I work in product control, and I regret the day that as an ACA I was persuaded by a recruitment agent to take the role
We've been here before, but in light of the statement above (left as a comment on an article recently), this is an issue worth revisiting.
Do recruiters lure ACAs into product control roles with false tales of excitement?
The reality is that most ACAs who want to go into banking will end up in product control. In a recent article in the Financial Times, Nick Stevens managing director at recruitment firm Eximius estimated there are just 150-200 front office banking jobs open to the 2,800 ACAs who graduate every year. These go to ACAs with best academics. Product control beckons the remainder who go into banking.
Are accountants who go into product control deluded into thinking it's a spring board to something wonderful? Recruiters say they're not.
"Most accountants accept that product control is not a direct route into a trading role and a good recruiter who knows the market well won't overstate the prospects of this kind of career progression to their candidates," says Damien Tatlow at Badenoch & Clark.
"Realistically, only 15-20% of the ACAs who move from accountancy into finance and product control roles will be able to make a front office move and we make that clear when we talk to them," says Ed Stevens at Eximius.
Stevens adds that most accountants are perfectly content with product control and that of the 40 ACAs they meet each week, only 5-10% have real front office operations.
Starting salaries in product control contribute to the appeal. Tatlov says newly qualified ACAs can make 55-60k in the role. Stevens says they can make 52-60k.
A former European head of product control at a US bank, agrees that plenty of accountants going into banking have no aspirations to become traders and M&A bankers. However, he says that some do. And they tend to be the product controllers who come into banking on recruitment schemes rather than those who come in as newly qualified ACAs.
"ACAs are usually able to recognise that they're academically different from the people in trading," he says. "They can see that they don't have the right skills. But graduates who are on rotation often feel they're as good as traders and are less happy staying in finance functions."
