Are there any long term finance/accountancy contractors?

Legacy_user

So my current situation means I need to start job hunting soon and I have been considering contracting. I have researched this site and can see the pros and cons of contracting but couldn't find anything specific on accountancy.

My situation is - I am ACA qualified and spent 3 years in a small practice training and then joined a large consultancy for a further 4 years (consolidating/Group Accounting for large multi nationals). During this time I moved from London to South Bucks and I had always wanted to work in industry so secured my first role in industry closer to home. This was a Group role in a small company growing fast. After a year I knew the company was going to be either merged into their US parent or sold so as I had no real rights at 1 year I moved. I went to medium sized company owned by a US company and again did a Group role. I joined as part of a restructure which went horribly wrong and 3 years later (Jan this year) I was made redundant. I then went into another Group role but this time in a small company where I was the financial controller and my remit was to set the companies finance departments up first and then move to a Group role. It was a lot of change required which I began but they are really risk averse and the time frames have shifted further and further out because they are so worried something might go wrong or change too fast.

So for me this means that I would have been sitting around not doing much in this role for 12-18 months while they satisfied themselves that everything was OK and that would have been a nice and easy time for me except I spent the last two years Ina restructure that went wrong and I did just that. It began feeling like my career in general wasn't going anywhere and that I need to move on. Both I and the CFO amicably agreed that what they had intended was too much of a move in another direction for them so I am leaving very soon.

Which brings me on to contracting. Since I left practice 3 jobs ago everyone I have had, and most that I was offered, are always restructures or new roles. It just seems to be where people of my profile are pigeonholed and it is frustrating because three bad ones in a row is probably bad luck but I don't really want to risk another bad role as most of what is coming in at the minute is newly created roles and not replacements for incumbents. So I was thinking of contracting where I know at least I will be working from day 1 and not sitting around. Even if that isn't the case I just have a short term contract.

I have read of the pros and cons and daily rates around here more than compensate for benefits and holidays. What I am worried about is may be long term longevity in a contracting market and prospects of returning to a perm role at a later date. Does anyone in accountancy have experience of this?

Makkusu

Walcott wrote: »

So my current situation means I need to start job hunting soon and I have been considering contracting. I have researched this site and can see the pros and cons of contracting but couldn't find anything specific on accountancy.

My situation is - I am ACA qualified and spent 3 years in a small practice training and then joined a large consultancy for a further 4 years (consolidating/Group Accounting for large multi nationals). During this time I moved from London to South Bucks and I had always wanted to work in industry so secured my first role in industry closer to home. This was a Group role in a small company growing fast. After a year I knew the company was going to be either merged into their US parent or sold so as I had no real rights at 1 year I moved. I went to medium sized company owned by a US company and again did a Group role. I joined as part of a restructure which went horribly wrong and 3 years later (Jan this year) I was made redundant. I then went into another Group role but this time in a small company where I was the financial controller and my remit was to set the companies finance departments up first and then move to a Group role. It was a lot of change required which I began but they are really risk averse and the time frames have shifted further and further out because they are so worried something might go wrong or change too fast.

So for me this means that I would have been sitting around not doing much in this role for 12-18 months while they satisfied themselves that everything was OK and that would have been a nice and easy time for me except I spent the last two years Ina restructure that went wrong and I did just that. It began feeling like my career in general wasn't going anywhere and that I need to move on. Both I and the CFO amicably agreed that what they had intended was too much of a move in another direction for them so I am leaving very soon.

Which brings me on to contracting. Since I left practice 3 jobs ago everyone I have had, and most that I was offered, are always restructures or new roles. It just seems to be where people of my profile are pigeonholed and it is frustrating because three bad ones in a row is probably bad luck but I don't really want to risk another bad role as most of what is coming in at the minute is newly created roles and not replacements for incumbents. So I was thinking of contracting where I know at least I will be working from day 1 and not sitting around. Even if that isn't the case I just have a short term contract.

I have read of the pros and cons and daily rates around here more than compensate for benefits and holidays. What I am worried about is may be long term longevity in a contracting market and prospects of returning to a perm role at a later date. Does anyone in accountancy have experience of this?

Hi Walcott,

I haven't got any experience of actually contracting myself but I'm an accountant who specialises in PSC's (Personal Service Companies) and many of my clients are contractor accountants.

It's certainly a scary leap to make into the contracting world but the industry has been booming for some time and it's ever so attractive financially. You'd need an advisor at hand to deal with your accounts and the legislative side, like I said, many of my clients are chartered accountants and don't have a clue what to do because it's considered a 'specialist field' in our trade.

Long term longevity is always in the back of a contractors mind, simply due to the nature of the role and market it isn't guaranteed, but it shouldn't put one off the prospect of contracting.

If you decide to perm at a later date I would usually talk through with my clients either closing down your company or 'drip-feeding' the profits over x years, all with a good dose of tax planning.

By all means if you have any questions or want guidance to recruiters etc let me know.

silvercar

OH trained and qualified with a big 5 company and then moved into industry. Sometimes roles just don't work out and sometimes the job role changes and you have to decide whether to stay in the new role or move on.

He has friends who have moved into contracting and found a role where they are happy and become part of the team. Sometimes the boundaries between being a self-employed contractor and being employed on a series of short term roles can become blurred, at least in career terms.