career advice please - should I go into accountancy or teaching?

[olliebird]

I need to retrain - Anyone got any useful advice on my two career options.

1. Teaching - i could do a teacher training course in september (either primary or art secondary). I have 5 and 3 year old boys. Will I be able to cope with teaching and my own kids, everyone says teaching is such hard work, so stressfull etc. Is this exagerated or is it really true? Is anyone else managing to do this? Would I have any energy left for my own kids at the end of the day??

1. Accountancy - ive done a lot of bookeeping and am good at it, my accountant has offered me as much bookkeeping work as I want, to do from home. Would have to do proffessional acca exams from home and then I might be able to work 3/4 days per week and I imagine money would be quite good (true or false?). Are there part-time jobs in accountancy? Is it easy to work from home odd days when kids ill? Are the exams really hard? Any one else done this or doing this?? Not planning to be a highflyer, so would I be expected to do long hours in office?

Trying to make a decision - any advice would be much appreciated

ollie, havent had time to read the whole thread so apologies if i've missed detail or repeat something already said, but IMHO, if you have to ask the question, teaching maybe isnt the way forward. i think its something you really have to know you want to do, if that makes sense!

i hope you find the right choice for you though!

I'm a qualified chartered accountant, trained with big 4, now in industry.

My advice would be that with accountancy, there's definitely the ability to get great pay (lots of variety of roles/responsibility/pay levels).
There's also the ability to be flexible with hours and days worked (I worked p/t after maternity leave) now back to full time but a day or two from home is fine whenever I need to. Plus I work 8 until 4 to miss some of the traffic.
You don't necessarily have to be fully focussed on becoming a partner of a big firm and working rediculous hours. You can use the qualification to earn a decent living whilst still getting a good work/life balance.

Downsides - exams were hard! And that's with no children. Don't think I'd have managed with ds. You'll have to be very focussed and committed to get through them. But I've seen many mums get through them so it's definitely possible!

Teaching - this was something I also considered. If you have a real passion and desire to teach I think that career could be so much more rewarding (IMHO anyway!). Less flexible with regards to working hours, work from home, and time off in term time. But obviously the holidays with dc are a massive bonus!

I think I now wish I'd have gone with my instinct and done teaching from the start, as I know in my heart that working with children would have given me the job satisfaction I crave. I'm just now not willing to take the pay cut.

I think perhaps get more experience in a school if you think you need that to make your decision. Then follow your heart.

Good luck

Art wouldn't have the same markload as say English though.

Agree though that teaching is a vocation ad if you don't get the 'calling' then don't do it

I don't think part time work is that easy to come by. I only ever got offered it once I'd worked my arse off for years. When I was a worker bee (doing articles), there wasn't a sole in my office doing part time or flexi hours - maybe times have changed.

I think if you feel you have a flair for teaching, I'd go for that.

It really is hard graft at first accountancy - yes, you can reap the benefits once you're qualified and got past the articles stage but being at the beck and call of clients and your manager/partner is not easy!

I wouldn't write off bookkeeping either - you could do a bit of that plus some other stuff (like tax which is very lucrative and can be done from home).

or even soul (not sole)!

I think the best way to get p/t work in accountancy is to get settled into a firm full time first. Then after a while and after proving yourself so to speak, you can then ask for flexible/part time working and IME employers are generally accomodating whenever possible.

With 3 years of exams before you even get to thinking about that though it could be a good few years to wait.

Advertised p/t jobs seem very rare.

My bf lives in a small are of Devon, where salaries are not that great.

She is AAT qualified and has been doing people's accounts, tax returns etc for years.

She has recently been offered some work by an accountant. His bookkeepers do all the accounts. She then takes it, prepares final accounts and does either tax comp, or corp tax.
For £200.
No hassle, no shit, no chasing clients for bank statements, or worse still chasing them for payment.
Easiest money she has ever earnt.

I do similar, and I live in Surrey, only getting £150 !!!

Find the right kind of work and it will be a brease !!!!

Unlike foxinsocks, I have found no problem getting high quality, part time work - depends what you do and where, I suppose.

gawd, could never do pure accounting stuff (each to their own). That sort of work isn't difficult to find at all (preparing accounts, doing tax returns for small businesses, individuals) but you don't need to go and get fully qualified to do that.

To do professional exams + articles is a huge committment.

I think you need to try and decide exactly what it is you see yourself doing. If you want to do the home based accounting stuff, you don't need to go for the full monty qualification.

really encouraged by all those accountants who enjoy their jobs!! I've registered with acca and will try one exam before the summer to get some idea how hard they are. I'm going to get an aupair to free up my time. My accountant has offered me work that I can do from home, as much as I want, so I'm lucky to have this offer and will try to start and combine a small amount of work with the exams. I could be wrong but I imagine that its better to spend more time studying and getting the exams rather wasteing time doing a lot of bookkeeping work. I do have a lot of financial flexibility in that I don't need money right now but may need to earn well in ten years time, so I'm taking the long view.
will look into management accounting which sounds really interesting, but I'm not sure exactly what it is.
thanks for all the good advice

Good thing with the bookkeeping is that it will give you a great grasp of the basics and that can only help when it comes to the exams!

Trust me - after a year on maternity leave I couldn't remember what a debit and credit was

Sounds like you're going about it the right way and you're in a fortunate position. I think you'll do great whatever you decide.

littlestar, did you know what a dr and a cr was in the first place then ?
Well you're a first

If you start to train in your 30's to be an accountant, how much can you earn??

At least a debit or credit will stay where you put it or tell it where to go (rightly or wrongly), unlike possibly some children in a class .

This thread is piquing my interest in resuming my career in accounts strangely enough even though I hate exams.

LOL chocolate - and even reconciling over 12 moths of dr's and cr's when some of them have 'disappeared - and YES, I do mean DISAPPEARED from the audit trail, is still easier than coping with some 2-3 year olds

I'm a teacher but quite tempted by the accountancy thing after reading this thread!

I am 33 this year. How much can I earn and how long will it take to train??

lol Oblomov - glad it's not just me!!

I honestly don't think it matters if you start to train in your 30's. In industry you'd just work your way up as you would with any job.
Most big audit firms have a pretty standard approach to promotion (regardless of age) - which is 3 years training/exams, 2 years assistant manager, then 2 years manager.... then senior manager/director seems to come with experience, career motivation, how much the partner likes you, etc etc!!

Or like I did, you can train in big firm then move into industry and promotion will very much depend on the sort of person you are, your career motivation, your desire for promotion etc etc.

Salary is not dependent on age at all. Just experience and qualifications. London probably very different to up North where I am. Newly qualified accountants up here tend to earn around £30k.
Managers usually £40k ish.

So if you started to train in early 30's I think by age 40 you'd be hoping to be on at least £40-45k.

(That's a very rough guide!)

Thanks. How long does it take to train?

What about the holidays? How long do you get? I'd miss my 13 weeks.

I work 4 days now with little marking in a really great school. Not sure if I want to do teaching for ever though. I know I'd never go back to mainstream teaching.

Any websites for the qualifications?

Standard training contract with big audit firm was 5 weeks hols a year, plus paid study leave for college and exams.

Some companies may require you to take holidays for exams though or only provide unpaid study leave.

It varies so much from what I've seen.

I think it's pretty standard that it takes 3 years to train & do the exams (ACA and ACCA definitely).

hercules1 your job sounds great as it is!!

I am very lucky

40k with less holidays wouldnt be worth it for me plus I never intend to work full time again. Now if I could earn 50k working 4 days a week with 10 weeks off...

if you find that job let me know!!

I was an accountant for 3.5 yrs after leaving uni - didn't enjoy it and resigned as soon as I qualified. After a spell in banking I resigned to do a secondary PGCE - hardest I have ever worked in my life - but I love teaching. Teaching is exhausting and demanding but very rewarding. Planning to go p/t now I have dd - not sure how hard it will be with a baby...