Hi Everyone,
I'm wondering if anyone has had the same/similar experience to me. Having qualified AAT in 1999 I took a break (dreaded divorce, no other reason!) before continuing with the higher level studies. Whilst I appreciate that during this time I probably made some terrible choices, albeit all via agencies, when it came to taking a new position, my level of experience is just not matching my qualification. 18 months ago I qualified ACCA with 9/10 first time passes (paid for myself and all time off unpaid) so I'm not afraid of hard work/perseverance/dedication etc. however; even now in my current job, I am just being completely ignored and this is a pattern that keeps repeating!! I just don't understand it! I am left to sit here all day from literally 9 in the morning until 5.30pm with NOTHING to do and I am unsurprisingly going nuts. I am registered with agencies but there is nothing out there I can compete with on a technical accounting basis for my level. Vicious circle springs to mind.
I have done all the researching/questioning etc I can ever do and have come to the conclusion - based on always getting along with everyone and being considered to be bubbly/competent/proactive - that I am just plain unlucky in getting the role I have always wanted to be exposed too. I have now decided that maybe, due to my ability to 'get on' with people at all levels of an organisation and my general 'business' exposure that I should think about re-training to encompass something like Lean Six Sigma or Risk Management to enable taking a consulting route? I do enjoy the governance/process/internal control side of things but without direct experience in this area am wondering if it would be unlikely that I could secure a position, although as things currently stand, I don't have much to lose (expect my sanity which is disappearing fast down a massive whirlpool of boredom).
Any suggestions/help/advice would be appreciated and please don't assume I am/have been difficult/crazy or doing something wrong as this has never been the case. I have never been disciplined nor never needed it and have never been involved in workplace conflicts! Sigh...I must be missing something though I guess.
Replies (9)
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HR...
Is the best place to start not a chat with your manager or HR?
It is hard to comment further without knowing more about your industry/location/experiance etc.
Just keep on interviewing, if that means a sideways step in a different business so be it and they should be progression built in to roles at most decent firms for "newly" qualified.
HR...
A downward move is generally a bad move but if you find the right role in the right company then that is an option too.
What was the response from your HR dept/line manager when it comes to new opportunities/role expansion?
not being funny but you are a qualified accountant presumably in a reasonably senior role and you are asking for people to give you work? Fair enough if you are numbers monkey sticking in purchase invoices, but not for a qualified.
When I worked in industry i made it my business to be valuable to the business. Go find some problems and solve 'em and show some value. I had about 1 weeks of "structured" work, eg reporting, staff management etc and the rest of the month was a blank for me to fill as I saw fit. No-one told me what to do, my boss used to make some suggestions now and again but I was expected to just get stuck in.
That might have been putting in better systems, beating up people wasting money on expenses or company credit cards, improving the budgeting/reporting information, reducing the cash cycle, 'helping' out line managers with their financial decisions (or making them for them as its known), putting the wind up the shop floor i you think they are upto something etc.
If you get stuck in and make yourself useful people will come to you for help.
No-one tells the FD what to do either, so if you want their job then you had better support them now even if they don't want you to.
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OK fair enough it was a bit of a long shot but I had visions of you sitting there scared to open the door and wondering why you didn't have anything to do, while your employer was wondering why you hid in your office all day sharpening your pencils....... however I would make it known to your bosses that you are not doing anything productive and ask if there is anything you can do for someone else just to help out. Failing that its always good just to do your staff's jobs once in a while too, you can dress it up as "teach me to cover for you in-case you are off sick" but it then allows you to see exactly what goes on which can then feed into development of the department. I found coming into an established set up I had not got a clue what some of them actually did, which makes managing them hard. Staff will of course hate this if you do it badly....