Trainee accountant salary

P_Cash

Paddy001 wrote: »

I'd have to agree with your sentiment.

I'm in a small practice with over 2.5 years now and the pay is still rubbish. I've been tempted to move a few times but at present I have four exams left to pass (doing two next week, so here's hoping) but I'm comfortable where I am and didn't want the upheaval of moving jobs. Did you not find it a major strain?

I'll probably move on either way early in the new year as I don't foresee any reasonable salary increase in my annual review and it's getting a little frustrating. I've a friend who done chartered (just passed FAE's) and he would openly admit I have more experience than him, he sometimes even bounces queries off of me. He's still on €5k more than me though and he's outside Dublin so it's a bitter pill to swallow! I am getting greater experience but it doesn't help that feeling!

This is certainly an area where chartered is better than ACCA - at least they have recommended salary increases.

A good multinational will have a good bonus never mind a good salary.

Major strain, i probably did, but i was 24/25 when i started out. I can honestly remember what a lecture once said to me, if you feel the learning curve has gone level it's time to move on, and it's so true, with each move my next employer was amazed all i had covered in a short space of time. Yet if i had stayed 4 years in the first job id only have had 20% of the experienced i gained and would be lucky to be over 20k

I've a major problem with how young starting out accountants are treated, from me looking inwards, i see the work these people do, i see the commitment, i see the long hrs they do.
I leave at 4 and they are expected to wait till 9 or 10, before going back to hotel. Novelty all gone off working on the road. I see most of them for 3 audits, their contract is up and can't wait to get loose. 3 yrs done and there gone.
The issue i have is the work ye do versus the fees charged to us, outrageous. Wouldn't mind if we had 12 fully qualified accountants with 3+ yrs exp in on the audit. But no, it's new graduates, 1 senior, 1 mgr and extortionate fees.

Only in industry you can job hop with good pay jumps. I'm 35 now and all my time from young days the practice was the worse payer unless you make a move where the position is a senior one. Go get an ap job in a multinational. Thats where most ledger accountants start out.

I wish ye all luck.
I feel the down turn has put a lot of accountants in the market place which only lowers salary.

I feel your pain. If you're aiming for a Mortgage in your early 30s, i struggle to see how ya can do this if your stuck on 17-20 k coming up on mid 20s yr old.

P_Cash

Meant to say to ye all, any employer not paying you an increase on exam passes, well what does that tell you. it's not your exams or your college work that i want. It's you at 17.5k earning me fees of 1000s per week.

I'd say thanks very much.

Sometimes i think experience in the work place should be rewarded. . If your good, ull come on so quickly in 10 months.

Paddy001

P_Cash wrote: »

A good multinational will have a good bonus never mind a good salary.

Major strain, i probably did, but i was 24/25 when i started out. I can honestly remember what a lecture once said to me, if you feel the learning curve has gone level it's time to move on, and it's so true, with each move my next employer was amazed all i had covered in a short space of time. Yet if i had stayed 4 years in the first job id only have had 20% of the experienced i gained and would be lucky to be over 20k

I've a major problem with how young starting out accountants are treated, from me looking inwards, i see the work these people do, i see the commitment, i see the long hrs they do.
I leave at 4 and they are expected to wait till 9 or 10, before going back to hotel. Novelty all gone off working on the road. I see most of them for 3 audits, their contract is up and can't wait to get loose. 3 yrs done and there gone.
The issue i have is the work ye do versus the fees charged to us, outrageous. Wouldn't mind if we had 12 fully qualified accountants with 3+ yrs exp in on the audit. But no, it's new graduates, 1 senior, 1 mgr and extortionate fees.

Only in industry you can job hop with good pay jumps. I'm 35 now and all my time from young days the practice was the worse payer unless you make a move where the position is a senior one. Go get an ap job in a multinational. Thats where most ledger accountants start out.

I wish ye all luck.
I feel the down turn has put a lot of accountants in the market place which only lowers salary.

I feel your pain. If you're aiming for a Mortgage in your early 30s, i struggle to see how ya can do this if your stuck on 17-20 k coming up on mid 20s yr old.

That's all very true. I'm nearing the mid-20's now but I still feel it's a long way off where it should be considering I could potentially be fully qualified in six months time all going well. I was thinking of a move to industry alright but I like being in practice! It is rather tempting though looking at some of the job adverts for those positions so it is certainly something I will be considering soon.

spillit67

P_Cash wrote: »

Terrible money.

Practices and big 4 especially attract new college leavers, sign them up and the suck the life out of them, one of the big 4 audits the company i work for, they see us as good, industry how nice, why didn't i go there.
Unfortunately they don't get the experience on a broad level and most need a smaller practice to bring them well up on knowledge.

Salary wise, id expect 20, id leave after 1 year then look for 25 in the next, i job hopped 4 times from 2003 to 2007, in 2003 i was on 17.5 and in 2007 i was on 33.
Yea OK good times and i had to play hard. But its not worth doing for less.

Unfortunately in west of ireland excluding galway, qualified your looking at 35 to 40 with 3 yrs exp. I personally think it's a disgrace.

Part qual could be from 25 to 35

In Dublin your laughing with constant opportunities,

Take the job, look to move again in a year or 18 months.
Ur experience or learning curve will probably have leveled out by then anyway.

There are advantages and disadvantages to everywhere. Industry pays better but there is far worse study leave. Additionally, many are unsure of what they want to go into.

The advantages of the Big 4 are obvious. Yes it's possible you could be landed with one big company and your experience might not be as good as it could be, but it's still the Big 4 and looks very good on the CV. Below that with middling firms you probably get a more all round experience but it still doesn't carry the weight of the Big 4, and the Big 4 get opportunities with secondments which you don't get elsewhere.

I wouldn't agree with you on the whole learning curve thing - there is much to learn in your first 24-30 months.

Your traineeship in accounting is what you make of it and really there is no set guidance I would give to someone. It isn't realistic in this market to talk about hopping from firm to firm, KPMG were handing out iPod shuffles in the good times just for interviewing with them. You trained in an employee friendly market.