Advice on re-training as an accountant - please?

[BoingBoing]

I'm looking into retraining as an accountant, and what I'd like to know from those of you already qualified, or part qualified, is exactly how hard will it be in terms of study and exams? I have a 2 year old and a DH who works away during the week, which adds to the fun. Because of what I want to do with it afterwards, I want to do ACCA, which I understand is the hardest of the lot. Would it be better to wait a couple of years until DS starts school, or should I just start once someone is mad enough to employ me as a trainee?
Thanks!

KewC, you better be an accountant or I'm getting offended!

I like this one:-

Why did the auditor cross the road?
Because he looked in the file and that's what they did last year.

The doctor comes to see his heart transplant patient.

"This is good news. It is very unusual, but we have two donors to choose from for your new heart."

The patient is pleased. He asks, "What were their jobs?"

"One was a teacher and the other was an accountant."

"I'll take the accountant's heart," says the patient. "I want one that hasn't been used."

Kew, is. I think she is curently a Finance Manager.

My mistake, apologies. God, I didn't mean to talk her down.

Love the jokes - haven't heard some of those since my training days!
It will be hard but if that is where you want to go....
The company I work for at the 'mo sponsors ACCA and CIMA - they give time off for study and pay for exams - not sure about courses. The time off for courses is usually enough for revision courses at the end if you have done home study up until then - my CIMA colleague said that as long as she had read the book the revision courses were sufficient. Also as it is a large company there are in-house courses during work hours which help towards it. So practice is not the only way to go (although it's the way I went as am ACA) - it may be easier to do your training in a large corporation and then specialise later?
Good luck.
Does anyone on here teach ACA/ACCA/CIMA? I have ACA and PGCE and am thinking about teaching in a private college (eg FTC / BPP type thing) when maternity leave is over if I can't go back to my old job.

Oooooh an FD.
She must know lots of accountant jokes then.

God, yes she is an FD, an FD, an FD.
Sorry I had FM, on the brain, having had an argument and a meeting with HR and My FM today.
No, Kew is an FD.

Jura, My FD and I made it 6 this month. Last month we made sure it was 8.

regardless of what it is, DH will bung it into a complicated trust thereby minimising inheritance tax. Sorted.

I mark exam papers for FTC (ACCA and CIMA). A bit soul destroying, but brings in some more money.

I started a thread like this a wee while back - I've started AAT training and have managed to get a job as a finance assistant starting soon (I'm a career changer). Iam wondering about jumping to ACCA though.
do all of you accountants enjoy it?

I detest(ed) it Mog - hence why I havne't gone back to work since having dd 2.5 years ago. In fact, having dd was my plan to get out of accountancy (obviously I wanted her for than that but it provided the break I was finding hard to make on my own). Mind you that was mainly to do with the department I was in I suspect.

However, I had started to do a fair bit of training before I left and the weekend I found out I was pg I also found out I'd got an interview to teach at BPP which I didn't go to because there didn't seem much point going for a new job at that point.

I detest(ed) it Mog - hence why I havne't gone back to work since having dd 2.5 years ago. In fact, having dd was my plan to get out of accountancy (obviously I wanted her for than that but it provided the break I was finding hard to make on my own). Mind you that was mainly to do with the department I was in I suspect.

However, I had started to do a fair bit of training before I left and the weekend I found out I was pg I also found out I'd got an interview to teach at BPP which I didn't go to because there didn't seem much point going for a new job at that point.

oops.

I very much enjoy management accountancy, but hate working in practice - dull as ditchwater!

In my day ACA was considered to be harder as you had to pass all the exams in each of the three stages in one go and you were time-bar from continuing quite quickly if you didn't. Also to get a training contract and take the exams you had to have a degree or to have done a year at Uni doing a conversion course which you didn't with ACCA - you could pretty much do it straight from school.

I started training as an ACA in a chartered practice and my husband was an ACCA there. He was regularly told he was taking the easy route (oh how we all laughed)but I think that is because in his day you could pretty much take an exam a sitting and take almost as long as you liked to do it. I am not sure it is quite so easy now. Mind you he qualified and earns a packet and I didn't so who's laughing now?! The study involved home study in the evenings and blocks of course at the beginning of each stage and for revision courses which the firm paid for and allowed study leave. Seems generous but I only got 15 days holidays a year.

A few years ago (when I last worked) you could do a degree in accounting & finance and if you took the right options you could be pretty much exempt from all but the final level of ACCA. It might be a more manageable way of doing it if you don't need to work for the money. I worked with a couple of people who did it that way and all(!) they had to do when they finished was one set of exams and get the practical experience.

Since this is all when the dinosaurs roamed the planet it isn't particularly relevant except to say that I have since done a psychology degree with the OU and I am now doing a MSc and I would say that they are possible with small children but I wouldn't personally like to do the accountancy exams with small children - it was a lot more work, especially if you are working at the same time. That is not to say that it isn't possible as I don't know your circumstances and I do have a bit of a negative view of accountancy. It will take you a lot of years but it will be worth it in the end if that is what you want to do.

Good luck!

Crikey, now you're all scaring the wotsits out of me!!! There's still a lot of thinking to do, and a DH to discuss it with (I haven't mentioned it yet), who despises accountants with a passion but still manages to employ at least 4 of them for a nice little earner he's found to save foreigners and hedge fund types vast amounts of tax. Hmm, a tax expert who doesn't like accountants, go figure. And no, I'd never work for him in a million years.

Loving the jokes! And the aswer to 2+2 if you're a corporate financier is whatever gives you an EBITDA that sells the dodgy company at a vastly overinflated price and gives you a great bonus.

I love practice, trained in general practice with a meduim sized audit bent, went abroad for a few years doing pure audit (and quickly realised audit is v v dull without the rest of the general practice round it), came back and now working in general practice with no audits