Anyone a parent and work in Law or Accounting?

[Agegapwoes]

Hi all,

I’m currently a stay at home mum and I’m looking to retrain to re-enter the workforce in a few years time.

I already have a 2:1 from a mid tier university.

Are either of these careers suitable to enter mid 30s after nearly 10 years out of work? Would I be run ragged with incredibly long, inflexible hours whilst training?

I’m not bothered about the academic training, I’m quite looking forward to it.

I have 3 young children.

Would be great to hear of some experiences.

Are you prepared to work long hours, long days & use childcare?

Honestly I would advise against it. Law especially while you are training and proving yourself it is tough and long hours, plus you’ll be fighting against newer graduates with 1st class & 2:1 degrees who can pour every hour they have into being the best which is something that understandably with 3 young children you just can’t do. It’s very very competitive, people applying who have done paralegal work and internships to get a foot in the door, attended networking events etc while at uni so they know the faces and the important people know their faces.

I’m currently nearly finished with my accountancy qualification while working full time at a big 4, with two small children.

It’s totally fine hours-wise. Importantly though, I am not client facing, I’m internal finance which makes a big difference I think. My company are funding all the studying as well. And I’m not on a grad scheme or anything, so I have a bit more flexibility over the studying - I don’t get fired if I fail, as it’s not a requirement of the role, just something they offer to people in the role.

There are no jobs in law and this is only going to get worse. Supply far far exceeds demand. It’s expensive, not family friendly, takes a long time and the exams have a 40%pass rate. You would probably have to move for a job.

Realistically, both are hard during the "training" years as employers do want their pound of flesh whilst having to pay you a wage, plus paid study/exam leave, plus costs of the courses, course materials and exam fees. They also expect a pretty rapid gaining of experience and are normally geared up for full time working, so part time is seldom an option as it just lengthens the "training/experience" building process.

I think you may also be underestimating how hard the exams are to pass. Studying/revising alongside a home/family/job is very hard and the exams are demanding. There is a very high failure/drop out rate.

I'm an accountant and have worked with lots of people who "tried" to become chartered accountants but couldn't pass the exams - a few of them had good degrees (a couple had first degrees in accounting) and still found the studying/exams too hard. I only managed it because I was single, living with parents, etc and so didn't have a partner/home to look after so not only did I have lots of evenings and weekends free to study, I also took my annual holiday entitlement as additional study/revision time.

Certainly for accountancy (and probably also for law), rather than jumping straight in to do the full accountancy/law qualifications, I'd do the "technician" level first, i.e. AAT for accountancy and (I think) paralegal for law. Not saying the studying/exams are easy, but it's a shorter route to get "a qualification" and then you can move onto the full qualification later, but in the meantime you would have a qualification if you decided not to continue to full accountant/lawyer status, which would still get you a decent enough career or maybe self employment.

The current qualification route for becoming a solicitor is brutal. A friend is currently doing it, many years after her (non legal) degree, but having worked in legal/legal-adjacent roles for years and having no children or dependents. She is on the verge of a mental breakdown trying to work and study.

I joined an accountancy firm (not one of the Big 4 but still a big firm) as an audit graduate when I was late 20s and changed career, and I did my ACA qualification through them. I’ll be honest, whilst the first level of exams were straight forward, the later exams were A LOT and this was before I became a mum - I know you said the academic side doesn’t bother you but I cannot stress enough how time intensive they were. Whilst you’ll get study time, they will also expect you to work your full hours which means evenings are used for studying.

Depending on which accountancy firm (if you went that route) that you join you might have to follow a set plan on when to sit the exams in line with their training agreement and it is common to sit more than 1 at the same time (we did the first 6 Sept-Dec, then 3 in Q1, 3 in Q3, then 2 finals together, and then the case study at the start of final year). There’s also the time qualified element so you might get all your exams boxed off but you won’t be fully qualified until you’ve hit your allotted time (around 3 years experience).

I really didn’t like audit and ended up moving to a different department which was great but different pressures at different points of the year (stat filing deadlines etc). I then moved to another department on secondment and ended up staying there permanently (and I stayed with that firm for nearly a decade before leaving). There are other accountancy qualifications like ACCA/CIMA - not sure on their structures though.

If you are looking into accountancy then have a read about which qualification you’d want to do and which firms offer that, and also what type of work you’d want to do (are you wanting a professional services firm? If so audit/tax/advisory are the high level areas that can then split off into more niche categories). The fact that you’re 10 years out of work wouldn’t have overlooked you from the grad scheme I joined

This. I did it before I had my children and it took every last bit of time, energy and thought I had, it was brutal. No way I could manage it now with 2 young children.

Just to comment on the final part of this. In law you cannot practise on a self employed basis until you are fully qualified and have a certain number of years of post qualification experience (think from memory it’s 4 years (so 6 years including training contract)

I think the SQE makes training even more brutal than it was for us. My current trainee has done both the LPC and the SQE, and has confirmed (as I thought) that the SQE is on a completely different level of intensity. Plus, of course, it is done whilst working. I look at trainees at the moment, and thank God I qualified years ago (and even then, it was very much "pound of flesh" and beasting the trainees as matter of course).

Although in most firms you do SQE1 prior to starting work. Appreciate there are exceptions. It is a very difficult exam and is memory based.

From another perspective, as a single mum I went down the accounting route. Started with AAT while I worked, as someone else suggested, and went from there. I was lucky I worked for someone who was relaxed with how quickly I did it so I went at my own pace. I followed on with ACCA and yes, it was hard, the later exams are tough especially with kids but I juggled it and am now qualified in a flexible job that allows me to work ft around times when the kids need me so I feel very lucky and that it was a great career choice. I’m not ambitious enough to want to work for a big firm though, I work in industry and manage a team of 6 as head of dept earning 80k+ (up North so a decent salary where I am). It’s taken 15 years from my first exam to landing my current job in this position but it was a steady career progression in that time. I’m at the top of my game now and won’t climb any further

Have you thought about applying to a grad scheme for example the HMRC TSP programme? It combines aspects of law and accountancy and is more family friendly than private practice.

I work in law. I'm in-house which is usually considered to be more flexible and less brutal. It's still very very stressful and long hours. I do WFH a lot and have flexibility but mostly that is because I am senior. I work a lot of evenings after the kids are in bed, there are some weekend working days too if its end of quarter and the deal needs closing. My kids are used to 'Mummy being on a call'.

I couldn't have done the training and junior part as well if I had kids. I have done several certifications in recent years requiring training and exams, and even that has felt like a considerable stress on me on top of work plus trying to be around for my family and those certification exams are nothing in comparison to the monolith that is an SQE exam.

On the positives - I'm well paid and my in-house role is in a global big tech company and the work is very interesting and I'm challenged daily. The job has great extra perks too.

If you are numerate, consider data. I’d avoid doing a big qualification that takes years to get paid. Look for graduate programs with decent starting salary’s at big companies. Experienced or older hires tend to do well on these processes or even return to work specific schemes. Have seen grad data programs 2 days per week in office for £35k with good progression. All training provided even for non numerate degrees.

You can Study with the ACCA or CIMA to become an Accountant and look for a job in industry not practice. Practice/client facing will be hard with young children and studying,

You may be able to find part time work.

If you are interested in both law and accountancy, have a look at the training route for becoming a Costs Lawyer. Also have a look at the training route for the becoming a licensed conveyancers, both provide a route to becoming a regulated lawyer and have are more cost effective routes into Law.