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ACA Route WAS it worth it?

  • 11-03-2010 4:21pm
    #1
    Locomotion
    Closed Accounts Posts: 263 ✭✭


    Hi,

    Just wondering for anyone out there who has finished or is close to finishing their ACA 3.5 year route, was it worth it?

    Taking into account the qualifications you now have, the experience you've gained and the potential references now available to you, was it worth the effort, the low salary and the juggling of work / study at the same time?

    Would there be a huge opportunity cost in doing it considering what you perhaps could have done in 3.5 years after college?

    Are you the same person now at the end of it all or has it de-motivated you to the point of wishing you'd never taken the ACA route?

    Just interested to know because I have a few friends who have finished their contracts in the last 12 months or even the last couple of weeks and all who come out seem to be glad they have the qualifications but looking back, wish they had done something else.


Comments

  • #2
    smcgiff
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,943 ✭✭✭smcgiff


    Locomotion wrote: »
    Would there be a huge opportunity cost in doing it considering what you perhaps could have done in 3.5 years after college?

    Not sure if this is a positive or a negative, but you'd never have used those words especially in a non-finance related sentence unless you studied for your ACA exams! :p;)


  • #3
    Locomotion
    Closed Accounts Posts: 263 ✭✭Locomotion


    smcgiff wrote: »
    Not sure if this is a positive or a negative, but you'd never have used those words especially in a non-finance related sentence unless you studied for your ACA exams! :p;)

    Nice catch Columbo! ;)

    And in response to my own question, IT WASN'T WORTH IT!!!


  • #4
    Peppa
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 134 ✭✭Peppa


    Yes for me.

    I left Ireland in the '80's during that recession with only a secretarial course under my belt. Came back to Ireland in the '90's. I went back to college at night as a mature student. Did the IATI at night in 2 years (hard work) and got credits which enabled me to study ACA. Took a pay drop in order to get someone to take me on and got my qualification. I have never looked back.

    Having been around I think it was all worth it for me and I am so glad I made the decisions I did.


  • #5
    tenchi-fan
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,339 ✭✭✭tenchi-fan


    Hi. I did ACCA. I work in industry and there's a mixture of acca and chartered accountants at work - So unless you want to work in practice there isn't a huge difference. In fact a lot of managers are acca and have a preference for acca - due to the belief that chartered accountants just tick boxes for 3.5 years. ;)

    As a trainee accountant I was on atrocious money. After 18 months I decided to do the exams full-time (which is allowed in acca). Then I got a part-qualified job with better money and still hated it. I regretted doing accounting!

    So I worked in a dead-end, non-accounting office job for 2 years. It was fun for a year I guess, but then it was a real eye-opener being on bad money that wasn't going to get better any time soon. So I decided to return to the career I hated and I actually don't mind my new job.

    Honestly, the opportunity cost is perhaps 4 years x €20k-25k = €80,000-€100,000 over 4 years... Not a lot of money compared to a qualified accountant's salary. So accounting really isn't the worst profession to be in! And it can take you all over the world.. my friend worked in australia as a CPA accountant and was on much better money than he earns in Ireland.

    Having said that I sometimes wonder what it would be like if I did something else instead of accounting.


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