Graduate trainees are in demand at accountancy firms

With the exception of Andersen, accountancy firms have several things to cheer about at the moment. As well as picking up the clients of their beleaguered counterpart, they are picking up some excellent graduates, many of whom would normally have applied to investment banks.

Careers advisers at universities say that though many accountancy firms have scaled back recruiting, they have made smaller cuts than the banks.

Accountants such as PriceWaterhouseCoopers, KPMG and Ernst and Young all say that applications from graduates are up. Ernst and Young says applicant numbers have risen by 40% from last year and student attendance at last autumn's milk round events was at record levels.

Joanna Boyle, recruitment manager at the firm, attributes the increase to students' concerns about redundancies in investment banking and consulting. &quotGraduates were considering alternative careers in finance,&quot she says.

It is easy to see why accounting appeals to graduates interested in a career in financial services. The industry has traditionally been a route into the City merchant banks hired qualified lawyers and accountants into corporate finance roles.

Some banks continue to specify that some experienced hires come with an accountancy qualification.

Accountancy firms train graduate hires to take the ACCA qualification over a three to four year period. The long training has its advantages. Not only does it mean that accountants recruit with an eye to the economic climate 4 years hence it also means that firms are unlikely to make graduates redundant for some time.

Because accounting firms accept graduate applications right up to September, candidates who have been rejected by investment banks usually have a chance to apply over the summer. This year, however, the rush of candidates means that many accountants have few places left.

&quotLast year we recruited through to September and even October&quot, says Charles Macleod, head of graduate recruitment at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. &quotThis year we anticipate having very few places left by that time of year. This is a new phenomenon.&quot

Not all accountants have been revelling in the mass of applications. Keith Dugdale, director of graduate recruitment at KPMG, which is hiring 550 graduates in the UK this year, says the abundance of high quality students has been causing him a headache.

&quotWe have seen some exceptional candidates, but we have had to be very clear about their real career intentions. We don't want people who are just using us as a port in a storm and will leave as soon as the markets pick up,&quot says Dugdale.

Graduates who want to work at KPMG must provide very sound reasons for why they want to work in accountancy, he says. Prior internships at investment banks are frowned upon, unless graduates can justify their decision to opt for accounting instead.

This may be difficult. During training, graduates at accountancy firms are paid up to 15,000 a year less than those at investment banks.

Would be bankers who do succeed in becoming accountants are likely to find that accountancy exams are not the passport into the industry that they once were. &quotOver the past twenty years the MBA has taken over from qualifications like the ACA and ACCA,&quot says Andrew Lowenthal, a financial services headhunter at Egon Zehnder.

&quotA background in accountancy gives you a lot of things that bankers don't need. It may mean that you are financially literate, but most banks give their recruits thorough training in accounting and corporate finance anyway.&quot