Moving forward in career pathway and earning more - what can I do? (Accounting/Business/Finance)

kayson11

Sandtree said:

Glad to hear.... so what does he want to do? If he's working in a bank and spending time trawling their intranet he may well see there are possibly hundreds of different careers out there and I'd expect some are things he never heard of before... I know I knew next to nothing about actuaries, catastrophe modellers, treasury departments etc before starting to work in Insurance.

Wow, I never thought of that. I'll pass that on, it's a great idea! Him not knowing the variety of roles out there is a limitation and why I'm on this forum. As I do not work in that sector I cant give much advice. So I appreciate that pointer. 

He has spoken about moving around in Banking and upskilling/exploring other roles there are to offer. He has particular interests in fraud prevention/detection in banking. 

Now that you mention it did say he loves numbers - hence accountancy being a potential pathway - but he doesn't have lots of knowledge about the work.

Doshwaster

Mr_Maths said:

Sandtree said:

Not saying I wouldn't do what I did do if I was suddenly 26 again, I enjoy my work and its well paid, but I may be more tempted to try and get into the data sciences route as I like maths and programming, its a rapidly expanding field and if you are very good at it there is some crazy money out there... plus its still seen as relatively new so not dealing with people with 40 years experience and ways of doing things.

As a currently unemployed data analyst I'd say be cautious about going down that route. Some people have done very well out of it, but others like myself haven't done so good.

I spent 10 years working for the same company before being made redundant and made numerous unsuccessful attempts to leave during that time. The money wasn't great either.

I'm still applying for data jobs, but am wondering whether I should go down the accounting route instead.

The trouble is "data analyst" and "data science" covers a huge range of role right from people who generate basic project reports in Excel right up to those who develop cutting edge applications in machine learning, artificial intelligence and language processing. It is a growing sector with a lot of well paid and interesting jobs but you will also find a lot of job titles being sexed up with the latest buzzwords to make them sound more interesting than they actually are.

At least in accounting there are recognised qualifications and regulated professional body while "data science" is still very much still the Wild West with no standards which makes moving from one employer to another hard.

Sandtree

kayson11 said:
He has spoken about moving around in Banking and upskilling/exploring other roles there are to offer. He has particular interests in fraud prevention/detection in banking. 

My ex used to do counter-fraud work in insurance (on the policy side rather than claims) and whilst interesting work the pay was about 30% or so above her previous sales and service role. I don't know if there are better paid opportunities on the banking side of Financial Services.

Certainly if you learn about KYC and AML etc then there are roles frequently advertised for SMEs on the subject or hybrid SMEs/Systems Analysts which attracts much better money but it may be difficult to get the depth of knowledge simply by doing first line counter fraud.

Mr_Maths said:
As a currently unemployed data analyst I'd say be cautious about going down that route. Some people have done very well out of it, but others like myself haven't done so good.

Unfortunately "Data Analyst" covers everything from someone that does some basic data manipulation in Excel through to people programming AI and machine learning hence explicitly saying I'd consider being a data scientist (ie AI, ML etc) or on the other branch, design EDWs.

I think every profession is struggling at the moment but a quick check on the usual job boards shows a bank wanting a DA at £700/day in London, a contact centre/industry agnostic wanting a DA at £600/day in Manchester, a BA with DA skills to create an EDM at £600/day london, DA with Colibra experience for £650/day, Data Scientist with Python skills for a retailer at £850/day plus another 15 or so roles that state they are "market rate"  have all been posted in the last 24 hours.  Unfortunately they are mainly london focused and there is probably 400 applying for each and everyone but that 400 will include a lot of people with little to no skills.

Doshwaster

One of the advantages of companies moving to a working from home model is that geography is becoming less important so you could apply for those higher-paying "London" jobs from Lincoln or Loch Ness. Of course that also means that the pool of people applying is also much bigger.

Domain experience is also very important - even if the principles and techniques are the same there will be a big difference in the language and applications of data science in financial services compared to pharmaceutical research or supply chain logistics.

Sandtree

Doshwaster said:

Domain experience is also very important - even if the principles and techniques are the same there will be a big difference in the language and applications of data science in financial services compared to pharmaceutical research or supply chain logistics.

Too many firms are expecting life to return to normal and so if its a 6 month contract you'd realistically have to think of some of it being office based. That said known plenty of contractors that work in London in the week and at home for the weekend... one chap commuted from Spain every Monday morning.

Domain experience can be important but you can also sometimes backdoor your way in... the contact centre role is industry agnostic (it doesnt even say what industry the client is in) but get in, do a good job, try to pick up some of the wider lingo and you may be able to move onto a new project in the field. Or others will seen you've done 18 months at a big bank and make assumptions.

Sandtree

Mr_Maths said:

@Doshwaster That's what I've been finding. It's no good having a 'unique set of skills' if it doesn't make you employable. At my last company we had lots of people in other jobs including accountancy who would leave to do the same thing at a competitor for more money. The data team though had a lot of people who had been there a long time and I doubt it was because they were happy there.

@Sandtree I know there are well paying jobs out there, I've even had an interview for a job paying £70k. Getting those jobs is another matter though.

A unique set of skills is double edged, if someone needs those in particular your income goes up massively but you'll find very few people needing them... if lots of people needed them then the number of people with the skills increase and the money goes down. Normal supply and demand economics.

I am personally fortunate in that I have generic skills and some specialist domain knowledge so can get high paid niche work when its available but can also do more generic work when its not and just take the 20% paycut temporarily.

Getting a job is a skill in itself, unfortunately some of the best technically skilled people are terrible interview candidates etc but hiring managers can only really go on what they see before them. I know some contractors that never have an unplanned break between contracts as even in terrible markets they are able to secure the next gig in 2 weeks each and every time whereas other guys, some I;d rate higher, really struggle and have several periods of 3+ months between contracts because they couldn't find their next gig.

Doshwaster

There is a lot to be said for having domain transferable skills. I have an ex who has made a good living doing Sharepoint and Documentum contracting and has worked in pharma, banking and retail - document management is document management wherever you are but someone with more specialist skills would find it hard to change sector - and even moving from one part of an industry to another can be hard. It's like an actor getting typecast.

euronorris

Accounting isn't the only option in finance. Financial Advisor could be an option, or even a Paraplanner (many make this a career choice now). He could start as a financial administrator, gain knowledge and experience and work his way up. Many financial advisor firms encourage exams, and progression, and will often pay for the study books, exam, and some study leave too. I did this, and changed career at 30, started as administrator, moved to paraplanner, started the exams, had a baby, finished exams. Now qualified and working towards Chartered status and transitioning to a financial advisor.

I earn quite a bit more than £23k, but a) I have some niche skills within the sector and b) I live and work in an area where there is a shortage of qualified paraplanners. My earnings, for my job role, are on a par with London.