Noel Barcelona, Senior Fund Accountant

Being a Senior Fund Accountant at Saltgate

 

31 March 2021

 

What’s it like to be in the accounting team at Saltgate?

 

We spoke to Noel Barcelona, a Senior Fund Accountant in our Jersey office, about his role and time at Saltgate so far.

 

 

What is your professional background?

I have been a certified public accountant for eight years now. In 2020 I got the opportunity to work at Saltgate as a senior accountant. I previously worked for a large fishing company in the Philippines as the group accountant, later becoming tax manager.

 

How did you get here?

My wife was interested in working outside the Philippines – more particularly working in the UK. I supported her in this endeavour and right after she found a job here in Jersey, I went and followed suit.

 

What’s your role and what are your responsibilities within Saltgate?

I am a senior accountant. I am mainly responsible for preparing and reviewing financial statements. Prepare is a broad term that encompasses a lot of things such as bookkeeping, preparing and reviewing workbooks, etc.  Aside from that, I also prepare client-specific reports, such as cash reports and net asset value (NAV) reports.

 

What advice would you give to someone who wants your role?

You really need to have a knack of asking ‘why’ until everything makes sense to you – this will save you a lot of revisions and you gain more self-assurance knowing everything about what’s under the hood.

 

What’s the best thing about your role?

The best thing about my role would be talking to clients and directors. These people have extensive experience and knowledge of their industry and listening to them feels like I’m being handed a free book.

 

What’s the weirdest thing that’s happened to you at work?

I started working in Saltgate during lockdown so I had to work from home. There was lots of noise coming from the scaffolding being installed outside my flat, so once Saltgate offered a return to office, I didn’t hesitate to say yes

Fast forward a couple of days, I was so excited to finally work in the office and get some peace and quiet while working, but as fate would have it, the floor below Saltgate was being refurbished for the new tenant. There was so much drilling, clanking and hammering that I wished I was working from home instead!

 

What traits do you most admire and dislike?

Not that I despise these kinds of traits, but I tend to be really careful when dealing with someone who can change ‘personalities’ at snap of a finger – from my experience, it usually entails a hidden agenda and scheming.

I admire people who are ‘not evil’ – this is a well-known policy of Google. Loosely, it means to be always considerate of others when doing something.

 

What do you do for fun?                                                  

I like to do some mountain biking and falling from my bike from time-to-time (not intended).

 

What’s your hidden talent?

Buying useless stuff off Amazon.

 

What’s the highlight of your week?

Like any normal person, Friday is the highlight of my week. Just a glass of wine and binge watching The Office U.S.

 

Who’s your hero?

Dwight Schrute.

 

Who’s your favourite author?

I have recently taken an interest in meditation and picked up an audio book about mindfulness and meditation by Andy Puddicombe. I truly admire his method of teaching people who have a hard time trying to concentrate thinking about nothing.

 

What’s the funniest joke you know by heart?

What do you call a running Cardi-B? …Cardi-O!

 

What makes someone succeed at Saltgate?

Having the right attitude and consistently making the right choices, which is necessary regardless of where you work, but I think that Saltgate really values these traits which I truly admire.

 

What’s your favourite part of Saltgate culture?

I like the fact that a lot of people are ready to help whenever needed. Saltgate always prioritises employees to ‘fit-in’ into the whole big family.

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