24 years financial services experience to Accountancy - advice please

coolhandflex

Hi

I have done 24 years in various roles within Financial Services and after being made redundant 4 times, I wish to make a career change.

My questions are as follows:

1) Would I have transferrable skills which may help secure a job in accounts?
2) What sort of salary would I be looking at as a trainee and would I going in on the bottom rung of the ladder?
3) I did start studying a few years back and did a test on the AAT site that told me I could come in at level 2. I have 2 Osborne books - Basic Accounting 1 Tutorial 2nd Edition and Basic Accounting 1 Workbook 3rd Edition but these are from 2011. Are these books still relevant?
4) Just some general advice would be appreciated of which exam(s) would be best to make a start on. I work full-time at the moment so studying during the day is not an option.

Thanks in advance

OxonInvestor

Hi

24 years is a long time. You have not provided details of the jobs & responsibiilities & skills / specialism acquired nor your location. Therefore, it's very difficult to advise.

Try to utilise flexible working with your current employer in order to increase study time. (probably best not to mention AAT unless their is a role within finance department - just say family commitments etc.)

Start with AAT Level 2. ... in summary accounting itself doesn't change. ... I went with premiertraining myself.

Basically, Level 2, 3, 4. Once you get Level 4, you should be able to get a job at the £20-25k mark and depending on your previous career experience of Excel (pivot tables & v lookups), accounts - end of year etc. you should be able to get to £30k in a few years. ... work backwards ... LinkedIn is always useful to see what qualifications your future fellow accountancy colleagues have and how they progressed their careers.

If you can, try to go for AAT-ACA or to keep options open AAT-ACCA career pathway.
Google it.

I currently work in Investments / Asset Management in Oxford.

coolhandflex

Hi and thanks for the reply.

I have worked in pension admin, pension review, paraplanning, endowment complaints, regulated complaints and sales support so many different roles. I live in Kent, UK.

Yes, the test I did confirmed I should start at level 2 but there seems to be several different areas of accounting to get into. Are the books I have ok still to study with or are they now out of date ?

OxonInvestor

Okay it seems you are certain AAT is best for you despite your strong pensions background. That's fine.

I don't know re. Books.
I purchased a AAT level 2 course recently from premiertraining. I received the below books. In hindsight I should not have paid for a distance learning package and should have just bought some books.

ISBNs:
978-0-9572353-5-9


978-0-9572353-6-6

978-09572353-8--0

978-0-9572353-7-3

978-1-909173-09-5

978-1-909173-12-5

978-1-909173-03-3

978-1-909173-06-4

Osborne books. I have no idea.

OxonInvestor

If you do use those books can you please post a comment to let me know as their are some mistakes that you will need to correct in the books.

I can let you know what the corrections are.