Any Accountants up in this mother fucker?

[Gym Beglin 1,430]

I'm bored in my job, and not paid enough, therefore I am looking to change career direction.

 

Is anyone a qualified accountant?  How strenuous did you find the training?  Is it now rewarding in terms of job opportunities and pay?

 

To me, it seems a good profession if you don't mind crunching numbers.  I don't mind it at all, I'm a bit of a statto, so I'm veering towards a profession that allows me to throw numbers around.

 

 

[Anny Road 2,252]

Start by counting the beans on your fry up. Good eat and basic training. Two birds and all that.

[Rico1304 8,942]

How do you look in pin stripes?

[Jairzinho 25,462]

What is your job now that becoming an accountant is a more exciting option?

[Trumo 16,317]

The trouble with a lot of qualified accountants is that they only ever talk about the field and job prospects.

[Major Tom 897]

I'm bored in my job, and not paid enough, therefore I am looking to change career direction.

 

Is anyone a qualified accountant?  How strenuous did you find the training?  Is it now rewarding in terms of job opportunities and pay?

 

To me, it seems a good profession if you don't mind crunching numbers.  I don't mind it at all, I'm a bit of a statto, so I'm veering towards a profession that allows me to throw numbers around.

 

You want to be an accountant? Lord help you.

 

Get a trade. Much, much better.

[VladimirIlyich 9,756]

My son is training to be one and you need to join one of the various professional bodies like the ACCA and take exams every 6 months. Its a career rather than a job.

[The Guest 1,916]

I do it and it's fucking horrific.  It's all relative of course so only you will know how underpaid you are and/or how unhappy or bored you are in your current job.  My own background is I chose Accounting as one of my A levels and followed it through with a 2.1 degree in Accounting and Finance.  I had a relative who was an accountant and I made the choice early on that's the direction I was going in.  I was always a sensible child and I remember thinking that will be a guaranteed job that will surely pay well.  I was half right.  I regret it now because I was and still am quite an active person.  I thought I would like the office life but I fucking hate it now and my lower back hates it even more.

 

I came out of uni and in my first job interview for a trainee accountant role I got it.  I later found out the other two people I was up against knew nothing about accounting at all.  One had a 3rd class degree in Geography and one had worked in HR for five years and fancied a change.  The senior finance person in the interview wanted the Geography graduate and I only got the job because it wasn't him that would be managing me it was the other person and she just shouted him down.  I suppose that was an early sign of the sort of fucking idiot you come across in offices.

 

The things that I've discovered in the years since then are:

• Generally you get to see what everyone earns throughout the company you are in if you do the accounts for it.  This is not a good thing.  When I first started I thought it was and it would be something that I could use to my advantage later on.  You can't.  You aren't a valuable commodity like a good sales person or specialist in something like a software architect etc.  You can be replaced quite easily and generally you are seen as a safe bet in that you won't leave a company anyway.
• It isn't well paid.  Okay if you are in some £15-21K a year job and you can't see yourself going anywhere above that then it is.  When you look at the grand scheme of things though if you earn double that you are still going to be working until you're 60 odd and your life won't be that different to now.  Believe me when I say it's no 9-5.  You will be working for your money and it's not just sitting on spreadsheets all day.  You are having awkward conversations with people on a daily basis and doing all sorts of difficult shit in time pressured environments with no extra benefit. 
• Everyone else working in the accounting sector is a horrible right wing cunt.
• There's no resting on your laurels.  If you want to earn a relatively good salary for an accountant then you constantly have to be pushing on and looking for promotions etc.  If you don't you will eventually get let go and you will struggle to get another 'good' job.  You are expected to sit your exams and will be pushed constantly to do it despite the fact none of these cunts will give you adequate enough time off to actually get a decent amount of revision done.  I went years without actually having any holidays.  I used them all for CIMA courses and study days.

 

I'm going to retrain as a Maths teacher in January.  That should probably tell you enough.  I'm taking a pretty big knock in pay and I'm getting told all the same sorts of shit I'm telling you so I'm being a hypocrit really.  If you fancy it then do it but go in with your eyes open.  I'd get a trade if I could but I'm nearly 30 and I've just bought a house and there's all sorts of benefits for training Maths teachers at the moment.

[Anny Road 2,252]

If I had the time and age was on my side I would train as a joiner/plumber/sparky or if I wanted to push it go into engineering. Top money and noone expects you to act like Donald Trump.

[magicrat 7,104]

Good accountants are smart and easily get decent jobs , shit ones end up processing invoices for a living and earn fuck all.

Unless you believe you can be a really good accountant don't bother

[Bernard Diomede 617]

I do it and it's fucking horrific. It's all relative of course so only you will know how underpaid you are and/or how unhappy or bored you are in your current job. My own background is I chose Accounting as one of my A levels and followed it through with a 2.1 degree in Accounting and Finance. I had a relative who was an accountant and I made the choice early on that's the direction I was going in. I was always a sensible child and I remember thinking that will be a guaranteed job that will surely pay well. I was half right. I regret it now because I was and still am quite an active person. I thought I would like the office life but I fucking hate it now and my lower back hates it even more.

 

I came out of uni and in my first job interview for a trainee accountant role I got it. I later found out the other two people I was up against knew nothing about accounting at all. One had a 3rd class degree in Geography and one had worked in HR for five years and fancied a change. The senior finance person in the interview wanted the Geography graduate and I only got the job because it wasn't him that would be managing me it was the other person and she just shouted him down. I suppose that was an early sign of the sort of fucking idiot you come across in offices.

 

The things that I've discovered in the years since then are:

• Generally you get to see what everyone earns throughout the company you are in if you do the accounts for it. This is not a good thing. When I first started I thought it was and it would be something that I could use to my advantage later on. You can't. You aren't a valuable commodity like a good sales person or specialist in something like a software architect etc. You can be replaced quite easily and generally you are seen as a safe bet in that you won't leave a company anyway.
• It isn't well paid. Okay if you are in some £15-21K a year job and you can't see yourself going anywhere above that then it is. When you look at the grand scheme of things though if you earn double that you are still going to be working until you're 60 odd and your life won't be that different to now. Believe me when I say it's no 9-5. You will be working for your money and it's not just sitting on spreadsheets all day. You are having awkward conversations with people on a daily basis and doing all sorts of difficult shit in time pressured environments with no extra benefit.
• Everyone else working in the accounting sector is a horrible right wing cunt.
• There's no resting on your laurels. If you want to earn a relatively good salary for an accountant then you constantly have to be pushing on and looking for promotions etc. If you don't you will eventually get let go and you will struggle to get another 'good' job. You are expected to sit your exams and will be pushed constantly to do it despite the fact none of these cunts will give you adequate enough time off to actually get a decent amount of revision done. I went years without actually having any holidays. I used them all for CIMA courses and study days.

I'm going to retrain as a Maths teacher in January. That should probably tell you enough. I'm taking a pretty big knock in pay and I'm getting told all the same sorts of shit I'm telling you so I'm being a hypocrit really. If you fancy it then do it but go in with your eyes open. I'd get a trade if I could but I'm nearly 30 and I've just bought a house and there's all sorts of benefits for training Maths teachers at the moment.

Fucking hell mate talk about out the frying pan and into the fire.

 

I know you've probably already heard this but I would have a serious think about working in schools. From my experience 90% of the people who work in them are either back stabbing arse kissing bastards or absolute fucking empty heads.

 

Your told what to do by absolute bellends, work with kids with ever more challenging social issues that you are expected to deal with and are expected to get results out of kids that are on the large part totally unrealistic. The progression routes in teaching basically involve taking on massive amounts of more work and stress.

 

Have a good think about it before committing mate

[Archimede 97]

I am one.  Never wanted to do it - Art was my first love at school.  But it and being an astronaut did not work out.

 

Im in my early 40's, working in accounting since 17, have been unemployed for 1 day. I have had a varied career in terms of organisations and sectors.

 

I have worked in small practice, banking, big practice (global firm), and industry.

 

I have worked in different sectors including banking, corporate finance, insolvecny etc.,

 

I know own my own practice.

 

If it is not a passion it is work.  However i have a good standard of living, nice house, nice car and nice holidays. I can consider sending children to fee paying schools if I wanted to.

 

Do I get pissed off - yes.  Do I have good days yes.

 

The key thing about the qualification is that it does not just make you a number cruncher  - if you do the right qualification you will be a broad financial professional who will have many doors open to you.  What you do with that depends on your ability, your ambition and sometimes how the cards fall.  But you will have the core skills to open doors and support in many different endeavours.

 

I don't regret doing it for a minute.

 

BTW - I am an ACCA.  They have 600,000 members and students in over 80 countries.  Its portable, you can travel. I would recommend it highly over competing qualifications.

 

Good luck with your decision and your career 

[Major Tom 897]

I came out of uni and in my first job interview for a trainee accountant role I got it.  I later found out the other two people I was up against knew nothing about accounting at all.  One had a 3rd class degree in Geography and one had worked in HR for five years and fancied a change.  The senior finance person in the interview wanted the Geography graduate and I only got the job because it wasn't him that would be managing me it was the other person and she just shouted him down.  I suppose that was an early sign of the sort of fucking idiot you come across in offices.

 

 

haha

[The Guest 1,916]

Fucking hell mate talk about out the frying pan and into the fire.

 

I know you've probably already heard this but I would have a serious think about working in schools. From my experience 90% of the people who work in them are either back stabbing arse kissing bastards or absolute fucking empty heads.

 

Your told what to do by absolute bellends, work with kids with ever more challenging social issues that you are expected to deal with and are expected to get results out of kids that are on the large part totally unrealistic. The progression routes in teaching basically involve taking on massive amounts of more work and stress.

 

Have a good think about it before committing mate

 

I have thought really long and hard over it.  I left a job I'd been in for 5 years about 8 months ago just to make sure it was the job and not the company.  The new job has it's up and downs but all in all it's the same sort of thing really.

 

I've been thinking about teaching for years as well.  I kept bottling it and convincing myself it was too big a change and I couldn't do it.  I haven't got Maths A Level so that is and still could be a blocker.  I loved Maths in school though and I only dropped Maths at A Level because I didn't want to do 4 A levels and needed the other 3 more.  I'm not arsed if it's harder work or longer hours.  I want to wake up in the morning and give a shit about what I'm doing and I just don't with what I'm doing now.  I'm a pretty heartless bastard overall but I can see myself actually caring about the kids if I taught and it would make a nice change to life.

 

I've read as many horror stories as possible to make sure I'm going in with my eyes open.  I'm not expecting 9 half 3 with 12 weeks off a year like many young teachers seem to when they head straight into it after Uni.

 

What finally gave me the nudge to do it was becoming good mates with a lad who does it.  He likes his job.  I think he's got it pretty sweet though and I don't picture it being like this but he's at home for 4pm every day and reckons of the 12 weeks out of school they have he spends at least 10 if not nearly the full 12 some years taking complete holidays and not doing any work.  Even if I were to factor this into the worst case scenario of getting home at 6 every day and having 6 weeks holiday a year I would still have a better work life balance than I do now.  As an accountant I look at the people above me in the positions I will end up working and it's only going to get worse.  I like the idea of having set holidays.  At the moment I don't even take my full allocation of 5 weeks.

 

If anyone on here is a teacher or knows any then their experiences would be much aprreciated.

[Gym Beglin 1,430]

<p>My current profession is within a democratic/corporate/licensing department of a local authority.  I'm 20k, and could go 35k when my boss leaves in a year or two, but it's not the sort of career you can carry around with you from place to place.  I'd only be getting the job because I've been here longest.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Whereas accountancy is accountancy is accountancy, and of course there will be minor variations, but once qualified you can pack your bags and be quite certain of getting a similar job almost anywhere else in the country.</p>

[Bot 1,932]

I do it and it's fucking horrific.  It's all relative of course so only you will know how underpaid you are and/or how unhappy or bored you are in your current job.  My own background is I chose Accounting as one of my A levels and followed it through with a 2.1 degree in Accounting and Finance.  I had a relative who was an accountant and I made the choice early on that's the direction I was going in.  I was always a sensible child and I remember thinking that will be a guaranteed job that will surely pay well.  I was half right.  I regret it now because I was and still am quite an active person.  I thought I would like the office life but I fucking hate it now and my lower back hates it even more.

 

I came out of uni and in my first job interview for a trainee accountant role I got it.  I later found out the other two people I was up against knew nothing about accounting at all.  One had a 3rd class degree in Geography and one had worked in HR for five years and fancied a change.  The senior finance person in the interview wanted the Geography graduate and I only got the job because it wasn't him that would be managing me it was the other person and she just shouted him down.  I suppose that was an early sign of the sort of fucking idiot you come across in offices.

 

The things that I've discovered in the years since then are:

• Generally you get to see what everyone earns throughout the company you are in if you do the accounts for it.  This is not a good thing.  When I first started I thought it was and it would be something that I could use to my advantage later on.  You can't.  You aren't a valuable commodity like a good sales person or specialist in something like a software architect etc.  You can be replaced quite easily and generally you are seen as a safe bet in that you won't leave a company anyway.
• It isn't well paid.  Okay if you are in some £15-21K a year job and you can't see yourself going anywhere above that then it is.  When you look at the grand scheme of things though if you earn double that you are still going to be working until you're 60 odd and your life won't be that different to now.  Believe me when I say it's no 9-5.  You will be working for your money and it's not just sitting on spreadsheets all day.  You are having awkward conversations with people on a daily basis and doing all sorts of difficult shit in time pressured environments with no extra benefit. 
• Everyone else working in the accounting sector is a horrible right wing cunt.
• There's no resting on your laurels.  If you want to earn a relatively good salary for an accountant then you constantly have to be pushing on and looking for promotions etc.  If you don't you will eventually get let go and you will struggle to get another 'good' job.  You are expected to sit your exams and will be pushed constantly to do it despite the fact none of these cunts will give you adequate enough time off to actually get a decent amount of revision done.  I went years without actually having any holidays.  I used them all for CIMA courses and study days.

 

I'm going to retrain as a Maths teacher in January.  That should probably tell you enough.  I'm taking a pretty big knock in pay and I'm getting told all the same sorts of shit I'm telling you so I'm being a hypocrit really.  If you fancy it then do it but go in with your eyes open.  I'd get a trade if I could but I'm nearly 30 and I've just bought a house and there's all sorts of benefits for training Maths teachers at the moment.

 

 

I knew a guy once by the name of Alan, he loved maths. 

Similar to your case, he took a lot of crap of people but you'd rarely see him complain. 

Eventually, he went on to crack this thing called enigma and won some war. 

Just putting it out there; stop slacking and get back to work. 

[Stu Monty 3,373]

I'm bored in my job, and not paid enough, therefore I am looking to change career direction.

 

Is anyone a qualified accountant?  How strenuous did you find the training?  Is it now rewarding in terms of job opportunities and pay?

 

To me, it seems a good profession if you don't mind crunching numbers.  I don't mind it at all, I'm a bit of a statto, so I'm veering towards a profession that allows me to throw numbers around.

 

Have you considered Lion Taming?

 

You'd need a hat, like.

[Original202 362]

I know lots of unhappy accountants and they're all unhappy for the same reason - they didn't want to be an accountant, they just ended up in the business and never got out. Further evidenced by this thread.

 

If you're interested in something then go for it but you need to be fully committed for reasons already stated. If you want to do it for the money and security etc then don't.

 

I know a couple of other accountants who love their job and are really passionate about it though too. I've worked in accountancy myself and got out as it wasn't for me and I saw too many people putting up with a job they didn't really enjoy enough and I didn't want to be in the same boat as them in 30 years time.

[Furmedge 2,554]

Strangely enough I'm currently thinking about going down the same line of work. I have a decent job at the moment but absolutely no passion for it, and the thought of being in the same trade for the next 30 years makes me want to change careers. I was looking at going into maths teaching but looking at the career path for me it seems a bit long winded as I enter the latter 30's (at uni age I decided to get a job, save some dough and go travelling, something I admire/regret ever since).

 

I've always wanted to get into accountancy and I've been put off paying for some of the courses advertised because there are so many different ones I don't want to spunk my money on the wrong one. I love working with numbers and my last role was creating MI so staring at spreadsheets all day was par for the course and I actually enjoyed it. Having to rely on my own performance than rely on performance of others is the perfect job for me.

[Gym Beglin 1,430]

Same with me, I like the idea of crunching numbers that belong to other people, so their failings have nothing to do with me, I just present their failings in a clear and concise manner to others.

[setreal 2,505]

...as winnings.

[Duncan Clench 279]

If you're into it, it's a good career move because there are so many options open to you after you qualify. My wife did Accountancy and Business at Uni, then got a job with KPMG who pay well from the start and put you through your professional training (well they used to anyway). She was doing ICAEW and got the best score in the Country (clever one she is) and then immediately left KPMG because they don't pay well, comparatively, once you're qualified. She then got a job as CFO in a small London-based insurance brokers and hasn't looked back since.

 

Moral of the story? Well it is what you make of it, like any other job I suppose. 4 years of training for the professional qualification though, and the CPD is strictly required in order for you to remain a part of your institute. Which costs around £800p/a for ICAEW.

[lifetime fan 12,712]

If I had my time again I'd train as a farrier.

 

Self employed, no wankers to work under, working outdoors with loads of fit horsey women.

 

It's a licience to print money too.

[Nunavut Patrick 4,927]

I did a year of accounting, hated it and was really only in it for money as they said you can make loads but as some have said many are right wing bad helmets. Just didn't have the wherewithall to follow it through. It has helped though as it gave me a basic understanding of accounts and shite so I have been treasurer of Territorial sporting associations which has allowed me to travel to national AGMs and meet lots of personalities plus get right snookered on free ale....

 

Teaching- make sure you have patience and passion for it otherwise you are doing yourself a disservice and the students. If you follow through stay well clear of the faculty lounge politics....fucking hell is all I can say.

 

Watch To Sir With Love even if you aren't black and if you cry than go for it.

[Guest Super Sub]

Bad news for all of you wannabe accountants; as far as I am aware you need to have a clean and clear crb check. Even if your convictions are spent you still can't become an accountant.