Accounting Technician Apprenticeship

Dubh73

Hi all, I am looking for advise. I have been approved for the accounting technician apprenticeship and want it so bad. I have financially prepared for a lower salary for 2 years but do need to contribute something. At the moment I am unemployed and waiting to hear from employers. I have been told that if I don’t hear anything by end of August I have not been selected. Does anyone have any idea on the success rate? Should I be applying for other jobs just in case?? I need to generate some form of an income by mid September..

Vladi_

Dubh73 wrote: »

Hi all, I am looking for advise. I have been approved for the accounting technician apprenticeship and want it so bad. I have financially prepared for a lower salary for 2 years but do need to contribute something. At the moment I am unemployed and waiting to hear from employers. I have been told that if I don’t hear anything by end of August I have not been selected. Does anyone have any idea on the success rate? Should I be applying for other jobs just in case?? I need to generate some form of an income by mid September..

Hey! Did you have an interview with the employer already? I had my phone interview 2 days ago and it went great. Basically I'm wondering about the same things as so so hopefully we get some answers.

Dubh73

Best of luck I hope it goes well for your nope I haven’t heard a thing from anyone just that my details would be passed on.. o am older and have a Masters in a different field so I wonder would that have an impact, have to just wait and see. ☹️

Vladi_

Dubh73 wrote: »

Best of luck I hope it goes well for your nope I haven’t heard a thing from anyone just that my details would be passed on.. o am older and have a Masters in a different field so I wonder would that have an impact, have to just wait and see. ☹️

In my case it took 2 weeks between the application and the interview. I'm older as well. best of luck to you too.

Garzard

I've had 4x interviews since June - two of these companies unfortunately decided not to offer a position and have been waiting to hear from the latter two firms for 2 weeks by now. Very tantalising.

Vladi_

Garzard wrote: »

I've had 4x interviews since June - two of these companies unfortunately decided not to offer a position and have been waiting to hear from the latter two firms for 2 weeks by now. Very tantalising.

When did you apply? I got email that my application will be forwarded to employers 2 weeks ago and still nothing. Losing all hope already. What city did you apply for?
Good luck with the other two!

Dubh73

I would like to know if any employers in my area are interested in taking an apprentice I still haven’t heard anything from employers, I have to find employment soon and really don’t want to start a position and leave so soon. It would be great if we knew how many employers in the area are considering an apprentice and how many applications there are. Vladi you still haven’t heard anything???

Vladi_

Dubh73 wrote: »

I would like to know if any employers in my area are interested in taking an apprentice I still haven’t heard anything from employers, I have to find employment soon and really don’t want to start a position and leave so soon. It would be great if we knew how many employers in the area are considering an apprentice and how many applications there are. Vladi you still haven’t heard anything???

That would be great to know... I know that they are taking 20 in my area but no idea how many applicants.
3 weeks ago I had my phone interview. I really thought it went great but never heard back from any employer.

Dubh73

Oh sorry to hear that it seems that we are in the same position now although I have yet to hear from an employer on any level. I would have thought city base would have a quicker turnaround.Garzard seems to be the only one that is a step closer. ☹️

Vladi_

Maybe I have the wrong impression about what they are looking for. I was pretty confident it would be rather easy to get it in a smaller city. Or at least get an interview.
I think you got me wrong before. Or I got you wrong. 😠I wasn't contacted by any employer yet.

Garzard

Vladi_ wrote: »

When did you apply? I got email that my application will be forwarded to employers 2 weeks ago and still nothing. Losing all hope already. What city did you apply for?
Good luck with the other two!

Got the same email a few weeks ago asking if I'd received any offers yet; if not they'd resend my application among Batch 3. They did so but only one firm has come back with an interview - thought a few more would. Would be awfully disappointing to get no offers as I've worked hard on these interviews and I had to take days off work to attend them.

Garzard

While I was on my holidays actually the second firm I interviewed with emailed and said although they wouldn't be offering me a spot in their audit section, they said I presented well enough that they'd pass on my CV & application to their section that deals with insolvency / advisory / restructuring as there was apparently a position open there. They emailed back the following week that the manager of this section had changed their mind and unfortunately wouldn't be taking anyone. I felt a bit cheated there to be honest.

Vladi_

I get you, I'd feel the same. Though I feel bad enough already because no one rang me and I really feel like this is something made for me and exactly what I want.
I hope it will end good for all 3 of us.

Garzard

Because of how long the process takes with apprenticeships, rejection causes more disappointment to people. I was optimistic about getting an offer in June because I had a good momentum going with passing the phone interview and then getting final approval the day after.

Vladi_

Garzard wrote: »

Because of how long the process takes with apprenticeships, rejection causes more disappointment to people. I was optimistic about getting an offer in June because I had a good momentum going with passing the phone interview and then getting final approval the day after.

Exactly the same here! It was going so good and quick and now it has just stopped. I was hoping that smaller cities will have less candidates than Dublin but it seems that that's not the case.

Vladi_

Garzard wrote: »

Because of how long the process takes with apprenticeships, rejection causes more disappointment to people. I was optimistic about getting an offer in June because I had a good momentum going with passing the phone interview and then getting final approval the day after.

Exactly the same here! It was going so good and quick and now it has just stopped. I was hoping that smaller cities will have less candidates than Dublin but it seems that that's not the case.

Dubh73

Isn’t it strange how it’s the same for all of us although Garzard you did get a step closer and I can fully appreciate how gutted you must be feeling. I thought at least we would know if our name was sent to x any of people. I am in the Kilkenny Waterford area where are both of you? How did you find out there were 20 positions around you Vladi?

Vladi_

Yea, very frustrating. Waterford. I've found an article in some news paper saying that it's 20 people in Waterford.

Vladi_

Maybe we've applied too late and most of the positions are gone already.

Dubh73

Would be nice to know if that is true! I am hopefully Kilkenny first and then Waterford would be great to see you at college Vladi as you can imagine when I live in Kilkenny and will be on apprentice money I am hoping not to have to travel daily 😊 where are you hoping for Garzard?

Vladi_

That would be amazing.
I live in Dublin atm and I'm desperate to move to Waterford and this would be a perfect chance to move without having to be jobless for god knows how long and sort out my career and education at the same time.

Garzard

As I'm a Dubliner, I applied locally Your point Vlad about all the positions being filled; I wondered this myself but AFAIK the interviews weren't meant to start until May which is still fairly recent. I'm open to correction though on that! Any of you know when the applications were first opened? Also during a phone call with a woman from one of the firms recently, she commented that quite a number of people she'd already contacted for an interview were no longer pursuing their applications / weren't interested or weren't replying either way - a manager in another firm also confirmed this during another interview.

Vladi_

Applications were open in February. I don't know when did interviews start but hard to believe that people were waiting for 3 months. But not impossible.
Well...that gives a tiny bit of hope. I don't know how did your employer interviews look like but I got the impression that they are looking for motivation and, even more, the ability and willingness to commit to the program which makes me think that a lot of people are not able to do. I've been asked twice in the phone interview do I realise that it's a 2 years program. Even though I said that myself already. 😂 Also I guess that not many people are willing or able to work for minimum wage for 2 years and people straight after school don't really know what they want.
That's just me trying to make myself be positive because I really want it and really don't see myself getting it any more. 😂

Garzard

On my Facebook page there's still the ad for the apprenticeship ''Applications now open'' I still haven't heard anything back from those interviews. I'm only in my early 20's but I've done possibly 40-50 job interviews in my life and I've still never gotten used to the whole thing of never hearing back or even going through an excellent, flawless interview and still being rejected for the job. I'm sure everyone's experienced this and they're two nasty facts about job hunting.

Vladi_

I'm still seeing the ad on Facebook every day too.
I'm still relatively new to Ireland (2,5 years) and job interviews as they basically don't exist in my native country. 😂 But this one is the most frustrating so far because I want it so bad.
Let's keep each other updated with any news we get and good luck to us!

Dubh73

i have foolishly put off looking for employment as I thought the process would move faster and I would be leaving any job I did find. I have worked here all my life and have been unemployed for the first time ever since February. There seems to be a new trend in the job sector of recruitment companies advertising jobs just to fill their databases with people ie they have not been asked to recruit on behalf of the company and also no follow up with feedback, in fact the process has lost a lot of the professionalism it is looking from employees

Vladi_

Oh yeah, I gave up on recruitment agencies long time ago. I never ever got any feedback or reply from them and I've applied to so many. But starting from scratch is a different story because my experience from Croatia is not relevant at all here.

Dubh73

I have a friend that is far more qualified than the job she is doing but same situation as you it’s veey disheartening. Also here they don’t seem to appreciate transferable skills like the UK do, jobs are very specific industry like for like.

Dubh73

Guys just thinking when does college start? If it isn’t until end of sept does that mean a future employer wouldn’t take us on until then???

Garzard

Dubh73 wrote: »

Guys just thinking when does college start? If it isn’t until end of sept does that mean a future employer wouldn’t take us on until then???

All my interviewers gave me a figure of mid-late September although it says somewhere in the AT Apprenticeship site that if we don't receive any offers by the end of August then we've failed to make it into the programme. Apparently no decision has been reached as to what day of the week will be the study day - was discussing this with some of my interviewers and it'll be either Monday or Friday. They all said Friday carries the most risk with regard to students attending.

Garzard

Would be interested to know how many applied to this - a former colleague of mine told me it was over 3,000(?) but apprenticeships do tend to attract a ridiculous number of applications for so few places.

Vladi_

I've got an email today asking me if I want my application to be resent with batch 4 on 12.07. 3000! Wow! All hope is gone now, haha.

Dubh73

Just got an email asking if I had been contacted by any employers. It seems I was batch 3, I have requested to be submitted again with batch 4 :-(

Dubh73

Vladi 12.07.3000 ah well I didn’t get a year I just got July 12th :-) looking very doubtful unless those selected do not decide to go through.

Vladi_

No, Garzard said that 3000 applied. :O

Just seen a comment on their ad on Facebook from a girl who had phone interview in March and still didn't get any interviews. I wish I only knew how this system even works.

Dubh73

3000!! Just see Garzards message now that’s depressing especially when you know for a fact most of them don’t really want to do it or will see the 2yrs on min wage. Better start job hunt

Vladi_

I have a job but no chance for progress there. And no decent money in retail. I was considering taking the accounting course but is there a point when I won't have any experience after?

Dubh73

Hi Vladi

Are you at the entry level in retail? I was an area manager in retail for the last two years worse industry I ever came across. The work demanded for the salary is unreal!! I do honestly think you need experience with ATI which is why the apprenticeship appeals to me so much. Any change of becoming retail manager in another store

Vladi_

I'm a cinema manager. Cinema is kind of a specific industry and not doing very good atm and has many different areas and loads of responsibility. The pay is ridiculous. And my cinema is not a part of any big chain so the only progress I can make is if the general manager leaves and she's only new. Also I'm sick of crazy rosters, working all bank holidays, no weekends and coming home at 1am. Too old for that. Rant over.

Garzard

Got the same email today lads. I requested my application be resent also, as I've still heard nothing from the two firms I last interviewed with. I'm staying optimistic and hoping they just haven't selected anyone yet or any other logical reason, but it's getting extremely frustrating. I'd love to contact them and ask for a simple Yes / No answer but this is highly frowned upon and would probably destroy any chance of receiving an offer. Chasing companies up would reek of impatience / desperation.

Dubh73

Sorry to hear that I thought you may have gotten through. Were you submitted at stage 3 also or sooner? Vladi pm sent

Dubh73

Sorry to hear that I thought you may have gotten through. Were you submitted at stage 3 also or sooner? Vladi pm sent

Garzard

Finally heard back from one of the companies I was waiting on - despite the excellent interview they're not offering a position. Absolutely fuming.

Dubh73

Garzard wrote: »

Finally heard back from one of the companies I was waiting on - despite the excellent interview they're not offering a position. Absolutely fuming.

Oh Gosh serious!!!! No wonder you are fuming such a waste of time. For a professional body it is acting in the most unprofessional way, months and months of the unknown making it impossible to plan. There isn’t any need for employers to drag it out they either know they are interested or they are not.

Garzard

Dubh73 wrote: »

Oh Gosh serious!!!! No wonder you are fuming such a waste of time. For a professional body it is acting in the most unprofessional way, months and months of the unknown making it impossible to plan. There isn’t any need for employers to drag it out they either know they are interested or they are not.

Very disappointed and feel robbed if I'm honest. I'm not sure it's fair to call it unprofessional - it just unfortunately boils down to the decision of an external HR generally, no matter how well the interview goes so it's out of the hands of the actual partners / managers you interview with. It's never wise to get your hopes up but I really felt by far this one seemed to have the most potential - 4 apprenticeship positions were open and it was by far the best interview out of the lot, was confident I had a 70 -80% chance of success in getting this one. The company I interviewed with the following week on the other hand only had 1 position open they said and more candidates would be interviewing for it, plus I didn't seem to click as well with these managers. I'm still waiting for a reply though so won't write it off entirely.

Dubh73

Vladi congrats on the match tonight :-)

Dubh73

Vladi congrats on the match tonight :-)

Vladi_

Dubh73 wrote: »

Vladi congrats on the match tonight :-)

Haha! Thank you! Hope you'd be able to say the same tonight.

Vladi_

Garzard wrote: »

Dubh73 wrote: »

Oh Gosh serious!!!! No wonder you are fuming such a waste of time. For a professional body it is acting in the most unprofessional way, months and months of the unknown making it impossible to plan. There isn’t any need for employers to drag it out they either know they are interested or they are not.

Very disappointed and feel robbed if I'm honest. I'm not sure it's fair to call it unprofessional - it just unfortunately boils down to the decision of an external HR generally, no matter how well the interview goes so it's out of the hands of the actual partners / managers you interview with. It's never wise to get your hopes up but I really felt by far this one seemed to have the most potential - 4 apprenticeship positions were open and it was by far the best interview out of the lot, was confident I had a 70 -80% chance of success in getting this one. The company I interviewed with the following week on the other hand only had 1 position open they said and more candidates would be interviewing for it, plus I didn't seem to click as well with these managers. I'm still waiting for a reply though so won't write it off entirely.

Sorry to hear that. Sounds awful.

Vladi_

Any news guys?

Cov

I am in the same boat as you guys. Still no word, my application was re-sent two weeks ago.

I don't know how accurate any of the following information is as I don't know the guy who told me (I just met him in a bar in Dublin), and I never asked him what firm he worked for, but I spoke with someone who said he works with an accounting firm and I mentioned the apprenticeship, and he had some very disheartening things to say about nepotism going on as part of it. At least where he works. He told me two years ago his firm hired a client's niece, and one of the board member's relatives - both had applied for the apprenticeship. He was not entirely sure they were hired on as apprentices, but he was 90 percent sure. He said both left after about a year because they were not prepared for the schoolwork. This guy was very drunk mind you, so he might have just been screwing with me.

I hope its not true, but that mixed with the 3000 applicants figure mentioned above (if that is also accurate) has pretty much blown my confidence in even getting called for an interview. It's a shame, I know I am absolutely perfect for it even though I am not usual college age.