How do I break into the accounting field?

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  scrimshaw on 28/11/2016 - 14:41

  +3

  1. sit a CPA exam. Should give you a slight competitive advantage
  2. Network like a ninja and get to know people in the right places. Don't be afraid to show your willingness to work hard and show off your personality.
  3. Don't worry about the finer details of the job requirements. The "1-2 year experience essential" is just HR bullshit that you can usually ignore — EVERY bloody business nowadays wants 1-3 year minimum experience but truth is, they are constantly getting swamped with newbie candidates fresh out of uni and those with experience are usually a bit pickier with what company they go to. You just have to play the numbers game and click Apply on every Seek and LinkedIn ad you see.
  • 

    01011010 on 17/01/2017 - 12:48

    +1

    i agree with all of this except for "click Apply on every Seek and LinkedIn ad you see"

    don't apply for every job. be selective about the ones and do your research into who they are and what they offer you.

    the worst thing HR want to hear when they call you up is - 'sorry can you remind me which job this is for'

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  plentifoo on 28/11/2016 - 15:13

  +1

  Yup don’t discriminate against roles, foot into any door always counts for something. But, depending on the organisation you work for, show your enthusiasm to learn and progress through your work ethic. But don’t ever feel too comfortable in a role (mistake I made personally, I don’t entirely regret it but I wish I could’ve tried other areas of accountancy/consultancy while I was younger and willing to do the hours haha). But more importantly, if you have a goal or an area in accounting/business you wanna specifically work in, make sure not to just ‘settle’ in whatever you’re doing because many grads do end up doing just the AR/AP/back office stuff and never more, only to end up hating their profession altogether. Accounting is actually a lot more than that, and if you find a niche specialisation that you are great at and you can capitalise on, it may turn out to be a very satisfying career choice that can lead to so many places. This is going to be regurgitated info, but spend the first 3-5 years in a Big 4 (maybe the first 1-2 in auditing and try for a different service line after as you’ll probably have a better grasp on the industry and what you want to do by then) and then specialize after is probably an ideal route any professional accountant can take.

  While I agree you should take the CPA/CA exam, I wouldn’t advise taking it right at the start without an accounting gig simply because it’s a drain of funds and you won’t be fully qualified until you fulfil the practical work experience component anyway. The only benefit I can see is that potential employers see that you’re aiming to attain a postgrad education. Honestly though, if you are applying for a graduate role, a CPA/CA is not a must-have. The organisation would likely be willing to pay for your education if you are suitable fit for the role and land the job.

  • 

    mchoodie on 28/11/2016 - 18:44

    Agree re doing post graduate studies in accounting if you have your bachelors.

    Let he organisation you join decide that for you. For example If you are CPA, professional services won't hire you at the same level as a CA.

    • 

      plentifoo on 28/11/2016 - 18:59

      Interestingly, most management level personnel have a CPA instead of CA. CA is the standard for people working their way up a Big 4 especially in audit/tax/compliance. It’s certainly more technical than CPA; which is a more top down/big picture approach to study.
      I’d say if you intend to go the commercial accounting route someday, CPA and CA is no different.

      • 

        mchoodie on 29/11/2016 - 14:45

        Where do you source that comment re there are more CPA in "most management levels"?

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  mchoodie on 28/11/2016 - 18:42

  Get any experience you can. You can maximise that by giving yourself the best shot now by lifting your chance of interview. Getting an interview is almost random with so many applications from graduate accountants.

  Whore out your applications during the big Jan 18 herding. Apply to as many as you humanly can. I applied to easily 30+ roles and received to interviews.

  Get yourself some CV headlines to differentiate yourself from others. Work experience (any) is valuable Enrol in a society or two. Try to take part in this actively to, again, differentiate yourself from the crowd.

  The only limitation your marks will have is that you will be auto culled from the employers who explicitly request it as part of their application process. Just means to gotta cast a wider net in terms of number of applications.

  Obviously ace-ing the interview is the next challenge. But in my opinion getting an interview is harder!

  In terms of other skills which employers may look for:
  - can you code?
  - can you speak another language?
  - can you manage commitment

  Good luck!

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  Icecold5000 on 28/11/2016 - 19:56

  +1

  Talk about pushing shit uphill. I read the accounting thread on WP and it was depressing. Guys on 50k after 3 years, grads in Big4 working 60 hours a week and considering themselves lucky.

  How can you get such low grades? I did a postgrad diploma full time while working and got DDDD/HD. It makes it much easier to get jobs with decent grades. Accounting is a field filled with internationals willing to work for $5 an hour for a shot at PR its going to be painful.

  • 

    scrimshaw on 28/11/2016 - 21:37

    There are a lot of accounting grads, and not enough entry level jobs to go around.

    To make the matters worse, as you said, big companies are 'out'shoring their accounting labour at around $5 dollars per hour and although the quality of their CA's are dubious, it's too much of a good bargain to pass up.

    People whinge about this kind of thing a lot in IT too. IT work has been outsourced for god knows how long and Australian graduates are finding it difficult to go past entry level roles.

    Also, here's an excerp from a CPA report:

    ---

    Of the 227 CPA Australia members surveyed, 11.7 per cent stated that their employer offshored some finance and accounting activities. Finance and accounting is the second-most-popular activity to offshore, trailing IT (14.6 per cent of members surveyed said their employer offshored some IT functions). CPA Australia members reported offshoring of the following activities:

    • IT (14.6%)
    • Finance and accounting (11.7%)
    • Manufacturing (9.7%)
    • Call centre (7.2%)
    • Product design (6.1%)
    • Research and development (5.7%)
    • Human resources (5.5%)
    • Procurement (4.9%)
    • Risk and compliance (3.5%)
    • Legal services (2.2%)
    • Marketing and sales (2.2%).

    Compared to countries in the rest of the world, Australian firms offshore a large percentage of activities (Capgemini, 2010).

    However, with respect to finance and accounting activities, it appears that the survey suggests that Australian businesses lag their counterparts in the United States and Europe who report, on average, about twice as much offshoring (CFO, 2004). The most activities are sent offshore by the United States, United Kingdom and Japan, as well as Western Europe (Conference Board, 2005).

    There is evidence across countries and firm activities that offshoring is expected to increase. For example, Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America, testified in front of the United States House of Representatives in 2005 that offshoring represents 4 per cent of American firms’ outsourcing activity, but could total as much as 40 per cent of large firms’ activity in the future

    Read the whole report here
    https://www.cpaaustralia.com.au/~/media/Corporate/AllFiles/D…

  • 

    plentifoo on 28/11/2016 - 21:38

    Not sure if trolling. But there are work laws.
    1) most decent above board companies have a minimum pay wage.
    2) having PR/work visa/citizenship is a prerequisite for employment. Perhaps if ure book keeping or doing data entry for a dodgy Chinese business.

    • 

      [Deactivated] on 28/11/2016 - 22:08

      I think he's exaggerating but truth is entry level accounting in commerce or professional services will never pay highly as supply far outweighs demand.

      A lot of people don't even get paid at all and work internships either for experience or PR points probably both. Heck you even have to go to interviews to work for free

      • 

        plentifoo on 28/11/2016 - 22:26

        Agreed. However a poor job market isn't accounting specific. Other industries are met with the some problems; work free for experience/apprenticeship/internship etc.

    • 

      Icecold5000 on 28/11/2016 - 22:39

      Not trolling. The brutal truth is that entry level accounting positions give points for the professional year requirements when applying for PR. People are actually paying to secure jobs on this basis. If you came from a 3rd world country with the prospect of citizenship in a first world country for 40k I'd pay it too. I am excluding the Big4 and reputable corps from this.

      Sorry OP if I came off as a D-bag. I currently work in a professional services firm and no one checked my grade or even if I had a degree. No one gives a shit where you got your degree from either.

      Happy to discuss via PM as don't want to give too much away here.

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  matthewli88 on 30/11/2016 - 15:32

  BCom and CA here. Worked at EY for three and a half years (audit) and just moved to KPMG (management consulting).

  My experience has been that, other than PwC, the other Big 4 don't really care about your grades. They don't even care about your degree as some of my old audit colleagues had marketing, geography and engineering backgrounds. The key thing they are looking for is…

  an interesting story

  Yep. It sounds like complete bullshit (and frankly it kind of is) but they just care that you have had some interesting life experiences, can hold a conversation with anybody and have some decent social skills.

  Now don't get me wrong. You can't be a complete idiot. Pass the psychometric testing. Definitely study up on some recent economic and commercial news in Australia and globally. Learn about the companies you are applying for. But honestly, without decent social skills and an interesting story you have very little hope in succeeding with just brains.

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  Braintrain1000 on 21/03/2017 - 06:38

  Call immigration and ask them to stop selling Residencies to the accountants etc. Previously the number of entrants in Accounting and Audit field were upto 7500 which now has reduced to 2500 per year. But think about 2000 foreign accountant coming in with real or fake experience of upto 7 to 10 years and see your chances.