what are my options?

lightspeed

Hi I have business degree and a postgraduate in accounting and finance. This gives me exemptions from 9 ACCA F paper exams.

Last year i was working in audit in a large big 4 firm. It didnt work out for a number of reasons. I found i was getting little training and it was just a poor working environment to work in. I also failed all 4 cap 2 exams.

I have now been working in a finance administrator role in a smaller company for the past month. The salary is low, it now looks like the accounting experience will be limited, no exam support and also It does not look like there will be much of a salary increase when i qualify.

Having been able to record some of my previous tasks from a previous job towards my experience record, I actually only need some PER objectives signed off and to pass the 5 ACCA P exams to qualify.

Im worried about my lack of actual experience of accounting tasks.

All going to plan, I could have all exams passed this time next year. I see it as a positive that the company im in can at least allow me to get the experience to qualify without me having to worry about passing exams to keep my job. So if I have to repeat, I at least dont have to worry about management giving me grief as i assume would be the case if i was in a company where they had funded my exams.

I also feel like i will have to disclose failing the cap 2 exams and so it would be less of an issue if had some or all ACCA P exams passed before interviewing elsewhere.

So If i stay where i am and qualify next year, what are my options?

I see jobs for newly qualified accountants and a lot of them are looking for people who qualified in a Big 4 firm which rules me out.

I would be interested in working a small firm preparing small company accounts. Id be willing to even take a part qualifying role even after qualifying to get the experience. However, most jobs i see for even part qualified roles want you to have 1 to 2 years experience preparing accounts which i wont have.

I might also consider a financial reporting role in funds industry. I have heard though that the hours are quite bad in funds. Does anyone know if the hours are the bad in financial reporting?

Again i realise I would need to start in a gradtute role even if i was ACCA fully qualified due to my complete lack of fund experience.

The_Pretender

I'm assuming based on you doing the cap 2's last year that you have 1 years experience towards your 3 years required?

If that's the case then I'd get a junior position in a smaller firm. Most will understand failed exams, one of my bosses took 4 attempts to pass one of the P exams. Of all of the ACCA's currently training in my firm, only one of them has passed every exam so far first attempt.

Provided you're capable of doing the work, then it's in the firm's best interest to keep you as a trainee as long as possible so that they don't have to pay you big money. They should have no problem with you needing a couple of attempts on certain exams.

You should be more than capable of passing the 5 P papers in 2-3 years, with there being 4 sittings a year. A training firm should give 1 week study leave per exam, for first attempt only.

I can understand how it's tempting to tip away at a low pressure job just to get you through the exams and then move onto the harder work, but to be honest I don't think it's the best way of doing it. Becoming an accountant requires hard work and commitment in bucket loads. You've done the cap 2's. You know the work involved in a full time job and then having lectures at the weekend.

From what I gather from your post the main issue seems to be that you don't have enough faith in yourself. Did you even give yourself a chance to repeat the cap 2's? They now do them in a modular basis, you could sit one module in the first sitting and the next module in the repeat sitting. You obviously have the ability to do it, since you made it through a postgrad in finance.

I can only speak from my own experience and my own views, but I feel the best way to go is to do your exams alongside relevant work experience. If the work you're doing now isn't going to stand to you when you pass your exams then you might as well just be working in a completely unrelated field.

Big 4 isn't for me either. I'm far happier in a smaller firm of around 20 people than in a large firm of 1000. It suits me better. You say you'd like to do accounts for small businesses, it sound like smaller firm that's more understanding of individual cases is that way forward for you too.

kaymin

lightspeed wrote: »

So If i stay where i am and qualify next year, what are my options?

I would be interested in working a small firm preparing small company accounts. Id be willing to even take a part qualifying role even after qualifying to get the experience. However, most jobs i see for even part qualified roles want you to have 1 to 2 years experience preparing accounts which i wont have.

I might also consider a financial reporting role in funds industry. I have heard though that the hours are quite bad in funds. Does anyone know if the hours are the bad in financial reporting?

Again i realise I would need to start in a gradtute role even if i was ACCA fully qualified due to my complete lack of fund experience.

I wouldn't recommend staying where you are. Questions will be asked when looking for a new position why you trained in a firm that gave you such limited experience. It's an easy option at this time but not one that will stand to you.

I wouldn't recommend the funds industry either - the experience you'll receive is limited, the work high pressure. Reward may be reasonable as you move through the ranks but you tend to get pigeon-holed to that industry at that stage. The thoughts of spending an entire career in funds admin would fill me with dread.

I'd recommend targeting a traineeship with a small firm that gives you a broad-based experience. I wouldn't be focused on salary at all - suffer the low pay through the exam years and the rewards come later. Key is to get your career off on the right start.

lightspeed

The_Pretender wrote: »

I'm assuming based on you doing the cap 2's last year that you have 1 years experience towards your 3 years required?

If that's the case then I'd get a junior position in a smaller firm. Most will understand failed exams, one of my bosses took 4 attempts to pass one of the P exams. Of all of the ACCA's currently training in my firm, only one of them has passed every exam so far first attempt.

Provided you're capable of doing the work, then it's in the firm's best interest to keep you as a trainee as long as possible so that they don't have to pay you big money. They should have no problem with you needing a couple of attempts on certain exams.

You should be more than capable of passing the 5 P papers in 2-3 years, with there being 4 sittings a year. A training firm should give 1 week study leave per exam, for first attempt only.

I can understand how it's tempting to tip away at a low pressure job just to get you through the exams and then move onto the harder work, but to be honest I don't think it's the best way of doing it. Becoming an accountant requires hard work and commitment in bucket loads. You've done the cap 2's. You know the work involved in a full time job and then having lectures at the weekend.

From what I gather from your post the main issue seems to be that you don't have enough faith in yourself. Did you even give yourself a chance to repeat the cap 2's? They now do them in a modular basis, you could sit one module in the first sitting and the next module in the repeat sitting. You obviously have the ability to do it, since you made it through a postgrad in finance.

I can only speak from my own experience and my own views, but I feel the best way to go is to do your exams alongside relevant work experience. If the work you're doing now isn't going to stand to you when you pass your exams then you might as well just be working in a completely unrelated field.

Big 4 isn't for me either. I'm far happier in a smaller firm of around 20 people than in a large firm of 1000. It suits me better. You say you'd like to do accounts for small businesses, it sound like smaller firm that's more understanding of individual cases is that way forward for you too.

Thanks Id agree with most of the above. I feel more confident and motivated now to pursue accountancy but after it didnt work out in the big 4 firm I was in and failing the exams, I was unsure about what to do at the time and needed to get my head straight. I regret not repeating the cap 2 in October session although i have registered as an external student with chartered accountants to leave the door open and I could still repeat cap 2 in June next year.

I didnt get my cai diary signed off for the year as the mentor i had kept making excuses and saying he wasnt sure if he could sign off my cai diary and also i think he just couldnt be bothered to review the diary entries id made and sign off on them.

I did at least get my teamleader to sign a form for ACCA to record my experience there so ive roughly a year experience signed off.

As i mentioned i was in a previous role that has some relevancy to an accounting role. I estimated approximately 30% of my role related to such tasks ans as i was there over 5 years, it equated to something like 28 months.

So i actually have the 3 years experience for ACCA signed off along with some PER objectives. I just need about 5 more and to pass the 5 P paper exams to fully qualify.

The job im in is a 6 month contract but likely they will want me to stay on. However, as i mentioned pay is pretty poor and more to the point its not a trainee accountant position and more admin focused than i was led to believe it would be in interview.

I think i will leave when contract is up but i hope it wont look too bad on my cv that i didnt succeed in big 4 and then left after 6 months in next job.

Hopefully it wont be an issue.

Kaka86

Hi
I'm not going to disclose where I work but its an audit department for a large financial institution.
The amount of big 4 trainees that leave during their contracts to move to smaller firms or financial institutions and also switch from ACA to ACCA is unbelievable. 3 of 4 graduates in our department came from the big 4.
I had little to no accounting experience when I started the ACCA I moved myself it to roles where I could build up my exposure (business lending and underwriting - financial assessment/analysis ) you'd be surprised how a role doesn't need to be your typical accounting role.
I qualified last night year and moved into internal audit which is an area I've wanted to work in for a long time.
I think you need to figure out what/where you want to work at. There is a lot of large multi nationals that offer graduate programmes. Be honest and open in a positive manner about your big 4 experience if asked but to be honest sometimes saying less is more "I realised it just wasn't for me" there's a lot to be said for someone who can identify what is and isn't for them !

Best wishes