C.I.M.A or ACCA

xapprenticex · 22 April 2017 at 4:40PM

imo lv2 is too easy if you know how to do double entry bookkeeping.

i started at level 3

never met a person who did lv1

voodoojimi · 25 April 2017 at 9:29AM

I started studying ACCA and applied for accountancy/finance jobs for months and months without even getting interviews - even roles that asked for NO experience! So breaking into the profession is very hard. Any Trainee Accountant roles had well over 100 applicants, I even reapplied for the same Accounts Assistant role 3 times that was never filled but never got an interview even though I met all of their Essential/Desirable criteria.

I am a Facilities Manager so do a lot of work with budgets, procurement and invoicing so have many transferable skills; in fact, I saw in a career change article that a recommended career change for an Accountant who wanted to leave the profession was to become a Facilities Manager! Found that very ironic......

skintpaul · 29 April 2017 at 12:08PM

i did level 1 (free? or paid for by college), started level 2(paid for by jobcentre), but had to quit as got new job shortly after..

getting from work to class took longer than i thought, and running from bus to class not best way to start a lesson!

Carl31 · 29 April 2017 at 7:02PM

Im ACCA, i work as a Financial controller in industry. I find that ACCA helps in that sort of role a lot. I tend to find my skills best suited to SME type organisatons. the ACCA qual is industry focussed, I would say IAECW/ACA is more for public practice accountants

Although a lot of places have no preference over ACCA/CIMA a lot of the time, and often it doesnt matter, its usually the experience that goes with it that counts more, but I find CIMA is probably more found in larger multinationals with bigger and more specific FP+A teams and resources

As someone said though, its the experience that counts, whenever i am given a CV, its the experience i look at

xapprenticex · 1 May 2017 at 5:17PM

voodoojimi wrote: »

I started studying ACCA and applied for accountancy/finance jobs for months and months without even getting interviews - even roles that asked for NO experience! So breaking into the profession is very hard. Any Trainee Accountant roles had well over 100 applicants, I even reapplied for the same Accounts Assistant role 3 times that was never filled but never got an interview even though I met all of their Essential/Desirable criteria.

I am a Facilities Manager so do a lot of work with budgets, procurement and invoicing so have many transferable skills; in fact, I saw in a career change article that a recommended career change for an Accountant who wanted to leave the profession was to become a Facilities Manager! Found that very ironic......

I try to stress this whenever I can, 95% of the time, some person will come here and say "I want a career change, what can I do to make lots of money please", and the first response is always, "Do [ENTER COURSE] and become a bookkeeper or accountant innit!!".

I'm sure they mean well but its really not that simple and not that easy, so much competition to get in but typically should you beat your competition and get on the ladder then you're good for the rest of your career (providing you progress beyond entry level) because you are no longer competing with the masses of people with that qualification they were told to get for that guaranteed job.

asajj · 1 May 2017 at 6:48PM

Carl31 wrote: »

Im ACCA, i work as a Financial controller in industry. I find that ACCA helps in that sort of role a lot. I tend to find my skills best suited to SME type organisatons. the ACCA qual is industry focussed, I would say IAECW/ACA is more for public practice accountants

Although a lot of places have no preference over ACCA/CIMA a lot of the time, and often it doesnt matter, its usually the experience that goes with it that counts more, but I find CIMA is probably more found in larger multinationals with bigger and more specific FP+A teams and resources

As someone said though, its the experience that counts, whenever i am given a CV, its the experience i look at

I must say, I always worked for large corporations and all had plenty of ACCA members working for them. People also move away from practice to industry and will bring their ACA/ACCA qualifications with them anyway.

Xapprenticex has a good point by the way

C.I.M.A or ACCA

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