ACCA (certified chartered accountant)

[twistedheat]

Thinking about switching careers and doing the ACCA.

How is the job market in this field? In London is it relatively easy to find a £35-40k+ job once you are qualified?

Or is the market saturated with qualified accountants and would I be better off reevaluating?

 

[wingman]

Switching from what?

I've heard rumours that there are currently shortages of accountants but these reports have come from accountancy bodies who, I can only assume can be relied upon. Having said that, getting more people to join the ranks of their bodies wouldn't be a bad thing.

A qualified ACCA member can expect £40k minimum in the Midlands, so I'm assuming you'd easily get that even in London, probably even at a part qualified status.

Some wild assumptions there mind, I've been in the industry almost 8 years but never worked in London.

 

[twistedheat]

Currently I work in retail, in a dead end job.

I'm just making sure that choosing to do ACCA is a good way to progress into something better, in the sense that I don't want to put in the hard work to come and find the job market doesn't really exist, or is too competitive and I'd be earning the same as I am currently. Due to unfortunate family circumstances in my youth I do not have any A-levels or a degree, although I did complete my first year of Uni (got in via an access course) before having to drop out for aforementioned reasons.

This completed first year, however, granted me exemptions from F1-F3. Whilst I said I'm thinking about starting my ACCA, truth be told I've already started. Did well in F4 (law - 94%), also sat F6 (Tax) a few weeks back. Results pending but I expect 80%+ result. I guess I've just realised the hard slog that is still in front of me, and wanted to affirm that I'm on a decent track and not essentially wasting my time. I know I should have done my due diligence before I even started taking any exams, but better late than never.

However if what you are saying that the accounting bodies have said is true (fingers crossed) then hopefully I am on the right track.

Any other general advice or tips you have, I'd love to hear. Thanks for the reply.

 

[Rids]

The London market for accountants isn't as strong as it used to be, don't get me wrong its still good, but there is a lot more competition even for starter roles now than when I joined the profession 7 years back. Like you I made the switch from Retail, and while there are bad days in the office, it is a far more rewarding and challenging job than retail and there is a chance if you're good you can really go somewhere.

I know when we were recruiting for a starter role within my old firm 2 years back we received around 15-20 CV's and we only went to a single agency. There were a lot of good applicants with degrees etc, and I imagine a lot of places would use that as an initial filter. However we ended up lumping for a guy without a degree, simply because he impressed us most at the interview. I think you're going to need something to make you stand out, doing your exams while working in retail is commendable but you may find it hard to make the jump. I only managed to make the transition because I got lucky.

You'll only get £40k part qualified in London if you're either very good, or very lucky, and you'll need at least a couple of years of on the job experience for that. Fully qualified should see you in the £45k+ area quite comfortably, as long as you've got some good commercial experience behind you, and a bit of sense.

Exams are important, firms use them as an easy way to grade where you are in your career, but they are not the be all and end all. We had a girl at my last firm, fully qualified ACA, Maths Phd and she was completely and utterly inept. She is still on the salary she was on when she started, under £30k, and to be perfectly honest that is far too much. Also be aware that to qualify you need to have 3 years professional experience under your belt, so if you keep flying through the exams you may find yourself with a long wait at the end before you can confirm your qualified status.

Can't think of anything else to add, feel free to hit me up with any questions.

 

[wingman]

Also made the jump from retail myself, and yes, accountancy does provide a much greater challenge and fulfilling career.

Congratulations on your law result, that's a good indicator you're on track to do very well - you seem confident with tax as well so I'd suggest you're on the correct path.

 

[twistedheat]

The London market for accountants isn't as strong as it used to be, don't get me wrong its still good, but there is a lot more competition even for starter roles now than when I joined the profession 7 years back. Like you I made the switch from Retail, and while there are bad days in the office, it is a far more rewarding and challenging job than retail and there is a chance if you're good you can really go somewhere.

I know when we were recruiting for a starter role within my old firm 2 years back we received around 15-20 CV's and we only went to a single agency. There were a lot of good applicants with degrees etc, and I imagine a lot of places would use that as an initial filter. However we ended up lumping for a guy without a degree, simply because he impressed us most at the interview. I think you're going to need something to make you stand out, doing your exams while working in retail is commendable but you may find it hard to make the jump. I only managed to make the transition because I got lucky.

You'll only get £40k part qualified in London if you're either very good, or very lucky, and you'll need at least a couple of years of on the job experience for that. Fully qualified should see you in the £45k+ area quite comfortably, as long as you've got some good commercial experience behind you, and a bit of sense.

Exams are important, firms use them as an easy way to grade where you are in your career, but they are not the be all and end all. We had a girl at my last firm, fully qualified ACA, Maths Phd and she was completely and utterly inept. She is still on the salary she was on when she started, under £30k, and to be perfectly honest that is far too much. Also be aware that to qualify you need to have 3 years professional experience under your belt, so if you keep flying through the exams you may find yourself with a long wait at the end before you can confirm your qualified status.

Can't think of anything else to add, feel free to hit me up with any questions.

Thanks for the advice.

I am slightly fortunate that my aunt runs her own small practice, but her clients are mainly self-employed / sole practitioners and otherwise small limited companies. So for the moment I've been able to gain (unpaid) experience from her, working the weekend in the office and taking work home with me. Unfortunately she is not in the position to hire me in a paid role, her client base is not large enough.

I understand that without any other qualifications to my name I'll need to do extra to stand out, I'm hoping that doing well in all my exams (the aim is to obtain 80%+ in as many exams as I can), as well as using ACCA's partnership with Oxford Brookes to obtain a 1st class Bsc in Applied Accounting may help me stand out a little.

My ultimate would be to get into of the Big 4, even if I'm only there for 1/2 years. But I assume I'd have to get damn lucky for that to happen. With regards to options papers, I'd assume Advanced Audit and Advanced Tax would be required?

Also made the jump from retail myself, and yes, accountancy does provide a much greater challenge and fulfilling career.

Congratulations on your law result, that's a good indicator you're on track to do very well - you seem confident with tax as well so I'd suggest you're on the correct path.

Thank you for the kind words!

 

[Rids]

Thanks for the advice.

I am slightly fortunate that my aunt runs her own small practice, but her clients are mainly self-employed / sole practitioners and otherwise small limited companies. So for the moment I've been able to gain (unpaid) experience from her, working the weekend in the office and taking work home with me. Unfortunately she is not in the position to hire me in a paid role, her client base is not large enough.

I understand that without any other qualifications to my name I'll need to do extra to stand out, I'm hoping that doing well in all my exams (the aim is to obtain 80%+ in as many exams as I can), as well as using ACCA's partnership with Oxford Brookes to obtain a 1st class Bsc in Applied Accounting may help me stand out a little.

My ultimate would be to get into of the Big 4, even if I'm only there for 1/2 years. But I assume I'd have to get damn lucky for that to happen. With regards to options papers, I'd assume Advanced Audit and Advanced Tax would be required?



Thank you for the kind words!

I'm not Big 4 myself, so anything I'll say here is second hand coming from people I've worked with who are ex-Big 4. I'm not sure on your chances, I think PWC announced just a few weeks back that they would start to consider people without degrees for their entry level programs, so if you're qualified before you apply I'd say you're in with a shot. From what I've heard the Big 4 life isn't for me, you need to understand what you're getting in for. We were audited every year by KPMG, the audit juniors would be in just after 9, and no matter how late I stayed I never left before they did. For the first 2 or 3 years work will be your life - and the initial money isn't great.

Things will pick up after the first couple of years, you'll make audit senior and the working hours won't be quite so crushing. If you've got something about you then you'll make it to audit partner and from then on the sky is your limit. Ex Big 4 candidates have a huge advantage over pretty much everybody else in the market when it comes to hiring - personally I find they're a mixed bag, some I've worked with have been useless but then again I can think of a couple that absolutely blow me away. I do think if you're going for Big 4, and considering a career in audit you might be better off doing ACA as opposed to ACCA. Hopefully somebody with Big 4 experience will drop by the thread and clarify.

If you don't make it into the Big 4 its not the end of the world however - there are many other aspects of accounting. Personally I find management accountant to be the most enjoyable of all the different roles I've done as you get a good feel for the business and how things work (or in most places, don't work) as opposed to getting bogged down in the regulatory side of things.

Do you know the type of organisation you want to end up in? There could be other things you could do to make you stand out - for example I work in Insurance and once I qualify I'm going to take on the first few actuarial papers as it will help with some of the Solvency work I do, and will look great on the CV when I start looking for the next step.

 

[twistedheat]

I'm not Big 4 myself, so anything I'll say here is second hand coming from people I've worked with who are ex-Big 4. I'm not sure on your chances, I think PWC announced just a few weeks back that they would start to consider people without degrees for their entry level programs, so if you're qualified before you apply I'd say you're in with a shot. From what I've heard the Big 4 life isn't for me, you need to understand what you're getting in for. We were audited every year by KPMG, the audit juniors would be in just after 9, and no matter how late I stayed I never left before they did. For the first 2 or 3 years work will be your life - and the initial money isn't great.

Things will pick up after the first couple of years, you'll make audit senior and the working hours won't be quite so crushing. If you've got something about you then you'll make it to audit partner and from then on the sky is your limit. Ex Big 4 candidates have a huge advantage over pretty much everybody else in the market when it comes to hiring - personally I find they're a mixed bag, some I've worked with have been useless but then again I can think of a couple that absolutely blow me away. I do think if you're going for Big 4, and considering a career in audit you might be better off doing ACA as opposed to ACCA. Hopefully somebody with Big 4 experience will drop by the thread and clarify.

If you don't make it into the Big 4 its not the end of the world however - there are many other aspects of accounting. Personally I find management accountant to be the most enjoyable of all the different roles I've done as you get a good feel for the business and how things work (or in most places, don't work) as opposed to getting bogged down in the regulatory side of things.

Do you know the type of organisation you want to end up in? There could be other things you could do to make you stand out - for example I work in Insurance and once I qualify I'm going to take on the first few actuarial papers as it will help with some of the Solvency work I do, and will look great on the CV when I start looking for the next step.

Tbh, I kinda worded it wrong. My ultimate is to become ex-Big 4 for the exact reason you stated.

With regards to the work / life balance, I knew a girl who worked for Deloitte so I'm relatively aware of the sacrifices that are required whilst working there but I think doing it for a few years for what it brings to the CV may be worth it. Ultimately though, I think I'd like to work in industry over practice in the long term, but as you've said in the short term getting Big4 onto the CV is almost like a meal ticket.

Unfortunately I don't think I'd be able to do ACA as I think it requires you to be in some sort of graduate scheme which I'm obviously not. I know that a fully qualified ACCA candidate can receive all exemptions except from the final case study in the ACA though. So if I ever needed to convert at a latter stage, it wouldn't be the most difficult.

Did you go directly into industry or do you have experience in audit too, but still prefer management accounting?

 

[Rids]

Tbh, I kinda worded it wrong. My ultimate is to become ex-Big 4 for the exact reason you stated.

With regards to the work / life balance, I knew a girl who worked for Deloitte so I'm relatively aware of the sacrifices that are required whilst working there but I think doing it for a few years for what it brings to the CV may be worth it. Ultimately though, I think I'd like to work in industry over practice in the long term, but as you've said in the short term getting Big4 onto the CV is almost like a meal ticket.

Unfortunately I don't think I'd be able to do ACA as I think it requires you to be in some sort of graduate scheme which I'm obviously not. I know that a fully qualified ACCA candidate can receive all exemptions except from the final case study in the ACA though. So if I ever needed to convert at a latter stage, it wouldn't be the most difficult.

Did you go directly into industry or do you have experience in audit too, but still prefer management accounting?

I made the jump straight into industry - I've done a stint in internal audit / controls but it wasn't for me. If you're enjoying the work you're doing at your aunts place though then there is a good chance you'll enjoy practice.

There are plenty of other options out there too, as you get more experience and become more qualified there is nothing to stop you trying to expand your aunts customer based. A friend of a friend is only AAT qualified and she has her own accountancy firm just outside of zone 6 and she is pulling in enough revenue to employ 6 full time members of staff.

From the look of your exam results you're very sharp, so just keep plugging away getting all the experience you can, keep passing the exams, and just wait for that opportunity to make the jump. I don't know where in London you are, but if you decide to go into industry there are a couple of agents I can recommend from personal experience.