Newly Qualified Salary in West Midlands

According to this link, ~£40k

https://www.artisrecruitment.co.uk/Media/Artis%20AF%20Salary%20Survey%202017.pdf

Salaries tend to be higher in industry than in small practices, so depends on where you want your career to go?

It’s possible yes – I’d say you’re being underpaid at below 20k, depending on how many exams you have completed.

However you need to be smart in your salary negotiations with your new job. For a start, do not tell them your current salary, even if they ask. This guarantees they will only offer you a low salary again.

Don’t tell them your current salary, even if they insist. Deflect this question if you have to. If you really, really need to you can say your expectations but avoid doing this until you’ve actually been offered the job.

Read this article – it’s American but most of it applies.

https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/

What you need to do is change your mindset a little and treat a job offer and salary negotiation as a two way business transaction rather than being scared of recruiters/managers and letting them have all the power and dictate to you.

As you’re over halfway through your exams I’d say you could probably get a significant payrise by moving right now, if you wanted to. Depends on if you think the experience and other benefits you get in your current role are worth staying for.

Well that’s a decision you’d have to weigh up.

Pros of leaving:

– Get paid more
– Possibly broaden your experience depending on the role

Cons of leaving:

– Will have to pay back exam fees. These clauses have actually been shown to be unenforceable in practice, but it’s up to you whether you’d want to fight that battle, which leads on to my next point…
– Could damage your relationship with your current employer, which could come back to bite you in the future
– If you choose the wrong job you could get lower quality experience than you do now
– Changing job is a risk, you can be fired more easily from a new job

Bear in mind that your current employer is not going to offer you anything like 40k when you qualify if you’re on less than 20k now, even if that’s the going rate. Does your contract stipulate you have to stay with them for a certain amount of time after qualifying to avoid paying back fees?

So if you stay in this job you’re probably going to be underpaid for at least 2 more years – 1 year ’til you finish the exams and 1 year afterwards.

Might be worth having a conversation with your manager to see if they’d consider giving you a raise. Say that the market rate for a part qualified accountant with a couple of years experience is significantly above what you’re getting now and you would like a raise to get you closer to that level, considering you’re getting towards the end of your exams and have a couple of years (?) experience now. Don’t ask don’t get!

Well, have the conversation and if the outcome is not satisfactory then you can look for other jobs. I would imagine you could significantly increase your salary now which may make it worth paying back any exam fees.