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being an accountant

hey guys. im doing my a levels right nw nd am thinkin about being an account. chartered accountant sounds reli kool..cud some1 help me out by tellin me how would i get into it.(prefeably bein a chartered accountant). nd wts da diff between private/public accountant and a chartered accountant.qualification needed and da sorta jobs they do wise.
thanks in advance

Reply 1

EconLou

12

Ok, well i'm not one, but both my parents are!
Firstly qualifications to be a charted accountant, you get your qualification from The Institute of Chartered Accountants (http://www.icaew.co.uk/) this takes 3 years to get, and involves both exams and workings.
Many companies take on graduates (most CAs are grads, although you can become one without a degree by first becoming an acounting tech. which some companies take people on to train as after A Levels)
If you train to be an accountant there is a wide variety of things you can do business wise, accountants cover work such as Audit, Tax and advisory, although after qualifying you may decide that you want to go into something else in business, say run your own company.
For more info I suggest looking at www.pwc.com/careers (PWC are the biggest financial services firm and take on around 1000 grads each year to train mainly as accountants, there is loads of info on the web site)
The other 3 firms which make up the "big 4" in professional services are
www.kpmg.com/careers
http://careers.deloitte.com/
http://www.ey.com/global/content.nsf/International/Careers

I think you can find most of the info you would want browsing the links i've given

Louise

Reply 2

EconLou

12

This is very relevant: http://www.pwc.com/uk/eng/car-inexp/graduate/assurance-training.html

Reply 3

EconLou

12

This is also really great: http://www.icaew.co.uk/careers/

Reply 4

Font

accountancy is boring and if an occupation for failed mathematicians who cant handle differential equations and stuff....Actuarial science is where its all at,

phil

Reply 5

nepali_babu

OP

thnx for da info. so basically to become an accountant..u need a degree. (wts da most suitable degree to have) i was thinkin bout maths nd maybe maths and computing. will that do. neway afta the degree..u need to do few more exams to get into the institue. hw many years will dat take??

Reply 6

nepali_babu

OP

Phil23

accountancy is boring and if an occupation for failed mathematicians who cant handle differential equations and stuff....Actuarial science is where its all at,

phil

so i guess acturial science is to become an actuary. wt are the steps to take to become an actuary.like once u get ur degree on acturail science..wt do u do??

Reply 7

Davie_Moyes

1

Accounting might be boring for some, but enjoyable for others. We all have different tastes, thats with the world is unique.

Dr Shrestha, you could do an accreditied Accounting degree which would give you maximum exepmtions from all the CA's exams. My degree at Glasgow gives maximum exmeptions from all the major Accounting bodies which means I can sit some of the CA exams at Uni and only have to do 2 years instead of 3.

Reply 8

emma155

1

Dr Shrestha

hey guys. im doing my a levels right nw nd am thinkin about being an account. chartered accountant sounds reli kool..cud some1 help me out by tellin me how would i get into it.(prefeably bein a chartered accountant). nd wts da diff between private/public accountant and a chartered accountant.qualification needed and da sorta jobs they do wise.
thanks in advance

I'm going to try and become an accountant without going to university. Some companies do apprenticeships where they send you off for a day a week to do AAT, then ACA, then higher ones. I'm trying to apply for jobs like 'trainee accounts assistant', and 'junior accounts assistant', you get the training and most of the time the qualifications, then you just carry on gaining more, and experience. I don't know where I'll end up with it...some companies require admin/office experience, so I'm also applying for those types of jobs too, because in a year, i'll have that experience then.

Reply 9

KingsComp

6

Dr Shrestha

thnx for da info. so basically to become an accountant..u need a degree. (wts da most suitable degree to have) i was thinkin bout maths nd maybe maths and computing. will that do. neway afta the degree..u need to do few more exams to get into the institue. hw many years will dat take??

Nope you DONT need a degree, you can choose to do the AAT -> ACA route instead. You can apply for the AAT straight after your A-Levels, but don't assume there will be any less competition, infact I have heard that that getting an AAT contract is harder than an ACA. The benefit of this route is instead of burdening yourself with student debt, you will infact be getting paid!

Alternatively, you can opt for the Degree -> ACA route, most firms if not all don't specify any specific degree subject, in fact you may be surprised to know that only 4% of ACAs studied accountancy at university. However if you want to do a relavant subject then you can opt for the following subjects:

Mathematics
Management
Accountancy and Finance
Economics

If you do a management degree, you can get quite a significant number of exemptions from the ACA exams. If you refer to the ICAEW website, there is a link showing all the courses at all the universities that lead to exemptions and it also shows the number of exemptions you can get from each course.

As a final point I would say is, firms do like students who have a good grip on mathematics, so if you dont have an A/B GCSE grade, I would suggest you do an A-Level in Maths, as employers favour students with a strong mathematical ability.

Reply 10

username9303

3

Dr Shrestha

so i guess acturial science is to become an actuary. wt are the steps to take to become an actuary.like once u get ur degree on acturail science..wt do u do??

hi, i've just finished my first year of actuarial science at LSE so i thought i'd try to help. when you finish the 3 year course, you could either look for a job as an actuary, or you could apply for the specific 1-year actuarial course they offer at City university to sort out even more of the exemptions. However, its usually better to get into an actuarial company - getting into PricewaterhouseCoopers would guarantee you so much potential with regards to high earnings and promotions. you do, regrettably, have to still study while you're working to get the final exemptions. as soon as you become an actuary you can apply to be a member of the Institute/Faculty of Actuaries, based on High Holborn, London - and when you get all your exemptions you become a fellow. starting pay as an trainee actuary is upwards of £30k, and if you look in the Occupations book that should be in your careers library, an actuary is rated as the highest paid occupation, topping at £150k+ a year. obviously you can earn bucket loads more if you have your own consultancy or whatnot.

hope this helps, ollie.

Reply 11

nepali_babu

OP

olliemccowan

hi, i've just finished my first year of actuarial science at LSE so i thought i'd try to help. when you finish the 3 year course, you could either look for a job as an actuary, or you could apply for the specific 1-year actuarial course they offer at City university to sort out even more of the exemptions. However, its usually better to get into an actuarial company - getting into PricewaterhouseCoopers would guarantee you so much potential with regards to high earnings and promotions. you do, regrettably, have to still study while you're working to get the final exemptions. as soon as you become an actuary you can apply to be a member of the Institute/Faculty of Actuaries, based on High Holborn, London - and when you get all your exemptions you become a fellow. starting pay as an trainee actuary is upwards of £30k, and if you look in the Occupations book that should be in your careers library, an actuary is rated as the highest paid occupation, topping at £150k+ a year. obviously you can earn bucket loads more if you have your own consultancy or whatnot.

hope this helps, ollie.

hey again..i must sound really stupid but what does 'EXEMPTIONS' actually mean. ppl seem to be using the word quite often so it must be quite important.

Reply 12

stratomaster

what does an acturist do?

Reply 13

EconLou

12

In the words on an accountant I know, Actuarial Science is for those who found accountancy too exciting... :tongue:

Don't get too caught up in the needing to be good at maths to be ac accountant. You don't. To be an accountant you need to be good at aritmatic, not maths. knowing calculus won't help, but being able to spot mistakes in lists of figures quickly will. As an example, my mother failed O Level maths, and yet still trained with PWC (one of the best firms) as an accountant.

Reply 14

EconLou

12

olliemccowan

and if you look in the Occupations book that should be in your careers library, an actuary is rated as the highest paid occupation, topping at £150k+ a year. obviously you can earn bucket loads more if you have your own consultancy or whatnot.

hope this helps, ollie.

It's not only acturial science that you can make money in though, the partners at somewhere like PWC will easily make over 150k, and you can become a partner from any of the departments, that includes assurance, advisory, tax and actuarial science.

Basically, if you are any good you are going to be making good money in any of the professional services routes.

Reply 15

EconLou

12

stratomaster

what does an acturist do?

http://www.actuaries.org.uk/Display_Page.cgi?url=/maintained/about_the_profession/whatis.html

Reply 16

username9303

3

Dr Shrestha

hey again..i must sound really stupid but what does 'EXEMPTIONS' actually mean. ppl seem to be using the word quite often so it must be quite important.

basically if you leave school after your a-levels to be an actuary, you have to take a certain amount of exams before you are a 'qualified' actuary. a degree in actuarial science contains modules which are the same as what you would learn for some of these exams, therefore if you get a high enough score you can be exempt from those particular exams because you have already done them at uni. a degree in ActSci from LSE gives you about 8 exemptions but still leaves you with a few more years of exams, while you're working and earning. hope this helps.

Reply 17

roff

2

to all those that said accountancy is boring, what a bunch of liers.

accountancy is so much fun!! especially when you advise a client and then they tell you that they dont think you're advise is good enough, it can stir up so much controversy. knuckle-gripping stuff!

Reply 18

emma155

1

ramroff

to all those that said accountancy is boring, what a bunch of liers.

accountancy is so much fun!! especially when you advise a client and then they tell you that they dont think you're advise is good enough, it can stir up so much controversy. knuckle-gripping stuff!

lol!! Sounds great, I really want to be an accountant, don't know why people think its boring though :rolleyes:

Reply 19

Neocortex

emma155

lol!! Sounds great, I really want to be an accountant, don't know why people think its boring though :rolleyes:

well it depends what area you work in as an accountant type. accounts is quite variable. for me company evaluation and areas like this are quite more exciting in consultancy areas or advisory roles. but tell me to do mundane accounts and calculations will bore me out (infact i am now doing work exp in an accounts area of the financial control of a normal non finance firm) drives me sleepy doing statements, looking at ledgers etc. lol

It just depends on your taste, accounts is by no means a fast paced job, you need to be very careful and detailed work. While actuary involves lot of hectic maths calculating risks like insurance areas (prudential, allianz, pwc, deloitte, kmpg, ernst & young, to name but a few)

Actuaries do earn alot but they are quite specialised and involves as they say lot of professional examinations. While accountants job is quite wide spread.

being an accountant

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