[MalteseMalteser]

Hi all, this is my first thread so sorry in advance if I do anything wrong I wish to have a career as a tax accountant and was wondering what the best way to do this is? From what I've looked up, I've found three ways to get into the field:

1) Get a degree from university in accountancy and finance or economics, however this will of course be subject to the ghastly £9000 tuition fees, plus if I don't come out with at least a 2:1 degree it seems that I won't be allowed to join any accountancy firms - the entry grades for the uni courses seem pretty high at around AAA-AAB.

2) Hope to become part of a Big4 school leavers scheme such as KPMG or PwC, even though this allows me to leave uni pretty much debt-free with a degree and possibly with a job, I realise that competition for these schemes is rife and so I think it's very unlikely that I'll actually be accepted into these school leavers schemes.

3) Join a school leavers scheme with smaller accounting firms such as RSM Tenon, Grant Thornton etc. These would give me an ATT, then a CTA, and a lot of experience in the same time that it would take me to get the same qualification through a degree, but will I lose out to the people with degrees? Apparently once you reach ACA/CTA your education doesn't matter - it's all about the experience.

Any help would be appreciated, I'm confused about which route to go down as I'm applying to universities in September-time. Which is better in terms of salary? I've also heard that CIMA is not as good as ACA/ACCA, whether this is true or not I don't know.

Cheers guys!

[s.may]

Hi, I was having this dilemma last year..

It's all down to personal preference really, I applied to all of them in order to keep my options open, it depends on what you yourself want.

1) If you want to do the uni thing then do it, although you can do it later in life, it's really the one chance you've got of going. Also the entry grades vary from uni to uni, there are top ones like Warwick asking A*AA-AAAb but there are also some at the other end of the scale asking only EE, and of course there is everything in between. You also need to consider if you'd want to choose a degree with a sandwhich year, giving you a years experience in the feild. As for what result you need to come out with, it doesn't really matter, regardless of what you get you will still be able to go on to be an accountant; you don't even have to do a degree relevant to accountancy.

2) In my opinion these are really good, but as you say they're very very competitive. But there's no harm in applying even if you don't get accepted, it won't affect anything else by not getting accepted, so it's worth a try right?

3) Again, like university, these have their pro's and con's, you just have to weigh up which are of more value to you personally. In the same time as completing a degree you will complete AAT, but if you have a degree you may not need to do AAT anyway (depending on your company, and you definately won't need to do all of AAT) so you would therefore be in the same position. After completing both AAT and a degree you would go on to study ACA/ACCA/CIMA/CIPFA. Also regarding experience it would depend on whether you'd done the sandwhich year in a degree or got any summer internships/work experience etc, as to whether you'd have better experience doing the school leavers programme. As to losing out to people with degrees, this isn't really the case anymore; most companies now will take on/value apprentices just as much as graduates.

Salary doesn't really come into the different routes to be honest, the only difference being that you start earning earlier if you do the school leavers programme/apprenticeship unlike a degree where you incur debt. Starting out as an apprentice or a graduate you'll be on a training salary, then once you're fully qualified you'll be earning a much higher salary. So your salary depends on whether you're training or qualified really.

As for which qualification to study, it again is personal preference. A lot of people seem to think that ACA/ACCA is better, but I think it's just because they're more heard of. It depends what sort of accountant you want to be really; ACA is Chartered Accountant, ACCA is Certified Chartered Accountant, CIMA is Management Accountant, and CIPFA is Public Finance Accountant; so it depends which specific field you want to go into as to which would be the best to study. None are 'better' than the other.

In the end it's really up to you, do a little research and see what appeals to you personally the most. Although in my opinion I would say apply to all of the different options anyway, as if you change your mind you've still got the option there; much better then thinking you want to do one thing, later changing your mind, and regretting not applying/having the other option there. I've changed my mind over the year, and am now so glad that I looked into/applied to all of the options, else I would be regretting not doing now.

Hope I've been some help, let me know if you have any other questions, I'll try my best to answer them

[MalteseMalteser]

ahh thank you very much! I was hoping to go into Tax Financial Accounting, so I guess the ACA/ACCA is more appropriate. I was planning on applying to all three options, but being realistic I think the only two options that will reply back with offers are 1 and 3 - but that's the way the cookie crumbles
which option did you take if you don't mind me asking?

[s.may]

You're welcome, glad I could be of help

Yeah I'd say apply to them all and see what happens.

I appplied to all three, unfortunately didn't get accepted on 2, but I didn't hold my hopes too high for it so wasn't too disappointed. I was favouring 3 at the time of applying, and nearly didn't even apply for 1, now however I'm favouring 1 much more, and providing my results are alright in August I'm off to uni in September!

[MalteseMalteser]

ahh right okay, if I was going to go for option 2 I would probably go for KPMGs school leavers scheme, but then I'll apply to them all anyway. I'm still inclined more to go to uni than take up an apprenticeship because that seems to be the norm nowadays, and uni life should be fun
Which universities did you apply to? and which ones did you firm and insure?

[shane1989]

(Original post by MalteseMalteser)
Hi all, this is my first thread so sorry in advance if I do anything wrong I wish to have a career as a tax accountant and was wondering what the best way to do this is? From what I've looked up, I've found three ways to get into the field:

1) Get a degree from university in accountancy and finance or economics, however this will of course be subject to the ghastly £9000 tuition fees, plus if I don't come out with at least a 2:1 degree it seems that I won't be allowed to join any accountancy firms - the entry grades for the uni courses seem pretty high at around AAA-AAB.

2) Hope to become part of a Big4 school leavers scheme such as KPMG or PwC, even though this allows me to leave uni pretty much debt-free with a degree and possibly with a job, I realise that competition for these schemes is rife and so I think it's very unlikely that I'll actually be accepted into these school leavers schemes.

3) Join a school leavers scheme with smaller accounting firms such as RSM Tenon, Grant Thornton etc. These would give me an ATT, then a CTA, and a lot of experience in the same time that it would take me to get the same qualification through a degree, but will I lose out to the people with degrees? Apparently once you reach ACA/CTA your education doesn't matter - it's all about the experience.

Any help would be appreciated, I'm confused about which route to go down as I'm applying to universities in September-time. Which is better in terms of salary? I've also heard that CIMA is not as good as ACA/ACCA, whether this is true or not I don't know.

Cheers guys!

CIMA is suited to people who want to work in a company in a finance function eg. FA, FC, FD, HoF etc.

ACA & ACCA focuses on public accounting and suits people who want to work for an accounting firm or start their own.

ALL qualifications have their unique pathway but ultimately joins at 1 point.

I'm CIMA PQ. Aim is to be a Finance Director. I like attending board meetings as opposed to auditing accounts all day so CIMA was the perfect option for me.

[s.may]

(Original post by MalteseMalteser)
ahh right okay, if I was going to go for option 2 I would probably go for KPMGs school leavers scheme, but then I'll apply to them all anyway. I'm still inclined more to go to uni than take up an apprenticeship because that seems to be the norm nowadays, and uni life should be fun
Which universities did you apply to? and which ones did you firm and insure?

First of all apologies on the very delayed reply.. had allsorts going off lately.

Yeah I'd say just apply to them all and see what happens, no harm in trying, and you can always just decline them if you change your mind

I'm in the same position now, this time last year I was favoring an apprenticeship, however now I can't wait to get off to uni! haha, it sure should be

I applied to Newcastle, Worcester, BBP Birmingham, BPP Bristol and Leeds Met. I've firmed Worcester and insured Leeds Met. Where are you thinking of applying?

[ekudamram]

So glad I saw this thread, I didn't want to resurrect an old thread and so I'm just going to jump on this bandwagon...

I am going into uni this year to study maths, I really want to be an accountant when I graduate, however what is putting me off isn't the competition, everywhere is competitive these days, its that I'm not sure how I can go about this.

Obviously, there is the securing of a training contract, studying for exams and after three years hopefully become a fully fledged accountant.

I realise that in order to cut my teeth in the business and to gain experience, I will need to spend the first few years working for a firm, but I want to become self employed, I really want to work for myself, not in the sense I dont like taking orders, more that I feel more driven and satisfied doing things for myself. Also, I love my hometown, and would love to end up here and work for myself.

How would I go about this? I mean I have no clue. What is the timeframe needed (roughly) before people start to get their own clients, also, how do they get clients? Are there any extra qualifications needed for this?

Any help would be really appreciated!

[s.may]

I origionally wanted to study maths at uni too! however changed my mind to accountancy.

I think in order to qualify as an accountant you'd have to do the apprenticeship/training contract thing, however depending on which company you do this with some will allow you to start at a higher level because you have a degree (even if not in accountancy) although this does depend on the firm.

If you like and want to work in your hometown it's likely that you'll be able to do your training with a local firm in your hometown if you wanted. As for how to get your own clients I'm not entirely sure to be honest :/ you wouldn't need any extra qualifications (as far as I know) but unfortunately I can't help you with how to get them, it's worth thinking about though and I'd be interested to know too as I wouldn't mind becoming self employed either As for how long it takes, once you're qualified you're able to set up your own business, building up a reputation and clients will however inevitably take longer unfortunately.

Hope that's a little help, and sorry I couldn't be of further help.

[ekudamram]

Very helpful! (+rep)

I have considered changing to accountancy, but damn, I love maths!

The only downside of trying to get a training contract in my hometown is that there are only small firms there, aside from a small PWC office specialising in tax, which I don't want to do.
Small firms dont tend to take on people to train, it costs a lot of money and at this current time, no-one seems to be investing in people

[s.may]

Aww thanks!

Haha, yeah I've always been a maths person too. If you really wanted you could do one of those joint Maths with Accounting, or an Accounting and Financial Mathematics course, but if maths is what you love then stick with it

Yeah that's a point, it depends, people often want to train with one of the big companies because as long as you do alright then you've got an almost guaranteed job at the end of it for as long as youwant really, the smaller local firms however may not have a job for you at the end if it, or not for long, but if you want to go self employed then it's not so important.

Recently small firms are taking on more apprentices though, as they get paid to train you now I think? One of my friends has just started with a local firm to her; okay it may not be one of the smallest firms like some around where I live, but it's still a fairly small firm. You could always apply for things like the Kaplan scholarship too?