Is it Possible to Return To Accountancy After A Long Absence?

[WarmFunKindStrong]

WWYD

About 25 years ago I qualified as an accountant (ACCA) however due to a variety of reasons – marriage, children, moving around the country, being a carer for a terminally ill parent along with my partner working aboard for long periods of time – I “fell” into the NHS clinical Band 4 role, hospital based.
My home responsibilities are close to nil now, children have moved out; I am now in my late 50s.
I am finding my current NHS job exhausting/draining/unsatisfying. I am wondering whether it would be worth applying for my accountancy roles given my long absence.
Would I be even considered for employment? Given that there will be many candidates who are (younger) and have recent experience with current accounting principle and software.
I approached my accounting body for advice, their response was: first pay us £££’s, fill out lots (and lots!) of forms detailing what you’ve been doing in the intervening years, do some CPD hours. Once all of these steps have been completed your ACCA registration to be up to date. (My registration being up to date would entitle me to use the letters ACCA after my name). This is not a huge priority to my way of thinking… Presently I am entitled to list my accountancy qualifications (when I apply for jobs), but I make clear that my registration has lapsed.
Back when I qualified, computerisation was just starting to have an impact on the working environment, mainly via Excel spreadsheets and in house systems, I worked for a large multinational.
What I would like ideally is a financial accounting role (remote or hybrid would be blue sky dreaming!) perhaps ad hoc support around month/year end.
I don’t mind some studying but would want to be confident of being to secure employment.
Would employers be interested to employ someone like who has been out of industry for this length of time?
Is there anyone who can offer me any advice who has successfully returned to accountancy after such a long absence?
Is there anyone who can offer me advice on what accounting software packages I should initially focus on?
Would I be able to secure temp entry level roles, could that be a way back into accounting?
Is it worth exploring whether I should do accounting in a voluntary capacity before worrying about paid employ?

Any relevant advice please. Thanks in advance.

Hi there,

My personal experience at the moment is that its tough out there!

So I'm CIMA qualified. 10 years ago I worked as a management accountant/analyst for a very large, well known company in Canary Wharf.
I left when I had my children and took a "lesser" finance role in a local company - part time work, to fit around my children.

I then took a year out, and am now looking for work again. I see jobs that I think I would be perfect for - match all the criteria - skills and experience .. and I don't even get a response never mind an interview!

I guess I am being quite fussy :-)
I'm also ideally looking for remote - and a certain sector.
But I think remote jobs are highly in demand.

So ....... I think you'd have to start at a lower level than you might want .. get some recent experience on your CV - and then move up hopefully.
Temporary roles would be a good way to gain different experience.

Oh .. and also .. in just 10 years all the lingo has changed! Where as I was a "management accountant" .. the new term seems to be "Finance Business partner"

and lots of places now use "Power Bi" ... I'm looking in to possibly doing a course on that as that seems to pop up a lot in job descriptions.

Good luck!

@BunnyMum2000 My first reply, thank you! I hope you do find something suitable soon.

I would expect you would get a more junior role pretty easily. I had a partner at a major audit firm tell me today that there are literally no audit managers in the market to recruit, and as a result his firm had had to turn down over £1m wotlrth of new work. We have also had very few applicants for most qualified roles we advertise (public sector). I think with that long out it might be difficult to secure a qualified role, maybe try a part qualified role, and then you could move onwards and upwards from there.

I am an ACA and took a long career break when I had the DC. I was out of practice from 1998 to 2021. I did keep my hand in with bookkeeping and management accounting for most of that time and kept my CPD up to date.
I made the move back into practice in 2021. It has taken a while to find a good role to settle in though and I have found the technology a challenge. I would say I’m there now.

@Strathyre @Trufflethewufflethank you for your responses...I would imagine that even a junior role would be better paid than my current role.

I’d recommend bringing your excel skills up to date. No matter the ERP, you’ll get some sort of on the job training, but there’s no accounting job you’ll get without knowing Excel, and it has changed massively. Once you get that, then maybe Power BI, but baby steps!

consider an entry level job, AP or AR (though lots of those have been offshored) - or consider something finance adjacent, eg sales coordinator or commercial assistant which are mostly admin with some finance thrown in.

Would you consider refreshing your skills by working through something like CIMA or ACA certificate levels again, but without the formal exams? Look for something like an office manager role in a smaller business with a finance slant and take it from there.

Also, get onto Linked In (Facebook for the business world) to start to build your network.

I’d second the suggestion to get your Excel skills up to date.

You Tube is a good place to learn more Excel, I like this guy:

I returned to work 3 months ago as a CIMA accountant after a break of nearly 14 years. Although the pay is way less than I used to earn, it's still a good pay. Re skills, I really don't feel much has changed that is not easily picked up. Consolidation system just work a bit differently but finding it much easier than before as they are more user friendly. Emails/teams are so easy to pick up the updated features and I've found that systems work so much smoother than previously.

The hardest part was finding a company or rather manager that was prepared to show faith in you! I had one interview where it was very obvious that the manager didn't want to recruit a returner but HR were trying to encourage returners. Horrible interview and I wouldn't want to work for him anyway even though the HR people were lovely. On the other hand I had two really good interviews with managers who were really encouraging and weren't put off by my break. So it is tough but doable.

Yes new job titles and department titles and procedures/policies for everything!

Thought of NHS finance? Seeing as you know the NHS well. They often have management accounts assistant roles at your level and with a bit of a refresher you could go up the levels quite quickly.

Thank you! @HewasH20 @Medee @thewonderfulthingabouttigger @yumscrummy

Lots of great ideas and suggestions, special thanks for the link for Excel training @Medee

I will definitely look in NHS finance too@thewonderfulthingabouttigger

I will have to ask my daughters to help with LinkedIn.

Feeling a lot more positive. And very grateful

I agree that NHS finance is a great idea. Brush upon Excel & see if there are any short term positions where you could regain your experience & confidence.

@WarmFunKindStrong I have experience, so let me know if you want to PM at any point.

See if you can speak to some recruitment agencies. That may give u an idea of what level u cld expect to return to and rough salary.

I would expect that you would get another job no problem but it may be a role that doesn't require a qualified accountant. You may need to start off further down the ladder but I imagine within a year or two u cld start applying for higher up jobs.

I'd honestly go for it, a few years from now you could be earning very well.

Absolutely go for it. I second NHS finance entry points as a starter.

Thank you @HewasH20 @HoppingPavlova @shelbabab : I don't mind at all starting further down the finance ladder. I just feel ready for a change and a challenge.

Thank you all for giving me hope and encouragement. It is so very much needed after such a long time out of the profession.

@thewonderfulthingabouttigger , I will PM you, if you don't mind, thank you!

When I started looking to return, I applied for low level roles but still in finance, with no joy. One recruiter called me up and said that I would be very over qualified for the role (which I obviously knew).

I think that I am trying to say don't go for anything too junior. I really think it will be part luck and part finding the right recruiter.

Have you looked at women returners.com?

Allianz are very active at trying to recruit returners in a broad range of roles.

I'd go for a smaller firm rather than the big names. There is a dire shortage of staff at most levels and I think an open minded firm would snap you up.

I work for a mid size accountancy firm OP, although I'm not an accountant.

There's a huge shortage of accountancy professionals at the moment, and constant recruitment. There's also a lot of focus on diversity, so I don't think a career break in itself will be a bad thing. I'd expect you to find a junior role quite quickly, depending on where you're based. You'll need strong IT and excel skills though, so brush up on those. At my firm, the majority of rolls are hybrid (ie a mix of remote and office work).

Try Women Returners...there are always positions in- house...

Hello!

I'm currently an acca qualified accountant in a large company and tbh without recent skills / up to date CPD we'd probably not hire you for a junior accounting role.

However you'd be an ideal candidate for the roles around accounting, perhaps accounts payable, travel expense reconciliations, accounts receivable - and be able to transfer really quickly once your skills were a little more polished and up to date.

I'd personally recommend this pathway - they'd likely pay for you to attend cpd courses too!

Where are you based? We have a couple of part time (Well paid) recs open - which once trained could be fully remote

Goodluck

Accountants are leaving in droves and there’s a lack of graduates coming into accountancy - I’d say you’ll be fine getting a job!

Try local government. Assistant accountant roles would I'm sure take you and you'd move up quickly. Most jobs tend to be hybrid.