Accountancy

[weakestlink]

I am thinking of retraining as an accountant.

I am 28 with a 2:2 degree in Politics from a "Russell Group" university.

I got married shortly after graduation and had my first child 9 months later. Two more children have followed and I've been working part time in an admin/reception role since graduation. I've been there 7 years and I am getting bored!

I have enrolled on a basic accounting course and I really enjoy it. I am starting AAT level 2 in September. I would then try to get a training place or enroll myself onto Level 3 the following year if needs be.

I am wondering what sort of work / life balance I can expect from a career in accounting outside of a major city. We live in a rural area although there are offices for several "big" firms and many medium sized firms.

I hope at 28 I am not too late to embark on a new career...!

Well, let's start by saying 28 is most definitely not too late to retrain. Let's face it, you're probably going to be working for another 40 years, so definitely not past the point of no return!

I can't speak for the majority of accountants, but I can say that if work/life balance is a priority for you, there are ways to find it. Many public sector organisations employ accountants in local HR and finance departments. Salary might be below the average for accountancy, but working conditions should be good... Flexible working, pensions, union representation and all the benefits that go with that.

It depends on what kind of accountancy you want to do, if you want to be an auditor in a big practice then you are likely to be away more than if you are a management accountant for a local firm.

I retrained at 30 from social work to accountancy and am now a management accountant. At the moment I can finish work to collect my daughter from school every day but this is through massive amounts of juggling and the nature of the business I work in.

I would say accountancy practices (outside the big firms, from what I've heard) offer quite good work-life balance. They have to since a lot of their staff is women of child-bearing age who are ambitious enough to carry on working but want to take it easy for a couple of years when the kids are small. It's easier to accommodate that than give up on the fully trained individual.

The only month where I've experienced challenges with my daughter being ill etc is January. With the tax return deadline looming its difficult to find the opportunity to take time off.

Thanks for the positive input.

I think realistically my children will be 3,6 & 9 by the time I am qualified to even start work in the field as a trainee and as I have parental help at home and a school which offers good wrap around care I could make it work. I wouldn't expect to be able to collect the children every day - once a week would be nice. I can drop them at 8am so mornings are not an issue especially as my husband works shifts so is often at home until 12pm to take care of the sch run / domestic tasks.

Working in the evening wouldn't put me off either.

Quite excited about the future! Not so excited I have another 40 years until I can retire! !

Work/life balance very much depends on the company. I am an accountant working in what is often described as a 'hairy arsed' industry. For me work/life balance is non existent. Typically I work 11-12 hour days. Yesterday I left home before 7 and got home at 9.

It has been pretty tight in industry for a while. Money is tight and staffing levels are tight (hence long hours).

worry do you work in a big city / London and what kind of company do you work for?

Never to late to embark on a career change. I started the AAT at 34 after having my children, and have recently continued onto the ACCA, as I found some areas of accountancy are actually really interesting.

My one piece of advice would be if you haven't got any get some accounts experience. Having started the AAT with no previous experience of accounts I did struggle getting anyone to take me on in an accounts role. I ended up doing bookkeeping for a charity voluntarily and I stood as treasurer for the schools PTA just to get some experience.

Also you have to take into account part time work in accounts, especially where I live, is very hard to come by. I ended up taking a full time role temporarily to cover maternity leave. I'm still there two years later, juggling three children and applying for anything and everything part time that comes up.

Also join the AAT discussion forums, there are some great members on there that will be happy to give you advice to help get you started and practice the double entry bookkeeping. It still trips me up six years later. OpenTution is also great for free lectures. I don't know what the AAT ones are like as I have only recently discovered it but the ACCA ones are invaluable. Oh and GOOD LUCK.

Great tip re AAT forum - didn't know one existed so thanks for that!

Full time is not an issue for me by the time I am qualified full time will be what I am looking for.

Did you start on Level 2? I am currently doing level 1 introduction course but it doesn't cover double entry. I am also going to start A Level Accounting next week (home study) which I hope to complete before September as I currently only work very part-time so I can dedicate quite a few hours to it!

I am PTA secretary and a school governor but I could try to get elected as treasurer...

I'm an Acca qualified accountant working in practice. My official title is Audit Manager but in reality I'm a general practitioner. If work/life balance is important then chose your role very carefully. In my experience positions in industry tend to be more understanding, and if you can get a job working in finance for the local council you'll be laughing (round here anyway!)

My balance is non existent and I hate it, I drop my DDs off with their childminder at half 7 and I'm lucky to be back in time to see them before bedtime. January nearly kills me every year working 7 day weeks 15 hour days, and I'm in a rural location in the South West where I naively thought (prior to relocating from greater London) it would be all slow paced and lovely.

Clearly I'm projecting a bit (really bad day today!) but what I'm trying to say is look into all the hundreds of jobs that fall under the heading of 'accountancy' as some will be much better than others.

Good luck with your career change, I hope you find an interesting and rewarding job (and if you do can I have one too )

I'm a CIMA qualified accountant working in industry rather than practice. I work for a subsidiary of a large international company in a medium sized town.

I have more than 15 years PQE.

I absolutely second every word of AShowerOfBastards post except that I would say that industry can be no better than practice.

Started with Level 2. I studied distance learning for level 2 and 3 and enrolled on a day release for level 4 mostly due to having to have a study provider to do the project at that level. Have you enrolled at a college or are you a distance learner?

There is a wealth of information on the AAT website and will give you some indication of the various roles that you can do within accountancy as AShowerOfBastards has mentioned.

I am currently working in an accounts department within a local firm that supplies to the construction industry and am hoping to eventually get into management accountancy. Just need to convince my FD to start handing me more work over. He is very possessive of his work

I have enrolled at a college to do the AAT level 2 (and then 3 hopefully) which does mean it will take me the full year to complete each level but they offer childcare support which is worth a lot to me!
I am doing the A level in accountancy via distance learning though.
I was a bit worried my A-Levels are not very attractive to potential employers - French (A), German (B), General Studies (A) & AS Level Chemistry (C).
Back in the day GS was accepted as a "normal" A Level so when I applied to Uni I had "AAB" and got into a good uni / good degree scheme but I know now GS is not accepted. I'm not sure how that affects me really but another A level cannot hurt.

As you can guess from my NN I am an accountant. I work in practice (top 25 in the country) and my role us audit biased in a mixed general practice.

We have historically taken on people who are changing career, but it is less common than taking graduates.

I think you need to consider what kind of work you want to be doing. Do you want to work in industry or practice? Are you interested in bookkeeping, management accounts or auditing?

We generally recruit graduates to train under an ICAEW training contract, we sometimes take AAT studies (we have 2 in my office at the moment) who often then go on to study ACCA, but could go to ICAEW fast-track.

My employer is quite flexible, one colleague returned from maternity leave to 4 day weeks. I can get time out for school assemblies etc, but at the same time, if I'm busy I take work home to make deadlines.

Incidentally my DC are 3, 6 and 9.

I qualified in practice then.moved to.industry. My experience us that in practice, doing your timesheet, you are always very aware it is the partners money. Nothing is ever done quickly enough. However, it is a good training environment because that is their business model and they are good at it.

I worked far more hours in industry (on mat leave atm) but i love it, I feel part of a team and want to do the work. I would also make the point that it isn't all vital, i could just do 40 hours.

If you do Acca or Cima try to do it with proper training support, not just courses paid for but study leave and revision courses. Worth taking a lower salary for.

Accountancy jobs are always going to have deadlines which can destroy work life balance but they also tend to have bits that can be done at home. So it is easier for employers to be flexible if they want to be.

Another accountant here, I'm CIMA qualified and work in industry as a Group Management Acountant, my work life balance is great, I work 3 days but with loads of flexibility meaning I can do FT when I can get the child care - it all depends on what company you work for.

From everything I hear industry does tend to have the better work/life balance but it all depends on the company.

Really recommend CIMA as a course, it covers all sorts of skills not just accountancy but lots of management and presentation skills.

Good luck in your new career!

ACA, Big 4, audit for past 15 years and love it - work P/T and my firm is very accommodating when it comes to school stuff. I think you have to earn the flexibility to some extent by proving that you can deliver to deadlines etc, being prepared to work on a n/w day if there is no other option (eg client meetings) and I work (a lot) in the evenings after the DCs (8 & 9) have gone to bed. But I think my work-life balance is pretty good. Go for it - it's much much more than a numbers game, in fact the best bits as far as I'm concerned are not connected to double entry at all!

Yes it's audit that I am interested in I think. Although I think it would be better to get some actual experience first before committing. I am very interested in tax / wealth management but I fear this may not suit family life so well with the need to be constantly available to clients...(?)

Inititially at least I think I would work in practice.

Not put off yet so that's hopeful!

It helps that my current job is very basic and virtually NMW so I really have nothing to lose. If I was changing from a better position then the stakes would be higher. I just can't carry on for the next 40 years as I am! I feel I am wasting my education and not fulfilling my potential. I also want to have something else other than being a "mum".

Hi.

I work in finance for the nhs. My job title is business partner but that's really just a management accountant who focuses on long term strategic planning. You could easily do this and have a work life balance (i.e. I hardly hardly ever work weekends.) and I don think the pay is significantly lower then private sector industries. When I was looking at jobs I def preferred the lower pay but better work life balance of public sector finance over an accountancy firm.

You could apply for finance assistant jobs now and then a conpany would part fund your study. I'd avoid getting too qualified without experience as you'll find it hard to get a job.

I was accepted onto an ACA graduate programme at 31 with two kids. It's tough but not impossible to achieve balance at this stage. I suspect the kids will make it harder to progress in the long run, but I love it.

Yes I agree with not doing too much training on my own, I do the AAT Level 2 in Sept on my own simply because I will still have a 1yr old at home and it suits me to continue in my part time role and half day at college.
Once I've passed I will try and get a training position but if I can't find one locally (I can't move due to kids / husband etc) I would put myself through AAT Level 3 and try again after that.
I won't be too appealing to employers due to the 2:2 degree (I had salmonella during final exams - yuk!) and odd (irrelevant) A Levels. This makes me think the AAT qualifications may help show I am committed / capable etc.

I may be totally wrong though.

Badly what was your degree in and what did you do previously? (If you don't mind me asking!)
Do they ask how many children you have?

History, and I worked for a charity.

I have a five year old and a two year old. I was widowed about ten months after I started the programme, and my firm was very supportive during my partner's illness and after she died. I have a lot of family support and the kids live with their fathers half the time, otherwise I think it would have been impossible to keep up the necessary pace. But it is doable, especially if you have a partner who can take up some slack in busy times, and I think being a parent helps you to prioritise in a way that people who can work all night if needed haven't had to do.