Anyone training to become chartered accountants this year after uni?

Eoin_McLove

Just thought I'd ask.

Louiseuk25

I started CIMA in January. Have passed foundation level Law and Business Maths so far. Will you be doing CIMA? Hopefully you've done a degree that will make u exempt from some of the modules...unlike me!

Let me know if you want any advice...am sure I will be bending your ear too :-)

Eoin_McLove

Hey! I'm starting the ACA in late August. I have a BA in History and an MA in Holocaust Studies, so certainly no exemptions! 55% of ACA students are from non-business/finance degree backgrounds though, so that's encouraging.

How are you finding the CIMA? How many hours' study a week do you do? What firm/company are you training with? What made you choose CIMA over the other qualifications?

I'm very anxious about starting my training because I just don't know what to expect. Everyone says that the ACA exams are the hardest you'll ever do. I'm not sure whether the difficulty comes from the nature of the work itself, or the amount you have to learn. The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) recommends 15 hours of private study per week, which is quite daunting, although knowing me, I'll cram it into about five! I'm very excited about starting though. It'll be nice to study something completely different - and get paid for it!

MsDelightful

I used to be on one of those traineeships for ACCA, I say 'used to be' because it was so unremittingly dull that I left after 8 months.

Think of all the stereotypes of accountants - and they're all true. You'll be number crunching, anally obsessed with detail and umbillically tied to your calculator. After having done humanities subjects so far, I can't imagine that you'd find it really interesting or deeply worthwhile. But just keep thinking about your salary doubling after you qualify!

The place where I worked recruited a mix of people from numerical and humanities backgrounds. What I found was those from the non-numerical backgrounds tended to lack confidence, though not necessarily in real ability to do the exams. It's understandable really, but those of us that have struggled with maths or engineering at uni can see that the difficulty lie in the amount of material rather than anything else. So what it comes down to is your commitment and working hard, and a very large dose of exam technique. Don't worry though, if your firm is anything like mine they'll be shamelessly pragmatic and really drill you in exam technique.

Good luck

Louiseuk25

I certainly do not find it dull! I love number crunching, being anally obsessed with detail and being umbillically tied to my calculator:D- I think it is because I enjoy it and enjoy the challenge-as it is something I have to work at rather than it coming too naturally!

Oh to be a stereotypical accountant :j

Eoin-I finished uni with a 2:2 in BSc Education Studies and Maths in 2001 and only started CIMA at the begining of this year-I wish now that I had started it earlier as it has taken me a while to find a career to follow. I was temping as a Finance Analyst when I signed up to do CIMA and was recommended the course by fellow colleagues because I really do enjoy the job. I now have a permanent job as an accounts assistant at a Securities company (so mainly sales and purchase ledger)-this is well paid and a step in the right direction after working at a stockbrokers for the last couple of years which I also loved (but not many career opportunities).

So far I have passed the Law and Business maths modules which I did at a local college-each of these took up 3 hours a week for 10 weeks plus about 2 weekends and 2 study days of revision. The remaining three modules at foundation level I plan to do the BPP Home study course, which will take alot of motivation on my part-so wish me luck!!

My company are paying the fees though, but i am not putting too much pressure on yself to get it done as quick as possible, though the incentive will be the salary once becoming fully qualified

I am very excited too as well as being daunted by the amount of work it is going to require-maybe we can kick each other into gear so we dont end up cramming!

Good luck with your studies-keep in touch f you would like me to give you that kick!!!!

Eoin_McLove

Thanks Louise and MsDelightful.

Accountancy isn't something I've desperately wanted to do. Whilst I was doing my first degree, I was set on working as an Intelligence Analyst for MI5 or the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). At the end of 2005, I applied to GCHQ's 'Graduate Management Trainee' scheme, but was knocked out in the early stages - there are 8 places available, and 8,500 people apply each year on average, so I was never going to get in. I still really wanted to work for the government in some kind of research position, but I gradually came to the conclusion that I'd never really earn that great a wage. I'd always dismissed finance careers as superficial and designed for avaricious !!!!!!!s with no real substance to their intellect, but after reading into accountancy careers, I decided that actually I'd probably really enjoy the analysis, the conclusion-forming, the searching for evidence, etc., not to mention the excellent salary and career prospects (now who's an avaricious !!!!!!!!).

I think the accountant stereotype might have been apt about thirty years ago, but certainly not now. Accountancy isn't just about 'accounts'; it's about providing business advice, helping companies to grow, increasing profitability, minimising risk, etc. Accountants are business advisors, and that to me sounds pretty nifty. :cool:

I can't wait to start - four weeks today! :j I am still quite anxious about the amount of work I'm expected to do, but people have got through it in the past, and I'm better than all of them! My comforting reassurance is that I did an 'A' Level in Latin; if I can manage translating 600 lines of Ovid's Metamorphoses, then I can do a bit of this ACA malarky.

Louiseuk25

I think you really don't have anything to worry abount Eoin-you certainly have the right attitude to approaching the studying. You could always do a bit of reading around the modules you'll be starting in September to get prepared with the background knowledge?!

Eoin_McLove

Louiseuk25 wrote:

You could always do a bit of reading around the modules you'll be starting in September to get prepared with the background knowledge?!

That was the plan, but I have a 15,000-word Masters dissertation to submit on 31st August, and that's still very far from completion.

Louiseuk25

You better get cracking then

MsDelightful

Eoin_McLove wrote:

I think the accountant stereotype might have been apt about thirty years ago, but certainly not now. Accountancy isn't just about 'accounts'; it's about providing business advice, helping companies to grow, increasing profitability, minimising risk, etc. Accountants are business advisors, and that to me sounds pretty nifty. :cool:

Yeah, you sound scarily like the glossy brochures your company no doubt sends you. The giving business advice bit you will not get to do til way down the line of your career, and way after you qualify. Who wants to take advice from a fresh graduate who hasn't even qualified? Even then if you're doing audit you're not giving general business advice, that's the job of management consultants, you're giving very specific and technical advice on how to present the company's financial accounts (so as to look as good as possible within legal boundaries).

Have to say though I can only speak for audit and not tax or CIMA (managment finance) and there may be great differences. And some people really like the whole package of accounting, not just the job itself but the money, security and respectability.

So go for it, don't worry about exams too much - as I said it's all about exam technique - and come back and tell us how you like it a few months after you actually do the job!

KRUPPMANN

Sounds like a great career to me. I wouldn't personally attempt it as I am cursed with the brain of a dead billy goat when it comes to anything to do with maths. There must be more to it than number crunching though??? I would have thought that management accountancy would open up a whole new raft of possibilities as well as work for outfits like the NCIS. Anyway, I'll stop dribbling and just wish you the best of luck with it! :beer: