Qualified Accountant with no experience in practice

Kaka86

Hi all... looking for some guidance/advice pretty please

I'm ACCA accountant - qualified 2/3 years. However I've never worked as an "accountant" per se. I've worked in financial services (banking) for over 10 years - front line lending roles, mortgage underwriting and internal audit. My goal is to move into practice - has anyone every made a move like this ? I do feel I've lots of transferable skills but you know yourself when you've never worked in a role I've no real idea what a day in the life of practice accountant would be.

Thanks for reading

ACADasltiv

It's a big change moving from banking into practice. For one, it generally entails longer hours and it's a more professional "client orientated" environment.

In terms of getting work in practice, you shouldn't struggle too much. Many employers like people who have an in depth experience of the industry. Where I work, in the last year we've had 3/4 people similar to you who have come from banking with 10 years experience and to be honest, most of them have struggled with the change. I think a lot of it was down to them not really being committed to practice life, they were used to a decade of clocking off on time, enjoying a more relaxed atmosphere in big open plan offices, while our place is a Georgian building with 3-4 people per office.

A lot of this again is down to the culture in the organisation you join. Ours is fairly old fashioned in that we don't have the likes of casual Fridays, it's suit and tie everyday, we don't clock off early on Fridays etc. I'm only speaking from my own experience, there are obviously many different firms out there with different working environments. If you're committed to practice life and go in with your eyes open to what it will be like then you should be fine.

You say you've never worked as an accountant - have you had your PER signed off on?

Kaka86

ACADasltiv thank you for reply and insight.

I can see where the culture change might be difficult for some - I've definitely seen areas in banking where anything outside of 9-5 working is definitely not the norm. I think having worked for 7/8 years in a front line role I am used to working outside the "normal" working hours - when you've customers or clients that need something whether they were applying for a mortgage or a business loan I always felt a responsibility to get this done ASAP.

PER was signed off 2/3 years ago so full member of ACCA - I've worked in roles that involved analysis of financial statements, tax advice and audit .. getting PER wasn't really an issue.

***Any short courses you'd recommend ?