CFA

30. Accounting and Getting your 20’s right pt1

When I was in my late teens early 20’s, I had a plan, get an accounting role, complete AAT within 2 years and ACCA within 3 years, get a great job in Canary Wharf where I will earn loads of money, respect and knowledge.

But wait there’s more:
Buy a house before I am 30, buy a Mercedes, write a book and get a Rolex…

But wait there’s more:
In my 30’s buy my mum a house, meet the woman of my dreams get married have kids and move on from my high powered career to giving lectures and getting into politics on the financial side i.e. working in the treasury.

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29. Accounting and Coronavirus (Covid19), death of the handshake

Remote working:
It has always repulsed me that in this day and age with the technological advancements we have and companies constantly grandstanding on how ‘green’ they are that the option of remote working remained a battle for a lot of employees, fossil management styles and mindsets are a big part of the problem “you can’t manage a team remotely” is the constant feedback KMT (Kissing my teeth).

In a company I worked at several years ago a particular wet blanket said “just because the company is embracing working from home, it does not mean you guys get to do it, I want my team in the office”.

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27. Accounting and Imposter syndrome

Don’t let this hold you back!

Looking at my prior posts for those of you that follow; it’s clear to see, I’m a guy who has had issues in life, who has dealt with many mental fights with myself and won.

Luckily I am also a guy who strongly believes in sharing my mistakes/issues/successes in hope that others don’t have to go through them but if they are, I hope my posts helps them know that they can get through it; it may take time but they can do it.

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26. Accounting and Black progression

Who gives up position?
Let’s be clear, people with drive want to be at the top, and at the top there are not that many places, unfortunately not everyone will achieve their dream of being at the top.

Efforts however are being made to mix up the top seats but somehow black men have been damaged by these efforts, whilst there are other groups that have their issues I am not interested in these and I’m only interested in ones that directly affect black males.

We need racial diversity stats and not ones where black males are lumbered in with all other ethnicities which makes it difficult to see what is happening with us.

When I used to work for a public sector body, I recall them saying they were making a push for diversity, this lead to posts about black history month being opened for all and not just a month for black people, it got to the point it was almost deemed indirectly offensive to claim black history month belonged to black people.

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24. Accounting and Maths Anxiety

Often you find tons of articles of people talking about something they have not been though due to their platform and voice these people end up becoming the face/voice of an issue they sympathise with but have never been through, which is frustrating.

You’re reading from someone who has battled with this as well as generally not being a very academic person; my maths issues started when I was in primary school, I couldn’t (and still can’t) do my times tables, I struggle with mental arithmetic especially division and being asked to answer maths question in front of the class often got me laughed at and teased.

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23. Accounting and ACCA

Background:
As I learned recently; ACCA was designed to target accountants in industry as opposed to in a practice environment, this qualification is more geared towards financial accounting, Audit and Tax.

This qualification has a good global reach, I would say that their reach globally is currently slightly better than ACA, CIMA and CIPFA.

Whilst it’s no secret that back in the day this was seen as a poor version of the ACA, the ACCA has done well to get their qualification respected and now you can walk into pretty much any company with your ACCA qualification.

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22. Accounting and Anxiety & Depression

Anxiety & Depression, it’s a trip to hell but at least the warm.

This is my toughest post to date; currently I’m going through the mental wars and it has affected all aspects of my life: finances, relationships, careers, friendships, social interactions and education.

As a man in his mid to late 30’s from a West African background, this was tough to both accept and seek help for; however I did and I’m now applying my mini rule; if I go through something share it with others so they know what to expect and also know that they are not alone.

I don’t always follow this rule but for this I feel it is important to share.

In 2014 after a series of events including issues at work I started developing anxiety & depression, depression has always been there or there about in my life but anxiety that was new to me.

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21. Accounting and ACA

Association of Chartered Accountants (ACA held by ICAEW)

Background:
This used to be preferred accounting qualification of the big 4 (EY, KPMG, PWC or Deloite), financial services and practice firms not too long ago, this was quietly seen as the best accounting qualification to have and even now I believe most of the FTSE 100 CEO’s which come from accounting are ACA qualified.

I only say used to be preferred because the Big 4 are starting to loosen up on which qualification they require students to study; however, make no mistake about it, this does have a prestige to it and is still seen as a badge of honour. There are some roles (usually high paying) that will still demand an ACA candidate with big 4 experience.

Update** 28/02/2018**
I just learned that ACA was actually initially only for accountants working in practice and was then later opened up to accountants in industry.

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20. Accounting and Interviews

Two men sitting at desk in interrogation room

Interviews, some feels like chats others feel like an interrogation, what to do?

I am not going to give you the same tips you have heard a million times, if you don’t know the usual advice that’s on you, go to the main recruitment websites and read their tips.

Talk me through your CV?
There is no excuse for not knowing your own working history, it gives the impression you are lying, you should know your own working history end of.

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19. Accounting and CV’s

Things I wish I knew about CV’s
When I 1st started doing my CV I did not have the foggiest what I was doing and learned through trial and error, I remember my biggest struggle was trying to fill out a page for my CV, but now? I struggle to keep it to two pages.

A few things have changed along the way especially with the improvement of technology and a few new things became crucial for your CV along the way.

As bonkers as this may sound to many of you, back in the day you used to print out maybe 20-30 copies of your CV and go around and hand them out (I am dead serious), this usually was done 1st thing on a weekend for retail jobs and you would hope to get the call back, sometimes you got a call sometimes you didn’t, thankfully this practice is over but it does expose you to more competition and these are the things I found that helped me along the way.

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