Accountancy Trainee

carmody1

Hi there,

I was wondering if someone may be able to give me some advice please. I finished a Degree in Commerce in 2004, achieving a 2.1 in it. I then decided I might like to take the legal route and have completed 7/8 of the FE1 exams and am currently working as a legal secretary.

I have for some time decided that being a solicitor is not the route that I wish to take (therefore putting off my last exam) and have thought perhaps about pursuing accountancy. I was wondering if anyone would know the best route to take at this stage - study and exam wise. Also, I have seen jobs for trainee accountants, if you have the correct degree behind you.

Do you think that although I have a Commerce Degree but I have graduated almost 5 years ago that this would be a disadvantage for me?

I hope I am making some sense and would really appreciate any advice you might have?

Many thanks

DJDC

The two biggest bandwagons for Irish graduates during the later days of the "Celtic Tiger", when the country had become a pyramid built purely on the construction industry were law and accountancy. They were both symptomatic of the wider society; non-revenue generating in their own right, non export creating and completely reliant on other industries for revenue. Now the bubble for young members of both industries has completely collapsed due to massive oversupply of graduates.

You have to ask yourself are you just jumping from one collapsed market to another. Does an economy of 4 million people really need 1000 accountants and 800 solicitors entering the market each year?

Running Bing

DJDC wrote: »

The two biggest bandwagons for Irish graduates during the later days of the "Celtic Tiger", when the country had become a pyramid built purely on the construction industry were law and accountancy. They were both symptomatic of the wider society; non-revenue generating in their own right, non export creating and completely reliant on other industries for revenue.

Their called "services" if you look around most of the economy is made up of them and the financial world is almost completely comprised of services aside from the relatively small revenue generating area of trading.

Now the bubble for young members of both industries has completely collapsed due to massive oversupply of graduates.

You have to ask yourself are you just jumping from one collapsed market to another. Does an economy of 4 million people really need 1000 accountants and 800 solicitors entering the market each year?

DJDC your very good at pointing out the weaknesses of the industry (god knows your on here enough doing it;)) but what do you actually suggest?

Its all very well saying London but its not a realistic option for everybody. And who would you suggest? Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, Lehmann Bros?;)

pathway33

carmody1 wrote: »

Hi there,

I was wondering if someone may be able to give me some advice please. I finished a Degree in Commerce in 2004, achieving a 2.1 in it. I then decided I might like to take the legal route and have completed 7/8 of the FE1 exams and am currently working as a legal secretary.

I have for some time decided that being a solicitor is not the route that I wish to take (therefore putting off my last exam) and have thought perhaps about pursuing accountancy. I was wondering if anyone would know the best route to take at this stage - study and exam wise. Also, I have seen jobs for trainee accountants, if you have the correct degree behind you.

Do you think that although I have a Commerce Degree but I have graduated almost 5 years ago that this would be a disadvantage for me?

I hope I am making some sense and would really appreciate any advice you might have?

Many thanks

To answer your question you can go one of maybe 4 routes

ACCA
CIMA
ACA
CPA

Google them all and find out who gives the most exemptions from their exams. In the case of ACCA, they have 14 exams and you can be exempt from up to 9 exams depending on the content of your degree. There is no requirement to attend any classes or present any 'homework'. Just order the books online and turn up on the day of the exam. The ACCA website has fantastic resources which you can view now. Past papers and solutions, technical articles from the monthly student magazine. If you don't fancy studying on your own, there are many courses for the professional accountancy exams run in the evenings and weekends for people working. I think ACCA is the most flexible in terms of what you can do after i.e practice or company accountant. CIMA geared towards company. ACA geared towards practice. CPA geared towards the public sector. I think also with ACA you may need to be tied into a training contract for 3 years (although you can move jobs probably but still more tied down than ACCA).