Developing a career in accountancy - please advice

geek84

robin

No I haven't thought about the sector.

I thought it is best to keep my options open.

It is hard enough to get a job these says as it is!

Any

jtr2803 wrote: »

We always quote CIMA as the 'easy' option.....;) :rotfl:

Hahaha , yes we do and they don't like it:-) as ACA talks abous ACCA in the same manner and we don't like it:-)
Though I don't think it is neccessarily easier, it's just different. No hard core technicaly crippling accounts papers. But if you are not great at the 'depends how you argue your point' management papers it could be harder:-)
I took my last exam lasr December, first December ever without the stress of exams for me this year!!
Hope you get it.

OP-I agree with the majority. You now need to get experience!!
Do you have ANY experience in accounts? Ledgers? Or none at all?

geek84

Good Morning

I hope you are all enjoying the Easter break.

As most of you know (my post at the beginning of this thread), I am currently studying the AAT. I personally seem to have had enough of studying, so planning to get a job after AAT.

However, the only accounts experience I have is credit control.

So, to get a 'good' accounts position in a company/ organisation, do you think I should first get my 'foot in the door' by applying for credit control positions and then hopefully when, and if, an accounts position does become available, I could apply internally within that organisation?

Thanks

geek84

They are a training organisation which trains would beaccounting technicians in software packages such as Sage and Book keeping. After the training, they put you on a paidwork placement for up to 4 weeks working alongside an accountant or someoneelse in a similar role. All of thiswould cost around £300.

Do you think it would be a good idea to enrol on this or doyou think it is a bit of a rip off?
Thanks in advance for your responses.

zildjian

geek84 wrote: »

So, to get a 'good' accounts position in a company/ organisation, do you think I should first get my 'foot in the door' by applying for credit control positions and then hopefully when, and if, an accounts position does become available, I could apply internally within that organisation?

Thanks

That strategy depends on how long you can afford to wait for that opportunity to come up? It does seem like a long-game strategy.

I would try and focus on the times when you worked as credit controller but did things such as PL/cash/banking either as part of your role or covering people. The trouble with Credit Control is that whilst it is fundemental in a company, it is really about the psychology of getting the person to pay up and being organised.

geek84

Hi Folks


Just to give you an update on my situation -


I have now finished my AAT.


Can someone please suggest the type of jobs I could apply for with this qualification?


Thanks

System

What experience do you already have?

The field of accountancy is very broad. Very generally speaking, there are two main areas - public practice (client facing) and industry/commerce (in-house). Then within this there are small business and then medium to large businesses and a whole array of sectors.

You need to think about what you want to do in the future before deciding what type of jobs to apply for.

As has already been said below, experience is the most important thing. I have been an accountant for 8 years and qualified for three years. My career was - joined a big chain of hotels as a junior accountant and worked my way up to assistant financial controller in two years and then left to public practice (local independent firm) to undertake ACA. Left after three and half years having qualified and joined a big service provider in their outsourcing department. For three and half years I worked with large foreign clients who had companies in the UK but did not want a UK accounts team. I was eventually promoted to manager beginning of this year but had decided I wanted to leave to go to industry and mid year this year I joined a US technology company as a senior accountant that oversees the EMEA region financials.

The reason I give you my history is just to illustrate to you breadth of accountancy and what you need to consider when looking for a job. In my first role I learnt how to 'do' accountancy (double entry, credit control, etc) and learnt that accountancy in itself is pointless - it is a support function and I have to be commercially aware. With this in mind I made the tough choice to leave my relatively higher position to go to public practice as a junior again so that I could learn accountancy standards, financial statement preparation and audit skills. I did not particularly like this (but learnt essential skills) and wanted to leave after qualifying and an opportunity came up in a service provider. I had not wanted to go into a client facing role again but this meant that I would be preparing consolidated accounts, dealing with forex etc so it was IMO an excellent opportunity to learn. Eventually I got bored and by this point I was in my early thirties and thought now was the time to settle down in my career and stop looking for learning opportunities and look instead for long term prospects.

So as you can see there is a lot that you can do. You can enter a small organisation as a junior and work your way up to doing as much as you can without ever doing a chartered qualification. Or you could enter a larger organisation and do CIMA or ACCA. Or you could enter public practice as a bookkeeper and gain exposure to accounting without the need for further study or you could work your way through ACA or ACCA. It is important that when you go to interviews you ask questions about what they expect from you and where they see your role going and make a decision based on that.

As said already, there are so many people that began a chartered qualification with no experience. That is the competition you face. Now IMO (and agreement with other posters) there is nothing worse than a PQ that can't even do double entry. I have had to work with wannabe accountants that had passed exams and couldn't even do a basic task and TBH the general consensus among all managers was that they were just plain idiots that had made little effort in their careers other than passing exams and hoping to get a job. Therefore when you begin to go to interviews, make it clear that you are a long term prospect for them and that you want long term growth with them (and off course make sure they can give you that). You are at that stage now where you must gain experience towards what you want to do so that your competencies shine through in the future

If you have any questions or want to run anything by me please let me know or PM me. I'm no expert but may be able to point you in the right direction.

Good luck

somethingcorporate

I currently work as a finance manager in a FTSE100 company. My background is no finance experience but a business degree, I joined in a general professional services role but quickly gravitated into finance. Since then I have had roles ranging from advising SMEs on finance best practice, cash flow, debt management to owning and managing £50m+ P&Ls. The opportunity in "finance" is vast, you can work as a self-employed consultant all the way to running a global company (check out how many CEOs start off in accounting). It's up to you to find out what interests you, I've been picking up stuff as I go along and half-way through my CIMA training but ability, enthusiasm and opportunity are just as important - the lack of formal qualification has not stopped me climbing the rungs to where I sit now (£50k pa salary, company car, work from home, good pension and bonus) in just 4 years since joining finance at a very junior grade and there are some FDs in my company that are not formally qualified.

Having a commercial brain and a background in finance means the world really can be your oyster, regardless of your age.

geek84

Hi folks

Thanks very much indeed for your detailed responses.

Reading from what you folks have written, I have decided to put studying for acca/cima on the back burner for the moment. However, the only finance/accounts experience I have is 10 years experience of credit control and nothing else!

I am registered with over half a dozen agencies and have had a few interviews but never went to 2nd interview stage. I have not worked for the last 6 months and getting depressed now!

Can someone possibly advice me how best to get back into the working world?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

AP007

geek84 wrote: »

Hi Folks


Just to give you an update on my situation -


I have now finished my AAT.


Can someone please suggest the type of jobs I could apply for with this qualification?


Thanks

What level? 3? You can apply for the same as you would without it as really experience is worth a lot more.