Congratulations, you’re officially a qualified accountant – and your timing is impeccable.
The demand for accounting skills is higher than ever, as companies worldwide struggle to find qualified professionals to join their teams. Existing accountants are leaving their roles in record numbers, leaving endless opportunities for you to find the ideal position.
The question is, where should you be starting with your new accountancy career path?
Qualified accountants have several opportunities, from internal auditing to public practice accounting. The best option for you will depend on what kind of work you’re most comfortable with and what your long-term plan looks like.
Here are just some of the career paths you can consider.
1. Public Practice
Upon earning an ACA, many people decide to move on from the public practice firm they were training with and look for a position working in a host of different industries.
However, if you like the flexibility and diversity of offering various services to different companies, you might decide to stick with public practice accounting.
If you qualified with a small to mid-sized practice, you could consider shifting into a “Big Four” practice firm or large regional firm to help develop your skills and experience. This will also increase your exposure to several FTSE 500 firms, which you could potentially work with in the future.
Working with a larger firm within public practice can also develop your leadership skills, as you may take on the responsibility for leading other teams.
2. Internal Auditing
With an internal auditing career, you would work inside a business on many financial projects, such as making objective evaluations, managing cash flow risks, and overseeing governance efforts. Usually, you’ll be working as part of a financial team to support and guide a company.
As the number of companies worldwide continues to grow, there are endless opportunities to work as an internal auditor in a host of different environments. To work in this position, you’ll need an analytical mind and comfortable taking initiative and leading others.
Internal auditing roles can also help provide you with exposure to the latest analytical technology to develop your confidence in working with data and problem-solving skills.
3. Group Accounting
If you’re interested in helping larger groups of companies to thrive, then you could consider group consolidation accounting. In this position, you’ll be vital to ensuring the continued success of some of the largest companies in the world.
Most group accountants will work in the head office of the business, ensuring a parent company and all of its subsidiaries are compliant with the correct accounting procedures. You’ll be responsible for preparing consolidated statements. You may be asked to provide financial information that would help with the decision-making process in your company at a board level.
Since you’ll be working with leaders from a host of different companies at once, you’ll need relatively strong communication skills in this role and an intuitive mind. It also helps to have a strong understanding of complex group structures.
4. Tax
If you want to ensure you’ll always find a high demand for your skills in any industry, it makes sense to focus on tax. Tax specialists ensure corporate tax compliance for a host of businesses, from sole traders to enterprises and limited companies.
You’ll be responsible for accurately calculating the tax liability of the clients you work with and answering questions, and preparing tax returns. In tax accounting, you have a lot of freedom to explore different forms of employment.
You can consider working for an agency offering commercial accounting services to various brands or becoming a freelance tax accountant and choosing your hours. As flexible working becomes more popular, a career in this area can give you many options.
5. Management Accounting
Management accounting is another extremely flexible role, where you can build your career with the Big 4, private agencies, startups, and SMEs. As a management accountant, you’ll use a selection of skills, from business strategy to accounting, to help guide and support the development of a business and aid the decision-making process.
Management accountants prepare budgets and forecasts, reporting directly to the senior management group in a business and comparing results to previous years. You’ll also prepare variance analysis and commentary to help guide future choices the business makes and conduct cost analysis tasks according to business needs.
To thrive in management accounting, you’ll need a strong level of attention to detail, exceptional communication skills, and a leadership mindset.
6. Business or Commercial Analysis
If you have an investigative side, or you like solving problems, commercial and business analysis roles could be perfect for you. Your responsibilities in this role will include collecting financial and operational data about the organisations you work with.
Usually, you’ll work alongside other leaders in a team to understand business problems and search for opportunities to solve financial issues. You could help with everything from making products more profitable to assisting companies in making decisions on how to grow the organisation.
You’ll need an eye for detail to succeed as a commercial analyst. Still, if you’re successful in this role, you’ll be able to branch out to a range of future career paths, like operations manager or management consultant.
What’s Next?
No matter what you choose as the ideal career path for your new accounting qualification, it’s important to have the right help in seeking out the best job.
Rebus has years of experience helping newly qualified accounting candidates track down the roles capable of giving them a head-start in their careers. We work with some of the leading financial companies in the country and can help kickstart your future.
Reach out to us today via email or 01282 930 930 to get started.
About Rebus Financial Recruitment
Rebus Financial Recruitment provides a specialist and focused recruitment service to its customers, ranging from various organisations, including SMEs, to large PLCs.
We strive to offer both the client and candidate a seamless recruitment experience. Using our expertise, we get to the heart of employer and employee needs, and, in doing so, we match the two perfectly. To find out more, get in contact with one of our team today, or you can call us on 01282 930930.
