How to Progress Your Career

This time of year often provides a natural period of reflection - a time to sit back and reflect on how our careers are developing and to consider the main professional highlights or low points of the previous year.  It’s a chance to take a long, hard look at whether things are heading in the direction we want them to, and to think about whether our chosen career path is the right one.

Suits You
It is usually possible to adapt any career according to our personalities and wider preferences.  For example, you may have decided that accountancy or a career within the finance department is definitely the path you’d like to go down, but for ethical reasons, you’d like to do so within the voluntary sector.  Or, you may prefer to work in a more creative environment and so an accountancy career within the entertainment industry may be more appealing.  In other words the broader structure of your employment can fit in with your overall aspirations as an individual.

Get Qualified
If you decide to change your current position, possibly the main factor you’ll have to consider is whether your current qualifications are enough to see you through. In the UK there are three main accountancy qualifications ACA, CIMA and ACCA*.  In any finance department position, a qualification in one, or all of these certifications is usually a prerequisite. In addition, you will need to assess the main differences between the position you now hold, to the one you’re hoping to fill.  A basic, but effective way to do that is to simply draw up a chart and identify any areas of short fall.  Equally it could be that you’ve already had a number of years as an accounts payable professional for example, and would like a qualification to reflect that.

The Institute of Financial Operations (formed out of the IAPP and other financial asssociations) was founded over 20 years ago in the US, and has been active in the UK Accounts Payable field since 2009, and is the number one professional body in the industry. With the launch of new UK focussed certification material in September 2011, it's only a matter of time before the CAPP (Certified Accounts Payable Professional) qualification becomes the qualification of choice for both AP empolyees and employers.

Expand your Experience
Once you’ve addressed any qualification shortfall, you may find that you still need to broaden your skill set before making the leap into a higher position.  The main way in which you can broaden your experience is through prudent career choices.  Identify the areas on your CV which need expanding and then keep a look out for positions, either within your current organisation or elsewhere, which offer an opportunity to develop them.  For example, if you feel that your ultimate goal is to be an FD of a large corporate, it makes sense, in the first instance, to join a small organisation which will give you a broad experience of the many different accounting functions which you will need to be familiar with when you decide the time’s right to strive for your goal.

Identify Gaps & Plan to Meet Them by:

• Training courses – maybe leading to qualifications
• Masterclasses and short courses
• Self-study, correspondence courses, e-learning
• Shadowing a more experienced colleague
• Deputising for a senior colleague in their absence

A career in the Finance Department as an accountant or accounts professional, can encompass several different sectors including:

Business and Industry
Qualified accounting professionals are constantly climbing the ranks of private and public companies and in every industry from IT to retail and entertainment.  They’re Controllers, Financial Analysts, and even MDs.  At any level the strategic advice and insight qualified accountants and the like supply help to determine a company’s profitability, growth and overall future.

Government
You may find yourself investigating white collar crimes or working with the Treasury on ways in which influential budgets can be met.  Or you could play an instrumental role in how councils spend their money or how the NHS could be more cost effective.

Education
You may decide that you want to be involved in shaping where the resources go for children’s education.  You can be directly involved in schools and help them to get the best practical use out of the funds available to them.

Not For Profit
Many finance professionals make a rewarding career out of working for a cause of group that’s meaningful to them.  Not for profit groups don’t generate large budgets, so they need to maintain a strict financial balance.

Once you have found your niche, it’s up to you how you develop and how far you want to pursue your career. Whether you want to be involved in auditing, international accounting, head up an accounts payable team, forensic accounting, or in a not for profit environment – a career in the finance industry can be diverse and rewarding.

* An ACA is an associate member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.
An ACCA will have passed the professional examinations required for membership of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
CIMA have passed the professional examinations required for membership of the qualified accountants and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants respectively
There is also the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAAT) which enables people to study whilst working. It offers practical training and qualifications in key accounting tasks and can lead towards Chartered Accountancy