If you’ve done professional exams ...

[Bleakfuture]

Did you sit them through your employer or organise and pay for them yourself?

What is your career like compared to what you think it would be like if you hadn’t done them?

I really want to sit some but the money side of things is causing me to pause. But it could further my career so much!

Do you think the firm you're with would compromise on e.g. agreeing to give you TOIL you could use to study or do the exams say?

My husband paid for his actuarial exams, he did get a pay rise with each pass though

I’m not sure actually @Nacreous! Good idea!

Oh interesting @timeforawine is that just the way it works in that profession?

I like timefor's point about her husband too: we got about a £7k pause once we were part qualified (12/15 done) and another £10k once we were fully qualified (so after 3 years). Might be able to negotiate that as well? Whatever you do, don't let your employer soon you up for a punitive training contract where you can't leave for years after our anything like that.

My firm paid for my CIMA exams. Does your current employer offer nothing, either cost or time?

I have no doubt it enhanced my pay & with hindsight, would have been worthwhile paying myself if I wasn’t supported.

No @Bleakfuture i think just where he works, i think a lot of companies will pay for the first sitting of an exam but if you fail you pay for the resit.

Another Big 4 ACA accountant. Full release from work but if you failed badly or more than once you were sacked. Had a colleague who managed with small DC by it was unusual because they very much got their pound of flesh in working hours the rest of the year. But I have a job I enjoy enormously and that is well paid by the hour as a result.

I did AAT and then CIMA both sponsored by a small company (not an Accountancy firm) and it was definitely worth all the extra work on top of gaining so much experience along the way. Qualifications are important but experience and keeping up with CPD and up to date with regular changes are also very important.
I now have my own practice after 20 years in industry.
It has certainly been worth it for me in many ways.

Just realised I already commented - doh!!!

Agreeing with* @DelurkingAJ*, the big 4 really do take their pound of flesh. I worked there in my early 20s and left by the age of 26, pre children. I couldn't have done that job with young children, i simply couldn't have been available for the required time and travel. As it was I was completely wiped out after 3 years with literally no other commitments.

It was totally worth it for me at the stage of life I was at, but I don't think I could go back there as a parent. This was 15 years ago so maybe things have changed but I'd be surprised

I did ACCA exams, started with a distance learning course and coped with the first 2 exams fine so after that just bought the textbooks rather than the courses as I didn't feel like I got much support anyway and am quite self disciplined so didn't need the accountability. Passed them all first time Did move to a company that covered the cost towards the end of studying though.
Recently changed careers to become a gardener and now almost finished studying for my horticulture exams. My first baby is due a month after the exams, I like to keep busy!

Haha you certainly do Gardener!!

I honestly don’t know if I’m a big 4 kind of girl! Maybe somewhere more mid-size.