Meet the Alternative Thinker – Sara Elikhloufi

Sara joined Alter Domus in December 2022 as a Corporate Services Senior Officer. Before joining Alter Domus, Sara gained four years' experience at EY Paris in the Accounting Compliance and Reporting department, first as a junior consultant and later as a senior consultant.

Sara holds a number of qualifications, with a Master’s Degree in Management from Skema Business School, a CCA Master’s Degree in Accounting, Controlling and Auditing from Lille 1 University (FFBC), and the DSCG (Advanced Degree in Accounting and Management).

Sara is now working on achieving the French Certificate of Chartered Accountant (DEC: Dipl?me d’expertise comptable), the equivalent of the CPA (Certified Public Accountant).

How has Alter Domus helped with your professional development?

Alter Domus has helped me to gain professional confidence, and to learn more about the overall processes involved in the main corporate services missions in the real estate industry.

In the space of two years, I've had the chance to deal with some very interesting topics from an accounting and tax perspective, from sales and liquidations to changes in tax regimes with all that this entails in terms of compliance and tax consequences.

Also, team management is one of the core competences that we develop as a Senior Officer at Alter Domus. Indeed, it is an important part of Senior Officers’ and Managers’ role to organize staff schedules. This helped me to Further develop my communications and planning skills.

As a Corporate Services Senior Officer, what does your day-to-day look like?

As a Corporate Services Senior Officer, there's no such thing as a typical day - it very much depends on the period.

A typical day during a reporting period or during the end of the peak season will be very different from a typical day after these busy periods. But in general, as a Senior Officer, my days are spent:

• Reviewing deliverables such as tax returns, reporting working papers, reconciliations etc.
• Supervising teams: delegating and explaining the requirements of our clients and the processes
• Meetings and calls with clients to better understand their needs and respond to their requests
• Meetings with managers to discuss about internal organization and the progress of work
• Training

How have your managers and senior leaders supported you since joining?

One of the things I have appreciated most at Alter Domus has been the trust of the managers and the autonomy they gave me in managing my work and my scope, while always being there to provide support and back up.

I believe it is not an easy balance for managers to strike – where previously I have found myself in situations where I felt pretty much “abandoned”, and on other occasions I’ve felt too stifled.

At Alter Domus, I feel that every team member can experience professional situations that will enable them to grow and evolve while still being supported at every step.

How would you describe the culture at AD?

One of the pillars of Alter Domus' culture is our commitment to providing an inclusive and welcoming workplace for everyone. You can even see it in our name: “Alter Domus” which means “a second home”.

Both in our office and globally, we have a healthy gender balance and diversity within our teams where everyone is made to feel welcome, listened and valued.

This culture also extends to having close relationships with senior leaders, flexible working policies, and even the regular meetings we have to ensure everyone has a voice and is included in decision making within teams.

What advice would you give to someone starting their career?

The advice I would give to someone starting their career is to develop a growth mindset, as opposed to a fixed mindset. A growth mindset enables you to perceive challenges positively, to persist in dealing with obstacles and to understand that efforts and difficulty are the path to mastery.

It's also important to be willing to learn, from everyone you work with, and from every situation. Everyone has something to offer, but we can only see this if we take a step out of our comfort zone and be willing to grow on a personal and professional level.

Finally, I have learnt in my career so far that no one knows it all, especially in our profession: not having an instant answer should not be scary. As long as you know how to search for the information and gather it from the right sources with the right mindset, you will always find your way. Even when the answers do not exist in the documentation, you will be able to build a chain of reasoning with your managers and team members, and it is at this point where our profession becomes more interesting and intellectually value-creating.