Question on which job to take

TiGeR KiNgS

I have been offered a entry job in both practice and as a fund accountant.

How do I choose ?

MrMatisse

Practice, hands down.

Jame Gumb

MrMatisse wrote: »

Practice, hands down.

+1

No contest

ted2767

TiGeR KiNgS wrote: »

I have been offered a entry job in both practice and as a fund accountant.

How do I choose ?

Practice no questions money might be slightly better in funds but don't let that fool you.
Anybody I know who worked in funds couldn't wait to get out of it

tomfoolery60

Practice has much better opportunities down the line. You'll get paid less initially and your work hours will be worse but no pain, no gain as they say.

mr_edge_to_you

tomfoolery60 wrote: »

Practice has much better opportunities down the line. You'll get paid less initially and your work hours will be worse but no pain, no gain as they say.

Couldn't agree more. With practice training you can work in practice, industry and financial services.

Johnny_Fontane

If you plan on becoming an accountant, take the practice role.
If you want to follow a career in Funds......

Dont discount a career in Funds, it may not initially be to most people's liking, but it can be a very very lucrative career with great opportunities to travel and work in tax free locations.

Generally in funds in Ireland, people start as an administrator and the level of work (producing NAV's) can be pretty boring. There are two streams that you can then move into, and thats the operations side (managing teams) or the financial reporting side (Accounting). If you successfully crack the operations side, you can move quickly into more senior roles. Candidates who are successful managers of large teams are highly sought after all over Dublin and can command very high salaries. If you think about it, Citi, Citco, BNY Mellon and State Street are all here in Dublin and are the biggest administrators on the planet.

So yea, take the practice role if you want to be an accountant, take the funds role if you dont want to do the exams and fancy yourself as a manager of people.

levi

Practice role in Financial Services is probably better than a fund accountant role though as you get more exposure to the big picture and more exposure to different types of funds and other FS institutions... Also I reckon practice would look better on your CV if it turned out it isn't what you want to do cos you'll have your ACA...

Prettyblack

Is it a training role or are you qualified? I guess its the industry / practice question. Most accountants work in industry however. I know that a lot of small practices are shutting down / scaling back because they are losing clients and fees. So if its a big practice, then maybe. But will you get a chance for promotion?

The good thing about funds is that you can get promoted fairly quickly. I know people who started off, then were soon team leaders, then managers. Now they are working crazy hours sometimes, but are also on very good money. And they can move around a lot.

daheff

take the practice role.


while funds throw money at you at the start, its very very boring and repetitive. One poster mentioned you can manage people if u move up the ladder....but remember that there are hundreds more in the area with the same ideas.

a formal professional qualification & background will be much better for you in the long run. you can still move to funds later if u so desire (they;re always looking for people- something that should also ring alarm bells!) -and if ur qualified you would automatically come in at a higher level.

Prettyblack

Yeah but OP can get the professional qualification whilst working in funds - doesn't have to be practice.

I'm planning on doing the Chartered qual this way.

smallerthanyou

Practice. Did financial services practice first n now workin in a fund accountin type role and after six weeks in new role I'm so so so so bored. Anyway my friend joined an administrator same time I joined big four n the gap in our salaries is significant. Get practice experience and after that you should be able to jump into a higher level at fund administrator than if you go directly there. That's my experience anyway.

Pauvre Con

Fund accounting isn't even proper accounting. Pretty much anyone can go into it and don't need to be from an accountancy background or studies. People go into financial services for the money and probably because they can't think of anything else to do. It's very specialized and you'd be limiting yourself to the industry and therefore where you can physically live. Practise is something that will be harder to get into the older you get so definitely take the opportunity and plump for that.