Temping - worth it for a PQ accountant?

xXxHollyBxXx

Hi everyone,

I'm in a situation that is very new to me so was hoping for some advice!

I'm 24 and I've worked as a trainee accountant/auditor (public sector) for the last 3.5 years. I'm now AAT qualified to level 4 and an up to date member of the AAT. I'm not a graduate, and between leaving school with A-levels and working for my current employer I worked as an Admin Assistant for HMRC.

I'm also part way through my studies to become a chartered accountant (ACA) and have passed (or in some cases been exempt from due to my AAT qualification) 10 out of the total 15 exams. I also sat a further two exams in December which were resits from September and unfortunately I'm almost certain I failed one of the resits - if this is the case I'll lose my job with one month's notice.

I'm trying to be proactive about things as it's a fairly regular occurence for trainees to lose their jobs through exam failure and so many stick their heads in the sand and tell themselves they'll be fine, then end up at a complete loss when the news comes through that they don't have a job any more - so I'm looking at my options now rather than the end of January on results day!

Does anyone have any experience of temping in finance based positions with experience and some qualifications, as is the case with me? Will it be useful for gaining experience in other areas (most of mine is in audit) or will there be tons of other people in my position who I'll be competing against? Will agencies like Reed/Hays etc. be interested in me or would I tend to have to do any and all minimum wage office-type jobs (I have nothing against doing this if necessary but it would be nice to use my skills and qualifications and not have to completely halve my wage from my current £24k unless the job market is too poor for me to do anything else). We did have a contractor working with us last year who was in a similar position (temping after failing ACA exams working for a Big 4 accounting firm) but unfortunately I didn't get much chance to talk to him about it.

I'm trying to stay positive as I feel like it could be a good opportunity to try new things, fill gaps in my experience and possibly open up opportunities if I can prove myself somewhere and ultimately be offered a permanent job. I do have a small amount of savings to live off if I end up unemployed for a few weeks looking for permanent employment (and would be entitled to contriubutions-based JSA), or if I try temping but end up with gaps between jobs.

Any insight, experiences or ideas welcomed!

NiceGuyEddie_2

In my experience, trainees who have failed an exam or two but are good at their jobs don't have too much of an issue finding a new job. I trained with one top 10 firm and now work for another and in both firms worked with trainees who had joined from other firms very shortly after having been sacked for an exam failure.

The key to being in that position is to move swiftly and be able to convince the new firm that a) you're good at your job and b) you know how to pass that exam next time. The first part of that is made massively easier if you have someone on your side in your existing firm (manager or HR) that is happy to put a good word in with another firm - this is what happened for at least three of the people I refer to above, whereby the first firm was known to be strict with exam failures and hence when people failed a resit and were sacked their managers would then get on the phone to other firms nearby and let them know the situation, explain that they were really good at their jobs and did they want to meet this trainee?

The second part is something you can think about now and finalise if you get your results on the Friday and have failed. The great thing about the results being announced at 12pm rather than 5pm (like it was in the good ol' days when I did them ) is that you've got 5 hours to do something useful, not spend the weekend getting stressed. You may find yourself in that meeting but you'll still have plenty of time to do something productive, and that includes being comfortable with how you would answer the question 'why did you fail that exam and how are you going to pass it at the next attempt'. Be honest in your response (to a degree!).

I'd suggest speaking to your line manager or another manager that you get on well with and have a chat with them about your options if you do fail. They're not stupid, they should pick up on the big hint that you still want to talk to them about your options if you are sacked, if they don't pick up on it then ask them if there are other firms they recommend or people they know locally who would be good to work for. Get your CV up to date now so that you can send it out on the Friday afternoon if needs be, and have a chat with all those pesky recruitment consultants who've been on your back since you passed your first paper Also have a think about how your public sector audit experience can be transferred to corporate/private sector audit as you may find you need to do predominantly/solely private sector work in a new position.

Finally, do bear in mind in my experience the majority of people awaiting resit results are convinced they've failed. The majority of those people do not fail

xXxHollyBxXx

Thanks so much, that's really helpful! And yes, I'm in the process of writing up an updated CV now so I'm well prepared XD

MoneySavingUser

I agree with NiceGuyEddie (a very good post) - as long as you are competent at your job you have a good chance of finding another job (the exams are often not representative of your work performance).