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Leaving Accounting (ACA)

My role is split into a 9-5pm where I work my shift but then as soon as I get home from work I have to revise from 6-10pm for the ACA exams - it’s exhausting. I don’t know if I have the capacity to maintain this lifestyle any longer. I’ve never hit such a low in my life before (I’m not exaggerating)

Among the 15 ACA exams - certificate (6), professional (6) & advanced (3), I’ve completed only 4/6 certificate exams. My plan is to stay until I finish 6/6 certificate exams & then leave.

My question is, if I leave with ACA certificate exams all passed, but I haven’t done the professional or advanced exams, does this add any value to me as a candidate for any other type of job? Can I use this a way to request for a better starting salary? Will employers consider it at all? Or is it completely useless? Should I avoid sitting the last 2 outstanding exams & just leave immediately?

& lastly, if there are jobs out there that appreciate the ACA certificate exams, what jobs are they?

Thanks :smile:

Reply 1

ajj2000

Hi

How much work experience would you have at the time you have completed the certificate exams?

What size of firm are you with? How much study leave do you get? 4 hours of study a night is 20 hours a week. Sounds slightly high. Are you also studying on the weekends?

Reply 2

akxann

Original post by ajj2000

6 months worth of experience. The firm is top 50 in UK. I revise even longer on weekends - probably 6 hours on each weekend.

Reply 3

ajj2000

Original post by akxann

6 months worth of experience. The firm is top 50 in UK. I revise even longer on weekends - probably 6 hours on each weekend.

Wow - that amount of studying sounds excessive and very possibly counterproductive.

What was your previous education ( a levels, degree) including grades?

Reply 4

akxann

Original post by ajj2000

Wow - that amount of studying sounds excessive and very possibly counterproductive.

What was your previous education ( a levels, degree) including grades?

Very excessive, I did quite poor in my a-levels BBD (Physcology, RS, Maths.) Uni I got a 2:1 BSc Economics.

Reply 5

ajj2000

Original post by akxann

Very excessive, I did quite poor in my a-levels BBD (Physcology, RS, Maths.) Uni I got a 2:1 BSc Economics.

ok - well some good news is that you should have picked up the exam skills required from your previous studies.

My immediate thoughts (which might change a bit had you taken a year or two out and worked or done a year in industry) are that the number of exam passes are probably not the biggest deal should you look to change jobs. Time in employment is much more likely to matter. Having a year of experience with a respectable employer can count for a lot.

With that in mind I would seriously stretch to remain where you are for another 6 months or a year.

Also - try to pm some current ACA students to see how many hours a week they are studying, what their type of exam tuition is and how they are finding it. My bet is that you are doing too many hours for ongoing as opposed to week before the exam revision. You should determine what a reasonable but committed student does (I'll guess 15 -18 hours but suspect that is high) and plan your studies accordingly.

Reply 6

AndyChow

Certificate level is so easy compared to professional & advanced, being part-qualified does not add much market value I'm afraid.

From what I can tell you work for a non-big 4 financial services firm (in audit?), you also don't seem too enthused about accountancy because people who have their eyes set on becoming an accountant would not quit ACA mid-way. If by quitting you mean you are no longer pursuing a career in accountancy, then just try a grad scheme at consulting with your economics degree. Quit after you've been offered. Spoiler alert: the hours in prestigious city institutions suck even more.

With a mediocre A-level and likely a non-target uni you've decided to throw your golden ticket away and settle with mediocrity. I've the perfect place for you: Civil Service. Maybe don't apply for the finance jobs because that'd require you to study in your own time as well, but as a policy person you will have an easy ride. Just don't get jealous when all your ACA-qualified ex-work colleagues overtake your salary 3 years down the road or you get let go in the next round of austerity.

Having a 9-5 is a dream every auditor at Big 4 wish they had. Your hours really don't suck that much and if by studying you mean self-study then 4hr every night you are doing it wrong for ACA Cert. Each paper with the exception of AC should take ~20hr lesson/self study + ~20hr question banks (a week of work), and you should definitely move some of that to the weekends and your annual leave days. I would not study for more than 2.5 hours after work.

From my experience just read the book once and move on to QB, trying to learn every concept in the 300-page book is a huge waste of time, this was what I did wrong at uni. I found it manageable because I strategically placed my annual leave around exams and used weekends to study.

If I'm being brutally honest, you need to work on your resilience. All junior level jobs suck, and you are not going to have worry-free cozy uni days again. I personally have friends in software engineering, medicine, law, private equity, banking. Those are the prestigious jobs and they all have worse hours than you. Those on easy jobs tends to be dead-ends and they'd wish they could work for Goldman Sachs.

Grind through the junior years and the 3-year ACA will increase your market value from 35k to 60k, then you can settle down for an easy 9-5 and cash in on your next 40 years of middle-class lifestyle.