Alan Vallance, CEO at ICAEW: Career Advice From the Boss of the Accountancy World
My Duvet Flip by Jack Parsons
Jack Parsons
4.2 • 8 Ratings
🗓️ 26 March 2026
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Episode Guest:
Alan Vallance is Chief Executive of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), a role he took up in April 2024. He is an ICAEW Chartered Accountant and an experienced leader of major professional bodies, having previously led the Chartered Insurance Institute, the Royal Institute of British Architects and held senior roles at the Law Society.
Episode Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:23 Meet Alan Vallance, CEO of ICAEW
1:03 The Power of Networking in Your Career
1:18 Why Networking Is Non-Negotiable
1:22 What Gets Alan Out of Bed (His Duvet Flip)
1:56 First Jobs and Early Career Lessons
3:08 The Importance of Teamwork Early On
3:46 Passion, Cars and Career Direction
5:07 Rejection vs Redirection
6:28 Why Getting a Job Is a Full-Time Job
7:02 Why Personalised Applications Matter
8:00 How to Be Authentic in Interviews
9:25 Biggest Job Application Mistakes
10:36 The Reality of Today’s Job Market
11:41 60,000 Applicants for 2,000 Jobs
12:25 Why You Shouldn’t Apply for Too Many Jobs
13:12 Lessons from EY and Becoming an Accountant
14:46 Accountancy vs AI: Is It Future Proof?
16:24 How AI Is Changing the Profession
18:21 Why Accountancy Is Still a Great Career
20:10 Moving to Australia and Global Opportunities
22:49 Leadership, Crisis and the Weather Bureau
24:23 The Power of Your Network
26:29 How to Grow Your Career the Right Way
27:54 What ICAEW Does and Why It Matters
30:22 Building Careers and Changing Lives
32:18 Alan’s Duvet Flip
Episode Partners:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It literally is a full-time job to get a full-time job. |
| 0:03.0 | Employers want to see a well-crafted application that's relevant to the job, |
| 0:07.0 | be more personal in their application. |
| 0:09.0 | It takes a lot, but it's worthwhile. |
| 0:11.0 | Rejection is just one rejection away from being successful in a job. |
| 0:15.0 | Not rejection, but redirection. |
| 0:17.0 | You went into an application, it then took you into a different path, which has become your career. |
| 0:23.0 | Yeah. |
| 0:23.8 | Hi, I'm Alan Valence, the chief executive of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. |
| 0:29.4 | It's an organisation with 900 employees and it's a global professional body. |
| 0:33.8 | And this is my dovlet flip. |
| 0:36.0 | 60,000 people applying for 2,000 jobs. Yes. How do you stand out? You need to stand out by being true to yourself as much as anything else. It doesn't mean you can apply for 30 jobs at once. It's probably three or four at the same time that you could reasonably apply to. In a nutshell, what does that mean? If you spread yourself too wide, you're not going to be successful. |
| 0:55.8 | They're a mile wide and a millimeter deep. These opportunities, have they come to you or have you met them |
| 1:01.3 | halfway in the middle or have you gone to them? The power of the network is really key and you shouldn't be |
| 1:06.0 | afraid to use it, to develop it. If you know where you want to work, but you don't know anybody that works there, understand the organisation and do your homework. You might know somebody who's one or two steps removed. Networking is really, really important. What's your duvet flip? What gets you out of bed in the morning to flip the duvet? I've always got out of bed because I... Hi, I'm Alan Valence, the chief executive of the Institute of Chartered |
| 1:28.0 | Accountants in England and Wales. I'm most excited to talk about my career journey, but also |
| 1:32.9 | to give back to people. So how can I help young people with their career choices and career |
| 1:38.1 | decisions? I think it's a great format. It's very natural. It allows you the opportunity to say |
| 1:43.8 | what you really want to say. |
| 1:44.9 | And Jack's a really engaging guy. One thing I hope people take away is that there's a great world out there. It's yours for the taking. |
| 1:53.6 | Hi Jack. I'm ready. Let's do this. |
| 1:56.1 | Alan, welcome to my dovee flip. How are we? |
... |
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