My Personal Reply to the thread "In Over My Head"
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I've read all the posts on the thread entitled "In Over My Head" and felt it appropriate to respond via a new thread.
Having done AAT and then completing ACCA I know exactly how some of you feel about the course. The trick is to understand WHY AAT put various aspects in the course structure that you feel you don't understand or can never "get your head round".
Firstly, my advice to you guys who are thinking of giving up is NOT TO. Employers these days look at potential employees and in this day and age, employers are looking for, not only experience, but qualifications. By studying for, and qualifying in the AAT you stand to not only enhance your earnings potential (not that that should be the exclusive reason to do the course) but also your career potential. If I had two CV's one AAT qualified and one not, the AAT qualified would get the job. This isn't discriminating the person who isn't qualified, but by getting the qualification, you are technically competent, professionally regulated by virtue of the AAT's rules and also have far more status than somebody who isn't either studying for or has studied for AAT.
There are going to be aspects of the course which you feel you are "in over your head" - that is simply a fact of life. What you have got to try and achieve is "mind over matter" by focusing on the positive aspects of what you can do in, say, a costing paper rather than what you can't. Don't forget you don't need to get the whole paper right to pass the exam - the trick is to get the BASICS right. If you master this you'll pass.
Certainly if any of you go on to study for further professional qualifications, eg. ACCA you are bound to come up on papers which you feel like you are pushing water up mountains. I know I did but when you pass and you pass the AAT exams you will really feel like you have achieved something. If you give up you will spend the rest of your lives thinking "if only".
In terms of crap tutors - if you experience these COMPLAIN!!! Bloody hell, these people are being paid to get you through exams - don't put up with it! I've read countless numbers of threads about people whose tutors just can't be arsed. This is unacceptable. Make it known to your tutor that you are going to complain about them and give them the opportunity to put right their wrongs - if you don't they get away with doing a crap job. Would you get away with that?
Hope this helps those of you who are at their wits end to give you a bit of inspiration to carry on the upward struggle - it's worth it.
Kind regards
Steve
Having done AAT and then completing ACCA I know exactly how some of you feel about the course. The trick is to understand WHY AAT put various aspects in the course structure that you feel you don't understand or can never "get your head round".
Firstly, my advice to you guys who are thinking of giving up is NOT TO. Employers these days look at potential employees and in this day and age, employers are looking for, not only experience, but qualifications. By studying for, and qualifying in the AAT you stand to not only enhance your earnings potential (not that that should be the exclusive reason to do the course) but also your career potential. If I had two CV's one AAT qualified and one not, the AAT qualified would get the job. This isn't discriminating the person who isn't qualified, but by getting the qualification, you are technically competent, professionally regulated by virtue of the AAT's rules and also have far more status than somebody who isn't either studying for or has studied for AAT.
There are going to be aspects of the course which you feel you are "in over your head" - that is simply a fact of life. What you have got to try and achieve is "mind over matter" by focusing on the positive aspects of what you can do in, say, a costing paper rather than what you can't. Don't forget you don't need to get the whole paper right to pass the exam - the trick is to get the BASICS right. If you master this you'll pass.
Certainly if any of you go on to study for further professional qualifications, eg. ACCA you are bound to come up on papers which you feel like you are pushing water up mountains. I know I did but when you pass and you pass the AAT exams you will really feel like you have achieved something. If you give up you will spend the rest of your lives thinking "if only".
In terms of crap tutors - if you experience these COMPLAIN!!! Bloody hell, these people are being paid to get you through exams - don't put up with it! I've read countless numbers of threads about people whose tutors just can't be arsed. This is unacceptable. Make it known to your tutor that you are going to complain about them and give them the opportunity to put right their wrongs - if you don't they get away with doing a crap job. Would you get away with that?
Hope this helps those of you who are at their wits end to give you a bit of inspiration to carry on the upward struggle - it's worth it.
Kind regards
Steve
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Comments
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Re:My Personal Reply to the thread "In Over My Head"
Very well said!!! I totally agree about the bit about rubbish tutors especially - it's your wasted time and money if their not up to scratch and the AAT should know to avoid other students falling into the same poor service.0 -
Re:My Personal Reply to the thread "In Over My Head"
I'll probably be lynches for my answer to this thread but I feel it needs saying....
Firstly Peugeot, your comments are all valid and the points you raise are very true. However, I have to disagree with you about the fact that 'the AAT qualified will always get the job'.
I've worked in accounts for 10 years (I have an accounts degree) and have done all aspects of the job and have done them well. On many occasions I have worked with people who are ACCA/CIMA part qualified and they know bugger all about doing accounts in a pratical environment. Yes they can waffle on about standards till they are blue int he face but get them to apply it to the real world or compile a set of accounts in Excel and they flounder. I have beaten many far more qualified people to get good well paid jobs because I know what I'm doing and can prove it by having done it. The reason I have done AAT is purely and simply because agencies are so crap. I was made redundant about a year ago and found that agencies who know sod all will only look at your CV if it has 'the right letters in it'.
So to summarise, yes the AAT qualification is worthwhile and is one of the better qualifications for assessing practical knowledge also but in my opinion there is no substitute for being able to do the job by doing it. And you won't get that from a textbook.0 -
Re:My Personal Reply to the thread "In Over My Head"
Hi
Actually Nicky I agree with you too. I have found the AAT good for helping me to understand the basics behind what packages like Sage are actually doing but the majority of my work is much more complex than the text books e.g. my VAT return is a multi-company special scheme which takes a good morning to produce not a click of a button.
But doing the qualification has given my Finance Manager (an me) more confidence to be given more complex work which I have pushed for and my knowledge so far has really helped me.
First hand experience in accounts can't be replaced by textbooks but for those who do not have a job yet it its a great recognised start.
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Re:My Personal Reply to the thread "In Over My Head"
I agree with the comments made here but that is why the AAT ask for the work experience too. That's the difference between AAT qualified and MAAT.
Annette0 -
Re:My Personal Reply to the thread "In Over My Head"
Hi NickyAllen,
Yes, your points are valid and are fair enough.
However, please don't take my comments in a context to which they are not intended.
My comments were based on MY own personal experience with employers and their recruitment processes. For example, I worked in a medium-sized practice a few year's ago and it was their policy that certain positions MUST have certain qualifications. Other positions did not warrant certain qualifications and thus the HR department usually relied upon their judgement together with Staff Partner's influence.
What I was trying to get at was, in this day and age, if two CV's were presented to me - one with either AAT fully qualified or AAT partly qualified and the other with NO qualifications - I would be more inclined to put the fully/partly qualified person higher up the list than somebody who hasn't got any qualifications.
I attended a CPD course a few month's ago and the speaker there stated that in view of the Government's lack of trust in the accountancy profession post Enron etc. etc. employers these days are looking for qualifications AND experience rather than the old traditional "qualified by experience" classification.
I agree entirely that there are ACCA/CIMA/ICAEW/CIPFA qualified/part qualified people who are crap at their job - we've had them employed at the firm I work for and they were abismal. However, experience does count for a lot as exams are purely academic and whilst technically demanding can sometimes be worthless in the real world. Take for example, one client of mine who had to do a Goodwill impairment test. She is CIMA qualified, knows all about IAS concerned with Goodwill impairment - but she couldn't apply the test!
It is fair to say that experience and qualifications must interact and that employer's today prefer to see qualifications and experience rather than just experience on its own merit. There are going to be students/members who possibly don't agree with my comments which is fine, everybody is entitled to their opinions. I re-iterate that I have based my comments/opinions on my year's of experience in the real world and also within the organisations which I have worked in over the years.
Please don't throw the thread out of context. The aim of the thread was to try and ensure those who were struggling with some aspects of the course were given a bit of motivation. I did not intend for it to be a debate on whether a potential employee with no qualifications would get a job.
Kind regards
Steve0