Considering an accounting career - lack of entry level roles

casterlyrock

I'm in need of a career change, and considering becoming an accountant via the self-teaching route rather than the degree route.

However, having come from a non-business/non-corporate background (mostly entry level retail/security etc), I have no experience of the business world at all.

It's all well and good me attaining various accounting qualifications/certifications but it's completely pointless doing it if I can't land a job after all of that time and effort spent.

I have noticed that there is a real lack of entry level roles for accounting (e.g. accounts assistant). Just had a browse on reed.co.uk and of the dozen or so "entry level" accounts assistant type jobs there are around 80-100 applications for each vacancy.

Not only that, even entry level jobs require experience. How the hell am I meant to gain experience if I can't get an entry level job in the first place? I don't know anyone in the accounting world so can't ask them, but the point is, if even the lowest level job in the industry requires experience and has 80-100 applicants (who I assume at least 1 of them will have more experience than myself who has none at all), how am I supposed to ever get employment with the qualifications I gain?

Do accounting firms lets completely inexperienced people shadow them to gain experience?

missbiggles1

What about looking at entry level accounting/finance jobs in the sectors, like retail, where you do have experience, particularly after you've achieved a basic accounting qualification?

Have you looked at the availabilty of adult apprenticeships?

asajj

It is because they all started to outsource such roles to other countries where it is cheaper. However you can still apply to apprenticeships as above.
You can find a local firm where you can do an internship perhaps where you can shadow and learn. Also many charities usually need people to help them. Perhaps you can try this too.

xapprenticex

Twas in your situation once upon a time, I gave up on it, and eventually out of the blue, an opportunity to assist finance popped up in my non-finance job. Kind of took off from there.

You can try a charity as suggested but a lot of them wont let a volunteer jump in on their finance and paid staff may be just fine handling it themselves or not want volunteers helping as it potentially undermines their value to the company if you know what I mean.

Always worth a try but no harm in admin with the intention of assisting in a little finance (Talk about it at interview)

Moneysaver199

I would think there are entry level positions around. I work in the general area, and I'm not qualified other than by experience. I've worked in Sales Ledger (Billing) and then reconciliations and now in a more general role. I had studied one year of AAT when I was younger, but it's no longer relevant. I also worked in a finance department when I was 17, but then went into manufacturing for 13 years, returning to Sales Ledger after a long break and managed to find work. I think if you are PC literate etc, you should be able to get entry level work. Maybe try sales ledger or basic purchase ledger and take it from there.

As for charities, not being funny but I'm not sure they'd just let volunteers all over their finances, as the work has to be accurate and with training involved it would be too time consuming for someone volunteering one day a week for example. Would be hard to add much without knowing the work to be honest, unless you were just counting collection cans or similar but that won't get you the experience you need unfortunately.

killerpeaty

I broke into accountancy proper 5 months ago, so I sympathise but it is very possible. My experience has lead me to believe that:

• linkedin is really good for following local companies so they update you on their vacancies
• gaapweb is much better than a generic job site, but it's worth keeping an eye out
• studying aat or that bookkeeping qualification is a positive, but studying CIMA, ACA or ACCA without experience isn't
• Local newspapers are always worth a look
• Junior roles tend not to be assistant accountant (at least in my area) as experience is expected

Many people move from admin roles into bookkeeping. I got into a practice, but it's worth look at the different types of accountancy for example insolvency accountancy- there's only about 2000 practising in the UK apparently.

TBagpuss

looking for admin / support roles in an accountancy firm might be an option, or you could look for a junior cashier / bookkeeper / payroll clerk role and then you would have some relevent experience to start with

Polarbeary

Isn't accountancy one of the many professional roles that could be automated in the not too distant future?

somethingcorporate

No, very unlikely for management accounting given its all about interpretation rather than preparation of the numbers.

Given that there is a lot of subjectivity involved in financial accounting too I find it unlikely that it will be totally automated however it will increasingly be offshored I feel as our company has done significantly over the last few years.

asajj

As above, accountancy requires certain degree of decision making and analysis of the data. If it was a simple journal posting, it would have been disappeared long ago when we got the accounting softwares.

Accounts payable, T&E, Payroll clerk are also good options for the entry route.

Kynthia

Do a search as this question has been asked a few times on this board.

Doing AAT without experience is probably more likely to get you a job than ACCA, ACA or CIMA as then there's a bigger gap between your experience level and qualification level. What type of accounts do you want to do as working for big business is different from being in practice? Maybe get an administration job in a small company where it's likely you could do some tasks like processing invoices and reconciling the petty cash. Do you know any sole traders that will let you help with their bookkeeping? Are there any sporting groups or social clubs around you that you could join and become their treasurer as anywhere that has a membership fee or weekly subs to attend will need someone to do this role? Then don't restrict yourself to Accounts Assistant roles as what about Finance Clerk/Assistant or working in Accounts Payable?