Options with your subject: Accountancy and finance

As well as providing a route into financial professions, a degree in accountancy and finance develops skills that are useful in a huge range of careers

Job options

Jobs directly related to your degree include:

• Accounting technician
• Chartered accountant
• Chartered certified accountant
• Chartered management accountant 
• Chartered public finance accountant

Knowledge of finance or accounting and the relevant skills you have developed are useful in a range of careers, such as law, journalism, advertising, marketing, public relations, sales and IT. 

Jobs where your degree would be useful include:

• Actuary
• Financial trader
• Investment analyst
• Management consultant
• Retail banker
• Tax adviser

Remember that many employers accept applications from graduates with any degree subject, so don't restrict your thinking to the jobs listed here. To find out what jobs would suit you, log in to My Prospects.

Work experience

In order to become a qualified accountant, you will need to obtain a professional accountancy qualification. Work experience can be very beneficial in helping you to gain the skills and experience that employers seek. If your course did not include a work placement, seek some paid or unpaid experience in the field that interests you.

Search for placements and find out more about work experience and internships.

Typical employers

Opportunities are widely available with accountancy firms, investment banks, high street banks, insurance companies, building societies, management consultancies and public sector employers.

The most prominent graduate recruiters are the very large multinational accountancy firms. They use large-scale recruitment campaigns to attract the most promising graduates and have high minimum requirements. There are also opportunities in small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that specialise in a particular type of work or local area.

In the UK, a cluster of public sector jobs are available in central London with others available nationwide.

Find information on employers in accountancy, banking and finance, business, consulting and management, and other job sectors.

Skills for your CV

Accountancy degrees develop your understanding of accountancy practices, commerce, industry and finance. You also develop a range of subject-specific, technical and more general transferable skills, including:

• knowledge and awareness of business organisations;
• numerical and quantitative skills;
• problem-solving and analytical ability;
• oral and written communication skills;
• ability to argue your case and negotiate;
• knowledge of global business issues and language skills, particularly if you study European or international finance;
• entrepreneurship.

Further study

Almost a third of accountancy and finance graduates go on to full or part-time further study after graduating. This may be because these graduates often go into posts that require further professional accountancy qualifications, such as the:

• Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)  qualification;
• Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA)  certificate;
• Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT)  qualification.

Accountancy graduates may have exemption from some of these examinations, depending on the modules and credits they have achieved in their degrees.

Some postgraduate courses train you to work in a more specialised area of the financial industry, for example, the MSc in Actuarial Science. It is also possible to study for a PhD in specific areas of finance, such as banking or trade statistics.

For more information on further study and to find a course that interests you, see postgraduate study in the UK and search courses and research.

What do accountancy and finance graduates do?

More than half of accountancy and finance graduates are employed six months after graduating. Of these, around 46% are in business and finance professional roles, e.g. trainee chartered accountant, and associate roles, e.g. trader.

A significant proportion of accountancy and finance graduates (more than a fifth) go into further study at the same time as working.

For a detailed breakdown of what accountancy graduates are doing six months after graduation, see What Do Graduates Do?  

Graduate destinations data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

AGCAS

Written by AGCAS editors

Date: 

February 2012

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