Am I gaining good experience, or is it a waste of time?

darthblingbling

Hi,

Will be studying level 3 in September. As I have an A Level in maths, I opted to go straight onto level 3; skipping level 2.

I know the course does not guarantee a job in any way, and overall the market is very competitive, so hoping to gain some good experience while I train at night classes.

My current job is a temp position as a banking administrator in the commercial banking division for a major UK bank. The job involves coding/processing/approving invoices, speaking to senior staff members from other departments regarding any queries about the process, investigating any issues in our process and refunding clients if necessary, debiting client accounts in order to rebalance the relevant branch's cost centre. There is potential to move to other teams within the department, but not as part of the accounts payable department it would seem.

It's fairly entry level work; but it's full time with the hours working well around the upcoming AAT course, pays well for the level of work, staff are friendly, and it's a major name. But what I'm worried about is if it's even relevant to what I eventually want to do and if I should be looking for other work. Ideally I'd want to wait until Level 3 is done and dusted before I start looking at more suitable jobs.

We all know how much of a mentally draining and potentially depressing situation the world of job hunting is, and if I'm in a suitable role already I'd rather spend my free time on other tasks.

Overall I'm very excited to be starting the journey; I've heard a lot of positives being mentioned about the course.

StuartW

Hi @darthblingbling

Others will have more knowledge on the relevance of your experience, so I'll leave them to comment on that.

From what you've said I would have thought that having a household name bank on your CV is a big plus. And while the work may not be in the Accounts Payable dept, you are demonstrating that you're responsible, reliable, etc. As it's a temp position you're not committed to it long term, and it could be a good way to build relationships with people in, say, the Accounts payable dept in case of future opportunities.

However as you're also skipping Level 2 that means you're not necessarily going to be exposed to the basics of double entry bookkeeping, etc in your studies or at work. So I'd suggest maybe doing some study around that in your own time before you start Level 3.

Perhaps once you're underway with Level 3 and feeling confident in your studies you could then start looking for something you feel is more directly relevant?

Stuart