Accountancy
- Thread starter Nebzor
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Yeah, that's right. You need a degree or AAT to do the ACA.
Having a degree will make it much easier getting into a bigger company post qualification - particularly if you want to move into industry. Will also make things easier later on in your career.
Soldato
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I would say do AAT and then move on to CIMA or ACCA. It will save you money and potentially see you fully qualified sooner with less debt hanging over your head.
Haha, what complete ********.
I got a job in a Big Four with my accounting degree. Just because you don't need an accounting degree that doesn't mean it's useless. The contacts in the management school helps a ton too.
My employer found it much easier to have someone who knew the areas and lingo than someone who decided they couldn't get a job with their English or Psychology degree and didn't have a clue.
It depends on what area you go in to.
Take a look at this. It's generally £21k outside London and £27k inside London as a graduate and then jumps to £30k/£37k once qualified. They usually get jumped on by industry and get another wage jump. Some decide to stay on for the long term pay rises while others go in to industry for the immediate pay rise and then slow growth.
A finance director will earn around £70k for a medium sized company and in to 6 figures for the larger companies. A partner in a Big Four will be on £150k+
50k is no where near the max in the public sector for an ACCA
I was just going by what I was told at the interview day thing, what is the max then?
Of course no degree is useless, they have some benefits, but an accounting degree is what? 3 years? It gives you 8 exclusions for ACCA. On average the ACCA qualification process takes 3 to 4 years. With the exclusions this goes down to 2 to 3 years. So that would be a five year process.
Going into a firm when leaving school, working towards an AAT and then doing ACCA qualifications also takes around 5 to 6 years, but in that time you would have been working, gaining practical experience and your own contact base. By all means take an accounting degree because it is a worthwhile subject to learn. But the other route is more rewarding.
I also agree with you the bit about English and Psychology etc. degrees. I wouldn't let them near a set of books with a barge pole
If they wanting to go into accounting/financial services, then there are plenty of other more useful degrees. Accounting, Economics, Mathematics, Statistics. I found at Leicester University a degree called Banking and Finance. Essentially just an economics degree minus a few bits and then loaded with stuff on venture capitalists, European markets, Currency stuff. Looks to be on of the most useful for working in financial services based upon substance, without taking into account where you got the degree from.Sorry, but imo that is a load of rubbish. You don't get a big 4 job because you have an accounting degree, because they simply don't put you through a technical interview process where having done accounting would have actually helped. You get the job because of the general skills and experiences a degree has given you that match with the competencies they look for.
You need only look at any large company in the financial or professional services sector and you'll see that they look for competencies for their graduate programmes, not actual technicial skills/knowledge.
Soldato
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I think this is way off the mark, a very large number of firms do not offer ACA due to the cost of doing it,
PwC, EY Etc offer it but a number of people do ACMA or ACCA instead.
ACA tends to indiciate that you trained in practice as the large financial services firms are those that use ACA most.
I know that. The whole first interview is about competencies. I'm just telling you what my manager said at the end of the internship. However, if you had to pick between someone who's done an Accounting degree and will probably have some idea of what to do or someone who done a Psycology degree, which would you go with?
The Accounting degree student is more likely to pass the exams.
I just get annoyed when people say Accounting degrees are pointless. They're not. We do the same modules as Economics students except they remove one or two modules a year in place for modules which get us exemptions.
Thanks guys, it has been very helpful.
I noticed some of you talking about leaving school, joining a firm and doing the AAT qualifications.
How much of a common occurrence is this? I would've thought no firm would like to have you with no experience of accounting? Or is this like an apprenticeship on a greater level?
I noticed some of you talking about leaving school, joining a firm and doing the AAT qualifications.
How much of a common occurrence is this? I would've thought no firm would like to have you with no experience of accounting? Or is this like an apprenticeship on a greater level?
Soldato
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Thanks guys, it has been very helpful.
I noticed some of you talking about leaving school, joining a firm and doing the AAT qualifications.
How much of a common occurrence is this? I would've thought no firm would like to have you with no experience of accounting? Or is this like an apprenticeship on a greater level?
Exactly. If you find the appropriate employer to fund you, you can do your NVQ and get I believe 4 exemptions in CIMA. This will take up to 2 years and give you practical experience and a wage. By the age of 20 you can then start CIMA/ACCA and will have a total of 11 or 10 papers to sit depending on which you choose. If you are hardworking, you could do 3 papers per sitting and be finished in another 2-2 1/2 years or so. So by the age of 23 you are fully qualified chartered and have no debt.
Don't get me wrong, uni is an amazing experience which I highly reccommend, but if I had known I would be training for accountancy before I did my Physics degree, I would have seriously considered a funded NVQ through an employer.
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Soldato
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While there are a fair few people who have accounting degrees, you also find a hell of a lot of people with completely different degrees. My best mate at work did history, another grad did physchology and another did english. Your manager may be right in terms of people doing internships but for the grad scheme, it's not too important as they spend more time giving you more valuable and specific training on the job.
