Career development vs Pay

JayRitchie

theoretica wrote: »

How much do your parents know about the accountancy job field? My feeling is that there are unlikely to be roles that will pay more for greater experience in your current role - but I might be wrong. Perhaps a call to your old University Careers service would help answer this?

This - but without knowing numbers we can't offer much advice. Lets say the grad scheme is in London and pays £30k while the accounting job pays £18k. Sounds low to me - but if it was an apprenticeship where you get a day at college a week plus all course and exam fees paid it could be worthwhile.

Youngsaver

theoretica - Nothing. I have friends and know of others in accountancy and all of them say practical experience is crucial.
When I was offered my current job, I was amazed at the salary. I was expecting it to be about 7K less.
I feel my wage now is a bit "false", in that it probably should be less.


That's why I feel the wage cut is inevitable and not to focus on it

JayRitchie

I'll try to write some thoughts and notes later today. Could you let us know your current salary and whereabouts in the country you are (or might want to work in the future)?

Youngsaver

My expectation for an entry level accounting role would be somewhere between 17-23k and I'd like to be based in South West England/South Wales.

jonnygee2

Either can be a career. There are plenty of careers in data analysis, it's probably a more exciting (and almost certainly better paid) field than accountancy. But, it's also an IT field, as you say, and if you are struggling with that part it's probably not for you.

Assistant accountancy jobs can be tough. Accountants often work long hours for low pay and are rarely well regarded. There is a lot of manual data entry and processing. Your knowledge of accountancy principles is unlikely to come into play much, you'll probably be doing reconciliations and quality control. Long term, what where would you want to take accountancy?

Youngsaver

My plans over the next 3 years would be to complete as many ACCA exams as possible, as well as fulfilling the necessary practical experience requirement. From there I would then have a better idea whether to work as a management accountant, financial accountant, auditor etc. Until I actually gain experience, it is difficult to say the exact position that would be best for me. That's why I like the idea of doing ACCA, it provides structured learning and can lead to a several roles.

TELLIT01

With the Civil Service 'stability' could be changed to 'stagnation' and limited opportunity within many areas. Unless a person is willing to continually relocate they may well find opportunities for advancement extremely limited.

strawb_shortcake

Plenty of opportunities for the civil service if he's in the south west and happy to commute to Bristol.

JayRitchie

Youngsaver wrote: »

My expectation for an entry level accounting role would be somewhere between 17-23k and I'd like to be based in South West England/South Wales.

I agree with you on the salary range you are looking at for a first position in accounts. Could you get higher? Perhaps - but only by applying for the best paid grad schemes (Jaguar, Virgin etc) which are hard to get - and harder still if you have geographic preferences.

Having thought about it I think both options - staying where you are or taking an entry level accounts role - are perfectly reasonable things to do.

I guess I don't know much at all about your current career - whereas I do know about accounting careers. You seem very well informed so probably don't really need any further information about mundane, practical things. If I may be very middle aged and glass half empty could I offer a couple of warnings about training in industry? I would generally recommend it but notice that some people enter unaware of some downsides and mess up a bit as a result.

- studying and working at the same time is tough. Unlike people of civil service, big accounting firm grad schemes most jobs in industry don't come with brilliant study support packages. You may hear of someone who hit lucky (or sacrificed a lot of salary) but in general you don't get much time off work for studying or expensive class based courses. When companies offer study support you may be looking at 2 days off per subject and distance learning courses for 4 subjects a year plus exam fees paid. Plenty are not this generous.

- So - how long might the studying in your own time take? People make different comments. Between 10-15 hours a week of focused study tends to be a guideline. Have you thought about how this looks in your life? Do you study for six hours on a Saturday, Three hours for three days a week after work?

- You also need to be a but careful of contract clauses for repayment of training costs. Lets say you take a job on £20k, and the employer pays £5k for training costs in your first year. How long is your tie in? Will you be stuck there and find they have no incentive to give you pay rises? It happens.

- If you go in on a promise that training will be provided after a probationary period its worth clarifying what this is. Lots of people have felt let down by their employers (again - my belief this was their lack of understanding of normal provision).

For what its worth, I think there may be a third route you could consider. Stay with your current employer for another year or so. This gives you two years experience in an industry and job type - could be very valuable and shows an ability to stick with a job. While doing this start to self study ACCA. You can get online courses for free which get great feedback and with a bit of research pick up text books second hand (plenty in second hand Oxfam type shops ebay and Amazon).

You see if you get any exemptions and try to cover the first three papers for the ACCA certificate. You don't need to pay institute fees or exam fees until you have got stuck in, made sure that the type of studying is ok for you and that you can stick it. If you start a job having covered some of the materials you will be able to progress faster and be a more useful colleague. Plus you might get an internal move at a way higher pay rate, and have the chance to apply for civil service jobs plus other graduate type schemes which may appeal.

Savvy_Sue

JayRitchie wrote: »

For what its worth, I think there may be a third route you could consider. Stay with your current employer for another year or so. This gives you two years experience in an industry and job type - could be very valuable and shows an ability to stick with a job. While doing this start to self study ACCA. You can get online courses for free which get great feedback and with a bit of research pick up text books second hand (plenty in second hand Oxfam type shops ebay and Amazon).

And while you're doing this, you live frugally (won't have much time for going out with all that studying) and save like mad, in preparation for taking a pay cut if you have to.

But there's a fourth route: talk to your current employer. You say they want you to stay: talk to them about what would induce you to stay. You haven't seen any internal jobs you want to go for, but make them aware of why not (although saying it's not a department you're interested in may not be a good plan - at this early stage you might just want to get stuck in and get experience in lots of different departments!) Find out if there's any mileage for training, either to make your current job more interesting or to lead to a promotion, or to head towards a different field.