Accountancy qualifications - anyone else studying one?

little_derek

Cheers, my bravery has worn off now and im thinking only one exam is possible, to study for two exams in two months with a wedding and stag do taken up two weekends in between would just be darn hard.

Im not going to take any lessons as im a cheapskate

Any

little_derek wrote: »

Cheers, my bravery has worn off now and im thinking only one exam is possible, to study for two exams in two months with a wedding and stag do taken up two weekends in between would just be darn hard.

Im not going to take any lessons as im a cheapskate

Then very good luck to you I have to say... 2 months with stag dos and wedding in between, you are more then brave not to take any lectures. it tkes a lot of will power to get yourself to learn for hours and hours, day after day and I wouldn't have it (I am more of a lazy person then a cheapskate myself;))

Anihilator

I would suggest what you will find is that Graduate's in an accountancy field have a far better understanding of how it should be. They often will be better in audit/risk type work and generally be far better with the rules and regulations of accounting.

Non Graduates will probably be as good at the practical aspect but might suffer in areas where they dont follow the rules and regulations as much due to the way it "should be" or for taking easier shortcuts which contravene the rules.

Imo if you want to go to the top in an accountancy field then Uni followed by a chartered accountant course is the way to go.
ACCA and CIMA arent much of it but maybe dont have the same prestige.

I would shy away from the big accounting companies as they may pay more but your skills and knowledge will be far more limited as your likely to be dumped into Audit or Tax only and not see the bigger picture and if you want to go to the top you will need to know all aspects of accounting.

My personal path suggestion would be Uni, CA, General Practice, Specialistation , Career progression towards Director/CEO level.

Its also worth bearing in mind that if you want to really go to the top to look at including areas such as Law, HR, Tax etc in your module selections.

jessicamb

little_derek wrote: »

Im not going to take any lessons as im a cheapskate

Consider the opportunity cost of all the extra hours of work you may have to do to get through the exam compared to someone who went to college and had expert tutor guidance. Its not a perfect system but I generally found that you had to do a lot less work on your own if going to college than under home study.

That said I think you have probably missed the classroom courses for May exams (CIMA presumably, think ACCA still has some time to go) - do try and get a decent home study package though from a reputable provider - something like BPP or FTC Kaplan

jessicamb

Anihilator wrote: »

My personal path suggestion would be Uni, CA, General Practice, Specialistation , Career progression towards Director/CEO level.

Its also worth bearing in mind that if you want to really go to the top to look at including areas such as Law, HR, Tax etc in your module selections.

The first sentence I think it depends on what career path you wish to follow. I would suggest yours is better for geting to FD, CIMA makes a better MD IMO.

I agree wholeheartedly with the second sentence and would add to it also consider this in your career choices - seek to take on lots of cross functional work and build relationships with people outside of finance. Try and build your commercial expertise which a lot of accountants sadly lack. When you are at the top you have to have a good understanding of the whole business and industry you are in so might as well start learning those skills from the off. On a practical note I have found that vacancies that demand good commercial experience can pay 10% or more than equivalent more insular roles.