Changing jobs/careers for an accountant

[zedstar]

Quick post really - i'm a qualified accountant with my own practice and was approached recently by an interested party to purchase the business (from another accountant who would merge). Normally i'd have no interest in this but recently i've become rather drained, both physically and mentally from the work and clients who are a bit demanding sometimes.

I'm very lucky in that most of my clients are decent people and some have helped me hugely over the years with other ventures i've had and i'm certainly not wanting to throw in the towel, but I don't actually know what other jobs i could actually do. I've been a practice accountant for 20 years now so reasonably experienced in that field and the peripherals.

Anyone gone from this to a different but related role?

[rog007]

Largest employer in the UK may be of interest:

https://www.jobs.nhs.uk

Search ’accountant’

[Countdown]

You could change to Industry (and there are lots of vacancies at the moment) but it is a slightly different skillset. Are you ACCA or ICAEW?

[zedstar]

I'm ACCA/FCCA, yes indeed industry seems like something to be looked at

[OMITN]

Well get yourself into one of the myriad finance jobs in businesses. And from there you can stay in finance roles or expand into commercial jobs.

I’m a lawyer who has done commercial jobs - if I was advising my younger self I’d say become an accountant and then head into business roles.

Or bite the bullet and grow your business with a view to then selling it in the next five years.

[Eric Mc]

zedstar said:

Quick post really - i'm a qualified accountant with my own practice and was approached recently by an interested party to purchase the business (from another accountant who would merge). Normally i'd have no interest in this but recently i've become rather drained, both physically and mentally from the work and clients who are a bit demanding sometimes.

I'm very lucky in that most of my clients are decent people and some have helped me hugely over the years with other ventures i've had and i'm certainly not wanting to throw in the towel, but I don't actually know what other jobs i could actually do. I've been a practice accountant for 20 years now so reasonably experienced in that field and the peripherals.

Anyone gone from this to a different but related role?

Normal practising accountant's "January Blues". It happens every year.

[Countdown]

zedstar said:

I'm ACCA/FCCA, yes indeed industry seems like something to be looked at

One thing I'd suggest is getting signed up with the likes of Michael Page, Hays, Robert Half etc. Accountants are in very short supply and a temp role might be a good way of seeing if Industry suits. Potentialy you could carry on your self-employed role alongside a temp finance role.

[s2kjock]

Eric Mc said:

zedstar said:

Quick post really - i'm a qualified accountant with my own practice and was approached recently by an interested party to purchase the business (from another accountant who would merge). Normally i'd have no interest in this but recently i've become rather drained, both physically and mentally from the work and clients who are a bit demanding sometimes.

I'm very lucky in that most of my clients are decent people and some have helped me hugely over the years with other ventures i've had and i'm certainly not wanting to throw in the towel, but I don't actually know what other jobs i could actually do. I've been a practice accountant for 20 years now so reasonably experienced in that field and the peripherals.

Anyone gone from this to a different but related role?

Normal practising accountant's "January Blues". It happens every year.

Just January? I have felt like the OP for 9 months. I am an auditor though which must make it worse.

I am quite jealous of colleagues who moved into industry at an earlier stage in their career when I didn't - seems a much bigger leap now after so long in practice. The enormous appetite for beancounters in industry/financial services which I kept thinking would surely crash spectacularly at some point has never materialised.

[Eric Mc]

Auditing is brain destroying.

That's why I don't do it any more.

However, I quite enjoy providing book-keeping, accounting and tax services to my clients - although I am very concerned at how these services can be provided once we move into the full digital submission systems that are coming very soon.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

I started life as a trainee accountant, albeit in industry rather than for a firm.

When you are an accountant within an industry you (should) get to understand how a business works, and most importantly how to interact with other human beings.

I realised fairly quickly that pure accountancy wasn't for me. I was really lucky and in a fairly short period I went:

Trainee>Assistant>Management>Company>FD>Commercial Director>Operations Director>Garage Dealer Principal

What I'm trying to say is accountancy training should be a great basis to do other stuff. (As soon as you can stop all around you automatically assuming you are a tosser because you are an accountant )

[zedstar]

Eric Mc said:

Normal practising accountant's "January Blues". It happens every year.

the blues indeed - although I feel its getting harder and as you alluded to I think MTD will be a difficult transition, not for us practice people but for clients and then subsequently us having to help constantly

[zedstar]

Countdown said:

One thing I'd suggest is getting signed up with the likes of Michael Page, Hays, Robert Half etc. Accountants are in very short supply and a temp role might be a good way of seeing if Industry suits. Potentialy you could carry on your self-employed role alongside a temp finance role.

good idea there thanks

[zedstar]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

I started life as a trainee accountant, albeit in industry rather than for a firm.

When you are an accountant within an industry you (should) get to understand how a business works, and most importantly how to interact with other human beings.

I realised fairly quickly that pure accountancy wasn't for me. I was really lucky and in a fairly short period I went:

Trainee>Assistant>Management>Company>FD>Commercial Director>Operations Director>Garage Dealer Principal

What I'm trying to say is accountancy training should be a great basis to do other stuff. (As soon as you can stop all around you automatically assuming you are a tosser because you are an accountant )

Good call and actually a few of my clients are ex accountants who now do random (high paying) roles.

[s2kjock]

Eric Mc said:

Auditing is brain destroying.

It isn't especially actually, at least not in my area of work/client size. Not just "ticking and bashing" these days

The ever increasing regulation is draining though, as is balancing fee pressures and not having enough staff to do the work - add that to remote auditing WFH difficulties and pressure from on high who always want more for less and "great ideas" does not make it a lot of fun right now. Could be worse - I don't work for big four or next tier

Eric Mc said:

However, I quite enjoy providing book-keeping, accounting and tax services to my clients

I actually end up still doing a fair bit of the above as part of the day job, which you can with smaller audit clients.

[hyphen]

Eric Mc said:

Auditing is brain destroying.

That's why I don't do it any more.

However, I quite enjoy providing book-keeping, accounting and tax services to my clients - although I am very concerned at how these services can be provided once we move into the full digital submission systems that are coming very soon.

Why is it brain destroying?

I have been reading the news and have read enough to see what the Job involves.. In Auditing you just go in, nod along, don't ask many questions and sign it off, 3 hour lunches everyday.

Every 5 years you get some fine for nodding along, but that's just the cost of doing business and its not normally that big a fine

[Fat hippo]

zedstar said:

Quick post really - i'm a qualified accountant with my own practice and was approached recently by an interested party to purchase the business (from another accountant who would merge). Normally i'd have no interest in this but recently i've become rather drained, both physically and mentally from the work and clients who are a bit demanding sometimes.

I'm very lucky in that most of my clients are decent people and some have helped me hugely over the years with other ventures i've had and i'm certainly not wanting to throw in the towel, but I don't actually know what other jobs i could actually do. I've been a practice accountant for 20 years now so reasonably experienced in that field and the peripherals.

Anyone gone from this to a different but related role?

I started my career in practice and spent around 5 years at a mid size firm (BDO) and then a 3 partner firm.
I hated it and always wanted to work in banking but my dad (who also has his own practice and started his career in a bank) told me to get the practice experience first.

I eventually got into financial services 15 years ago and then banking, and whilst the pay is much higher, the promotional prospects aren’t great due to pressure on cost reductions and regulatory changes especially following the financial crisis.

I’m looking to leave industry and move back into practice albeit start my own practice, however, having been out of the game so long is not ideal.
As someone else mentioned, its a different skillset.

What I would say, is that there are many colleagues that I work with and others that I know who work in the NHS or other industries who are looking at getting out and want to start their own business.
In your 30s and 40s working for others in industry eventually gets to you.

Given your skillset and experience I’d be looking at non exec roles and try and line a few of these up. Then try and look for FD type opportunities. No point starting from the bottom.

I suppose it all depends on whether you need the income or not. I sometimes think of doing a basic non pressured job just to have a sense of purpose, but I have a family to support so I can’t take a significant cut.
Your circumstances may be different, and if income is not a concern then I’d stick around for the right level role

[R56Cooper]

zedstar said:

Normally i'd have no interest in this but recently i've become rather drained, both physically and mentally from the work and clients who are a bit demanding sometimes.

Can you sack off the demanding clients and keep the decent ones?

In my experience small, low paying clients seem to give me the most hassle. There's nothing wrong in my view with either telling them that you are unable to continue providing services to them, or alternatively, double their fee and then at least if they stay, you are getting sufficient extra fees for the hassle.

[Eric Mc]

hyphen said:

Why is it brain destroying?

I have been reading the news and have read enough to see what the Job involves.. In Auditing you just go in, nod along, don't ask many questions and sign it off, 3 hour lunches everyday.

Every 5 years you get some fine for nodding along, but that's just the cost of doing business and its not normally that big a fine

Your description of what auditing involves would destroy my brain.

[Countdown]

Fat hippo said:

Given your skillset and experience I’d be looking at non exec roles and try and line a few of these up. Then try and look for FD type opportunities. No point starting from the bottom.

I'd be really surprised if somebody moved from a one-man Practice role directly into an FD role in Industry unless they had significant experience of working with clients in that Industry. It might happen for employees of Big 4/Big 10 Accountancy practices but the people "moving across" generally have experience of advising/auditing the types of clients they move to.

[Fat hippo]

Countdown said:

Fat hippo said:

Given your skillset and experience I’d be looking at non exec roles and try and line a few of these up. Then try and look for FD type opportunities. No point starting from the bottom.

I'd be really surprised if somebody moved from a one-man Practice role directly into an FD role in Industry unless they had significant experience of working with clients in that Industry. It might happen for employees of Big 4/Big 10 Accountancy practices but the people "moving across" generally have experience of advising/auditing the types of clients they move to.

Depends on client sizes of the OP and whether there are sectors that the OP has specialisms in. An opportunity might come up in a small or possibly medium size.
But for large companies, you are right, unless you are big 4 or, at a push, top 10, FD roles won’t be realistically attainable as you need experience advising that type/size of business.

Start ups might be an area of interest, but may not have the right balance between excitement and stress