AIBU to retrain as an accountant at 28 after setbacks?

Don't shoot the messenger 💐

How could she be replaced with Claude AI?! They can’t do what a finance assistant etc does.

as others have said, it’s not as vulnerable as people seem to think. But junior level roles have already been heavily automated.

thing is op, what you’re really asking about is the change of job- and yes you have nothing to lose. If you are a top performer and energetic / eager you will be on their list of people to sponsor. But it is competitive, getting an entry level job an qualifying as an accountant are really two different things.

Start off with an entry level accounts assistant job and complete the AAT. Once you've done that you can decide if it's something you want to pursue. The accountancy exams are difficult and take over your life for a few years, so you need to be really sure it's for you.

Most employers will pay for your exams and give you study leave, in return for staying with that employer for between 1 and 3 years afterwards. If you change jobs in that time period you'll probably have to repay your employer for the course / exam fees they invested in you.

You're right though, you're young and you've got nothing to lose. Might as well. If you don't enjoy it you will have a solid basis of office/ finance skills to build on and branch out into adjacent fields.

Yes it’s def worth doing. It’s going to be difficult to even get the entry level job though. They most likely
still want experience for a finance administrator. You may need to look for temp work or something that can get you some experience, even
office work if you can’t get in to finance right away.

Some people start by doing the aat qualification and then go on to do professional exams. Could you possibly fund yourself through the aat and then hopefully get a job where your employer can sponsor you for the rest.
I’m acca qualified and I did a degree part time and then my professional exams but it took a long time doing it that way. 4 1/2 yrs for my degree and then 2hrs for the professional exams. My employer paid for it all though. If funding it all yourself it is expensive l, especially if you want to pay for courses to help with the exams.

My friend was training to be an accountant. She had passed a few exams but not fully qualified. Anyway, last week she was replaced by Claude AI.

Just do your research on the industry and the future before deciding 💐

I am guessing it’s a career that’s very vulnerable to AI, which does matter at your age.

You can self-study AAT easily and get an entry-level job and then work up. Chartered accountant qualifications are very hard work and jobs with training can be competetitive, but it's definitely worth trying.

Public sector accountancy is very interesting - I used to work in a local authority finance team and really enjoyed it

Reasons not to: Month end, quarter end, tax year end, financial year end...

Doing the professional training is expensive and often done while working for a company because they sponsor you and give you leave. You could do the accounting technician training and look for an entry level job. Then if you like it follow the professional pathway. If you do that I would also build skills in Excel, Power BI, Power query, etc. as that can be as useful as the other qualifications.
You can train with a firm or in industry.
It's a great career and leads in so many directions, I would recommend it. I also think it's very overplayed how much AI will replace.
There's also the tax qualifications which are different, so you could look at that area too.

Are you sure you know what accountancy entails? A lot that used to be accountancy is now done with an accounting package, so fewer actual accountancy jobs.

It also isn't really maths based, it's more to knowing the rules and applying them; lots of law involvement.

You could get an accounts job, using Sage etc and see if you can get your employer to pay for you to do proper vocational qualifications.

have you seen any entry level jobs to apply for? It is unlikely to be guaranteed that they would sponsor you to train as an accountant so you would have to want go do the job regardless imo, and hope that they offer the opportunity

An accountancy qualification is massively expensive. Have you looked into the pathway?

it’s also vocational, you really should work in the area whilst you study.

its a great profession but not really something you just train in and get a job at the end