Any accountants?

compboyo

compboyo

compboyo

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I am considering getting into accounts.

I have a 2.1 degree non related but I excelled at accounts at school and found it easy and enjoyable. Standard grade-1 Higher- A.

I enjoy such things as profit and loss accounts and trial balance etc..I know this is very basic lol but that's higher level lol

Anyway what has put me off accountancy as a career is the fact it seems to be very long hours. Especially at start whilst you are expected to study for exams and work?

Is this correct?

Even upon full time employment post studying what is the workload like?

Also is it better to study to become chartered accountant? This takes 3-4 years right?

Obviously I would need to get a company to sponsor me with whom I would work for as I cant afford it myself.

Any advice on this career.

I enjoy spreadsheets, working alone, working with numbers etc...So perhaps some areas off accounts would suit me better?

Obviously I think the goal is to become self employed? I am not interested in working for some big company with lots off stress and hours.

I am interested in bookkeeping atm to make some money. IS this a reliable job and easy to get. I would need to do 1 year bookkeeping course?
 
There's a range of areas of accountancy you get into. Browse the big four websites and see what you think. There's a graduate page to view which will help too. Different departments have different working hours too.
 
You'll have to do long and probably stressful hours in most careers I'd expect.

Becoming a Chartered Accountant is not easy, you have to work at it.
 
I work for one of the big 4's.

I can confirm the accountants work very hard and the juniors pull crazy hours and take on a lot of stress.

The pay when you're starting out isnt amazing but I think it pays dividends when you get qualified. Not sure if you can get into it with a non related degree though.
 
compboyo said:
I am considering getting into accounts.

I have a 2.1 degree non related but I excelled at accounts at school and found it easy and enjoyable. Standard grade-1 Higher- A.
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Accounting grads come from a variety of areas, accounting practices will consider pretty much any degree background as long as you have 300 UCAS and a 2.1. It's more about the person than your education

compboyo said:
Anyway what has put me off accountancy as a career is the fact it seems to be very long hours. Especially at start whilst you are expected to study for exams and work?
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You get several days off a year to study but yes you're right about the hours being long. Most graduate jobs will be in audit, the bigger the company you work for the longer the hours you're expected to work are generally. The big four (PwC, Deliotte, KPMG, Ernst & Young) will usually give you a better salary and working for them give you more prestige should you wish to venture into other areas.

compboyo said:
Also is it better to study to become chartered accountant? This takes 3-4 years right?
Click to expand...

The ACA/CA qualification generally carries a bit more weight than ACCA/CIMA, however if you work in accounts in industry you'll probably have to study ACCA/CIMA anyway.

compboyo said:
I enjoy spreadsheets, working alone, working with numbers etc...So perhaps some areas off accounts would suit me better?

Obviously I think the goal is to become self employed? I am not interested in working for some big company with lots off stress and hours.

I am interested in bookkeeping atm to make some money. IS this a reliable job and easy to get. I would need to do 1 year bookkeeping course?
Click to expand...

It sounds like you'd rather do bookkeeping than working in audit/tax etc, bookkeeping doesn't really require any accounting qualifications as it's pretty basic.
 
Well bookkeeping is low pay? 10-15 pound an hour at best?

But I am not into long hours/stress career so I think that rules out accounts for me.
 
compboyo said:
Well bookkeeping is low pay? 10-15 pound an hour at best?

But I am not into long hours/stress career so I think that rules out accounts for me.
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I'm only a trainee accountant at the moment but I wouldn't rule it out on the basis that you think it will be long hours or high stress, sure there will doubtless be times when you will find both apply but equally you'll find that in most jobs. So far I can't say I've found it all that bad although studying alongside working full time can be tricky to manage occasionally, especially if you want to have a social life - the easiest way round this is probably to essentially write off April/May and October/November every year so you can try and dedicate them to studying.

It is probably worth pointing out that I'm working in the civil service though and experience in practice may vary.
 
It all depends on where you work, certainly if you work for one of the big 4 I'd expect several years of seriously hard graft, but with a massive payoff at the end of it.

I only broke into accounting two years back, I work for an insurance firm who is owned by one of the largest insurance firms in the world. I'm 28, and I earn what I think is seriously good money for somebody that could barely be called part qualified - its also very rare that I pull anything that could be remotely described as long hours. Maybe at quarter ends, or if we're having a bad month end, but usually its 9 to 5 with plenty of down time in the middle.
 
J.B said:
I work for one of the big 4's.

I can confirm the accountants work very hard and the juniors pull crazy hours and take on a lot of stress.

The pay when you're starting out isnt amazing but I think it pays dividends when you get qualified. Not sure if you can get into it with a non related degree though.
Click to expand...

You can join the grad schemes with any degree of 2.1 standard. Only the auditors are whipped ;) We tax lot are usually 9-5.
 
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