How do I move into Industry roles please? Too old for this entry?
I have been trying to crack this in one shot for a while. I feel like I have only got one shot. Nearly 33 and switched careers far too many times and I might have gone far too deep into depression and have just bounced back.
I have worked in IT support for some time and hated every minute of it. Bachelors in IT.
I worked in a business development role as a sales manager for three years and hated every minute of it. Masters in business management.
Now, I have worked in a small accountancy firm voluntarily and really liked preparing P/L accounts, bank reconciliation, bookkeeping in general, maintaining ledgers for our clients, dealing with HMRC (!), speaking to people about compliance and what not. Long story short, I have been offered MAAT full membership based on my practical experience in this finance role and my academic papers from ACCA part qualification. (three more professional papers to go!)
My question is, I don’t want to not complete ACCA and would really like to make something out of it. I would like to work in an industry role when I will be dealing mainly internal stakeholders. I realise I have heavy competition from younger work force who just don’t mind taking on AP silos or AR silos in this type of role and toil away for couple of years. Should I follow the same route?
Are there any other routes I can mull about? For example, sticking with a practice until becoming fully qualified and make the move into industry as an assistant management accountant or a junior financial controller or something?
Please give me some suggestions. I feel like I am too old from all this studying, volunteering and working full time for the past three years and always need three points of contact (!) to even stand upright! Sigh. ☹
Replies (14)
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Too old at 33? No way, Jose. You're not even half way into your working career.
I'd stick with working in practice, complete Acca and then review your options.
The salary might not be great now, but you also need to put a value on the experience you are receiving. I think there's a huge value in that.
With the qualificiation and some solid experience, the salary will naturally come.
I had a chat with few people in the industry working in AP and AR and they are basically doing bookkeeping on an international scale with SAP and see no way out of it.
I'd certainly be very wary of finance roles in very big companies. There's a lot of "division of labour" where you only see a tiny bit of 'the picture'.
I would say it's definitely best advice to stay put and get your qualification - more so if you already have a CV with lots of moves.
In my experience (which is very out of date) given the smaller accountancy firm experience you currently have, and the size of clients you likely currently work for, maybe a smaller industry role would fit best- say as number two or three in a company with 3-4 accounts staff.
Both my roles in industry (previously with a company with a chain of clothes shops) and currently with a property group came about because they were clients who approached me, it was not the slick world of larger accounting departments but it fitted with the experience I had up to the first offer back in 1990(2.5 years with a larger national CA practice then 2.5 years with a smaller CA practice)
Everyone is different but I certainly by then knew I did not want to be spare wheel no 10 in a 10-20 strong accounts team (had seen enough of them during the first 2.5 years of my career)
If auditing, what sort of size companies will you audit? Frankly if you are conducting small , virtually one man audits, mainly in house from client books say handed in and are not away on site evaluating systems/controls etc at larger clients, what real experience do you gain to step into a larger corporate world?
Unless you are actually really doing some systems analysis/evaluation etc what do you bring to the bigger employers in industry, what experience do you really have they want?
Started one career, hated it. Started second career, hated it. Started third career, love it, should I move?
I think you need to place a higher value on having found a job you like. Your salary will increase if you can stick at it, whether at the workplace you are now or doing the same role somewhere else once you get the qualification, don't be too hasty to move on to a role that is very different to what you're doing now and might prove to be a big step backwards in terms of job satisfaction.
Your anxiety is understandable but I think it's misplaced. People will tell you that you ought to be in your role by age X or Y is too old to switch to something new, but it's not true. There are no hard and fast rules, no required age for switching, and you have over 30 years left in the workforce. No employers are put off by someone with 'only' 30 years left to offer.
I think you're doing too much measuring up and agonising. As long as you keep going in the right direction you don't need to stress so much about the destination. Have a plan, have goals by all means but don't be so defeatist about the timescales you expect or want.
33 is young, you've found the area you want to work in and are most of the way to getting a good qualification that will help you find new opportunities within that area. Keep going where you are, clear the hurdles in front of you and then take a breath, see what's on the horizon and make a plan from there, but don't be a slave to it.