the adjustment of their existing systems to fit with ours.”
Her role involves operating across the organisation, and Ewa’s experience from working in three different departments over the past 4 years has proved to be a great foundation for the job. “Even though the underlying principle for preparing accounts for all divisions is similar, every department comes with its own challenges. Because of that, I need to work closely with operation teams and their managers, who are able to assist me with their knowledge about the operational side of the work.”
She has thrived on learning new things during her time at Meachers, “I am a real geek and I love learning new things, so I really enjoyed being moved between the departments, as it gave me many opportunities to gain new skills.” She has also been able to get to know many other team members. “I really enjoy the fact that because it is a medium-size company, almost everyone knows each other here. There is that personal touch and trust between members of the staff and the management.”
Ewa is a strong believer in sustainability and hopes that the industry as a whole is to have a more environmentally friendly future. “I can see small changes happening already, like our gas forklift fleet being replaced by electric.”
On a personal development level, Ewa hopes to accomplish her next accountancy qualification and become a Chartered Accountant. “I also hope that whatever my role in the next few years is, it will be interesting and give me opportunities to constantly challenge myself and learn new things.”
Ewa loves to travel and in the absence of adventure opportunities over the past year, she has focused her energies outside of work on her other passion: yoga. Ewa is currently studying to become a yoga teacher, “I definitely consider it as an achievement as I have had to step out of my comfort zone and get ready to teach people.”
