Build a career you can trust

Posted on 29 April 2026 • Business, management and finance

Learn how to resolve real-world challenges and decisions with our recorded Business ethics with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) webinar. You’ll explore how your choices shape your career. The decisions you make, especially under pressure, affect how others see you and what opportunities come next.

ICAS is a global professional body that awards the ICAS CA (Chartered Accountant) qualification that supports careers across accountancy, finance, business, consultancy and leadership roles in a wide range of organisations.

Know your values and use them

Along with your skills, experience and qualifications, employers are also interested in your values and how closely they match with the culture of their organisation. Many employers will have a list of core values on their websites. Reflect on your values with the value grid activity on our careers self-assessment page. To learn more about values-based recruitment watch Follow your values: find your employer match.

Build trust through your actions

Focus on how you behave in everyday situations:

• Speak up when something feels wrong
• Make decisions you can stand behind and take responsibility for them
• Treat others fairly and professionally

These are the kinds of behaviours that build a strong reputation over time. Employers are looking for people who can contribute positively to teams and workplace culture.

See our page on Career decision making and learn how to maintain professionalism with Back to basics 3: your first day.

Prepare for workplace challenges

Expect difficult situations at work. Pressure, uncertainty, and competing priorities are normal. You can practice making decisions before you face them for real, but mistakes are normal too. Use them as opportunities to learn from mistakes and reflect on your choices.

Being resilient means Successfully dealing with career challenges and adapting to change. Cultivate a growth mindset that embraces challenges as opportunities for growth and innovation.

ICAS graduate training opportunities are open to students from any degree discipline. However, ICAS formally accredits the Open University BSc (Hons) Accounting and Finance degree, offering a clear progression route from academic study into professional accountancy, meaning OU students can be eligible for up to five exemptions at the Knowledge level on the ICAS Graduate Trainee Programme. They advertise Graduate Trainee opportunities with employers across the UK, on OpportunityHub. Employers recruiting ICAS trainees value a wide range of skills, including problem solving, critical thinking, communication and commercial awareness.