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Hi,
Is £30k a fair salary for a newly qualified (July this year) working in a relatively small practice? I agreed to this before thinking and am wondering if this is too low.
Thanks
Hi,
I have done some research as I am due to sit my final exam in December 14.
If I qualify I will be negotiating 31k to 35k as this seems to be the norm in my area.
I am already liasing with recruitment firms who agree this level is appropriate, however my situation is different. I have 23years of Accounts Practice & Audit experience and have just studied ACCA in the last 3 years.
The reason I took up ACCA is my current firm pay me nowhere near this level and I feel I am worth a lot more.
If I pass and they dont budge then its bye bye!!
Marky
Thanks everyone for your replies,
To answer Carl’s question, I have been working in accountancy for approx 4 years in a small practice. All of our clients operate under FRSSE so no experience to big clients. We do do a Statutory Audit but only one.
TBH I banged out my ACCA as it had been 2 years since my degree graduation so I was still in ‘pass exams’ mode if you know what I mean. I will be speaking to some recruiters today who seem to have found my details and try to get some more info.
I think I more inclined to move into industry so am having a think about that. In relation to why I am unsure about my pay is because I know I can leave for new ventures but don’t want to leave and then realize that it was not what I had hoped.
Regards,
I have had some free time today so have been trawling through some threads. I’ve noticed Carl that you mentioned that you are a hiring manager. What do you look at when assessing an applicant with only practice experience? Are people like desirable to big companies? Although the majority of what I do is statutory related, my work is very varied (management accounts, assurance engagements, VAT), and I believe easily transferable. Will this keep me in good stead with potential industry roles?
I am not gonna be one of those people who just states that salary depends on your experience, skills etc. What I will say is that as a newly qualified based in London, anything less than £35k and you could get more elsewhere. I managed to get £40k as a newly qualified myself, and now 1 year post qualified and I am at nearly £50k.
If I am hiring, I need someone that can do the job. I am generally very busy and although I am more than happy to train people, a proactive approach is welcomed. I would take someone with experience and no qualification over someone part qualified any day, I have seen people who are brilliant at passing exams, but struggle with the actual job, I think ACCA study can sometimes paint a bit more of a glorified picture of an accountants role than it can be, don’t get me wrong, I love my job, but I am at the top of the tree, there were times on the way up when doing the monotonous tasks I had to question if I had chosen the right career
I have recently employed someone to deputise me (an assistant financial controller), for that role I looked for someone that knew their way round the GL, had experience of month end reporting, and could do the basic stuff, accruals/prepayments, balance sheet recs, some accounts prep without any supervision. Good excel experience is essential these days too, as a minimum I would expect someone to be comfortable with pivot tables, various formulae etc.. but most people are comfortable with that.
As an industry manager, I would certainly welcome a practice candidate, the work is more varied in industry I think, but can be quite a bit more stressful due to the deadlines etc… and working with non finance people can be incredibly frustrating at times……especially when they run the company
Here is an Irish website that give a good breakdown over the first five years post qualification in Euro:
https://www.barden.ie/misc/BardenEarningCurve_SalaryOct14.pdf
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