For our most recent people profile, we caught up with our accounts assistant and resident in-house dim sum certified expert. Andy Ma joined the accounts team at Allied Vehicles almost a year ago
What do you do each day when you come into work?
Well, I’ll go into the banking system and download the transactions for the team, I would do the sales ledger, check transactions and match the payments to invoices and all that.
I also help with the sales and search for outstanding payments and check for any errors which might have occurred. Elspeth McNaughton, our Financial Controller, has also given me some extra work helping her with some reporting.
So basically, that’s pretty much my typical day.
How long have you worked at Allied now?
Eleven months. I started November 2024,
What was your career journey into Allied?
Well, I’ve only been in Scotland less than a year and a half, I arrived in July of 2024. Before that I was in Hong Kong, and I’ve been working in accountancy for more than 20 years. So, I’m pretty experienced in this area.
I worked in a few different companies. Places like Savill’s, and some financial service companies, some wine trading companies as well. So quite a few different sectors.
What’s been your impression of Allied, compared to other places that you worked?
Well, it’s a very friendly company. All the people working here are very nice to me, even if my English is not so good, they’re very helpful.
I’ve never worked in automotive before, it’s quite new to me and I’ve never used this accounting system before. And people in the accounting team are very helpful every time I have questions.
It’s quite different because the previous job I was in, I just did it myself.
I handled the whole process from data entry to reporting, because it wasn’t big volume like Allied so I could handle it. But here it’s all divided among different parts of the department, so one person is handling this, one person is doing that, and it’s quite clear what everyone’s doing.
That’s a little bit different to what I’ve done before.
If you could tell someone just one thing about working at Allied Vehicles, what would you tell them?
I would say it’s a very friendly environment. That’s quite a joy for me.
When I was in Hong Kong, in all the different companies, people would be competing against each other, you know? People would withhold information so they can benefit from it. It’s not like that here.
Why did you decide to leave Hong Kong for Scotland?
Well, the main reason me and my wife wanted to move was because of the political situation in Hong Kong. There’s quite a lot of political issues that’s been happening in the last few years and a lot of people moved out of Hong Kong.
I had been living in Australia for a few years before – I actually studied in Australia – so I knew I quite liked living in a foreign country.
So why did you settle on Scotland?
To be honest with you, the first place my wife and I were trying to move to wasn’t Scotland.
We looked at places like Manchester and London, but we started to look up videos on YouTube and other online channels, and they all said the Scottish people are the most friendly! So that’s why we changed our minds and came to Scotland.
What surprised you most about living in Scotland?
The accent! That took me a while. I’m still trying to get used to the accent now, but when I first came, I didn’t know what “wee” meant, or “aye”, I had no idea until I actually went online and searched what it means.
So, the different words that you use here, that’s the main thing I still need to learn. My wife as well, she’s still struggling a little bit. She’s looking for a job, and it’s taking a while because her English is not very fluent.
She’s been on quite a few interviews, but with no luck yet.
When you’re not working how do you like to spend your free time?
I spend it with my dogs. I have two Chihuahuas called Mocha and Coffee. I try to spend as much time with them as I can because, they’re quite old now; one is 14, one is 12.
So, other than spending time with the dogs, any hobbies, interests, anything like that?
I watch TV with my wife. I’ve been watching The Big Bang Theory lately. I started watching it when I arrived and I’m up to season 11 now. We love to watch anime as well, so we just rented a movie, Demon Slayer. It was in Japanese, but it’s got English subtitles.
I also like to go shopping with my wife, because Scotland is still very new to me, and still has a lot of places I can explore.
What’s something that not very many people here know about you that you would be happy to share?
My background, I guess. Because I’m from a totally different country. So far not many people ask me about where I come from, or what it was like in Hong Kong.
Any personal goals on the goal at the moment?
Personal goal? Well, I just got my house, so that’s one goal done. So far, I haven’t decided on my next goal because the first goal is just achieved.
If you hadn’t ended up in accountancy, what profession do you think you might have ended up in?
I know that for sure. I love to cook, so I would like to have opened a restaurant. I go into YouTube all the time and learn different things to cook, lots of western food, Japanese, Korean. My favourite thing to cook at the moment is steak.
I actually have a certificate for cooking Chinese dim sum; it took me a year to learn that. That was just for my own interest when I got that, but yes, in another life, I would be a chef.
