Newly qualified ACCA

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freenote

Original Poster:

784 posts

167 months

Monday 23rd March 2015
quotequote all
Bit of advice please from anyone with any knowledge of these things.

Better half is about to qualify as ACCA. She finds practice boring and we've always heard the "once you've qualified as an accountant you can do anything..." line.
What are all these exciting things one can do as a qualified accountant?

Any insight much appreciated as she is struggling to work out what to do.

Countdown

39,690 posts

195 months

Monday 23rd March 2015
quotequote all
Accountancy IS quite boring unfortunately. biggrin

I would suggest that she finds an industry she likes and then apply for finance roles within that industry IYSWIM.

The big advantage of accountancy is that ALL organisations needed accountants.

PorkInsider

5,877 posts

140 months

Monday 23rd March 2015
quotequote all
I'm not an accountant but have worked closely with them in manufacturing businesses for years.

They get involved in all sorts of interesting things in industry.

It could be looking at profitability of a new production line or other CapEx decisions, involvement in pay negotiations, putting together the financials for monthly business planning rounds, helping us decide which plant to produce particular items in etc, etc.

They would travel to other regional (European) sites for meetings, advise sales directors on various aspects of their business sector's profitability, etc.

Of course there would still be the usual monthly and annual figures to pull together but the accountants I worked with seemed to enjoy the work mostly.

This was in big multinationals, by the way...

Vaud

50,289 posts

154 months

Monday 23rd March 2015
quotequote all
It's also a very useful foundation for all sorts of other roles - ultimately CFO, COO, consulting, big deal structuring (in big companies), M&A, etc - which all pay quite well... (though I note it is a foundation requirement)

s2kjock

1,677 posts

146 months

Monday 23rd March 2015
quotequote all
I work in practice (ACCA) and one of the reasons I have resisted going into industry or financial services is that I might find it boring.

There are plenty of interesting jobs in practice.

What sort of work does she do just now?

Dave350

359 posts

117 months

Monday 23rd March 2015
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A Project accountant role can be interesting in industry.

Looking at the financials of each project, but then moving into the project from an analytical role as well as generally contributing to the project as a whole providing it is in a more simple industry e.g. Retail/Logistics rather than Advanced Engineering.

Eric Mc

121,779 posts

264 months

Tuesday 24th March 2015
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Practice is a bit like being a GP - you get to do a bit of everything. Because of this, practice often allows a person to see what aspects of the job interest them more than others.

I like the practice side of things because of the variety.

Gargamel

14,958 posts

260 months

Wednesday 25th March 2015
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Answer is - it depends

Practice - can often mean Audit, which is somewhat mechanistic. However as Eric has alluded to, it can also be a route to becoming an advisor, business partner etc

Within industry there are broadly two roles in finance - looking back at what the business has done. Or looking forward to what it might do.

So Finance Control and reporting or Financial Planning and Analysis.

It really comes down to personality type, if you are interested in the business, profit driven and reasonably commercial you tend toward the future looking. If you are process/detail orientated and strong on compliance and regulatory work, head for control.

These are broad generalisations, obviously.

Finance people can get quite "pigeon holed" by sector they work in, so if she does move to industry, make sure she picks a sector she enjoys.


Richyboy

3,739 posts

216 months

Wednesday 25th March 2015
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Surely when labour are back in power in a few months things will be exciting for accountants.

trickywoo

11,705 posts

229 months

Wednesday 25th March 2015
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Should have done CIMA instead.

Having said that if I was in the same position I'd get the best paid ACCA role in a company that suits me get some experience then branch out and have my own company / partnership a few years down the line.

edc

9,231 posts

250 months

Wednesday 25th March 2015
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Accountants get involved in most if not all business decisions. That could be anything from general forcasting/business planning, mergers, acquistions, disposals, bids, tenders, restructring for growth and cost saving etc etc. The best ones I have worked with have largely all done some time in the controls/compliance/processing but have a decent business head and can analyse problems, demonstrate with data and make suggestions and recommendations. The sbest ones in business I have worked with also have some leadership and coaching skills, whether inate or learnt, and can instill a culture where decisions are well thought through and justified on cost, savings, revenue etc. You would be surprised how many junior or middle managers do not think like this.

bob-in-toon

423 posts

204 months

Wednesday 25th March 2015
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Corporate finance?

Gregmitchell

1,739 posts

116 months

Wednesday 25th March 2015
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I started off in practice 15 years ago, went straight into industry after 4 years, found practice very dull. I'm now a commercial accountant and help the business grow and am involved with all sorts of strategy, it's actually really interesting and i don't have to do any of the month end stuff! Pays not to shabby either :-)

p.s. ACCA to

Snozzwangler

12,230 posts

193 months

Wednesday 25th March 2015
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trickywoo said:
Should have done CIMA instead.

Having said that if I was in the same position I'd get the best paid ACCA role in a company that suits me get some experience then branch out and have my own company / partnership a few years down the line.
Agree wink

I'm in industry, it's very exciting I think. A vast range of things come up, ForEx, project appraisal, TUPE, or just strategic input.

It is just a foundation though - I went on to be put through project qualifications and other certifications.

aquarianone

498 posts

176 months

Thursday 26th March 2015
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I'd got through CIMA many moons ago and it's been pretty useful along the way, however, I realised how much I hated the drudgery of the usual month end type role..

Anyway, having worked in Software and systems companies I flipped my skills and interest in systems and tech to work on Essbase and SAP BPC / BW.

Find it much more rewarding / challenging doing tangible "stuff", problem solving, designing systems that lead to better reporting, which helps the accountants, analyst etc ..

Getting the qualification is just the door opener to the next level!

Snozzwangler

12,230 posts

193 months

Saturday 28th March 2015
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aquarianone said:
I'd got through CIMA many moons ago and it's been pretty useful along the way, however, I realised how much I hated the drudgery of the usual month end type role..

Anyway, having worked in Software and systems companies I flipped my skills and interest in systems and tech to work on Essbase and SAP BPC / BW.

Find it much more rewarding / challenging doing tangible "stuff", problem solving, designing systems that lead to better reporting, which helps the accountants, analyst etc ..

Getting the qualification is just the door opener to the next level!
Agree.

I did a couple of years of month end etc. Boring.

I'm planning on moving into an exec role in the next 5-10yrs, CIMA will be a good strong tick in the box for that, but only as part of the whole package.

BRISTOL86

545 posts

163 months

Tuesday 31st March 2015
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I studied ACCA from 2008 to 2012 (qualified Aug 2012) and have never worked in a practice! In fact almost all of the guys I studied with over the years have gone on to industry.

Almost all big companies have their own internal finance people. To give you a flavour, based on the spam I've had from LinkedIn in the last few weeks, here are some of the companies in my neck of the woods that have been recruiting for PQ or Q ACCA/CIMA

- Dyson
- Airbus
- Imperial Tobacco
- Skanska
- Amey
- EE
- Network Rail
- Superdry

So as you can see a big, diverse range of industries. Best thing I ever did was go down the industry route (it was 50/50 between two jobs I was offered straight out of AAT). Definitely made the right choice IMO based on others experience of practice, and how things worked out for me personally. I've been fully qualified for two years now and love my job. Although I'm not yet senior enough to have gotten away from month end processing (alas), I'm quite heavily involved in the business decisions the companies I look after make, which is good.

All depends on the company and their culture though as well, to a degree. I've worked somewhere where the finance guys (even qualified accountants) are regarded by the business as nothing but data entry monkeys (to use a previous company director's term for us), and now work somewhere where the business leaders actually respect and welcome the input we make to their business.

Also, ignore the CIMA/ACCA banter. It makes very little difference to recruiters IMO. From my own experience, people who want a finance person value both qualifications equally. Bottom line is 9/10 recruiters probably couldn't tell you any differences between the syllabuses of either!

Shirt587

360 posts

134 months

Wednesday 1st April 2015
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9/10 recruiters can't tell the difference between ACA/ACCA/CIMA qualifications, or for that matter anyone qualified from someone that's worked in a Big4 but has been sacked for failing exams...

Lostprophet

2,549 posts

168 months

Friday 17th April 2015
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Shirt587 said:
9/10 recruiters can't tell the difference between ACA/ACCA/CIMA qualifications, or for that matter anyone qualified from someone that's worked in a Big4 but has been sacked for failing exams...
Spot on.

Working in practise is ste. Avoid it as much as you can. That and financial services. Both dry.

I am a ACMA qualified guy. I definitely find working in property management industry quite interesting plus I travel a lot. Not sure on my next move however its leaning towards head of finance/operations.

Best of luck.

Eric Mc

121,779 posts

264 months

Saturday 18th April 2015
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Whereas I love practice (but never liked audit).

Horses for courses.