Co-op...industry or practice???

ninty9er

Hi there.... I'm a second year Business student at UL and I'm inevitably going to become an accountant and would ideally love to work as an industry accountant in the motor sector....

Anyhow....around this time next year I'll be heading on co-op (8 month work placement) which is compulsory for all UL degrees. The University will line something up for you but you don't know what you might get so I want ot organise my own....

Background done!!

So my questions are

1. Is it worth my while applying to a company like Toyota Ireland (have a contact) or would I gain much more experience in a practice. (i.e. would I just be imposing in an industry situation whereas practice is the normal route). I also have a practice contact have done Work Experience in a Large firm in Limerick during Transition Year

2. how much could I expect to earn for 8 months work (considering that if I were to go full time in my current job I'd clear €15.5k in the 8 month period working and add another €4k if I was to continue working Sundays ) [I'm tax free as I'm a student and co-op is part of the course]

Any comments appreciated

information

ninty9er wrote:

how much could I expect to earn for 8 months work

any accountant will tell you, that trainee accountant money is the worst paid job a graduate can get.
At a quess you'd get minimum wage.

ninty9er wrote:

[I'm tax free as I'm a student and co-op is part of the course]

maybe you should get a job with the revenue

Kinetic^

Right, you've found the industry that you want to work in.

The trade off between industry and practice is 2 fold: You'll get a broader training in practice and you'll probably get more study leave as well.....these are 2 most important things as a trainee. Money is crap and everyone expects it to be crap and you'll probably be told that you're gaining priceless experience.....you are but it's still really annoying when they say it to you

I reckon you'll probably get minimum wage or slightly above in your placement. If we're honest, you'll have no experience and won't be bringing anything new to the company. If it's money you're after then stay in your current job but I think this 8 month placement would be an ideal period to get an insight into either practice or industry.

smcgiff

Dumb question - would a practice normally take someone on for a 8 month contract?

Sure, he'd probably be getting around to balancing his first bank rec after about six months.

Should add... If a practice did take you on and they knew you were around for only 8 months you would get the most menial jobs possible.

If you want to go work in the auto industry then get experience in that industry.

ninty9er

Oh well getting the job isn't exactly the problem in a practice, UL places about 200 students in accounting parctices every January....it's just like you said, I'd worry about actually getting the experience.....<i.e my degree isn't in "how to feed 2000 pages a day into a shredder">

Thanks for the replies....any more wisdom?????????

kluivert

I have been in practice since I finished college with a degree in accounting and finance.

I work in a small practice so from day one I have been doing everything, preparing accounts, auditing, taxation, company secterial work etc, Its a case of learning quickly as you go along.

Trust me its the best way to learn, none of this non sense of doing bank rec's vat and paye for three-six months and then moving onto something else.

The benefits of starting in practice, is that you can turn your hand at any company for organisation and seeing the way certain people in business do things, you can pass that advice onto other businesses to help them improve. If your starting off in industry, you only learn what you do every month etc.

I am about the move into industry as the financial controller of a construction company.

Am 23 and will qualify in July this year.

Ideally I should have moved to a bigger practice and then industry, but the money factor is kicking in now.

I will get experience in my new role for a couple of years and move again to a bigger company.

MD - final goal.

Money is crap in practice, i started on 12.5k a year two and half years ago, now on 20k and moving up again next month a hell of alot.

If you want to work in industry especially the auto end of it well go for it, and be the best you can and take pride in everything you do, you will move up quick enough.

Good luck with what ever you do.

chubba1984

I went through the UL Co-Op programme in the summer of 2005 so I have recent first-hand experience. Unless you organise the co-op placement yourself you get very little say in where you want to work, as if you get offered a job you must take it or the co-op office won't organise any more interviews for you (which is fair enough cos their workload is tremendously large anyway). If you apply for somethin very limited (the motor industry as you say) you may end up with somethin entirely inappropriate to what you want. From what I saw, the better students were picked off by the Big4 firms first and most ended up doing their experience in practice rather than industry.

However, this in itself may be no bad thing as, especially with the Big4, you get thrown in doing the work a normal graduate would do so you can get as much or as little experience as you want, depending on your enthusiasm for learning.

Myself, I got a placement in PwC Tax and Legal Services department. I had an idea beforehand that I wanted to work in tax and my co-op experience only confirmed it. Up to about 4 weeks in, I had only done minor things but when I mentioned that I wanted more experience they were delighted to expose me to the workings of the unit I was in, and by the end of it I had vastly superior experience to when I went in. In my opinion, more of college courses should be devoted to experience-based placements and less to more-or-less irrelevant lecture time.

On the money side of things, I got 1450 per month, which was just over 10000 for the 7 months. It covered my living expenses in Dublin and I ended up with about 1500 saved in the account afterwards which wasn't bad. From what you said of expecting to earn 15.5k and 4k on weekends, you would end up paying tax. Your student status is irrelevant in calculating tax. One lad who was elligible for a grant had to end up paying tax as he was over the level of his tax credits after his co-op earnings.

Another major plus is that most firms offer you a job afterwards, provided your work has been satisfactory so it can save on the rat race around the milkround time if you are lucky. At present, I am being sponsored to so a Masters in Accounting in Galway, which has prolonged my student experience.

Overall, co-op was the most enjoyable part of my 4 years in UL, over 100 ULers in Dublin can lead to some (im)memorable house parties! I hope some of what I said has been helpful. Co-op is what you make of it, and I wish you the best of luck with it.

ninty9er

chubba1984 wrote:

I went through the UL Co-Op programme in the summer of 2005 so I have recent first-hand experience. Unless you organise the co-op placement yourself you get very little say in where you want to work, as if you get offered a job you must take it or the co-op office won't organise any more interviews for you (which is fair enough cos their workload is tremendously large anyway). If you apply for somethin very limited (the motor industry as you say) you may end up with somethin entirely inappropriate to what you want. From what I saw, the better students were picked off by the Big4 firms first and most ended up doing their experience in practice rather than industry.

However, this in itself may be no bad thing as, especially with the Big4, you get thrown in doing the work a normal graduate would do so you can get as much or as little experience as you want, depending on your enthusiasm for learning.

Myself, I got a placement in PwC Tax and Legal Services department. I had an idea beforehand that I wanted to work in tax and my co-op experience only confirmed it. Up to about 4 weeks in, I had only done minor things but when I mentioned that I wanted more experience they were delighted to expose me to the workings of the unit I was in, and by the end of it I had vastly superior experience to when I went in. In my opinion, more of college courses should be devoted to experience-based placements and less to more-or-less irrelevant lecture time.

On the money side of things, I got 1450 per month, which was just over 10000 for the 7 months. It covered my living expenses in Dublin and I ended up with about 1500 saved in the account afterwards which wasn't bad. From what you said of expecting to earn 15.5k and 4k on weekends, you would end up paying tax. Your student status is irrelevant in calculating tax. One lad who was elligible for a grant had to end up paying tax as he was over the level of his tax credits after his co-op earnings.

Another major plus is that most firms offer you a job afterwards, provided your work has been satisfactory so it can save on the rat race around the milkround time if you are lucky. At present, I am being sponsored to so a Masters in Accounting in Galway, which has prolonged my student experience.

Overall, co-op was the most enjoyable part of my 4 years in UL, over 100 ULers in Dublin can lead to some (im)memorable house parties! I hope some of what I said has been helpful. Co-op is what you make of it, and I wish you the best of luck with it.

Cheers for that. I actually got a reply from my accounting lecturer suggesting the industry option, particularly because the "Big 4" would see the benefits of someone having had non practice experience as it normally works the other way round....also the Big4 will generally come looking for graduates anyway....but after what you said I'm in 2 minds again....I'll ask plenty of questions when I contact Toyota!!!!

ninty9er

Sorry to raise the dead thread, but once again thanks for the replies...In the end I'm going to be wit a big enough practice in Limerick who are taking 8 on for the 8 months. 3 of us self organised and 2 of us who've been there on experience before.

As you said they'll give as much or as little experience depending on if it's asked for. from the interview I'm really interested in the "private client" side of things, but we'll just have to see when I get there.

I'll let ye know how it goes if anyone's interested.