Job Opportunities for ACCA in India & Abroad

Introduction

ACCA is an international accounting certification with members spread across over 175 countries, equipped with latest accounting skills and knowledge. With over 150 countries mandating use of the IFRS accounting standards for financial reporting, naturally a demand for ACCA certified members jumps up. An ACCA degree presents numerous opportunities to candidates across India as more and more global companies are setting up their subsidiaries, and centres of excellence in India. Owing to its international recognition,?ACCA ?offers its members exclusive opportunities to work abroad at lucrative packages. We thus believe that this provides a unique opportunity for candidates to work in MNCs and seek professional growth.

Opportunities in India

Accounting professionals are required in every company, irrespective of size, business, and location. Just as much as a banking giant requires an engineer, accountants are equally sought after in tech giants like Google, Walmart, Microsoft etc. Global firms like Amazon, Cisco, Oracle, HP, Genpact, Capgemini and others have their local offices spread across the world to cater to client service demands across the globe. So, on an annual basis, they hire qualified accountants in large numbers to ensure proper maintenance of books & records to support their global operations.

Given the availability of skilled, knowledgeable, and certified accountants in India, most of these companies have set up presence of their accounting teams in India. Traditionally, Big4s (PwC; EY; Deloitte & KPMG) are a major employer of ACCAs in India with their global presence. Big4s hire professionals for a variety of roles like solution advisory, business analyst, financial analyst, and others.?

In addition to Big4s, below companies hire ACCAs in large numbers:

• Amazon
• Morgan Stanley
• Credit Suisse
• State Street
• DuPont
• Michael Page
• Experian
• Franklin Templeton
• Northern Trust
• EPIC Investment Partners

Career Opportunities in Abroad for ACCA Qualification

ACCA has entered into membership recognition agreements with other international institutes/bodies. Below is the list of current agreements:

1. Accountants and Auditors Association United Arab Emirates (AAA UAE)
2. Chartered Accountants Australia New Zealand (CA ANZ)?
3. CPA Bulgaria
4. HKICPA Hong Kong
5. MICPA Malaysia
6. CA Sri Lanka

Naturally, ACCA members can look for several job opportunities in these countries where they will be considered at par with locally qualified accountants. Jobs in countries like United Kingdom, UAE, Hong Kong, Australia, Hong Kong offer candidates highly competitive packages and an exclusive lifestyle reserved for the very few.

Some of the biggest recruiters of ACCA members outside India are:

• IBM
• P&G
• Morgan Stanley
• Lloyds Banking Group
• Bosch
• Shell
• Dell Technologies
• Singtel
• State Street
• Big4s like EY, KPMG, PwC, Deloitte

Lucrative job profiles

In terms of the actual job profiles, below are some of the sought after and exciting opportunities one can get into post-ACCA qualification:

• Financial Controller – helping companies maintain their books & records compliant with relevant requirements
• Financial Planning & Analysis – support business partners in analysis, scenario modelling, manage forecasting and budgeting
• Fund Accountant – help largest fund houses account for complex and varied portfolio of funds, books maintenance and management reporting
• Financial Manager – helping companies manage all the finance-related matters, end-to-end
• Business Analyst – analyse past, historical data and look at forecast to arrive at business-useful strategies
• Management Accountant – providing summarised, crisp financial information to senior management teams for effective business functioning
• Risk Manager – help companies with timely and adequate information on the persistent risks faced by the organisation and suggest risk-mitigant strategies

Life at global companies

Top companies like these are globally renowned for their employee well-being aspects. Not only do they provide lucrative salaries which are above market rate but they also provide additional support in form of health, family, and retirement benefits. Employees are provided with best of class infrastructure in the form of state-of-art corporate offices which would make one feel at home and luxury at the same time.

Companies these days are also planning to rejig their real estate presence by consolidating their teams under a single roof and expanding across cities to attract more local talent especially from tier II-III cities. Further, they have very encouraging internal mobility options to choose from like teams, divisions, cities, and countries, thanks to their large scale of operations.