Review your Accountancy Career in 7 Steps

We often talk about the importance of taking the time to review and reflect on your career.

But what exactly should you be looking at and analysing to help you make informed decisions on your career progression and achieving your long-term goals?

We highlight 7 simple steps for you to consider which are focused on your current position, personal aspirations, and market conditions to help shape and steer your thinking.

 

1. Are you on track to achieve your long-term ambitions?

With your ultimate career goal in mind, are you making the right progress towards achieving this?

Have your previous roles and firms provided you with the right experiences, allowed you to develop the right skills, and gain exposure to the right clients?

Have you been promoted recently or made a move?

When is the right time to take the next step?

Consider what is required in a role related to your ultimate career goal. What skills do you need to develop, what is the nature of the work, is the client base broad or niche?

What are the expectations of the role?

You must also look past the job title and consider what the day-to-day may look like.

What type of firm do you want to work for?

How does the same role differ from one firm to another?

We believe it is essential to plot your route towards achieving your goal by planning 2,3,4 moves away. It may be more useful for you to work backwards from your end goal and analyse the journey of those currently in the role you ultimately want to end up in.

This will help you to understand if you need to specialise and, if so, when is the right time to begin to focus on a particular sector or technical work.

What size of firm and experience do you need to acquire in order to be attractive to a firm?

This will provide you with a pathway to success and highlight potential gaps and focus your thinking.

 

2. Assess your current firm

Taking a close look at your current firm is something we would recommend you do regularly.

We encourage you to review the current firm's culture and vision to make sure it is in line with your personal beliefs.

As we all know, people make a firm and a business, with this in mind - ask yourself the question - Are you surrounded by the right people to achieve success?

Taking a look at your surroundings has the following benefits -

• Understand if you are still happy with the culture and the people
• Identify change within the firm that may encourage you to consider your position
• It can help you to identify firms you may consider joining who have a similar culture that you enjoy and buy into

 

3. Nature of Work

If we enjoy our work, we tend to produce better results, feel better about ourselves and be more successful. This centres on the nature of work which can change due to the requirements and strategic direction of your firm.

Ask yourself the following three questions –

• Do you enjoy more technical or advisory work?
• Is client interaction and exposure important to you?
• Are you developing the right skills for you to achieve goals?
• Do you want to develop and manage a portfolio of clients?

Nature of work has taken on a different dimension during the pandemic with the shift to remote and agile working. Firms are currently considering plans regarding agile working practices and bringing staff back into the office.

You need to consider what is best for you in terms of time spent in the office and working from home. We are seeing and hearing a broad range of ideas across client firms which may not suit everyone but equally presents an opportunity to move to somewhere which is more in line with how and where you want to work. 

This shift opens up opportunities outside of your local area, with remote working offering you the ability to take a job in another city or region, provide you with a better quality of client and more varied work. It will also put you in a better position for future career moves or promotions. Not to mention the increase in earning potential without having to relocate.

 

4. Skillset and Experience

The blend of skills is never complete, you are forever honing and developing both hard and soft skills.

Is your current firm and role providing you with the opportunity to develop your skills?

Are you gaining the right type of experience to put you in a good position for future opportunities?
 

 

5. What is going on in the wider market?

You need to have your eye on people moving and the availability of roles in your service line. It is worthwhile looking at local, regional, and national markets to help you to take the temperature of what is going on out there.

Talk to your contacts, colleagues, and recruitment consultants to gain intelligence and understand what is happening. This will provide you with insight and intelligence on what type of firms are looking for new talent.

It will help you to identify potential opportunities and consider if it is the right time to consider a move. As we mentioned above, it is a watershed moment with the adoption of agile working. You have the opportunity to join an office which is located in another part of the country, enhance your career prospects without having to relocate.

6. Change within industry and firm

The accountancy market is currently in a state of flux as a result of the pandemic with firms of all sizes reviewing strategy and adjusting the direction of travel. They are considering the viability of offices and where they are located, concentrating attention in particular markets and prioritising specific service lines.

What does this mean for your career and how will change filter down to you? 
Is your service line and client portfolio still part of the plan or is attention shifting away? 

This may accelerate your need to move for both your current and long-term ambitions, you can’t afford for your firm to be shifting their focus away from your skillset.

 

7. Are you in the best position to achieve ultimate aims?

Distilling all of the information and ideas above will help you to consider and reflect on your current position – leading you to make an informed decision on where are with your career and planning the next steps.

Summing everything up should lead you to ask yourself the question – am I in the best position to achieve my goals? If not, it is time to make a change.