Possible to move from finance department to accountancy practice?

The Dublin Whale

I am currently working in industry, in the finance department of a medium sized company, and studying for the CIMA qualification. I'd like to move to an accountancy practice to get more varied work experience.

- Is this possible?
- Has anyone else here made such a move and how did they find working in a practice as opposed to working in industry?
- Are accountancy practices less likely to take on someone who is doing CIMA?

Any help would be much appreciated.

mr_edge_to_you

Never heard of it been done before. I moved jobs once or twice to get more rounded financial experience. You can get all the necessary experience in industry.

Some smaller practices may take on a CIMA accountant maybe for business/commercial consultancy work but I've never heard of it. Certainly the big 4 wouldn't want to know about CIMA. I won't go down that road here......

If you did move to practice you would be looking at a hefty pay decrease. P/Q rates in practice are quite low compared to industry although the study packages are far better in practice.

You should be getting more varied experience in industry. I would talk to your employer/manager about it and explain that there is certain criteria you need to cover to qualify as a Cima accountant which you don't feel you're getting in your current role.

The Dublin Whale

mr_edge_to_you wrote: »

Never heard of it been done before. I moved jobs once or twice to get more rounded financial experience. You can get all the necessary experience in industry.

Some smaller practices may take on a CIMA accountant maybe for business/commercial consultancy work but I've never heard of it. Certainly the big 4 wouldn't want to know about CIMA. I won't go down that road here......

If you did move to practice you would be looking at a hefty pay decrease. P/Q rates in practice are quite low compared to industry although the study packages are far better in practice.

You should be getting more varied experience in industry. I would talk to your employer/manager about it and explain that there is certain criteria you need to cover to qualify as a Cima accountant which you don't feel you're getting in your current role.

Yeah I wouldn't be worried about the pay decrease, I'd be willing to work for less if I got good experience. I've talked to my boss a few times but haven't really gotten anywhere, he just wants an easy life, so isn't willing to change things.

mr_edge_to_you

There's plenty of financial accounting roles in industry especially at p/q level. Most of them are looking for ACA/ACCA or CIMA. I left a plc down to country to move to Dublin to get more monthly/balance sheet experience before. You can get all the experience you need in industry.

Check out the websites, you can see for yourself.

Maybe contact a few agencies and tell them what youre looking for.

If you've spoken to your manager well then you've taken your role as far as you can.

Be careful though, working in practice may not be ideal when it comes to work experience requirements for CIMA.

Lucyx

I must say I found it very tough going back to practice having worked in industry. Personally I found the practice mentality hard to take. Its one thing when you're 22 and its your first job but as you get older and used to a more relaxed working environment (still working hard but no one hanging over your shoulder kind of thing) it can be hard making the switch back again.

Good luck to you

happyhat

what do you feel your missing out on do u mind me asking? I'm acca p/q and
work in practice currently outside of Dublin so probably diff in the larger ones but like you I've approached the partner a few times about getting more experience and nothing...just bear in mind you could be a while looking for said experience... if you fill a role below the level you wish to gain experience(to get into practice with the hope of climbing) you may not move on as you hoped when others aren't moving around there's nowhere for u to progress to.... I would definitely be sure to have discussed this in interview before accepting a new role.....

The Dublin Whale

happyhat wrote: »

what do you feel your missing out on do u mind me asking?

I think it would be a quick and easy way to get exposure to various different industries and different sizes of business. Whereas working for individual companies, it takes much longer to get that type of experience, unless I did tempting perhaps. The problem with tempting though is that I doubt the company would invest much in my training, they would probably just get me to do the donkey work.

I think that the type of work I would get in a practice would be of a higher level than what I do now. Currently I'm mainly doing accounts payable and month end work, which is fairly tedious and doesn't aid my development at all. Whereas in a practice, if they offer an advisory or management consulting service, then the type of experience I get could be much better.

I understand in a practice it could take me quite a while before I could get into the advisory or management consulting area, but I think I would still be learning a lot more in a practice than what I'm learning now.

Another option I might consider is going to England where there are a lot more PLC's who put a strong emphasis on developing trainee/part qualified accountants.

mr_edge_to_you

The Dublin Whale wrote: »

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I think it would be a quick and easy way to get exposure to various different industries and different sizes of business. Whereas working for individual companies, it takes much longer to get that type of experience, unless I did tempting perhaps. The problem with tempting though is that I doubt the company would invest much in my training, they would probably just get me to do the donkey work.

I think that the type of work I would get in a practice would be of a higher level than what I do now. Currently I'm mainly doing accounts payable and month end work, which is fairly tedious and doesn't aid my development at all. Whereas in a practice, if they offer an advisory or management consulting service, then the type of experience I get could be much better.

Firstly, I don't think the exposure you get to various industries through practice is really good industry experience. Good experience is gathered over a reasonable amount of time.

I think your problem is and should be with your employer. It is rare for a P/Q accountant to be doing AP on a full time basis. Often he/she may have to fill the role on a temporary basis with staff leaving but that's about it.

I have worked in plcs, family businesses and VC owned companies. Most of them were very supportive of my CIMA studies. All of my managers offered to go through the CIMA work experience requirements to ensure we had all the boxes ticked. I would suggest looking for a new Assistant Accountant role in industry rather than going to practice. If you go to practice you'll be sent out auditing the type of work you do at present.

The Dublin Whale

mr_edge_to_you wrote: »

Firstly, I don't think the exposure you get to various industries through practice is really good industry experience. Good experience is gathered over a reasonable amount of time.

I think your problem is and should be with your employer. It is rare for a P/Q accountant to be doing AP on a full time basis. Often he/she may have to fill the role on a temporary basis with staff leaving but that's about it.

I have worked in plcs, family businesses and VC owned companies. Most of them were very supportive of my CIMA studies. All of my managers offered to go through the CIMA work experience requirements to ensure we had all the boxes ticked. I would suggest looking for a new Assistant Accountant role in industry rather than going to practice. If you go to practice you'll be sent out auditing the type of work you do at present.

Yeah maybe I'll stick to industry then. There aren't too many jobs out there at the moment though.

Morte

I know of people who moved from industry to practice during training but none were CIMA. It's not geared to practice and there would be question marks over whether you were committed long term.

Very few practice jobs for trainees would be advisory or consultancy based. While they wouldn't mind taking a CIMA person you'll have a very hard job finding one and the competition for it would likely be very high. Most likely a practice trainee would be doing accounts prep/tax/audit. It'd be different experience but it wouldn't be guaranteed that it would be a higher level.

mr_edge_to_you

The Dublin Whale wrote: »

Yeah maybe I'll stick to industry then. There aren't too many jobs out there at the moment though.

Have you actually looked? I am currently employed on a fixed term contract so I'm checking Irishjobs, Monster and Jobs.ie on a regular basis. There is quite a few jobs there these days especially at p/q level. Competition might be tougher but that's a different story.

CIMA is currently in high demand. The numbers fell of significantly during the boom as financial services took over. It is a qualification that companies feel is valuable in today's market. You talk about consultancy work in practice.....with CIMA companies are bringing you on board because you have these skills already.

Also, you make reference above to what work you could do
in practice, your experience to date hardly lends itself to consultancy work.

The Dublin Whale

mr_edge_to_you wrote: »

Have you actually looked? I am currently employed on a fixed term contract so I'm checking Irishjobs, Monster and Jobs.ie on a regular basis. There is quite a few jobs there these days especially at p/q level. Competition might be tougher but that's a different story.

I haven't been actively looking, just taking a glance at those websites you mentioned now and again. I've mainly just been looking at the jobs which state what company the role is with. I ignore the ads by recruitment agencies as a fair few of them may be advertising the same roles, or the roles may just be make believe in order to get punters on their books.

So in terms of companies advertising roles, there isn't a huge amount and the majority of them are to cover maternity leave. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I would be wary that these companies wouldn't be too interested in my development.

mr_edge_to_you wrote: »

Also, you make reference above to what work you could do
in practice, your experience to date hardly lends itself to consultancy work.

Yeah I know, consultancy is what I'm aiming for in the long term. I know theres virtually no chance I could go straight into it. My thinking was that if I moved to a practice that offered these services, then I could eventually get promoted into a consultancy type role.