becoming an accountant without the relevant degree?

myright

Wow 3 years is a long time. Then work experience after that.

What is considered part in regards to how many hours a week?

pablakeman

I am surprised nobody has mentioned this but joining a graduate scheme of an accountancy firm. I am training to be an auditor.

I studied French at university and graduated in July. I am now training to be a CA with KPMG, who are one of the top four accountancy firms. The other top-four firms are Deloitte, PWC and EY. Other big firms are BDO, Mazars, Grant Thornton, Baker TIlly (to name but a few) but check wikipedia for more.

These all offer graduate schemes that give a competititive salary and the chance to qualify as a CA in 3 years.

Hope this helps and if you want any advice I am happy to help. You can't get much more non-relevant than French!

pablakeman

The firm also pays all of your fees and I am pretty sure for certain CA courses it has to be firm-sponsored. I am training with ICAS.

jackomdj

All of the above, but just to add to the mx there are lots of types of accountants - boring ones and really boring ones!

On a serious note what sort if work does he want to do? Does he want to work in practice (in a firm of chartered accountants), work as an accountant in a firm (this could be any number of financed based roles) or go into bookkeeping?

Although I have AAT, which I did many years ago, I consider myself QBE as the role I do would usually be done by someone qualified.

thenudeone

myright wrote: »

Wow 3 years is a long time. Then work experience after that.

Work experience is gained whilst studying, so it is possible (with some institutes) to have gained the required experience by the time the exams are passed.

I'd suggest three nights of study a week at 2½ hours a night would be a good idea of the level of study required (more time nearer the exams).

Whilst they are all broadly at the same academic level, they concentrate in quite different areas, and people with each those qualifications tend to work in different types of roles.

ICAEW and CACA are relatively similar (and generally accountancy practice-based), CIMA (Management Accounting) and CIPFA (Public Sector) are quite different.

So you really need to understand those differences before coming to any decisions.

SuperHan

pablakeman wrote: »

I am surprised nobody has mentioned this but joining a graduate scheme of an accountancy firm. I am training to be an auditor.

I studied French at university and graduated in July. I am now training to be a CA with KPMG, who are one of the top four accountancy firms. The other top-four firms are Deloitte, PWC and EY. Other big firms are BDO, Mazars, Grant Thornton, Baker TIlly (to name but a few) but check wikipedia for more.

These all offer graduate schemes that give a competititive salary and the chance to qualify as a CA in 3 years.

Hope this helps and if you want any advice I am happy to help. You can't get much more non-relevant than French!

Largely what I did (and had suggested )! I have a French degree and I'm currently working for a top ten firm.

You qualify within 3 years, as you get your work experience alongside your qualifications.

It's probably the most common way of getting your CA qualification.

As for time commitments, I've just finished exams, and I'd say for about 4-5 months of the year you live, breathe and sleep accountancy, working all day and then spending every evening and weekend doing pretty solid revision. For the rest of the year (in between exams and tuition sessions), you just work the normal job, which in audit is usually an 8am-6pm job, with more or less hours depending on how busy you are.

pablakeman

SuperHan wrote: »

Largely what I did (and had suggested )! I have a French degree and I'm currently working for a top ten firm.

You qualify within 3 years, as you get your work experience alongside your qualifications.

It's probably the most common way of getting your CA qualification.

As for time commitments, I've just finished exams, and I'd say for about 4-5 months of the year you live, breathe and sleep accountancy, working all day and then spending every evening and weekend doing pretty solid revision. For the rest of the year (in between exams and tuition sessions), you just work the normal job, which in audit is usually an 8am-6pm job, with more or less hours depending on how busy you are.

Not sure how I missed that, that doesn't bode well! I would be interested to hear how you found going from French to Accountancy!