Is AAT right for me?
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Registered Posts: 5
Hi, I was after some advice/opinions on if AAT or getting into the accounting industry is the right path for me to take? I'm feeling a little uncertain/lost?
A little bit of my background; I'm a male in my late twenties and due to a health condition been out of work for the past 5 years now (previous job history in unskilled manual labour/blue collar jobs). Last year determined to get at least some sort of education went back to college and got my GCSEs in Maths and English. This Summer i was deciding what I wanted to do next and looking through the college prospectus come across the AAT courses. Now my initial opinions on Accounting and from the little I read were positive. The Career being being highly respected, very well payed, in high demand (recession proof), lots of scoope for potential advancement into chartered accountancy (ACCA, CIMA etc) and with AAT being a great stepping stone and well respected qualification in its own right, it would be well worth consideration.
So this September I enrolled onto the AAT foundation course at Collage, luckily being out of work the course was free! (£1000 saved). I'm now just 2 weeks in and trying my best to understand and retain the course material. Anyway i was doing some research on the possible job opportunities once AAT qualified, but from what I've read so far, it's a little demoralising!....
How there are far too many Accountants (AAT and Chartered) out of work competing for limited vacancies. Qualified AAT students without any experience finding it very difficult/almost impossible finding a job. The Saturation of new/already qualified experienced Accountants in the industry resulting in the expected salaries going down. I had a look at the AAT vacancies and it's not what I expected!.....trawling through the vacancies seeing 20-30 applications for 16-18k a year Accounts clerk jobs etc, even Senior Management Accountant vacancies requiring 5+ years experience only managing 20-25k a year?.... Honestly even if I qualify to level 4 with my years unemployment gap on my CV I don't stand a chance!
Maybe I was too nieve thinking the qualification would be a real opportunity and open doors for me....
Now obviously I'm wondering if it would be worth continuing the course, spending the next 3 years studying a course that may be worthless if I don't manage to get a job? Or quitting before I've even began and putting my efforts elsewhere?
Lots of uncertainty?
A little bit of my background; I'm a male in my late twenties and due to a health condition been out of work for the past 5 years now (previous job history in unskilled manual labour/blue collar jobs). Last year determined to get at least some sort of education went back to college and got my GCSEs in Maths and English. This Summer i was deciding what I wanted to do next and looking through the college prospectus come across the AAT courses. Now my initial opinions on Accounting and from the little I read were positive. The Career being being highly respected, very well payed, in high demand (recession proof), lots of scoope for potential advancement into chartered accountancy (ACCA, CIMA etc) and with AAT being a great stepping stone and well respected qualification in its own right, it would be well worth consideration.
So this September I enrolled onto the AAT foundation course at Collage, luckily being out of work the course was free! (£1000 saved). I'm now just 2 weeks in and trying my best to understand and retain the course material. Anyway i was doing some research on the possible job opportunities once AAT qualified, but from what I've read so far, it's a little demoralising!....
How there are far too many Accountants (AAT and Chartered) out of work competing for limited vacancies. Qualified AAT students without any experience finding it very difficult/almost impossible finding a job. The Saturation of new/already qualified experienced Accountants in the industry resulting in the expected salaries going down. I had a look at the AAT vacancies and it's not what I expected!.....trawling through the vacancies seeing 20-30 applications for 16-18k a year Accounts clerk jobs etc, even Senior Management Accountant vacancies requiring 5+ years experience only managing 20-25k a year?.... Honestly even if I qualify to level 4 with my years unemployment gap on my CV I don't stand a chance!
Maybe I was too nieve thinking the qualification would be a real opportunity and open doors for me....Now obviously I'm wondering if it would be worth continuing the course, spending the next 3 years studying a course that may be worthless if I don't manage to get a job? Or quitting before I've even began and putting my efforts elsewhere?
Lots of uncertainty?
0
Comments
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Not a problem on the south cost, all firms down here (including big 4) seem to be struggling for junior staff.0
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Plenty of opportunities for all levels in Buckinghamshire too.0
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Plenty of great opportunities it's just focusing on the right one for you0
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