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How To Start A Career In Accountancy

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I have been interviewing this week for a trainee role in a practice and have been struck by a number of things, which I thought it would be worth writing about. 

There appears to be very little career advice available to young people on how to find the right job or how to go about starting a career in accountancy and I have the impression that many younger people rely heavily on job boards to come up with the right role for them. Whilst it is undoubtedly true that job boards have lots of roles available, some of which might be at the trainee level, there are other ways of enhancing your job chances but they do involve being pro active.

If you are serious about being an accountant then working in an accountancy practice is a good way to start, You will get a good grounding in basic bookkeeping, which will stand you in good stead for the rest of your career. You will also usually get study support. So how do you get a job in an accountancy practice?

My husband runs a small accountancy practice and for many years he used to get what he called "Give us a job" letters. He now very rarely gets them and when he does he reads them as it shows that person has been pro active in their job search and really wants to be an accountant. It is therefore worth looking at Yell.com under "Accountancy Practices", finding the name and email of the staff partner or person who owns the business and then emailing them a copy of your CV with a polite covering letter explaining why you want to be an accountant and asking if they have any openings. I would then keep in touch with a brief email every month just to let them know you are still looking. Guess who the first person will be then when they do have a role they are recruiting for! . Good luck!

Next week - how to work out if accountancy is the right role for you. Have a great week. Jeanette Robinson FREC (Hon)