Salaries?

Salaries?

Didn't find your answer?

So like when does the pay start to increase? , if ever?

I feel like I am on a conveyor belt here, in that every one of my peers as PQ accountants finalist graduates who are 1-2 exams from finishing and even some who have gotten their ACCA , with 2-3 years experience is scratching out an existance on about 13-15K. My FCCA mate was on 22K.

The class size I graduated with was 28 there are 13 of us left , 11 of the class thought sack this and went on to go do something else which they get paid more. 3 vanished completely

In that all of us have huge debts, all of us never have any money at all due to the above and alot of us are starting to think the grass is greener and are all teetering on the edge of career abandonment and finding something else to do, kind of pretty disheartening to learn than the secretaries and cleaners get paid more than the accounts staff.

Any thoughts?.
John Doe

Replies (10)

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By User deleted
09th Apr 2008 11:52

keep at it
The best advice is to keep at it and keep your head held high.

My last employer was similar to yours, they would constantly put me and other staff down in front of other staff for errors that were to be frank trivial and immaterial such as spelling mistakes! they would constantly tell you were not good enough

Yet when there was an urgent job to do or something important to do it would land on my desk!

I hated working for that firm, there attitude was we are the bosses, and we'll find fault with everything just to make the point that we know best.

when i qualified with that firm, the attitude towards me changed in an instant, suddenly i was regarded as knowing what i was doing! it was unbeliveble and they really couldnt understand why i couldnt wait to get ou the door.

my point is that you will know in yourself how good you really are and will be abl to judge by the tasks your given.

its just a matter of sticking it out to qualify and keep your head up in adverse situations, you'll get more respect that way than moaning about it.

once you qualify your options will be wide open. and remember there are employers out there who are nice people and will treat you right - but you have to put in the effort and work right for them in return

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By amarshah69
09th Apr 2008 12:44

22K
An FCCA on 22K - he must have been really poor at his job, to put up with somthing as meagre as 22K in this day & age.

*Swiss* your firm sounds terribly like my old firm ....

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By User deleted
10th Apr 2008 08:40

Keep looking and learning
As a new qualified working for one of the then top 10 in 1990 I was on 20K but that came with long hours and lots of responsibiliy.

Left to set up my own small practice to accommadate having children.

I now have a very good bookkeeper working for me earnign about £13k.

Remember, in five year time she will still be earning £13k plus inflation where as you should be earnign much more.

Now earning good money for the hours I work I work hard and don't complain. Janaury is 6am to 8pm everyday, it goes with the job.

My staff know that no one is ill in Janaury etc.

You will get a boss who appreciates you eventually. He will then pay the going rate for the job.

Make the most of the experience you are being offered. It all comes in very useful.

However as other people have pointed out the qualification only gets you so far, experience really matters.

Most of us can honestly say that our clients never ask our qualifications, they stay because we provide a good service, they come through reputation.

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By AnonymousUser
07th Apr 2008 22:15

Thanks Steve I shall take that under advisement...

Here is a little history for you guys though as to why I left those companies.

I moved companies 1st time because it was my first job and I received no training , the boss would come in , hand me a few carrier bags full of documents and told me that I would figure it out.

The next company was horrible , and it was a wise decision to move from there .

There was a culture of bullying , humiliation and intimidation , I kept my head down and worked pretty hard , I was almost always triple booked on my work line I always had to bring work home and it caused insomnia and I lost alot of weight and all my friends told me I looked ill. Experience was also tightly controlled so that nobody could get all the STR (at the time) requirements, and thus were trapped in the company , I felt myself being rail roaded into charities.I went in when ill and injured.

Added to this you would often see colleagues in tears after being torn apart by the bosses purposely done in meetings to maximise the humiliation, that became REALLY hard to ignore.

A like it or leave attitude, and came to a head when they were losing 4 PQs a week for 5 months admin staff had a 100% turn over each month.

My FCCA mate worked there for 7 years he was THE most important person in the company he trained staff , did the company management accounts , did the company accounts , did most audits never took his lunch and never left before 7pm. A promotion was more work no extra pay.

The big trigger was when 9 finalist PQs left on the same day.

So the company replaced everybody with school leavers and the only people left behind are those who think they are too old to jump to other companies not having been to interviews for years. And have had their confidence so sapped that they are ineffect afraid to leave, "

My first boss after a lengthy chat convinced me to leave, to boot they gave me a bad reference. Which was blantantly untrue , my current bosses saw this and hauled me over hot coals for this.

TBH I could have sued them for it , but as said I got the job anyway and suing employers = bad career wise.

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By AnonymousUser
07th Apr 2008 14:29

I will try to be constructive!
I was involved with graduate recruitment a few years back and looking at the adverts it doesn't seem to have changed much so here goes:

I would say the starting salary in the south east would be about £14-£18k provided you are lucky enough to get a relevant position. Fewer grads can expect this nowadays.

If you are good at what you do then this might move on to circa £20k after 3 years. If you aren't then you won't have moved much on salary. Few employers waste pay increases on trainee staff who are not developing as they will want to encourage them to try harder (or move on).

After 5 years and you have continue to develop this might be £25k. If you haven't then it will still be £21/22k which is the sort of salary level that many accountants are stuck in.

The next five years is key as you should be looking at your first management position but only if you are one of the best. This should see you to £30k by the age of 30. After that it is down to luck and being in the right place but clearly accountants can be paid a lot of money. Far fewer actually reach this however but that is the same in every profession.

Against you is the number of job changes in a short period. Personally I wouldn't recruit someone with such a record and many others will feel the same. Should you change direction ... well only if you accept that every other job will be as hard to make progress. Any advice for you? Most successfull people I know have never had to ask for a payrise, have rarely moved jobs to achieve one, never get paid overtime and most importantly are very very positive people.

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By AnonymousUser
07th Apr 2008 13:15

to follow up
I may look a bit of a fool here, but I never expected 30-40K fresh from university, I expected a lot less for a couple of years , now with 3 years experience and having voted with my feet twice I’m still not particularly well paid for my trouble. (which isn’t too bad compared to some people I know who work in the big 4 who do 6am 9pm and only get paid for 9-5).

I stopped and had a bit of a review, and required some further external input as to what potential salaries are in the future.

Anecdotally it was always it’ll increase once you progress a bit more sometime tomorrow, which is something I keep hearing, it just seems tomorrow never comes I get promised ok more when you pass this exam , I pass it I get avoided by the bosses for a month or so. This is made much worse when you pay for it on your own dollar, and UK tax rules say no to claiming it back.

But I think I’m demoralised, in that in my last role I did work hard it took 3 people to replace me and I was awarded £11 increase on my salary for my efforts.

My FCCA bud who incidentally followed me it took 5 people to replace him. (I’m currently the replacement for 2 people).

I remember looking at jobs when I was a fresh grad (who had 2 summers of work experience) and many jobs demanded 2-3 years experience and paid a fair bit better, now that I’ve gotten to this point the goal posts seem to have moved, so forgive me for being a fair bit sceptical when the work harder for a few more years as what exactly prevents the goal posts being moved yet again?.


But as said I'm just reviewing my options,

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By User deleted
07th Apr 2008 10:57

Don't rest of your qualifications
As someone who until recently was working in industry and had responsibility for finance teams, I can tell you that qualifications in day to day work were meaningless to me when giving payrises.

The only time I looked at people's qualifications was when as I was hiring and then I looked more at their work experience. What counts to a manager is how well you do your job, how well you get on with your team (professionally not drinking down the pub) and how proactive you are.

I am not sure where you are based. However, I took my first graduate role in London and started at £17.5k. The reason why I was able to get this good role, was not due to a fantastic degree (though mine was ok) but due to having had a sandwich year in my degree where I worked and received brilliant experience, and having worked in a national company at home in their accounts department in holidays for several years. I quickly passed my exams in two years and was able to double my salary and within a few more years doubled the salary again. This was due to continually being passionate about my work, working hard, and changing companies when I was ready for some new experience.

Don't moan, go into your office, show your dedication and passion, and if it isn't noticed point it out to your boss, if still not recognised change job. Life is what YOU make it.

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By User deleted
07th Apr 2008 10:22

Right?
What is it with graduates that they think they have a right to a living?

Life is hard, you get back what you put in, etc..

Don't want to bore you too much, but I started on £2k p/a in the 80's. When I qualified (in industry) as CIMA, with 10 years experience, I was on £13k. Six years and two promotions later, I was on a £60k package.

You see, it's not just the qualifications, but the experience.

Oh, and the big bucks tend to be in industry.

ps
James, at least the OP didn't put i instead of I.

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By AnonymousUser
07th Apr 2008 09:12

No different to any other career I'm afraid ..
unless you are in the top 5% then just passing exams will equate to diddly squat on the pay front. To get paid more you will need to be promoted and progress. To progress you will have to work hard and be better than your peer group.

I'm sorry they didn't explain that to you at the start as I think you might have been mislead. Perhaps you should find someone to complain to .............

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By User deleted
06th Apr 2008 19:43

It's not very well paid
unless you get on.


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