Advice needed: work experience

evie9

Hi everyone,

I desperately need advice. My situation is the following: AAT Level 4 student, given up my permanent job (teaching assistant) to set foot in accounting. However, it seems impossible to get a job because I don't have any practical experience. So far I have been working in education which is not even remotely related to accounting.I tried to apply for entry level jobs, I managed to get only one interview, but usually they don't even reply. I also wanted to volunteer 1-2 days to build up some practical experience but the companies that I approached haven't even answered my emails or they want me to pay to volunteer.

I'd like to ask if it is really that difficult to get a job without experience or it's just me doing something wrong? Thank you for reading this.

Bendy

evie9 said:

Hi everyone,

I desperately need advice. My situation is the following: AAT Level 4 student, given up my permanent job (teaching assistant) to set foot in accounting. However, it seems impossible to get a job because I don't have any practical experience. So far I have been working in education which is not even remotely related to accounting.I tried to apply for entry level jobs, I managed to get only one interview, but usually they don't even reply. I also wanted to volunteer 1-2 days to build up some practical experience but the companies that I approached haven't even answered my emails or they want me to pay to volunteer.

I'd like to ask if it is really that difficult to get a job without experience or it's just me doing something wrong? Thank you for reading this.

Bendy

I've only just started out on my AAT journey and this is something I'm worried about. I really need to be able to find work and don't want to be in a position where I'm constantly turned down as I have no experience. If any one can offer advice to evie9 and myself it would be greatly appreciated.

Gem7321

It is difficult to get a job without experience but it's not impossible. I would suggest having someone proof-read your CV and covering letter as it may be letting you down if you are not receiving any responses (I would be happy to do this for you if you like). You may have tried this already but try writing (not emailing) to your local accountancy firms and ask them to bear you in mind for any future vacancies they may have - they may consider you in the future or they may have clients looking for accounts staff.

While you are studying and providing you don't mention AAT at all you can complete self-employed bookkeeping work so you could try putting some leaflets and cards up in your local area.

Don't give up!

ariadne

I found an internship website with accounts type work listed, I'm not ready to try yet. Finding voluntary work can be tricky, so far church and school are potentials for future work but I'm not convinced this is particularly helpful. Aside from applying to open recruitment drives it may be helpful to exploit your contacts to the full. Do you have friends or family working in companies who have accounts departments? My husband works for a large national company and is convinced it would be fine to ask a colleague in accounts to do a day shadowing at the very least. Then you've made another contact who may know other accountants and so on. I imagine it's similar to the requests for school kids to do a week work experience but less problematic as you are an adult and used to the working environment, so no CRB/DBS issues and less supervision or explanation needed, especially as you are studying the subject. You might find it easier to get voluntary work if you commit to a full time role for a limited period - my sister did this to get into her dream career and it worked, in a much more competitive industry.

If you don't have any general office work experience it may be helpful to try approaching temping agencies for this and you may find the roles encompass some accounts work - my first job included petty cash and recording employee credit card expenses for example. I'd also get someone to look at your CV to make sure you are getting out all the transferable experience relevant to the job. And look out for big recruitment schemes by the big companies and public sector, they often don't ask for experience, some school leavers type work may accept older workers without degrees, or apprenticeships, again if you have no degree. Approaching agencies can be helpful in getting a better idea of what is out there and how to pitch yourself.

Really think about who you know and whether they know someone in accountancy who could help. Mention it to people you meet and you may be surprised. I've considered teaching my degree subject since leaving uni and mentioned this to people and have had two people offer to arrange for me to shadow the relevant teacher at their schools, both at weddings. And a random person at a pub offered to put me in touch with a retired teacher from a top public school. Linked in may help identify those links and agencies use them to recruit.

burg

Gaining work experience has always been the hard part for those who have started studying without first getting a training contract. I did it this way but I found a local bookkeeper that I could help out for free at first in return for some experience. I must have attended around 50 interviews over around 8 or 9 months before I got offered a job that was suitable (I had others offers but the terms were not right for the traveling distances).

Now I'm running my own practice I see things from the other side. Taking on trainees is not easy. When I refer to trainees that is anyone without the practical experience. When you need your first staff member and possibly your second or third it is because you need someone now to help with the workload. Taking on a trainee is not a quick fix. It simply takes a lot of time. I know at the moment we will be in need of someone come April time next year. If I had the time I could take on a trainee now to get them hopefully up to speed by then. The problems are two fold though. The workload currently means there is not necessarily time to train someone with no experience. The other issue is if the candidate does not pick things up quickly enough by April we will be very stuck.

I'd suggest trying as much as you can to get some kind of suitable experience. This could be simple office tasks. Learn to work off your own initiative and demonstrate you can pick things up quickly, maybe my demonstrating you started a module and took an exam and passed all in a quick time frame.

Best of luck

evie9

Hi all,

Thank you very much for your kind words and great advice, which I followed and I have just found a voluntary role. So happy! Thank you for all your support! If anyone here needs any help re primary teaching let me know.

StuartW

Congratulations @evie9! And thanks everyone for your helpful contributions

Alys2014

I'm now in the same position you were in, I retrained as a teacher last year but had to give up after working half a term (the workload and behaviour issues were making me ill). I have a physics degree and considerable work experience but it counts for nought when looking for an entry level accountancy related position!