Current Salaries for Part Qualified Accountants

Hi Everyone,

I am hoping for a bit of advice off people who are in the same situation to me. My salary review is coming up soon. I am training to be an accountant and have been working in a practice not Big 4 based in Munster for the last 14 months. I am halfway through part 2 of my ACCA exams. What salary should i be seeking at this stage?

Having spoken to other people and looked up websites like premier etc i should be earning a good deal more then what im earning now. I would appreciate a bit of help from you guys.

Cheers

Jockey

I find that often people earn a lot less than the 'guidelines' given in salary surveys.

The best way of finding your market worth would be to talk to a recruitment agent, and ask them what salary would you be likely to get if you moved jobs. Also some accountancy firms pay your study fees and give a lower salary.

I notice that a lot of the companies get away with paying employees a low salary, as a lot of people are prepared to work for low money to get experience.

I am in the mid west of Ireland, I qualified in CIMA last year. I have 3 years experience of the debtors, creditors, mgt accounts in hotels. I am earning just 29K. I found out recently that other people my age, who have a diploma in business and no accountancy exams, are doing similar work as me and are earning nearly the same. I am just hoping my money will go up over the next few years as I get more experience.

I have a business degree, 7 years experience in a financial company (got made redundant 3 yrs ago) before starting the accountancy.

I had to move jobs a number of times, lie about my current salary to even get to 29K. My first job 3 years ago paid 19K, and the bar staff were being paid nearly the same as me. The employers paid me a junior salary, even though I was 29. They didn't recognise my 7 yrs financial services experience and my business degree as being worthy of more money.

Hi,

I agree with you that salary surveys are not very accurate at times. I spoke to a recruitment consultant just before i started my current employment and he informed that the starting salary for a trainee accountant would be in the region of 12k but i started on a couple of grand less then that.

A contribution to my study fees is given, around 1k per year but when you put that into context each module i study is approx €700 so it could end up costing me over 4k a year!

I am only working for this firm as i am getting great experience and that is what perspective employers look for and also i like working there as everyone gets on great.

In my opinion you are definintely underpaid when you put into context the experience you have. If you were in Dublin or London it would probably be double that.

Thanks for your advise and opinions anyway,

Jockey

For comparative purposes - trained with BIG 4. Started in 2002 on €20k rising, 2004 €26k & when got exams €36k initially & then to €45k. So money not great until final exams were finished.
I know money is lower outside of Dublin & also outside of Big 4.

But increases should be forthcoming once qualified.
A recently qualified accountant is commanding approx €50k-€55k p.a currently & it seems to be an e'ee's market at the moment.

What if you are qualified in terms of time but not Exams. I'm fully contract (ACA) qualified on 31.12.06, but still have to sit FAEs in 2007. I'm working in a very specialist area in a Dublin firm (not big 4)

I'd be interested to hear what sort of salary I should be commanding at this stage. Cheers.

It is the final exams that really increase the salary not the experience - I know of a number of people that had their full contract of 3 years finished but still had to pass their exams & they were still earning less than those with less experience but who had passed their exams. In some ways its a bit unfair as you are still doing the same work as you would be doing if you passed your exams. I would say you won't earn above €30k until you pass FAEs

Winnie said:

In some ways its a bit unfair as you are still doing the same work as you would be doing if you passed your exams. I would say you won't earn above €30k until you pass FAEs

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Ironic really, as in my case my daily work has nothing to do with the FAEs due to the area I'm specialised in.

Surely, experience over exam progression should be considered, you can be a great Doctor on paper but useless in Practice!!

JQ2002 said:

Ironic really, as in my case my daily work has nothing to do with the FAEs due to the area I'm specialised in.

Surely, experience over exam progression should be considered, you can be a great Doctor on paper but useless in Practice!!

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Its possibly different outside of practice but that is definitely the way it is in practice. I think it is there to be an incentive to pass - otherwise mayb people wouldnt be too pushed repeating? I don't know. But yes I have been paid more than people with 2 years more experience just becuase I have the exams - but when they passed they got a huge jump in wages & were then earning more than me!