Industry or practice? - The eternal career question for accountants

Becoming a qualified accountant is no easy task. You’re probably working a full-time job alongside your studies. You’ve spent a long day at work, got home and quickly made food. If you’re a parent; entertained your children and put them to bed. It’s dark, it’s probably wet because you live in the UK, but you sit yourself down at your home desk, turn on the lamp and get ready to revise for your upcoming Principles of Taxation exam. Why? Because you’re a dedicated professional who cares deeply about their career. After you’ve completed your exams, had your work experience signed off you’ve done it! You’re a fully certified qualified chartered accountant.

Whilst this is a very exciting time in your life. It can also be a time of uncertainty and introspection After years of hard work and effort, you’ve achieved your goal of being qualified, but the next step you make can be momentous for the rest of your career. Perhaps the most common question asked by accountants at this stage is should I build my career in practice or move into industry? Both lead to very different career paths, but can be equally rewarding. So, the more important question is, what do you want from your career and which path is going to help you achieve that?

Industry

A move into industry is definitely the more popular route. In one survey 48.2% of respondents said they’d prefer to work in-house compared to 33.3% who would rather work in practice (IACEW Website). Why is this? In my conversations with candidates the word variety often comes up. They talk too about a general sense of being able to have a direct influence on a business and its leaders. You will also have greater control over the type of business and sector you work for. For example, some of my candidates enjoy the complexity of working within the retail sector, others love the tactility of working within manufacturing and seeing their end product.

Within industry you have more opportunities to become commercially valuable. By this, I mean that you’re not just reporting on financial figures from the past, but using your accounting skillset to help other areas of a business make key decisions. This could be many things- assisting the sales team to create pricing structures that are more profitable in the long term, helping the purchasing department realise cost savings through changes of terms to contracts. At times, an industry accountant will need to wear a salesperson’s hat, a lawyer’s hat and a CEO’s hat all in the same day. If this variety is what you need from your career, then working in industry is probably the right career path for you.

Practice

Whilst there are fewer people who choose to dedicate their careers to practice after qualifying, for those that do it is probably the only path for them in terms of job satisfaction. This is usually down to one big factor. Being a practice accountant is half technical accounting whizz, half relationship manager. Over time, you will be able to grow your portfolio and the strength of your relationships with your clients. In some cases, you could begin working with a startup who through your financial expertise are able to grow and eventually need a whole host accounting services- auditing, consulting, advice on mergers & acquisitions etc. As your career progresses and your network grows, you’ll make yourself ever more valuable to your employer in what is a very lucrative industry. This is why, for top firms at least, salaries within practice can far exceed those of their industry equivalents.

Work/ life balance

In a 2017 report by the Bank of America 59% of millennials reported feeling worried about finding a career path that supported the lifestyle they’d envisioned for themselves in reference to work/ life balance. Many candidates that I speak to, certainly those who have spent a decade or more as qualified accountants will give me a baseline salary for their search, but then drop that by 5 – 10% if a role has flexible working hours or is a closer commute for them. Up until now, if finding a work/ life balance has been more important than your earnings potential then a career in practice probably isn’t right for you. That being said, with the accelerated growth of working from home roles that the pandemic has brought, this could well be changing even in the short term. On the whole with industry roles the number of hours you work tends to be less. Although, if your ultimate aim is to be a CFO or a Finance Director you probably can’t count on this. This might not be the zeitgeist or fashionable thing to say- but candidates who aim to be CFO’s or FD’s, don’t tend to be too worried about leaving their desk at 17:00.

Whether you should dedicate your career to working in practice or working in industry isn’t a straightforward choice. You have to ask yourself what your career goals are. My advice would be, if you’re not sure, stick at practice for a little while longer. In my experience going from practice to industry is a relatively easy step. Stepping back into practice tends to be a lot more difficult. If your heart is set on working in industry, do your research into the sector you’d like to specialise in. Speak with others who have already made that jump- the more informed decision you can make the better. Whichever path is right for you, you can be sure of one thing- it’ll lead to a wonderful career. So, for all of you who have recently qualified as chartered accountants, enjoy the moment! You’re in for an exciting journey.

If you’re a qualified accountant or are on the road to becoming one, we’d love to hear from you. Identify Finance Recruitment specialises in accountancy & finance roles in the West Midlands. Get in touch with Dan Hayes on 0121 429 8962 or [email protected]