People who became accountants from a non accounting degree

Jobber1

I thinking of a career change to accountancy . I have a non accounting degree and I am wondering about the experiences of other people on this who have pursued accountancy from a non accounting degree and how they got on after ?
Any stories at all would be great to hear.

cocker5

Jobber1 wrote: »

I thinking of a career change to accountancy . I have a non accounting degree and I am wondering about the experiences of other people on this who have pursued accountancy from a non accounting degree and how they got on after ?
Any stories at all would be great to hear.

OP,


I did marketing degree after school… not until my late 20’s did I choose to persue ACCA. I had to sit all 14 exams. Thank god it’s all over now.

Did I find it hard ?? absolutely I had never done any accountancy subjects plus working full time didn’t help with no study / exam leave.

Did I struggle at times?? yip one or two subjects gave me trouble and I got 49% a good few times VERY demoralising but I got there in the end

Was it worth it?? Without a doubt, decent wage, thankfully haven’tbeen unemployed at all in my adult lifetime.


What I would say is move jobs., you must work in the accountancy area, not just for ACCA but it’s imperative for understanding most of the subjects.


Best of luck

annaP79

Hi

sorry for lengthy post but i hope it will be helpful

I went that route and it is not easy and agreeing 100% with cocker5 about doing exams, all 14 of them! studying after work . . .it is at times overwhelming, especially if you have family, or any social life for that matter

the problem with situation like yours is something that I experienced and still I am to some extent, which means you will need to start probably from the bottom of low paid accounts jobs, that are quite repetitive and not that exciting - most likely accounts payable, it would be hard to start somewhere else as you know little about subject matter but you might be lucky so dnt get discouraged !!!

if you had accounts /business/finance degree you would end up initially in low paid trainee job also BUT you wouldn't need to waste your time on paybles, etc, ...as you would be getting proper training based on what you have learnt during your degree years,

the end result is that in both situations you start small but option two ends with being fully qualified accountant, taking 3-4 years, you then get 2-3 more years of post qualification experience and end up with nice salary staring 40k at least, especially if you were lucky to train with one of the big 4

HOWEVER, the route you think of taking will be different, you will need to go into some accounts job, get your exams, F1-9 at least or as many as you can and keep fingers crossed to find some good trainee job after that, you will be unlikely to get a trainee job in the practice but it depends on many other factors, in general in practice they say they welcome people with different degrees but the reality is they are most likely to take on recent postgrad with finance related degree , . . . again your work experience to date can help to change that so dnt panic but just to warn you

I must say, it is quite easy to get your foot in the door and start working in accounts, no problem there, economic situation gets better so will be easier but it is very hard to actually get trained all the way up if you start from the wrong end because you are running the risk of starting in accountancy job which will not necessary contribute to your development in line with your exams as you go through them



hope it helps

Jobber1

Thanks for the advice . im thinking of enrolling on the CAP 1S or enrol on the professional; diploma in accountancy in U.L. which also gives cap 1 exemptions. If I had this on my c.v I believe I could start as a trainee rather just on payroll.

annaP79

very good idea, if you only can do it, take year out of full time work and get diploma then go for it,
make sure you get reasonable grades and fingers crossed you then get on good trainee programme, I would avoid small practices, go big and you will save yourself lots of hassle later on in your careerer
CAP exemptions is always handy, just make sure exactly what exemptions you will get,you could also enquire if you could get any exemptions from ACA, some employers would value ACA more than any other qualification, I dnt why but that's what I was told once on this forum here

good luck

Prettyblack

I don't think you'll get CAP 1 exemptions from a non business degree, as ACA don't have as many exams as the ACCA so there aren't as many to "clear out" if you know what I mean.

I know loads of people who went into ACA / Chartered with non business backgrounds (one of them was ex-army) and got on very well. Once you study and put the hours in you have a good chance. They got jobs too as the companies just wanted people who were doing ACA, as the poster above said.