Anyone training to become chartered accountants this year after uni?

dmg24

I'm currently studying CIMA at Managerial Level. I am sponsored and given study leave by my employer. For all the perks I get, I hate it.

I had to take all the papers except Business Law at Certificate Level, and really enjoyed them. Certificate/ Foundation Level gives an overview of all the areas required for to be studied later. But the next level is so mindlessly boring.

On a positive note, being CIMA qualified will practically guarantee you a job at the end of it (and most people study it over three to four years!), and it is a universally recognised qualification, so good if you want to work abroad.

I think most people fall into the category of loving or hating accountancy, there are few who sit on the fence. Am afraid I fall into the latter category. I studied CIMA because I really enjoyed maths ... but in actual fact you do very very little maths!

If you want any more information, just ask ... I'll try to be unbiased!

Eoin_McLove

dmg24 wrote:

I studied CIMA because I really enjoyed maths ... but in actual fact you do very very little maths!

That's good news! Hopefully ACA will be the same!

Everyone seems to have done or be doing CIMA or ACCA - are there no ACAs like me?

dmg24

I may have give you false hope there, as I believe ACCA is more maths based ... not sure about ACA though ...

Good luck!

MsDelightful

dmg24 wrote:

I may have give you false hope there, as I believe ACCA is more maths based ... not sure about ACA though ...

Really? Didn't notice any maths during my traineeship - unless you include the ability to add and subtract (on a calculator) as 'maths'.

I would say it's more about the ability to think in that very narrow, technical and logical way that maths trains you for. You certainly won't need any of the formulas or theorems you learn in maths, or even basic algebra. Accounting has its own set of rules and formulas which you'll learn from scratch.

What I find with arts students is that they don't get it that you can't approach it like a wooly essay subject. The fact is there are rules, you follow them, you get correct result. You can't half understand it, then attempt to fudge the answer, then try to argue your case that it could be right given how you look at it.