Accountancy jobs - what's yours?

MoneySavingUser

Total wrote: »

Hi I’m wanting; like many on this thread; to become an accountant and I’ve done a fair bit of reading on the subject, but have many questions I hope can get answered here.

1) Generally no - there are some very high level jobs that you would only get with ACA but you won't be going for them by the sounds of it

There is a pathways to membership scheme to join ACA as an ACCA member if 2 ACA members sponsor you and you prepare a work experience portfolio - tbh there is really no need to join a 2nd body (it's just a ploy by all the bodies to try and get members from each other - more members = more subscriptions paid - also ACA costs are higher than ACCA [but ACCA costs have been going up too])

2) Industry is working for any company that is not an accounting firm i.e. Barclays/Manufacturing company/Supermarket in an accounting role inside their finance department - usually doing management accounting - generally these people study for AAT/CIMA/ACCA

Practice is working for an accountancy firm such as PwC/KPMG/BDO

Here you could work in a specific area such as Tax or do a general role (more likely in a small/medium firm) - generally people study for ACA/ACCA

3) Possibly - but it is more likely that this is the case because most people who train at Big 4 accounting firms and have the experience to get these top jobs do ACA

(ACCA is now the largest body in the UK so more of them might be in top jobs soon)

4) The top roles are generally around Finance director level (though you could become chief executive but that role has less accountancy in it)

Partners at Big4 firms and FD's in large companies can earn £1m+/year - however it is very very competitive and you need to work long hours for many years whilst you work your way up

The qualification becomes less important later in your career and it is more about what skills and experience you have

5) You would need to:
a) go to courses which your company may sponsor which would mean some time away from work
b) study every evening and weekend during courses and in the build up to exams
c) study as much as possible at other times

it can be a lot of work!

6) I'm not sure about ACCA but in ACA the first 6 are multiple-choice and then after that essay/long-form numerical type questions

You will definitely need to do essays for things like Financial reporting/Audit exams

7) Maybe - if you work in a general role and get lots of exposure to businesses you can pick things up - you'd need to have some business skills to start of with

If you work in just Tax/Insolvency you won't really get the right kind of business experience

8) At graduate entry level there are about 50% male and 50% female entrants - however females are more likely to take career breaks to bring up family etc. - the big firms currently have initiatives to try and get more females into senior roles

Any

1/ I do not believe that there is disadvantage in studying ACCA over ACA any more. There used to be - but now ACCA is massive, they are the ones involved with US GAAP conversion and advise a lot on new papers, even big 4 now send people on ACCA courses so the gap between the 2 is getting smaller every minute.

IMO ACA are just being snob about being "better", like public school boys can be, but then I am biased as I am ACCA:-))) I personally have only experienced judgement on being "only" ACCA from people very close to retirement :-)) who live in their old ways.

At the end of the day we all have to pass XY number of exams and can do the same thing in the end of it.

I also believe ACCA is better internationaly recognised and that is important for me personally (not being english).

2/ In what way? In industry you work in an accounts department of a company. In practice you work on accounts of many different companies. In industry you often get involved with all sorts of stuff, not just numbers. In practice you very often become an expert on certain areas though.

3/ Refer back to 1.

4/ The potential is wide. You can become partner, FD with shares, consultant, expert on tax (requires often CTA on top of either ACCA or ACA).... depends what you get involved with.

5/ How long is a piece of string???? That depends on a person!! And also if you going to attend courses etc.. that makes it a lot easier, but more expensive.

6/ How many? A lot. From the top of my head at least half the exams, maybe more. There is very few just number based exams. You must understand what the numbers mean, interpret them and act accordingly. Neither of those qualifications is just about how to account for. These are professional exams.
ACA/ACCA are about accounting and strategy. CIMA is mainly about strategy, so even more essay style questions!!

7/ yes, but it is not only about qualifications, it is also about your nature!! Some people struggle with strategy and business thinking and only like the numbers, some have both and some like just the strategy and business thinking... for those CIMA is probably better.

8/ I don't think so. All my bosses have always been men though. Suppose that has a lot to do with the fact that many women cannot make it that high due to family commitments that men don't have to the same extent... No idea. I do know few female bosses too though.

Any

MoneySavingUser wrote: »

1)
6) I'm not sure about ACCA but in ACA the first 6 are multiple-choice and then after that essay/long-form numerical type questions

You will definitely need to do essays for things like Financial reporting/Audit exams

In ACCA the first three are multiple choice.
No purely numerical exam after that.

Few purely non-numerical though!!

(law; business analysis doesn't really use much calculations, just ratios and the points for that are dismissive really, the interpretation is what matters; performance management the same...)

Total_2

Thanks for the advice MoneySavingUser and Any that has helped me a lot in my decisions. One more question/concern I have is that my spelling can be pretty bad especially under pressure, such as, exams. So, with the essay based questions in ACCA would you still be able to pass if the content of what you write is good, but the spelling poor? Also, would poor spelling be a disadvantage working in the accountancy industry?

Thanks again

Any

Total wrote: »

Thanks for the advice MoneySavingUser and Any that has helped me a lot in my decisions. One more question/concern I have is that my spelling can be pretty bad especially under pressure, such as, exams. So, with the essay based questions in ACCA would you still be able to pass if the content of what you write is good, but the spelling poor? Also, would poor spelling be a disadvantage working in the accountancy industry?

Thanks again

I am not a marker so I am not entirely sure, but I doubt in the number of scripts they have to mark they have time to correct spelling mistakes.

It's about explaining your point, I don't think spelling matters as long as the word still means what you need it to mean (ie the number of double letters in successful doesn't change meaning of the word for example). We have been always told you need to have neat writing (ie they need to be able to read it in the first place) and easy structure to follow, but believe you me sometimes when there is 10 mins to the end and you are not finished (which you will rarely be:-)) all advice goes out of the window!!:-))

As for future - use spell check. That is what it is for!!

MoneySavingUser

Any wrote: »

I personally have only experienced judgement on being "only" ACCA from people very close to retirement :-)) who live in their old ways.

At the end of the day we all have to pass XY number of exams and can do the same thing in the end of it.

I also believe ACCA is better internationaly recognised and that is important for me personally (not being english).

Actually when the ACA has tried to merge with other bodies (CIMA, CIPFA) - it has been the younger members who have voted against it so they can be more snobby than the older ones

Both have international links - it depends on the country

i.e. in some areas ACA is more recognised and in some ACCA more recognised

Total wrote: »

Thanks for the advice MoneySavingUser and Any that has helped me a lot in my decisions. One more question/concern I have is that my spelling can be pretty bad especially under pressure, such as, exams. So, with the essay based questions in ACCA would you still be able to pass if the content of what you write is good, but the spelling poor? Also, would poor spelling be a disadvantage working in the accountancy industry?

Thanks again

Well the ACCA is planning to make all of it's exams computer based in the future so I think spelling mistakes are more likely to stand out

In some exams there are specific marks assigned to spelling, grammer and punctuation

Any wrote: »

We have been always told you need to have neat writing (ie they need to be able to read it in the first place) and easy structure to follow, but believe you me sometimes when there is 10 mins to the end and you are not finished (which you will rarely be:-)) all advice goes out of the window!!:-))

This is the real issue - your answers need to look professional and well laid out - spelling can be a part of this

The time pressure is very high and one of the tips tutors give is to make sure everything is neat and well laid out so the examiner is more inclined to give you and extra half mark here and there

Any

MoneySavingUser wrote: »

Actually when the ACA has tried to merge with other bodies (CIMA, CIPFA) - it has been the younger members who have voted against it so they can be more snobby than the older ones

Both have international links - it depends on the country

i.e. in some areas ACA is more recognised and in some ACCA more recognised

Every person is different - I am just talking from my own experience. To be fair I have never met ACA member below 40 years old - now 45+ (or they did not differentiate themselves as such) so I wouldn't know.

Very little world mine.

musashi10

I'm currently a CIMA studier and work full time as a commercial analyst.

What I have found in my limited experience is this.

CIMA is now the most popular and in demand accountancy qualification.

If you go into industry they will prefer CIMA.

If you want to set up your own business or go on to MBA, CIMA seems to be the better choice.

If you go into practise they will prefer ACA or ACCA.

Most banking roles tend to favour the ACA or ACCA except for the analysis roles.

There is not much difference between ACCA and ACA but there is still a perceived difference by many of the older large companies.

You are unlikely to be a millionaire being an accountant, or in fact regardless of whether you are an accountant you are unlikely to be a millionaire working for somebody else (although obviously a small % of people do).

Many qualified accountants from all of the bodies go on to become members of the board and this is increasing according to the latest study (I think it was 45% have finance backgrounds).

Internationally, I think all are recognised in some countries or you have to do a small examination for the cross over.

Speaking for CIMA, it seems to be highly recognised in the Commonwealth countries as well as the middle East and they have just done a deal with the US accountants to get it recognised over there.


My personal reason for doing CIMA over the others, is because it was more management and business focused and I didn't want to do just financial reporting (although you can obviously do other things too with the other qualifications!), and CIMA is perceived to be the better for this. However, when you look at the syllabuses of all of them, there is actually only a few minor differences.

Regards to time needed to dedicate to studies whilst working-I probably do more than most, probably because I need to because I don't come from a science or maths background and I spend between 15-20hrs a week when the course is on. I also do self study so I think extra hours are probably needed. I think my books said something like 60 hrs per paper is needed officially.

MoneySavingUser

musashi10 wrote: »

I'm currently a CIMA studier and work full time as a commercial analyst.

What I have found in my limited experience is this.

CIMA is now the most popular and in demand accountancy qualification.

If you go into industry they will prefer CIMA.

If you want to set up your own business or go on to MBA, CIMA seems to be the better choice.

If you go into practise they will prefer ACA or ACCA.

Internationally, I think all are recognised in some countries or you have to do a small examination for the cross over.

Speaking for CIMA, it seems to be highly recognised in the Commonwealth countries as well as the middle East and they have just done a deal with the US accountants to get it recognised over there.


My personal reason for doing CIMA over the others, is because it was more management and business focused and I didn't want to do just financial reporting (although you can obviously do other things too with the other qualifications!), and CIMA is perceived to be the better for this. However, when you look at the syllabuses of all of them, there is actually only a few minor differences.

Whilst the growth rate in CIMA students in the last year has been the highest it has only been about 0.1% above the growth rate in ACCA students and over the long term (2006-2010) - ACCA is growing a lot faster - however if you go on any of the institutes websites they will all have claims to be the biggest/best/most relevant etc. it's marketing mostly

I disagree with CIMA being preferred in Industry - ACCA has twice as many students employed in Industry than CIMA and a lot of large FTSE 100 firms offer ACCA training

In terms of international recognition
1) ACCA is most recognised in countries where it is possible to do ACCA as a local qualification & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Chartered_Certified_Accountants#Legal_.26_Mutual_Recognition

2) ICAEW is best recognised in the areas where the Global Accounting Alliance operates: http://www.globalaccountingalliance.com/Alliancebodies1.html and other bodies they have MoU's with: http://www.icaew.com/en/join-us/members-of-other-bodies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICAEW#Admission_to_membership

3) CIMA is mostly based on MoU's with bodies but the recent linkup with the AICPA means CIMA is likely to open more doors in the USA: http://www.cimaglobal.com/About-us/Press-office/Press-releases/2011/March-2011/cima-aicpa-jv/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chartered_Institute_of_Management_Accountants#Strategic_alliances

A good place to read about which qualifications are accepted in certain countries and what further exams people have had to do is: http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=87

In terms of syllabus strengths:-

CIMA: Management accounting/business strategy
ACA: Financial Reporting/Auditing/Corporate Taxation
ACCA: a mix of both!

Remember you can't become a registered auditor if you do CIMA

zildjian

I currently work as an "accounts assistant" full time for a large company. I have done this the past two years during my summer breaks from university. It has been great work experience and hopefully goes down well on my C.v. I have learned alot and have been near enough doing what their trainee accountants do initially when joining the company.

Having had a different boss each year who studied ACCA and the other CIMA. Ive still not got a clue which route i would like to follow. However, i would prefer to work for an accountancy firm or a company in which im not Niche'd into one market which i think from what ive spoke to is their only regret.

My question is how do i utilise my work experience on my C.v? Points to make and points to avoid!