25 year old looking to get into accountancy

Stitch678

Hello everyone, I'm currently 25 years old, working full time in retail with no experience whatsoever in accounts. I'm educated to A Level standard with grades A/C/E. I'm essentially looking to get into the accountancy industry in the most efficient way possible and to more importantly make up lost time. I've looked into AAT and ACCA but am unsure which will benefit me the greater. Realistically I want to be in a solid position by the time I'm 30, with a salary pushing a similar figure...

Any insights/advice would be greatly appreciated!

lincroft1710

I'd think twice about this. We get a lot of posts from accountants in their 30s wanting to get out of accountancy.

DCFC79

Can I ask why accountancy ?

What interests you about it ?

Stitch678

Solid career, solid pay essentially. Lots of options

xapprenticex

Most people think its the cookie cutter job, if you want pay and career be an accountant or work in finance, but what you dont realise is that EVERYONE, their dog and pet turtle has the same idea which is why there are LOADS of people with some AAT qualification with no experience trying to get that magical job.

As said above, the number of people who come here saying the SAME thing as you for accounting specifically is amazing.

You will have a a lot of competition, those with experience will probably beat your qualification with no experience.

Not trying to put you off but I'd say, save your money and get a job in finance FIRST, if you can do that, then THEY will put you through education. Key thing, experience, we see people with qualifications and no experience all the time.

Knowing people helps too, if I had a friend (I trusted) who wanted a job in Finance, I'd have no issue wedging his foot in the door.

And without a fair bit of experience on the job, I wouldnt even bother with ACCA etc.

As you show no love of numbers or finance based tasks, just the money, I'd say you're better off finding something else, its not for everyone.

Sanne

I know a fair few people in Finance (somehow I always ended up sitting with them in my jobs!) and all 14 of them (accounts assistance up to FD) had a Junior role first before doing any qualifications.

A lot of companies will then pay for AAT, ACCA... as this seems a pretty standard "benefit" in the industry. Some junior roles will expect the applicants to start studying immediately.

So, I'd second the advice - have a look at Junior roles around and then work your way up the ladder. Be prepared for a lot of competition for these roles though so you may also want to look for hybrid roles in smaller companies (often office manager and similar roles who will have some finance responsibilities).

Kayalana99

.....

If you want to go down the Accountant role then go for it. As my Dad says, he's never met a poor Accountant.

I did the AAT level 2 with Kaplan, I bought the booked and just took the exams so it was a really cheap way of doing it.

Also, if you haven't been to Uni yet you could consider Open Uni with student finance which is what I'm doing in Computing + Businses.

Loads of options for you to choose from, they do a Business (Finance) degree but it wouldn't train you to be an accountant I'm afaird.

List_Maker

if you like being in retail, you could always ask if there would be a chance to move to the office/head office and go down the accountancy route there. They may even offer study support/day off for college.
Doing CIMA (chartered institute of management accountants) from certificate level might be nice as it covers basic bookkeeping, but also law, business maths, financial reporting etc. I feel there is more chance to make a change if you go down the management accounts route, rather than the ACA, ACCA or tax route. A lot more diverse and doesn't stream line you to just being an accountant. Project manager, Business Development , route to management etc.
Whichever route you go for, it's a lot of work. Sacrifices have to made as just doing a few hours a week won't cut it. You need a solid block of time to immerse yourself. Essentially the better you understand the subject, the better you will be at you job .....££££!
I'm 30, started accountancy at 21 on 10k pa, with each job move my salary increased and knowledge grew. On £42k now, but I've worked hard for it. Never stop learning and pushing yourself.

Kynthia

Don't start CIMA or ACCA without first getting a finance job. You coukd start the AAT if you wanted while job searching as it's an entry level qualification so more appropriate for entry level roles.

If you do a forum search there's previous threads with advice on how to get some experience outside of work to help you get your first job.

asajj

AAT is very basic level and won't get you far in the accounting career, you will need to continue to ACCA or CIMA or ACA. So it is not AAT or X.

It is not easy to get to a good level of pay and career just because you have them though, like everything else, it requires more than this. Hardworking, luck to name a few. Above posts have good points and suggestions. Good luck.