Finance

Accountancy

Accountants provide specialist services to almost every business whether self employed, charity or large corporate organisations.  Those services can be advisory, auditing, strategic planning input, compiling and interpreting an organisations worth, growth or development. Accountants are found in every sector including the media, arts and the public sector as well as the traditional industrial and corporate sectors.  Therefore, it is important to consider not only the role but what other areas you may be interested in working in when looking to gain employment in this area.

The sector is dominated by large companies such as KPMG and PriceWaterhouseCooper who both have a large presence in the region and employ a number of graduates in both formal graduate schemes and other roles. There are also opportunities with small and medium sized organisations in Yorkshire for graduates as well as vacancies with public sector employers. 

If you're looking to become an accountant you need to be motivated, business minded, numerate, analytical, possess good time management skills and be a strong team player.

Accountants work with all kinds of people often in their own workplace so you will need to be a confident communicator with the ability to build relationships and be able to develop good liaison skills.

Any degree subject is accepted, so Maths or Business Studies isn't essential but a 2.1 is often preferred.  It is a requirement for graduates going into accountancy to work towards internationally accredited qualifications such as ACCA, CIMA or for the public sector CIPFA to become qualified.

Jobs which offer accreditation are highly competitive so making sure you follow industry publications and have a good commercial knowledge is a good way to demonstrate your commitment to working in the sector. A good chunk of relevant work experience on your CV can also put you ahead of crowd.

Useful links:

ACCA (the association of chartered certified accountant)

CIPFA

ICAEW (the institute of Chartered Accountants)