newly qualified salary expectations

hands away

hi folks, waiting on FAE results in 2 weeks and wondering what realistic salary expectations are if i manage to get them. how has "the big R" affected our worth? whats the absolute min a qualifed person can expect.

i've my 3.5 years done and havent really given much thought as to what to do next.

Just wondering how i'd be fixed if i stay where i am, move to a bigger practice or even industry.

thanks in advance or if theres a similar thread that i've missed even bump that for reading. cheers.

Da GOAT

hate to say it but theres no jobs. best stay where you are. likely wont get an increase in salary either.

going into industry is risky since they can close down whenever.

hands away

Da GOAT wrote: »

hate to say it but theres no jobs. best stay where you are. likely wont get an increase in salary either.

going into industry is risky since they can close down whenever.

surely its not unrealistic to expect something. sure it cost them my salary + 5k fees this year for 42 weeks work.

hardly going to qualify & do 52 weeks work for the same salary,

Da GOAT

guy in my jobs 3.5 years are up, he passed each exam and got nothing. just so you know.

ive been on look out myself and ive little over 5 years exp in total, in a good medium firm and cant get into big 4 or top 10. all top 10s want are big 4 people.

crapmanjoe

Da GOAT wrote: »

hate to say it but theres no jobs. best stay where you are. likely wont get an increase in salary either.

going into industry is risky since they can close down whenever.

Bit of a nonsense comment here, plenty of jobs out there!

Look at Rte news today, EY are hiring 150 qualified staff - they actually cant enough qualified seniors to fill the demand!

Audit Seniors are being offered around 45-50k

hands away

the E&Y thing is actually what got me thinking about it. heard it on the news this morning and said i better start sorting out what to do next.

already been told my job is here as long as i want it, and my pay review has been moved until after the exams. They're hiring another load of juniors at the min so there obviously not going down the tube.

just didnt want to embarrass myself by asking for something completely unrealistic.

maddogcollins

I know what you mean, I am waiting on results too but I am not that hopeful that I passed so I have not given the future much thought apart from how I am going to get by for another year of the damned institute exams..

If and its a ver big IF i qualify I'd expect something of a raise. As you said yourself its currently, Salary + 5 k for 42 weeks work. The least you can ask for is your Salary + the additional weeks work + the 5k..After that its up to you.

There are jobs out there, they just might not be permanent or long contract jobs. But work is work and experience is experience.

Best of luck in 2 weeks!

Jim2007

hands away wrote: »

Just wondering how i'd be fixed if i stay where i am, move to a bigger practice or even industry.

What do you actually want to do you your life??? what are you passionate about??? When I qualified (with a big four) the one thing I was sure of was that I did not want to spend the next 30 years doing the same old thing, day in and day out - auditing! so I quit within hours of getting the FAE results and followed my real interest: software engineering, for which I had no qualifications!

I've spent the last 20 years doing what I really love to do and as a result it is a very rear occasion when I don't feel like going into work. I also have not held a permanent job since my training contract, because I just could not be bothered with the office politics and all that. I usually work freelance for 8 or 9 months of the year and spend the rest of the time with my kids and family...

I'm not saying you should to the same, but what I am say is that you should think carefully about what you want out of life and don't let the current economic situation stop you from reaching for your dreams.

Good luck with that,

Jim.

PS - There are plenty of well paying accounting jobs over here if you want to try it out for a year or two and lack of big 4 experience will not be an issue.

Jim2007

Da GOAT wrote: »

hate to say it but theres no jobs. best stay where you are. likely wont get an increase in salary either.

going into industry is risky since they can close down whenever.

If ever there was a time to take a few risks it is now while you are still young and have plenty of time to make corrections if necessary! Life is something experience, not just get through it.

Jim.

jonnybravo

A fair few accounting jobs out there. I know a good few people from Big 4 firms that have left and none of them have not been able to get a job in industry. They have gone into jobs at around 40 to 50k. Some are permanent, some are contracts but as long as you are getting some experience you're on the right road.

E&Y have been hiring qualified people for a good while and I heard recently that PwC are starting to hire qualifed people again. Not the best job in the world and there's alot of reasons why they can't hold onto their staff but there is still jobs there.

As Jim said decide what you want to do with you're career. If its accounting then try out industry jobs, if its auditing either stay in your current job or try to move to a bigger firm, if its something else plan out how you will get there. Too many people just go from job to job without any idea of a career path.

Da GOAT

its a fact that E&Y will only hire other big 4 people for qualified jobs. I work in a top 20 firm, got an interview and didnt get in.

if you qualified in the big 4 then you have a massive advantage in all areas. if like most people you didnt work in big 4 then we are finding it tough imo.

someone said 'abit of nonsense' - not true, a former director of a recruitment company said going into industry was risky. Im not one to take a risk just bcoz im young.

Newaglish

There are literally hundreds of qualified senior jobs out there. From job-hunting myself recently, the going rate is €45k. Almost every position is listed at that rate.

Padkir

Da GOAT wrote: »

its a fact that E&Y will only hire other big 4 people for qualified jobs. I work in a top 20 firm, got an interview and didnt get in.

if you qualified in the big 4 then you have a massive advantage in all areas. if like most people you didnt work in big 4 then we are finding it tough imo.

someone said 'abit of nonsense' - not true, a former director of a recruitment company said going into industry was risky. Im not one to take a risk just bcoz im young.

Just because YOU didn't get in it doesn't mean they don't take non Big 4 people on!
Maybe they just didn't like you. They can't hire everyone they interview!!!

Da GOAT

i know others who have applied within my firm and I was the only one to get an interview. I beleive my experience in the market thus far outweighs others.

Jim2007

Da GOAT wrote: »

someone said 'abit of nonsense' - not true, a former director of a recruitment company said going into industry was risky. Im not one to take a risk just bcoz im young.

OK, so what are these risk you feel are far to great to consider?

Jim

Jim2007

jonnybravo wrote: »

Too many people just go from job to job without any idea of a career path.

This is so true! One of my friends always seemed to be waiting for waiting for things to happen, first it was to qualify, then to make manager, then senior manager. Now finally at 49 he has just realized that live began a long time ago and he missed it!!! To be honest it is getting hard to listen to him - "If only I..., If only I..."

Jim.

Jim2007

Da GOAT wrote: »

its a fact that E&Y will only hire other big 4 people for qualified jobs.

Well if that was the case why would they even bother interviewing you????

Da GOAT wrote: »

I work in a top 20 firm, got an interview and didnt get in.

The fact that you got to the interview stage means that they thought you had something to offer, so perhaps it was your interview techniques that let you down... once you get to the interview stage it is all about establishing a relationship, showing you're going to fit in with the other members of the team and so on.

Good luck with that,

Jim.

jonnybravo

Jim2007 wrote: »

This is so true! One of my friends always seemed to be waiting for waiting for things to happen, first it was to qualify, then to make manager, then senior manager. Now finally at 49 he has just realized that live began a long time ago and he missed it!!! To be honest it is getting hard to listen to him - "If only I..., If only I..."

Jim.

Haha I think sometimes thats the only reason why Audit firms have any staff!! No one has any idea what they want to do is they just drift along the promotion chain. By the time they're manager they're on a good salary, have mortgage, maybe wife and kids to support and no room to move.

Da Goat; I don't think anyone from another big 4 firm would move to E&Y so if they were only hiring people with big 4 experience then they would have to be going out of the country. E&Y have by far the worst reputation for treating their staff out of the big 4. With paying no overtime and the longer hours they have a fairly bad rep so I'd say you were probably lucky they didn't hire you!!! There's a reason why the English partnership had to take over the Irish Section.

PB1982

Are the positions in E&Y for newly qualified people only in Audit of Financial Services? it's all I can see on their website?

ias570

Hi Guys, hopefully I will qualify this Friday. I work in a Northern medium sized practice outside Belfast. What is the market average I should at least expect?

macannrb

Jim2007 wrote: »

This is so true! One of my friends always seemed to be waiting for waiting for things to happen, first it was to qualify, then to make manager, then senior manager. Now finally at 49 he has just realized that live began a long time ago and he missed it!!! To be honest it is getting hard to listen to him - "If only I..., If only I..."

Jim.

I couldnt agree more on this point. I really feel a large proportion of people will end up at 50 thinking exactly the same. It's certainly been a bit of a rat race in the LC, and in the aca exams, and for me after these I'll certainly take a more balanced approach to my lifestyle. Obviously work is important but its not the be all and end all.

On the jobs side, for accountants there is plenty of work in Ireland especially in the IFSC with good starting wages, far more then the average wage. If those dry up, there is always London, Bermuda (and the other carribean islands), Australia and even Swizterland. If you look at the salary surveys all of those places have very good wages.

So really its what you want, moreso than what you can get

macannrb

I just saw an article on RTE which shows the IFSC to contribute to 1/3 of the Corp tax in Ireland. It also shows that the average wage is 60k and has 33k employeed.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1118/ifsc-business.html

twinkletoes06

I seem to be going a bit backways from most people on this thread but maybe I can get an answer.

I am Big4 qualified in April but this isn't really what I want to do.

More interested in actually preparing accounts etc than auditing!!

Could anyone tell me what the average salary for a newly qualified accountant would be in a smaller practice in the west.

Not really interested in going into industry either.

Thanks in advance.