A Career in Accountancy?

[RobinMasters]

Any accountants on the forum? I'm looking for a little advice.

I graduated from university last June, and have been looking for a job since then. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do (I know, I probably should have thought about it a bit more before graduating!), but have come to the conclusion that accountancy is the job for me.

To give you a bit of background, my degree was in Environmental Science, but before that I worked in insurance, dealing with claims, for nearly ten years. Whilst my degree may not have been directly relevant, it relied heavily on working with a lot of numerical data, and understanding what that data meant in the real world. My insurance jobs involved handling a lot of financial data, and required a lot of legal knowledge; that information was then used to make a commercial decision as to which claims to pay. I think (and please correct me if I'm wrong!) that my experience is very relevant.

Graduate schemes aren't open to me; I got a 2:2 in my degree, they all require at least a 2:1.

I have been applying for junior or trainee positions, but with no success so far. Most say that they prefer people with, or at least part way through, AAT qualifications, which I really can't afford to do at the moment, but, given my experience I believe I'd be at least as capable as someone just out of college who's done a few months of basic qualification. I have also started making speculative approaches to smaller local firms.

I'm sure that the lack of anything specific to accountancy on my CV is counting against me, although for the reasons outlined above I'm also sure that I already have a lot to offer which is being overlooked by employers who are no doubt already inundated with applications from 20 year olds who've started accountancy qualifications.

Does anyone have any advice on how I can get into this field?


EDIT: I should also add that a lot of the bigger firms require, for their more junior positions, 300 UCAS points. I only did AS levels at 18, which don't count, and did a foundation year before starting my degree proper, which also doesn't count!

[PipPip]

I'm a chartered accountant. Started in a small accountancy firm, then moved to a big 4 working in audit, then into corporate finance and now run business strategy and am CEO advisor in an insurance company. It's a great career choice and you can be pretty confident once you have an accounting qualification and some decent experience that you will always have work. However, I would say that what you are discovering about the high entry qualifications reflects that it's a very demanding choice and passing the accountancy exams is extremely difficult. I sat the exams at the same time as the straight A student from my school who studied economics at Cambridge and he failed one of the final papers. Having said that I know from personal experience that there are plenty of part qualified or non-qualified people working in our Finance department doing pure accountancy work who have 2:2 degrees in all sorts of subjects, so do not give up.

[gentlemenpreferhats]

My brother graduated with a 2:2 in Biochemistry and found himself, allegedly, unemployable as all his holiday jobs had been restauarant work or unpaid office assistant donkey labour. He was eventually taken on after a year of unemployment at home in London on a graduate accounting scheme with Nottinghamshire County Council. He understood the risks- that public sector expertise may not always be transferable, the job is a long way from being secure, starting pay was very very low and payrises will be few and far between. However they were desperate for recruits at the time.

Five years later: he's been made redundant 3 times but he's now a senior finance manager within the NHS and his training is being supported by them. He's still underpaid vs the private sector but he's actually employed. He also gets requests to apply for roles within NGOs and Govt. More importantly working in the "not for profit" sector is actually interesting and its changed his view on the world entirely.

Good luck whatever you choose to do.

[jukeboxs]

I am a qualified actuary, and can highly recommend the actuarial profession, if this is something you have not considered.

Your degree result may count against you with some less flexible employers, however I know a few actuaries who were accepted with a similar result, and have since made great progress in their professional careers due to applying themselves (which they had not necessarily done at University - I know I didn't). Your insurance experience may count in your favour here too.

Now is a reasonably good time to apply for actuarial roles, as the demands of regulatory change means that there is a shortage of actuarial resource in many companies (despite the trend of mergers and takeovers in recent years).

The one disadvantage of actuarial over accounting is that there are fewer actuarial employers around, and hence it is geographically more restrictive (mainly London, Edinburgh, Bristol, York). That said, it is a highly rewarding career, and one I can heartily recommend.

Feel free to get in touch if you would like more information.

Andrew.

[garylee]

Your experience in the combination data and law would imply that you may be suitable for a career in tax.

Perhaps look at the CTA : Chartered Tax Advisor, as a qualification. Working life will very dull at first , just simple tasks but soon becomes a nightmare.

the “trade” mag is Taxation , I will see what sort of “trainee” vacancies are posted in there tomorrow and will post you a PM before this time tomorrow. Never know , you might find tax interesting.

[Argee1977]

Have you thought about looking at the environmental jobs that are offer just now, it's a growing market just now, and also quite new in terms of it properly becoming an industry across the world, it might be worth getting in at the ground floor there, rather than fighting it out in an already overcrowded market that has a lot of people trying to join it each year?

[JasonG]

"Career; v. rapid, uncontrolled progress, esp. downhill."