Industry or Practice

Blarney92

Not sure shoud this be in education but i figure you guys would be better informed.

Basically i'm in second year UCC doing accountancy and we've 6 months work placement in july. I'm just wondering where would be better to go if you want to get a general experience of accounting. I've a pretty strong CV so i should be able to get a big 4 spot but i'm not sure would an industry job work out better in the long term.

We'd probably be talking about Apple or google or someone. I've heard a big 4 spot looks great on a cv but would i gain more in an industry???

Thanks.

Mr. Incognito

Depends what you want.

It's pretty common for people to be kept on from their co-op placements so choose wisely.

Better education in big 4 but better money in industry.

Hanley

I've just started my first year in practice and I have to say I think I made the right choice. The exp. I'll get across many industries is gonna be well worth the "lower" salary for hte duration of my contract.

When you consider the study leave you pick up in practice the pay levels even themselves out too.

I'd personally say go into practice now, go back when you're finished college and do the ACA's or ACCA's, see where you're at then, and you should be in a really good place to go where ever you want.

How much is someone who's just out of college, 1 year out, 2 years out and 3 years out earning in industry anyway? On average.

I'd say it's 24k/30k/36k/42k and 50k once you're a member of one of the professional bodies.

The CCAinsider

I strongly suggest practice, lower pay at the start but more pay in the long run - and which is more important, your salary for your first 3 years of work or your salary for the next 40? A lot of qualified industry jobs will specify practice experience - you will have seen 100's of business models in practice and can bring the best of them all to a job. Training in industry means that you will see one business model.

The CCAinsider

The CCAinsider wrote: »

Training in industry means that you will see one business model.

But you will know the business very well. I trained in industry, starting in a multinational shared service centre on a six month contract then moving to England on a grad program. I rotated jobs every six to nine months across different aspects of the business and got a view of very different parts of the business. It was great for giving me an understanding of different peoples / teams needs and responsabilities and exposing me to non-finance teams such as project managers, supply chain management, sales guys and support teams etc. I admit my training was more management accounting focused so my knowledge of IFRS isn't as good as it could be but as a controller my knowledge of systems, flows and interlinks really helps.

MonsterMob

Blarney, you can always go from practice to industry, but its not necessarily as easy the other way round. At the end of the day you get better training in practice and it looks a lot better on the CV.

Dancer x

Having come from Big 4 and moved into Industry I think practice will give you the best learning experience. However it is really important to know what department you will be going into, smaller departments in Big 4 will give you a much broader range of experience and more responsibility sooner.

It is also true that firms tend to hire candidates who do placements with them.