Iryna Cropper

I am born and bred Ukrainian – I spent up until my mid-twenties living in Ukraine, pursuing a career in ballet until I met my now husband, Martin. We spent a bit of time exploring Ukraine before we decided to move to the UK for a short stint. My husband is Australian and Europe is a world away from his family, so after sightseeing around the UK we decided to make the move back to Australia.

After touching down in Australia we decided to call the Sunshine Coast home. Moving to a new country and not knowing anyone, you have to start from the bottom again and take opportunities when you can. Just as I found myself in a casual role as a waitress at a local café my husband was diagnosed with a debilitating condition meaning he can’t work and will be reliant on oxygen machines for the rest of his life. Our world turned upside down. There were some major hurdles we had to come to terms with like Martin losing his ability to walk and function without additional support. It forced me to re-evaluate what our life plans were as a couple as well as what I wanted to do in my own life and career. I loved dancing, but I wanted to pursue a career with more financial security for us and our future together.

Starting my career whilst providing for my partner in a foreign country was hard, there’s no other way to put it. I’ve experienced a lot of hardship throughout my life and to this day I continue to care for my husband with his condition, but it hasn’t stopped me from pursuing a fulfilling and rewarding career.

Being thrown into the deep end and learning how to do things myself was a challenge that paid off. I learned how to learn on my own and developed a thick skin. My advice for anyone looking to start a career in accounting is to think about ways to develop your skills in areas other than accounting and always think about how you can grow as a person. Every little thing you learn, small or significant, is important.

How does Ray White support your work-life balance?

My husband and I welcomed a beautiful little girl, Eliana, into the world four years ago through IVF, and Ray White has been nothing but supportive throughout the whole process. I work from home two days a week, but when Eliana was just a baby I was working remotely full-time so I could spend that valuable time with her.

I was always good at math growing up and knew I’d enjoy it, so I enrolled myself in an accounting course at TAFE. I was a good student and attended all my lectures and classes which I now think was incredibly important in helping me land my first accounting role. I had built a good relationship with my tutors, and one day during a tutorial one of my tutors asked if I’d be interested in applying for a role with her company, a Pharmacy group based on the Sunshine Coast. I took that opportunity immediately and started working as an Accounts Payable full-time during the week, studying at night, waitressing on weekends, and tutoring dance classes for children here and there. The opportunity at the Pharmacy Group opened a whole new pathway for me. They offered to pay for my degree on the condition that I stay with the company until completion, but I ended up staying for six years progressing into three different roles. It was a great place to work but after six years I was ready to level up my career in a new organisation. I was looking for a workplace where I could progress further, and that’s when I came across Ray White. We made the move to Brisbane and I started my journey at Ray White as an Assistant Accountant nine years ago, moving into more senior roles before being promoted to my role now - Financial Reporting Manager.

More recently my mother, sister-in-law and her eight-year-old daughter had to find refuge in Australia on a humanitarian visa due to the war in Ukraine and have been living with us since March 2022. Unfortunately, my dad and two brothers are back in Ukraine as men aren’t allowed to leave the country. My family all lost their jobs so I am supporting them as well, which I wouldn’t be able to do if I didn’t have this job. Ray White has been extremely supportive and helped bring my family over when the war started.

Family is so important to me, so I really value working for an organisation like Ray White where they truly care about family and life balance on an individual level.