Retrain as an accountant in my early 40s

[Orangetoecat]

Hi all, looking for some stories and/or advice. I would really like to change career into accountancy with the view of working for myself eventually. How would I even start? Am I too old? I also have two very young children. I am in a fairly decent job that pays £48k pa but I now hate it. Please be nice!

Hi I can't give you any advise, but I'm also looking into accountancy as my professional career at the age of 37 and I have one young daughter. I didn't go to Uni, used to travel in 20s, used to be a job hopper, never had a proper job really. But I was lucky to secure Accounts assistant role 2 years ago and I want to take this seriously. I enrolled myself AAT level 2 course recently and try to move up to AAT level 4, then start ACCA qualification to be "Qualified accountant". I think it will take me at least 6-7 years to get there.

I believe you are never too old to learn something that is beneficial for you. I don't want to regret and think I wasted a lot of time not doing anything when I become 45. It will be very good role model for your children too. Good luck!

If you’ve got a degree you can skip at and go straight into one of the others. It also depends on the type of accounting you want to do - if you’ve got any relevant experience, I’d advise cima and going in as a more management accountant/business partner which experience will probably help.

itll be faster to get qualified working for an accountancy firm in audit/tax, probably 3 years if you can swing enough study time with small children to pass exams, but you’ll get paid a lot less (probably 28 ish k London and 22-24k outside). Working in industry you’ll get more money but it will take longer to qualify and you probably won’t get the support (days off, college type courses to go to) you would. But you could probably swing 40k in London, or more with any relevant experience.

maybe have a look at some aat courses on your own time and at least get your mind around double entry accounting and debits/credits, and see if it’s something that you can get on with. No point switching if you can’t get a grasp on the basics, I know a few people who are never going to qualify and are going to be stuck on training wages forever.

Oh also if you want to work for yourself it means doing tax/accounts/bookkeeping probably which is pretty dull. You also have to (or at least with aca when I looked) pay a license fee every year to practice, to cover you for insurance, as well as your membership fees. Works out at nearly 2k a year together.

You will be competing for training jobs with either kids straight from school, college leavers or university leavers. All of whom will have the same knowledge as you (none) and way lower salary expectations than you are currently on.
If you are happy to earn significantly less than you do now, at least for the early part of your career, then that's fine.
It offers a good work life balance in my opinion but getting back to £48k will take you a long time!

This is actually tougher than you think. Because of the salary you are currently on. You could study yourself (very tough) and do nearly all ACA papers yourself. You would still need work experience to then fully qualify. If you took any trainee position, within practice (like pp said competing against graduates for such positions) or even in industry where you would be say doing management accounts eventually, it would be at a much lower salary and climbing up salary wise is slow and long.

Career changing can definitely be beneficial if you take a long-term view e.g. potential for better salary / benefits / flexibility.

What is your educational background? Do you have a degree or any related experience already?

A lot of large firms have retraining / return to work programmes that might be relevant.

I've also known people qualify whilst working via initial AAT qualifications, although this can stretch out over a longer period of time.

Some things to think about - do you have a support network? The early years in a professional career like accountancy/law can sometimes be about "getting ahead" (hopefully this is changing!) so having good childcare options if you have very young children is crucial. That probably depends on the type of accountancy firm though.

Good luck with whatever you choose!

What do you do now?
Rather than starting again at the bottom, can you move into a different type of organisation or role that is more to your taste?

You're never to old to reinvent yourself at any age

Years ago I joined a company specifically so they would pay for me to do my AAT because I decided that's what I wanted to do

I contacted a few places and got an offer so that I could have a day off a week to do the course

I worked in finance and accounts for a good few years. Then I had DC worked part time

Then went back to Uni and completely reinvented my self again

I'm now doing an MA and reinventing myself yet again

For me things have flowed naturally and one thing lead to another and it makes me content with life

I’m in two minds as to whether your primary question is the work or the (route to) training. You’re sure to find something useful on the Mature Study and Retraining board, here:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/mature_students

Certainly unlimited threads on the experience of retraining in middle age - whatever the occupation. And many, many people going back to study, who are considerably older than you are.

Thanks all. I guess my worries are an enormous drop in salary for a substantial amount of time and if anyone will hire me. I suppose also where do I begin!
Currently I work in private healthcare but in a non clinical role. I have a degree in history, a pgce and a professional qualification at degree level related to what I do now. Sorry I am so vague but I'm so scared that my manager will see this. He really believed in me and pushed me for my current job. I am more than capable of my job but that i just don't enjoy it and it gives me anxiety sometimes. Im not worried at all about hard work as I completed my profiessional qualification with a 1 year old at my feet!

Either apply for an accounts assistant position but make it clear you want to to exams and progress, or try to get a graduate job. My last firm actually preferred candidates with more life experience and would bend slightly bend the criteria in order to get them on board if needed!

You will take a hit on your salary though and there won’t be much wiggle room to start with. Starting salaries are anywhere from £18k - £28k depending on the firm and location. Once you’re qualified the salary jumps up to about £36k - £45k.

Exams wise, I think there are about 15 exams to do for accountancy. Tricky exams but not impossible!

Good luck!

It's possible but will be a big drop in salary/status. You will be expected to work full time and study. As you have a degree you can start part way through ACCA exams are extremely hard but not impossible if you are determined enough. Work wise though can be rather dull and repetitive especially till qualified.

I am about 3/4 of the way through doing exactly this!

Im doing my exams with Acca. If you’re reasonably good at learning you can just buy some books online, study and then sit the exam. It’s split into 3 levels and you could take level 1 without accounts experience.

Alongside the studying you have to show work experience. Is any part of your current role accounts related? You can backdate experience to prior to the qualification so if your role is 10 percent accounts and you have done it for 10 years it’ll count as a years experience. It is really worthwhile doing this as it’ll shorten the qualification.

If you can do these first two bits before moving job it’ll massively shorten the amount of time in a lower paid role before you qualify.

Finally you need to sign off on practical experience- this has to be signed off by a qualified accountant - so you would need to be in an accounts role for this really.

good luck!

Absolutely, you can do it!

I started retraining at 37, while in my old career, and did the first three ACCA exams quite quickly (entirely self study, but I wasn’t working full time) before deciding to look for a finance role.
That was tough, as a lot of roles ask for 2 years experience, but my advice would be to look for bookkeeping jobs and a small company who would value your previous work experience and recognise that this would be a benefit to them.
It’s also looking at start ups who need a general junior finance person as you can progress as they have grow.
Personally I gave up on giving myself a definitive deadline for qualifying, and try to maintain the best work/family (my son is young so too) /study time balance to do it all with minimal stress. Have always said that I had a 20 year career before… …and as long as I qualify before I’m 48, will have the same again!
You need to plan to be on a low wage for at least a couple of years, but then there are industry, rather than practice, jobs out there were you have to potential to get back to your current salary within 5 years. You also need to largely self-fund if you want flexibility around a family, as being sponsored will bring high expectations on how long it takes, how many hours you work and in some cases, results.

You could look into public sector roles and go for cipfa. Local authorities tend to be quite family friendly (flexi time, etc).

My mum retrained (not as an accountant) when she was in her early 40s, I was at secondary school and we used to sit down and do our homework together! She turned that qualification into a successful career.

Thank you all for your advice and kind encouragement. I have a lot to think about and look in to.😊

Aside from the exams, you'll need approved/supervised relevant work experience to get a practising certificate which you'll need if you want to ultimately be self employed doing accounts/tax returns. You'll not get that by just doing the exams on your own, or working in a job where you can't get the relevant work experience and signed off by someone the professional body would accept (i.e. a qualified accountant). A lot of people get caught out by the relevant supervised work experience requirement and end up with the qualification but no practising certificate to do it on a self employed basis.

You can do it.

Study and pass the exams. Get practical experience (at same time or later with ACCA) and qualify. You'll need both parts to fully qualify.

If you want to practice you'll need extra years signed off for a practising certificate.

I'd not recommend being a sole practitioner though. Not if you are prone to anxiety. Getting it right in a complex environment is hard. Especially with limited experience. And saying "ill only fo small jobs" doesn't really work because small jobs do get complex issues at times.

My business partner and I sold 3 years ago because he wanted to retire and I've never wanted to practice without another ear.

I've got a good income and have earned more than you. I'm not sure if the difference is significant enough to make up for 6 years of lower money and the extra stress you'll have if you practice.

Is there anything you can do in your industry that will keep you earning well but change your work to give you more satisfaction?

Others have mentioned industry for the money. They are right but you'll not get audit experience (if youd like to be an auditor) nor will you get practice experience to be able to get a practicing certificate that way.

I'm acca qualified. I'd usually say go for it but in your situation I don't think I would as £48k is a really gd salary. Can't u try find something where u can move sideways rather than starting at the bottom again with lots of studying. It will take years of studying and then years of working to be back up at that amount.

The exams can be tough especially the last 4/5 exams they are the professional level ones. Pass rates when I sat them were only around 28-30%. You need 50% to pass each paper. Doesn't sound a lot but like I say the exams are really tough. I had to study so much every weekend. It took me just 2 1/2 years to do those final 5 papers. The one time I didn't do the classes (my employer paid) I failed that exam. It was the only time I failed any and I hadn't studied enough and I found the classes so valuable. I was also studying every weekend at least 1 full day but in the 4weeks before exams it would be both day and Sunday. Then I even started staying at work to study at night before going home for the final exam as I was so desperate to pass! I can't imagine trying to do all that while also having a family.

It's also quite expensive to fund. Books are £30-40 each. Annual membership couple of hundred and each exam is about £100+ and then u need to pay for any exemptions you will get through ur degree. I did an accounting degree so I got full exemptions from 9 of the exams and sat the last 5. I think it cost about £2000 to pay for the exemptions and sign on fees etc. My employer paid for all of this though. At that point I was able to say I was part qualified and I was earning about £25K but that was back in 2012.

I've been qualified for 8yrs now. I work in civil service so my salary when I first qualified was about £37.5k which was really good but it's only just over £40k now. Basically because I've only ever had 1% or less/no pay rises in those years. I could leave and easily get about £10k more but I'm part time and it's very flexible for my family.

I'm an accountant. I would never recommend someone to go into this game now. The salaries are continually dropping since I started and the jobs seem to be asking more and more for less money every time I go to get a new job, another thing I've noticed despite having 10 years experience and qualifying years ago, bigger companies tend to totally overlook you vs a younger less experienced person if you don't have a degree. I don't know why.

I have hired people without degrees and with degrees and not noticed anything different because as long as you understand accounts and what you're doing, a geography degree doesn't make a difference but as I said, a lot of companies will overlook you and it's those companies that pay the most.

The one thing I have seen though is public sector roles are now paying more in my area than the private ones so as pp have said it may be worth pursuing that route plus a lot of civil service/PS roles pay for training which so many private sector roles don't anymore.

Definitely age isnt an issue. Go for it. Depends what your wanting to do though. I'm aiming for stating my own little accountancy practice (well that's the dream). Because this won't involve audit work etc just bookkeeping, VAT, Accounts and basic tax im not going for the full ACCA/ACA route. I'm half way through my exams to become a Certified Bookkeeper (includes producing final accounts). My profession body will licence my practice when I get fully qualified.

Thanks all. Home life is very important to me and currently I am able to wfh on flexible hours to suit childcare so I have it really good... its just the job I dread sometimes... I would rather go for something that is more "me" or that I have an interest in. Of course I would not like a drop in salary for such a long time so have some serious thinking to do.

@Nomorebeer22 can I please send you a message as this seems like a possible route I would want to take?

I don't think people understand the complexity of tax and how its difficult to word an engagement letter to provide "basic tax advice" and be sure your client understands exactly where you think your role starts and ends: simply because tax isn't basic. Hopefully the professional organisations you are affiliated to can help.

Accountancy is a fab industry, don't get me wrong. It's practice that can be particularly difficult when matters are complex as pretty much everything is nowadays. It might be a good idea to arrange for an alternate (indeed as an FCA we had to have one if a sole practitioner) and if that alternate is a larger concern you could pass difficult queries to them and they may be able to support you as a sounding board.

And dont forget you will need PI insurance and a AML supervisor as well as a practicing certificate. Although that is some way away for you at the moment.

Of course I'm coming from the angle where I've been there for over 20 years (with partner/s) and have chosen to revert to employment. So I will be biased for the alternative. I was practice manager though - so do have some experience of the challenges.

Have you considered applying for a grad scheme? It might feel a bit odd being older when the rest of your cohort might be fresh from school/uni, but I've found that in Big 4 schemes there tends to be a few older grads.

Newly qualified individuals in my firm go on to about 45k as assistant managers (approx 3 years with the firm). A year or so later, you can probably progress to Manager and would start at 50k, going up to 65k. We also get an annual bonus but it's not megabucks. Depends on your department and how you work, as I've seen ranges from £1k - £6k in Corporate Tax (although seen nearly 20k for those in other departments that had an amazing year).