Career Advice?

kikililly

To all you accountants out there.....
I'd love some guidance if you could offer it. I'm looking to find out what my next career step should be. I dont have a background in business from college my degree was in Fine art and I stumbled into accounts quite by accident! Its taken a while to figure out that business and accountancy is where I should be.

I'm 26 and I have 4 years experience now doing AP, AR and payroll, bank recs etc.. I'm a member of IATI and i have 7 exams left in ACCA and all my results have been excellent. All my 4 yrs has been in the retail industry and I feel I have got as much experience in the sectors above as is possible. I see all the posts on this forum about the big 4 and milk rounds and I haven't a clue what its all about let lone how to get in on the action.

I want a great career, I don't want to just amble along in ok jobs. I'm afraid my experience now and by the time I'm qualified won't make employers particularly excited about me. I have to say passing IATI done zero for salary or work load, ,I don't want that to happen again!! Also I want to do the tax exams in a couple of years when ACCA is over.

Where should I be looking now? I dont want to commit somewhere for a 3 yr training conract when I could be finished ACCA by xmas '09.

Does anybody have any comments on this? What would you do in my situation, should i stay where I am? Also bear in mind I'm in the West!!

I'd appreciate any feedback, sorry for any waffle:o

PhiliousPhogg

A degree in fine arts and you wind up in accountancy. Oh dear...

Why are you doing ACCA exams if you're not training? You'll need to qualify with a contract of three & a half years work experience to make the exams worthwhile.

Accountancy is such a popular choice for college leavers because it offers a serious job straight out of college and training firms are hiring all the time. But the pay is low because you get study leave, and the work is frustrating and you need to be serious about your career. At your stage you will probably take quite a dent in your wage if you start as a trainee now (starting at 15K a year in the West i'd guess).

If you don't want to train as an accountant you could concentrate on bookkeeping. Employers find it hard to get reliable bookkeepers and if you know your stuff well and you've good people skills you should be able to demand a good salary of up to 30 K in the west and around 40K in Dublin. A lot of accountancy practices have bookkeeping sections and that would be a good option for experience.

Down the line you could set up your own business as a freelance bookkeeper if you get a number of clients. That would be a handy number.

Alternatively you could train as an accountant through industry, ie do a three and a half year trainee contract and work along the same lines as what you're at now with a big company like Google or something and do the rest of your exams.

You could book an appointment with a recruitment agency in Galway and just go in and discuss your options with them. Don't take their word as gospel as their primary interest will be to sign you up and find you a job, but it would be no harm to get some ideas from them.

tywy

PhiliousPhogg wrote: »

Why are you doing ACCA exams if you're not training? You'll need to qualify with a contract of three & a half years work experience to make the exams worthwhile.

ACA requires a training contract i.e. work experience. ACCA doesn't.

Newaglish

tywy wrote: »

ACA requires a training contract i.e. work experience. ACCA doesn't.

ACCA Global wrote:

Experience

A key component of the ACCA Qualification is gaining relevant practical experience. The ACCA Qualification will prepare you for a challenging and often demanding career as a professional accountant and, like all professions, it is not sufficient to solely rely on theoretical knowledge developed through an exam process to help achieve this.

The ACCA Qualification closely links practical experience to the exam syllabus, reinforcing that any capabilities you develop through the exam process will have a clear application in your workplace. And this in turn provides potential employers with independent reassurance that you are the right person for the job. It’s up to you to choose the right employer to work for and gain your practical experience, but there are lots of resources available to you to make sure you get the right type of training and development.

You will need to complete three-years’ relevant practical experience in order to achieve 13 of the performance objectives listed below – all nine Essentials and four from 11 Options.

ESSENTIALS (all nine to be completed)
Professionalism, ethics and governance
1 Demonstrate the application of professional ethics, values and judgement
2 Contribute to the effective governance of an organisation
3 Raise awareness of non-financial risk
Personal effectiveness
4 Manage self
5 Communicate effectively
6 Use information and communications technology
Business management
7 Manage ongoing activities in your area of responsibility
8 Improve departmental performance
9 Manage an assignment
OPTIONS (four to be completed)
Financial accounting and reporting
10 Prepare financial statements for external purposes
11 Interpret financial transactions and financial statements
Performance measurement and management accounting
12 Prepare financial information for management
13 Contribute to budget planning and production
14 Monitor and control budgets
Finance and financial management
15 Evaluate potential business/investment opportunities and the required finance options
16 Manage cash using active cash management and treasury systems
Audit and assurance
17 Prepare for and collect evidence for audit
18 Evaluate and report on audit
Taxation
19 Evaluate and compute taxes payable
20 Assist with tax planning

From the ACCA website...

tywy

Oh sorry, I got the impression from hearing people talking about it that you didn't need to do the training contract like for the ACA... oops

kikililly

Thanks for your replies, maybe I wasn't clear. I am training in the company I'm in, I have completed most of the requirements and I've had 4 years accounts experience so once my exams are finished I'll be entitled to apply for membership.
My worry is that my training isn't indept enough to get me where I want to go.. I want a high level job in the future and I'm not afraid to work up through the ranks. As I have so many of the requirements passed I don't want to start a 3.5 yr training contract from scratch.
So I don't want to be a bookkeeper and I'm on that salary now anyhow. I wouldn't mind going down to 15k for 1 year to finish my training but can anybody point me in the direction I should be going? Do any of the big firms take trainnees in for the third year? Or is there any other way around it?

Fruiti

Assuming you pass all your exams and are granted membership of ACCA based on your experience, then you should be applying to accounting firms (big/medium or small) to begin as a Senior. I work in a Big 4 and we've taken on plenty of qualified and unqualified seniors from industry and small practices. You won't earn the same as a senior who qualified in Practice but neither should you be on the 15k level. Bear in mind that there aren't as many jobs as there were a year ago so it could take some time and you should probably start looking straight away since you're not in Dublin.

kikililly

So do you reckon I should just start sending CV's off everywhere now with a view to taking up a new position when I pass? Or should I be going through an agency?