Jobs for part-qualified accountants

ucd man

Hi, I have 3.5 years experience in a Big 4 firm and have recently sat the FAEs. However, I'm not at all confident of passing. If I don't pass, there is no way I will be sitting any more exams, as I can't bear the thoughts of spending another year of balancing study/work.

Does anybody know are there many jobs out there for partly qualified accountants (who have no interest in doing more exams, be they ACA or ACCA)??

Assuming there are, will my career (and salary!!) prospects be greatly hindered by not having the full qualification?

All comments/advice welcome.

jjjd

ucd man wrote: »

Hi, I have 3.5 years experience in a Big 4 firm and have recently sat the FAEs. However, I'm not at all confident of passing. If I don't pass, there is no way I will be sitting any more exams, as I can't bear the thoughts of spending another year of balancing study/work.

Does anybody know are there many jobs out there for partly qualified accountants (who have no interest in doing more exams, be they ACA or ACCA)??

Assuming there are, will my career (and salary!!) prospects be greatly hindered by not having the full qualification?

All comments/advice welcome.

Best advice I can give you is to persevere! Don't give up! You will find it very difficult to have any sort of successful or meaningful career as a part qualified accountant. In reality, it's merely a stepping stone. Career advancement will be severely hampered and your salary will not increase by much. You will never make partner, gain an auditing certificate, etc by remaining part qualified. You will eventually grow 'too old' for most part qualified roles after a few years. Recruiters will not put you forward for any sort of senior accountancy roles as not having your exams will severely hold you back, no matter how good you are in the workplace, or how good your work experience is. It would be like a big dark cloud hanging over your CV, with every potential recruiter or employer wondering why you never finished and equally wondering if you are really committed to your chosen career. If work/study/life balance is the issue for you then you could consider switching to ACCA, and take one exam at a time. It might make things less daunting and more manageable for you so you could fit your study around your lifestyle. It might give you more time to focus on papers you're having most difficulty with. You could claim exemptions for exams passed with ACA so you may only have to sit a few with ACCA. If you don't want to become fully qualified, if I'm being honest, you'd likely have better prospects with a new career path that staying part qualified indefinitely.

Johnny_Fontane

ucd man wrote: »

Does anybody know are there many jobs out there for partly qualified accountants (who have no interest in doing more exams, be they ACA or ACCA)??

Assuming there are, will my career (and salary!!) prospects be greatly hindered by not having the full qualification?

All comments/advice welcome.

Generally candidates go into one of the smaller firms or into short term roles in industry. There is a market there for sure for Big 4's that dont get their exams. Again career wise, its certainly not a big deal, take a contract in a smaller practice for 7/8 months (if you are out of contract), get your head into the books in june/july, get your exams september, get €50k in December 2015!

We place a good deal of non qualified Big 4's in a variety of environments every year after exams, pm me for more details if you like.

ucd man

This probably might not be for an accountancy thread, but do people reckon having the 3 years experience in big 4 and being part qualified might be seen as a bargaining tool when looking for jobs away from the accounting profession, but not necessarily away from the financial services/business sector??
Or are potential employers going to focus on the "part" qualified nature of the experience??

smcgiff

ucd man wrote: »

This probably might not be for an accountancy thread, but do people reckon having the 3 years experience in big 4 and being part qualified might be seen as a bargaining tool when looking for jobs away from the accounting profession, but not necessarily away from the financial services/business sector??
Or are potential employers going to focus on the "part" qualified nature of the experience??

There are positions for part qualifieds. Some employers don't want to pay for qualifieds.

If you take up a job as a PQ then you've a far better chance of progressing through hard work (although some Multi-Nationals will check if you are qualified before advancing you) within the same company than moving around. Employers will have enough of a choice from qualified applicants to give them the senior roles when recruiting externally.

dbran

Get your exams. You will never get the same level of salary for the same level of experience that an equivalent qualified candidate would get. And once you stop studying it is extremely difficult to get back into the mindset of study again. You just don't have the same graft.

dbran