Career switch to accounting - best route?

draxler

I'm currently working as a fully qualified engineer and have been thinking about switching to accounting. It appears to have better job opportunities, job security and pay.

I'm not exactly sure as to how I would go about beginning this change of career. I've heard some people mention that it's a case of being taken on without any qualifications (except engineering), and then doing the exams as you work. This sounds a bit too simplistic, is there any truth behind it?

I'm also very unsure as to what to expect in the accounting profession. I guess it's the same with any career, it's hard to know what the job is like until you actually work in the field. Can anyone give a simplistic "day in the life" of an accountant?

I am only in the early stages of considering this career switch, that's why I'm asking such broad questions, before you worry I'm going in clueless! Thank you.

irishguy1983

Only my opinion but most office careers are pretty boring - of course there are exceptions.

From what I know accounting is top of the pile in terms of boring - be ready for spending most of your day in front of spreadsheets

Seriously though I'd recommend speaking to a few accountants in advance before doing anything serious.

MarGar

Not too sure about the pay. Starting salary is around €20k plus study package. It's not going to be great for the first couple of years. But yes it is that simple. You could get a job as a trainee accountant (which seem to be plentiful)and register for your exams. Most accountancy practices offer a study package which could include exam fees and study leave(usually a week per subject).

In my experience as a trainee accountant you are the first year doing bookkeeping. This involves entering purchases and sales invoices, reconciling bank accounts and any odd jobs around the place. Nothing too exciting but it is nice seeing and understanding how business's work.

From there you will probably progress onto accounts preparation or maybe tax if the company you work in has a tax department.

If you are going to do ACCA I know the first three exams are computer based so you could do them while you are working in your currently job. This will show your future employer that you are serous about a career in accountancy and you will be able to see if the exams are for you. Have you considered what kind of job you want? Practice? Company? Big 4?

Glenster

Accountants in practice start off at slightly more than €20K, stay basically the same for the first 18 months and then eventually (3/4 years) go up to €45K in practice.

Exams can be a pain, but you get plenty of time off for them, and you work up quite a bit of time off in the normal course of the year that youre encouraged to take to study.

As someone with a bit more experience you can probably bypass the audit side of accounting (apparently mind-numbingly boring) and go into the recovery side.

I know quite a few engineers who retrained as accountants in the early 2010s and employers loved putting them in the recovery department where they could deal with all the property and developments in receivership. Theres less of this work these days but its still going on.

Age isn't a real issue, i've seen 35 year olds come in as 1st year trainees (Well one, and he was a dork......)

Its good craic, less hard work than people would lead you to believe and can be good for career progression, particularly if you want to get ahead in project management.

L.Jenkins

I'm in the same boat Draxler. I'm doing a course through Solas first, then aiming to get a position as a Trainee Accountant, to complete my training. I too am coming from an Engineering background.

Moo Moo Land

Glenster wrote: »

Its good craic, less hard work than people would lead you to believe and can be good for career progression, particularly if you want to get ahead in project management.

I am a project manager in IT. Would you encourage me to do the accounting exams?

Squall Leonhart

I was going to create a thread and ask much the same questions!

I am 30, coming from an architectural background and considering something which is less tied down to two cities and that can be more stable than the construction industry.

If I was to do it, I'd be looking to start in Limerick. I can suffer a couple of years of low income if it moves up sharpish (subject to passing exams). Is there a standard-ish pay scale?

The_Pretender

There isn't standard one really, it varies from place to place.

The biggest factor for starting salary is your location. Dublin low €20's is fair, there's no shortage of training contracts so I wouldn't accept less unless it had other things going for it. Outside the Great Dublin Area I've heard you could be looking as low as €16k. Not sure about Limerick, you may not be looking as high as Dublin but should higher than regional areas.

I'm can only really speak from a Dublin point of view, but a €10k increase in salary over the course of your training is fair. At least another €10k increase once qualified, however if you've finished all of your exams but not yet worked through your experience, you may still get a lot of the salary increase anyway before you're officially qualified.

Another salary factor is whether you train in practice or industry. There's more money in industry, but in most cases the study leave isn't anywhere near as good as practice, and many employers only give the day of the exam off.

thebsharp

Some input from a similar but different perspective.

I'm from an engineering background and I've taken the first five ACCA exams while working in a Project Management role (still engineering but Project Management Office based). I was a civil engineer before that. Having a few of my projects shelved and listening to government announcements about shelving other major projects made me want out of the industry.

I don't want to be an accountant per se but the ACCA topics have been beneficial in better understanding how businesses operate. I couldn't afford the fees for a business masters full time and couldn't get time off work on the Friday for any of the part-time two year masters that I was interested in. I therefore chose ACCA to further educate myself.

My intention is to continue working as a Project Manager in this industry while keeping an eye out for Project Manager roles in alternative industries that interest me. We'll see how that plan goes for now!

davindub

Squall Leonhart wrote: »

I was going to create a thread and ask much the same questions!

I am 30, coming from an architectural background and considering something which is less tied down to two cities and that can be more stable than the construction industry.

If I was to do it, I'd be looking to start in Limerick. I can suffer a couple of years of low income if it moves up sharpish (subject to passing exams). Is there a standard-ish pay scale?

I have recently just started trainee accountancy, like you I changed careers, coming from management. I am doing chartered accountancy (ACA) and started doing my exams using the flexible route whilst still in management. If you have a degree, you will need 3.5 years work experience.

While training contracts seem plentiful, you are competing with graduates who have 2.1 accounting degrees / masters, work experience in firms during summers. These will fill the majority of roles each year and you will see the big 4 recruiting graduates from now for next year. Smaller accountants tend to recruit based on need (see chartered accountants ireland training vacancies, i cannot post links yet).

Pay can be from 18k with no additional exam leave or course fees to the highest 30k but they are really looking for perfection - good school record (I am in my 30's had to include leaving cert results on applications), college work, etc. I found it hard to get interviews with a lot of practices during the summer but I was able to get interviews the rest of the year.

What I would recommend is you start doing the exams first to see if you like it / can commit to the amount of work involved, coming from a architectural background you are unlikely to get any exemptions so it will be 5 exams for CAP1. Basically from starting in October to exam time, I was under pressure to get the content covered in time, you really have to knuckle down and start studying straight away. You can apply for roles starting immediately, but at least you can talk about what you have learnt so far.

If you can also, try and get some experience with the different accounting packages - Tas Books (hard to get copies of), Sage, intact etc. Talk to your current company to see if they can support you, a bit of experience doing Bank rec's, Creditor rec's, Posting payments, receipts will probably help you a lot when looking for a trainee role!

Mimojo

thebsharp wrote: »

Some input from a similar but different perspective.

I'm from an engineering background and I've taken the first five ACCA exams while working in a Project Management role (still engineering but Project Management Office based). I was a civil engineer before that. Having a few of my projects shelved and listening to government announcements about shelving other major projects made me want out of the industry.

I don't want to be an accountant per se but the ACCA topics have been beneficial in better understanding how businesses operate. I couldn't afford the fees for a business masters full time and couldn't get time off work on the Friday for any of the part-time two year masters that I was interested in. I therefore chose ACCA to further educate myself.

My intention is to continue working as a Project Manager in this industry while keeping an eye out for Project Manager roles in alternative industries that interest me. We'll see how that plan goes for now!

Hi thebsharp

Im considering doing ACCA, just wondered is the experience you are gaining in your current employment standing towards the three years work experience needed? Are you getting it signed off by an accountant in your company? Or do you aim to get a trainee role after you complete your exams?

Just trying to suss out this side of things myself, if I start the ACCA route wondering will the work I am doing (small office, basic accounting) stand towards the work experience I need

thebsharp

A 1/4 of my overall time is being signed off as PER. This reflects the budgeting, budget control, spend reporting, procurement etc. aspects of my role. A lady in our finance department is ACCA qualified and is signing off on my PER with my line manager co-signing as the direct supervisor.
It's a grand setup for now and worth looking into. If I want to speed it up I'll look at trying to get a PM role in one of the ACCA accredited employer where sign off is a given once you've worked the duration

myshirt

I wouldn't recommend becoming an accountant, but I would recommend an accountancy education.