Depressed Trainee

Hi guys,
I just wanted some advice for finding a better job. I know in this day and age it is difficult. Im currently studying ACCA (Have a 2.1 Uni degree) and only have 6 exams left. I work for a small accounting firm (and have been for 15 months) and only get paid £13,000 a year. Ive applied to more than a 100 jobs in the last 2-3 months and have heard nothing, not one interview.
I cant apply for the top firms as my Alevels let me down. Any advice? :frown:

What am I doing wrong?

Reply 1

P-K

Have you considered jobs in industry, big companies will pay £15-20k even for entry level jobs.

Reply 2

Polo88

What do you mean by jobs in industry? Ive applied for all types of accounting related jobs.

Reply 3

P-K

Sorry but how can you not know what that means - you've applied for 100 jobs!? If you don't know the difference between industry/practice I would recommend to look it up & do more research instead of churning out more applications.

Anyway you're obviously doing something wrong if you've not heard anything from 100 jobs. You need to work out what is the issue.
Are you sufficiently qualified for the jobs you're applying for? If yes then you need to work on your covering letters/CV as it's not good enough to get you interviews.

You also need to focus more on specific jobs. If I really want a job I will spend at least 6 hours on the application and I tend to get interviews 50%+ of the time.

Reply 4

Hedgeman49

Original post by Polo88

What am I doing wrong?

Qualify then move, you'll have much more open to you then

Reply 5

Polo88

Original post by Hedgeman49

Qualify then move, you'll have much more open to you then

Problem there is where I work isnt chartered. So at best I can only be an ACCA affiliate. Will that help my chances at all?

Reply 6

sonic_dream

Original post by Polo88

Problem there is where I work isnt chartered. So at best I can only be an ACCA affiliate. Will that help my chances at all?

What sort of work do you do? I believe any (accounting/finance-related) work you do can be counted towards your PER as long as the person who signs off the work is a qualified accountant.

Reply 7

Polo88

Original post by sonic_dream

What sort of work do you do? I believe any (accounting/finance-related) work you do can be counted towards your PER as long as the person who signs off the work is a qualified accountant.

VAT Returns, Bank Recon and year end accounts. I asked ACCA if my employer could sign me off but apparently their CPAA qualification isnt recognised. :frown:

Reply 8

sonic_dream

Original post by Polo88

VAT Returns, Bank Recon and year end accounts. I asked ACCA if my employer could sign me off but apparently their CPAA qualification isnt recognised. :frown:

Unfortunate :frown:

Is that the only qualification everyone has on there? Surely someone's come in from the outside with an ACA/ACCA/CIMA qualification?

In any case, I've no idea why you're not even getting an interview. As someone has suggested above, look in industry. You've enough experience to be considered for some sort of trainee role.

Also, have you applied to any agencies? I haven't tried that route before myself, but I've come across/worked with a number of people who've gone through agencies before.

Reply 9

Polo88

Original post by sonic_dream

Unfortunate :frown:

Ive tried a few agencies, they call me and ask if Im interested to which I say yes. Then they email me the job description and thats the last I hear form them. :frown:

Just need to keep looking I suppose.