Accounting

The number crunchers at the heart of every organisation

Accountants are not a single breed – they come in various shapes and sizes. If you want to become one, the first thing to ask yourself is where you want to work, and what kind of accountant you’d like to be. Within financial services, investment banks hire accountants; so do retail banks, hedge funds, private equity firms, insurance companies and fund managers. Companies in all other sectors also need accountants to help them tot up profits and losses and calculate tax liabilities. Alternatively, you could work for an accountancy firm, providing independent audit services to other companies. The best known of these are the Big Four – Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers – but there are plenty of other smaller operations.

Roles and career paths

If you choose to work in an investment bank as an accountant, several options are open to you. Product control: Here, accountants keep a close eye on the profits and losses made on products bought and sold on the trading floor. Financial control: Accountants in financial control analyse the bank’s overall performance. They produce month-end, quarterly, half-yearly and annual reports. Internal audit: Accountants in internal audit teams are responsible for checking that financial systems and controls within the organisation are complied with. Regulatory accountants: Ensure that the way the bank reports its financial activity complies with the legal rules and regulations of the countries it trades in. Treasury: Structure the bank’s financial affairs (often working with colleagues in tax) so that sufficient cash is available to meet its liabilities. By comparison, if you start as a graduate trainee in a Big Four accountancy firm, your career will be more limited – 50-60% end up in audit and assurance departments, where they handle the accounts of publicly traded companies, and independently validate that a company’s accounts are correct. As well as audit and assurance, Big Four firms conduct advisory work, which can include corporate finance (see M&A article on page 22), reorganisation services (advising on everything from restructuring and insolvency to improving a firm’s performance), or forensic accounting (investigating improper practice). They also run consulting arms, advising on the business case for everything from technology to outsourcing. Finally, there are also accountancy opportunities in industry and commerce. You’ll find a team of bean counters in any large firm. They fall into two categories – financial (presenting company figures for external consumption) and management (presenting the figures and their implications internally).

Pay and bonuses

Accountants earn more in financial services than in any other sector. Basic salaries are higher, and there’s the potential for lucrative bonuses. An internal auditor with more than five years’ experience working in banking and financial services in the UK can expect US$110-150k, according to Robert Walters. By comparison, an internal auditor in a large firm in industry or commerce earns US$75-105k.

Skills sought

“Good attention to detail and superior numeracy skills are pretty much a baseline when it comes to accountancy and accountancy-related roles,” says Lyle Andrews, head of graduate recruitment EMEA at UBS. “But you also need to show motivation and enthusiasm, a dedication to the industry, a hunger to learn and the ability to work well under pressure.” Don’t worry if you haven’t studied accounting or economics – accounting firms rarely demand a finance-related degree, and don’t expect you to come ready equipped with all the technical skills. Often, they look for raw talent. “What is essential is to be able to demonstrate evidence of what you have achieved and what you can do,” says Richard Irwin, senior manager of student recruitment at PricewaterhouseCoopers. ”So highlighting the skills you have gained from extra-curricular activities can be a good idea. You need to think about how your experiences can be mapped against your skills. Even if you have just spent a summer working in a pizza restaurant, that can give you great customer relationship skills, which could be useful to a career in accountancy.” If you train as an accountant in London, most firms will typically expect you to take the exams run by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) or the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), while banks tend to favour Associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ACA) qualified accountants. These are internationally recognised, but different countries also offer their own options. In France, there is the DCG (Diplôme de Comptabilité et Gestion), equivalent to a threeyear degree, and the DSCG (Diplôme Supérieur de Comptabilité et Gestion), equivalent to a master’s degree. In Germany, accountants qualify through vocational training with an employer for two or three years or through more complex university studies, which typically take six years. In the US, the Certified Public Accountants (CPA) qualification is key, but there’s also the option of Certified Internal Auditors (CIA), Certified Management Accountants (CMA), and Accredited Business Accountants (ABAs). However, qualifications are just the beginning. “You need to have drive, motivation and a real focus to succeed,” adds Irwin. “You need a capacity to learn and develop and to take responsibility for your learning and development. You need an awareness of what you are doing and what needs to come next.”