What route into accountancy would you recommend?

What route into accountancy would you recommend?

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Hi,

I am a graduate in Philosophy with Spanish. I am currently working in admin for the NHS and am looking to move into accountancy.

I understand there are multiple route you can take, so I was wondering which one you would recommend?

I would ideally like to work in a small to medium practice in Kent or be freelance.

I was also wondering if anybody on here or has worked with someone who has gone into accountancy with a philosophy/Spanish degree could tell me what route they took and how they found the exams?

Many thanks,
Chris

Replies (16)

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By bygwyg
29th May 2015 10:56

Accountancy Routes

I suggest you trawl the accounting bodies' web sites; they're usually a good start.

Having a non-relevant degree is not unusual, nor is moving into accountancy from a non-relevant area. The most peculiar I ever met was a zoologist who became a VAT inspector who then decided to find out how the numbers were recorded and reported.

Dual languages are always useful in any profession. Not so sure about being a philosophical accountant ;-)

Good luck

Andy MSc FCCA

PS: my one's in computing.

 

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By hiu612
29th May 2015 11:16

Sposoring employer

find a good employer willing to pay for the study and support you through it. you'll need relevant work experience in order to achieve any of the qualifications, and there's a certain merit to learning the exam answer at college whilst experiencing the real life application in a work environment. Investors in People accreditation might be a good indicator for prospective employers.

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By Brend201
29th May 2015 11:27

You are obviously quite smart.  That's a good start.  However, your academic background appears to have had limited involvement in numeric topics.  If that is because of lack of aptitude or lack of interest, you should think carefully about moving into accountancy.  At the risk of generalising, I have noticed that people from arts/social/legal degree backgrounds have tended to have more difficulty passing accounting exams than people with more numeric degrees.  

Having said that, you could train as an accounting technician and get experience and thus take a slower route to a full accounting qualification or you could sign up with the ACCA or CIMA or similar.  

If you are smart enough and focus on your exams, you will succeed. Good luck.

 

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By bilajio
29th May 2015 11:35

options...

Depending on your degree classification you could well enter through the graduate route withone of the 'Big 4'

I know of someone recently who got accepted on the grad scheme with a french/arabic degree. One of my old ACCA tutors started her accountancy career with a degree in music.

I self studied ACCA to begin with and then got onto a grad scheme in Industry and haven't looked back

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By majabl
29th May 2015 11:50

I have a BA in philosophy and came to accountancy through a Big-4 graduate programme. What probably helped me a lot given my totally non-relevant degree studies were that I had quite a lot of semi-relevant work experience built up during my degree (temping at a major UK financial institution for the best part of a year through holidays etc.) and that I had and was able to demonstrate a general interest in business and economics. I don't actually remember having to explain what transferrable skills I had acquired from my degree studies, but I did have to attend an assessment centre so perhaps it was a case of showing rather than telling.

At risk of setting the cat amongst the pigeons, I find accountancy much, much easier than I did philosophy. When studying for my CA it was more about the volume of what needed to be learnt than the conceptual difficulty of the subject matter or anything like that. I also found that I needed to readjust to exams and exam technique because my degree was assessed almost entirely by essay.

Good luck!

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By lme
29th May 2015 12:12

Statistically non accountants do better at accountancy exams!

Or at least, that was the case when I did them. I have a psychology degree and "A" in "O" level maths (GSCE level!), though I found maths A level really hard. I found the ACA exams really hard but passed them all first time and even got a prize. Have a look at the ICAEW website for routes into ACA.

 

GOOD LUCK! ACA is a great qualification and will be well worth the effort.

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By Maslins
29th May 2015 13:44

My tuppence, send off carefully drafted cover letters together with your CV to all local firms that are bigger than sole practitioners (by all means go for the sole practitioners as well...but many will not want to recruit however amazing you are).

Unfortunately I think getting your first foot on the ladder will be the hardest step, certainly was for me.

I don't see freelancing as a realistic option for you at this stage.  Presumably at the moment you have no accounting experience?

If your letter stands out and it hits the doormat of a suitable firm at the right time, you're probably looking for an ACCA or ACA training contract, 3 years.  Starting salary probably £10-15k, but should go up fairly swiftly as you pass exams and prove your worth.

Good luck.

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By neileg
29th May 2015 14:09

Yup

I agree with Maslins. Training in practice gives you an excellent introduction to different business types and real world accounting. The experience may be different in a large firm than a small firm but the experience is all relevant. This tends to point to ACCA or ACA qualification. Either of these will open most doors in the accountancy world.

If you are interested in working in the public sector you could look for a place in the NHS or local government and do the CIPFA exams. However this experience is harder to translate into the private sector or private practice.

The CIMA qualification is biased towards an industrial or commercial environment though there are many CIMA members in private practice.

Your first task is to finding the training place. Although it was nearly 40 years ago, I found mine by writing to every practice within a reasonable commute from home out of Yellow Pages.

 

Good luck!

 

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By ARP99
29th May 2015 14:45

Neil articulates what I was going to say better than I would have above. 

Also, whilst you can study whilst working in industry (i.e as part of the accounts department at a business) IMO there is no substitute for the breadth of experience you will get from working in practice. Practice will also be more understanding of the demands of study and exams.

(That said I also think you learn a lot when you are in industry, I just think it's easier to go Practice -> Industry than the other direction).

That you would like to work for a small practice suggests you might not enjoy the Big4 experience (I may well be wrong) but as noted above smaller practitioners struggle to support training, so you are probably better off aiming for a mid-sized practice (by which I mean the number 5 sized accountant down to around the 75th or so).

 

Freelancing is a more than reasonable long-term plan, but I wouldn't give work to an unqualified sole practitioner. Plus you will build a network of local lawyers and bankers etc whilst working in practice to that might enable you to freelance in future. Doing it from the start would be extremely difficult.

 

Good luck with whatever you choose.

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Out of my mind
By runningmate
29th May 2015 14:59

Accountancy v Philosophy

In accountancy exams there is a correct answer & every other answer is a wrong answer (although you may get some marks for it).  I doubt that was the case in your degree studies!

But I would give serious thought to accountancy within the NHS.  Not what you have in mind at present - but give it some thought.  You are likely to find the money is better too.

RM

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James Reeves
By James Reeves
29th May 2015 15:02

Philosophy with Spanish

It can't help thinking that a graduate in Philosophy with Spanish would thrive in practice.

The philosophy will help with conundrums like:

If a 64-8 is sent to HMRC, but nothing is heard of it ever again, did it ever actually exist?If a tax is called something else, such as NIC, is it still a tax?If a PITA client is poached by another local firm, do you have an ethical obligation to warn your competitor what they are letting themselves in for, or is that just karma.

The Spanish will also be handy when dealing with HMRC. There is no real english-language equivalent of mañana.

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By Chrisr24
29th May 2015 23:00

Thank you
Hi all,

Thank you for your advice, I think, based on the advice given, I will look for a sponsoring employer and gain a qualification through ACA, CIMA or ACCA and hopefully build up good experience on the way!

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By Chrissy-B
31st May 2015 07:46

AAT

Hi Chrisr24

My degree was in health psychology.  I don't really think it matters what your degree is in, but it does give you a good sense of studying and working hard.  I worked full time whilst also studying part time for the AAT, it is not too expensive even if you have to pay it yourself.  It will give you a good understanding and you will also know quite quickly if accounting is something you are really interested in. The exams started off quite easy and were all computerised (level 2 and 3) but did get harder at level 4 (with a project to be prepared as well). 

If you then want to go further after the AAT, you can use work from the AAT to count towards a higher qualification (AAT goes up to level 4 at college which is the equivalent to the first year of a degree).  Depending on what you then want to do with your qualification, you may not feel the need to go any higher than the AAT.

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By dmmarler
31st May 2015 11:04

Begin with the end in mind

I do not understand your reasoning for going into practice - do you really want to do audit?  This is what the ICAEW and ACCA training involves.  Furthermore audit is a reducing market as governments seem to think it is no longer needed.   Practice tends to deal with small businesses who need a lot of hand-holding even for the basics of business management.  Only in larger practice firms are language skills useful.

Work out why you want to do practice work - and perhaps get a week's work experience in a practice to help you understand how it feels. 

Think about CIMA: it is a direct entry qualification - you do not need to find a "sponsor".  You can work and study at the same time, even in an NHS role.  (Not that long ago there were more CIMA qualifieds working in the NHS than CIPFA.) You can buy your own CIMA training materials and study in your own time - just make sure your employer gives you time off for the exams themselves.  You can get lots of experience of different organisations that way. You could find an employer who has a CIMA training scheme (there are some in the NHS) - probably a very large corporate which could use your language skills - but it does depend on there being one in your area or you being flexible about location. 

There are CIMA members in practice as well as ICAEW/ACCA/AAT, so you are not closing the door on practice if you take the CIMA route.

A very senior partner of a big 4 accounting firm told me I would be bored to tears going through ICAEW training.  (I had studied business in French, etc., and already had a wide range of experience.)   I suspect you could be similarly frustrated. 

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By ecmcelhi
01st Jun 2015 09:39

Practice might be best

Obtaining your qualification through a good accountancy practice might be 'easier' as ICAI, ICAEW, ACCA will probably offer more guidance and tuition. CIMA really leave you to your own devices and its up to you to organise your study through private colleges. Generally time off to study in industry is non-existant - you take it out of your annual leave. Also heard there was a bit of a fiasco with CIMA's last exam sittings. Students who have 'failed' might actually have passed their P3 & F3 exams.

You can always move into industry or the public sector afterwards.

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By NHGlos
01st Jun 2015 10:17

Route

I qualified in industry (CIMA), have had colleagues from practice and industry backgrounds and also worked as a tutor for one of the major tuition providers for a couple of years. What I learnt from this is that that there are pros and cons for any route, unfortunately it isn't always possible to pick your ideal route.

Practice opportunities tend to offer better study/training support in terms of finances, time off and structure, although due to circumstances smaller practices may not be as generous. Study and training support in industry varies from none to only financial support for attendance or distance learning courses (no time off) through to full funding for courses, exam and registration feed and time off – maybe even travel fees. Some employers will terminate employment if progress isn’t made through the exams at an appropriate pace (this tends to be the larger practices) and many employers have a policy requiring the trainee to refund any financial support if they were to leave prematurely – all of this is usually spelt out before an offer is made.

As has been mentioned, moving from practice to industry tends to be “easier” than industry to practice – it just seems down to employer preference and skills transfer. That’s not saying that industry to practice is impossible, it just seems to be a case of swimming against the tide. A lot of the practices in my area expect to take on trainees on a regular basis, but that might not be every year (depends on the size of the practice) and some practices are quite public about their recruitment whereas others rely on speculative enquiries. Industry roles tend to be through either specific recruitment (school lever or graduate) or by working for the business already and moving into finance and accounts when the opportunity presents itself. Identify firms and businesses you would be interested in working for and make contact, even if it’s just to find out who/how/when to get in touch. Agencies are a good place once you have progressed a few steps on the ladder, but don’t get much in the way of trainee positions. You can’t always be picky with the first role, but one thing that has always provided motivation for me is the working environment and the industry/sector/product/service the business is in .

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