Bsc in Computer Science & CIMA Accountant Qualified

harry999

Hi,
I'm 40 & when finished school I done computer science, worked in IT for 10 years - in banking applications and some java.
Then in 2006, jobs were not that great in IT, and I had an interest in CIMA, so I decided to study cima by night. I found an accounts job and done cima by night for 3 years. In 2010, I was offered a software testing role with a large company in Dublin. I took the job and working in the QA role since then, doing mostly automation, selenium testing recently.



I qualified from Cima accounting in 2011, but not really used it. (just worked in accounting role for 3 years while studying)
The QA role is fine - on 50k ish - which is okay, but not crazy money either, the thing I see in QA roles the salary could go up to 65/70k, but that seems to be around max, and really not a lot of career opportunities I think.
I see some CIMA jobs in Dublin could have a starting salary of 50k, and I think if work hard, there is a lot of career opportunities here...
I would like to try and link the IT & CIma and get a better role - but what ?
Maybe project management ?
Oracle EBS ?
scrum master ?



It's not all about money for me, but I would like to have career opportunities, and see if work hard there is another role up the chain... (where as in current job there is really no where to progress to...)
I sometimes thing if I stay in the IT area, I could be better off to quit my current role, and try and get a Java dev role.
I sometimes also thing I should forget about cima altogether, and just concentrate on IT roles..
Any advice much appreciated....

harry999

Any ideas on this - with these skills which career path would be good? Thanks

L.Jenkins

Let me know how you get on Harry, because I have my B.Eng in Software and I'm studying through CPA at the moment.

harry999

Any ideas on this - with these skills which career path would be good? Thanks

Nemeses2050

Here's my 2 cent, I'm in mid-30's and doing final papers of ACCA and have been working in accounts for last 10 years and still under 40K (2nd job in accounts, may be If I had changed jobs chances are I could have been on a bit higher scale...I think after the 2008 crash accounts pay hasn't recovered much, anyway that's a different topic).

But for good part of last year I have been contemplating of jumping into IT - Development, Programming etc. Me and My friends ( who are in IT - development .Net ) started at the same time but now they have become consultants - close to 80K salary's and even when I get Qualified I'll be on 40-50K bracket for a good while and to get to 70-80K in Accounts it would take probably another 10 years unless I hit a jackpot or get a break in one of the PLC's...

If I was you, I would definitely forget CIMA and get into Development as at this moment IT industry is in great shape and there's tons of jobs with great pays (I know money isn't everything but considering accounting isn't a really exciting field either).

harry999

Thanks for your reply - I was hoping I would be able to get a role which would combine cima & IT, but you could be right and drop cima altogether and concentrate on IT. At the moment I kind of feel I'm falling between two stools.