The Unknown
I joined Creative CFO straight out of university, and I was excited from the start. The job felt right. The one part I could not get my head around was the remote part. University is full of people from morning to night: lecturers, friends, the easy comfort of someone sitting next to you. You are not always talking or working together, but someone is always there. So, going straight from that into a job you do from home is a real change. The picture in my head was me alone in a room, working through a screen, with no real conversations in my day.
What I have learned since is that I was imagining an office job with the office removed. That is not what Creative CFO built, and the difference is the whole story.
A Way of Working You Step Into
Creative CFO has been remote for years, and it shows. This is not a company that sent everyone home and hoped for the best. The ways of working are deliberate and well established: How we talk to each other, how we work with our customers, and how the work is delivered. This all runs smoothly because they were designed to just that.
As a new joiner, you are not inventing a way of working, you are stepping into one that already works, and that changes everything about your first few months. A few weeks in, just after onboarding, the uncertainty I had been carrying, lifted. The moment I got involved in the daily work, I found the rhythm of it.
More Conversation, Not Less
This is the part no one tells you, and it is what makes remote work feel completely different once you are in it: We talk to each other far more than you might think, and the tools are chosen so that the talking feels natural. A normal day of communication looks like this:
- Slack is our home base. Questions, check-ins, quick updates, the day-to-day chatter. If you are stuck, someone is a message away.
- Google Meet, internally, is for anything that needs more than a message. We usually run a transcription tool in the background, which means the technology does the remembering and we can be fully present in the conversation.
- Google Meet, externally, is how we work with our customers. We meet with business owners, executives, and their teams to work through what needs to be done. We also go over the queries that have come up, the week’s priorities, and the customised reports and dashboards that we build for them.
- Loom lets a colleague record their screen and talk you through a task step-by-step. It is a considerate way of helping: They can record and explain when it suits them, and you watch when it suits you. It also allows you to pause and rewatch as often as you need.
There is nothing too foreign in that list, and that is the point. Each tool was chosen for a clear job, so the technology carries the admin, and the people carry the conversation. Put it all together and remote stops meaning being distant. Most people imagine remote work as long, silent stretches behind a screen, but this is not the case.
My days are built around conversations: A question answered on Slack, a problem worked through on a call, a plan taken apart and put back together with my team. At Creative CFO, proximity is not what creates connection; working together is, and that happens all day long.
In the Room From the Start
What surprised me most was how much of my week is built around people, and how the company deliberately invests in each person’s development. There are technical one-on-ones with my manager, development discussions about where I am heading, and weekly team meetings.
Then there is the part I never expected this early in my career: As a CIMA Associate, you sit in the weekly meetings and reporting discussions with our customers, alongside the business owners and their leadership teams. You are not tucked away in the background while someone else has the conversations; you are in the room from the start.
Being in the room is also what made the worry of loneliness disappear. Everyone working with a customer is part of that team, whatever their role. You might be presenting the management report, or you might have prepared the books behind it, but the results belong to all of you. When you know your work matters to a team that wants you there, working from home never feels like working alone.
Then there is the freedom. As long as you have your laptop, a reliable connection, and your work meets the standard the company has set, you can work from wherever suits you. Your work is measured by what you deliver, not by where you are sitting, and being trusted with that from your first week tells you a great deal about the environment you have joined. That trust is the foundation the whole model rests on, and it does as much for you personally as it does professionally.
Deep Work, Deliberate Help
Something clicked once I understood how the setup is designed. Finance work needs stretches of concentration: Working through a reconciliation, building a report, checking the details behind the numbers. Remote gives you that time. You can settle into a task and see it through without losing your train of thought halfway.
It also changes how we help each other, in a good way. When you ask for help, it is intentional. You have sat with the problem first, worked out where you are stuck, and you come forward with a clear question. It works both ways: When someone reaches out to me, I can finish what I am busy with and give them my full attention, rather than a rushed answer squeezed in between other things. The person asking gets better help, and the person helping gives exactly what is needed.
Asking also carries no awkwardness. Questions are welcomed as part of how you learn, and if someone cannot help in the moment, they will say so and set aside time for you. That attitude runs through the whole learning culture here, and it is what builds our confidence. Even on the days when you feel stretched thin or unsure, you know exactly who to go to, and you know that they will make the time.
When We Get Together, It’s Not to Work
Our in-office days are probably not what you would expect. Once a month we come together in person, and the day is dedicated to each other: Catching up, strengthening relationships, and spending meaningful time with the people you work alongside every day. It might seem counterintuitive to come into the office and not focus on business as usual, but that is exactly the point. These days exist to help us be present and build the connections that are harder to create through a screen.
Alongside the monthly office days, the whole company comes together for quarterly meetups, and there are team events throughout the year. Those moments bring our warm, welcoming culture to life, and they work because of the deliberate split behind them: We use our time at home to focus, and our time together to connect.
We use our time at home to focus, and our time together to connect.
Room to Study, Room to Work
Joining as a CIMA Associate comes with studying, and a lot of it. Alongside the daily work you are preparing for your CIMA exams, and the remote setup makes that balance far more manageable. You get dedicated study leave, and without a commute, your whole day flows: An hour before work, a full day’s work, and back to the books in the evening, all from your own space. Nothing breaks your rhythm. The company invests in your qualification because the model depends on people growing, and for me it made the work and the studies fit together rather than compete.
The Unknown, Answered
Two and a half years into my career at Creative CFO, the impression I started with, working alone and speaking to no one, never materialised. My days are built around people: Customer meetings, team conversations, and the work we produce together. I have grown faster than I expected, managed my studies alongside it all, and built relationships I value.
If remote is the part that you are hesitant about, I understand, because it was mine too. It is a different setup to the typical in-office job, and it takes a little time to find your feet. However, it is a setup that has been designed with care by a company that has spent years refining it, and it will surprise you. Give your full effort in the first few weeks and you will find your rhythm sooner than you think. Being remote here has never meant working alone.
