Better employed?

When you decided to study for an ACCA qualification you opened the door to a world of opportunity; and while some of you will find a niche and stay there, others will take their finance qualification and run with it - moving between practice and industry, or criss-crossing between different sectors.

'You can use your qualification as a career passport into anything,' says Jake Emerson ACCA. He is currently working as the group accountant for a financial services company, but his previous role was in the food industry, and during the 15 years since he qualified he has also worked in a variety of sectors and for organisations of all shapes and sizes, so he knows what he’s talking about; 'I've worked in practice at KPMG, for multinationals including VW Audi, and for smaller companies in lots of different sectors.

'I always felt that I could make a career as a successful business person, so I came into accountancy as a means to an end,' says Emerson, who has used his finance qualification to find an area of business that suits him, and used a specialist recruitment firm (Equity FC) to help him progress his career. ‘I fell into private equity (PE) by accident,' he recalls, and quickly became hooked. 'I need a challenge or I get bored,' he says, and this is unlikely in the fast-paced PE industry. In his previous job, as head of finance, he played an integral part in mergers and acquisitions activity, in addition to his 'day job' of managing the group finance function.

'I thrive in a fast-paced environment, and my biggest strengths are identifying where change in an organisation is needed and then making that change happen quickly, so my skills and the needs of private equity are a good marriage,’ says Emerson. 'It's also taught me a lot about different approaches to value creation in a corporate environment,' he says, and this fits well with the way he wants to progress his career. 'I see myself as a business person first, with a specialisation in financial matters - not an accountant,' he explains.

‘I always approach business opportunities with a commercial perspective to ensure that I come up with solutions which are the best for the business, and then use my accounting background to check these solutions.’ And without this background, exploring different industries would have been much more difficult. 'My ACCA qualification has been important to me and my career progression,' says Emerson. 'When you work within the finance function, changing sector should not be seen as a taboo - there are lots of areas of commonality,' he says, so a finance qualification can take you almost anywhere you want to go.

'With finance and accounting staff, the vast majority of their skills are transferable,’ says Adrian O’Connor, a regional manager with the recruitment firm Robert Half International (RHI), 'so you can often move between sectors.' There are exceptions, though. 'If you've been an auditor and someone is recruiting for a finance director then it's not going to be easy to make the leap,' says Angus Braham, from recruiters McCann Braham. Some transitions are best made more gradually: 'You might need to move into internal audit first, then progress up towards an FD position,' he suggests.

There are also areas where very specific sector skills are called for, as RHI's O'Connor explains. 'If we were recruiting for a retail analyst, we'd be looking for someone with a background in the retail sector,' he says, 'but when you’re recruiting for a group financial controller or financial accountant, then it's more likely to be about technical accounting skills.'

All of which is illustrated in the career progression of Ang Hui Keng FCCA. 'There is really no difficulty fitting into different industries with an ACCA qualification,' says Hui Keng, who started out as an internal auditor with Neptune Orient Lines (NOL), a Singapore shipping company, went on to work on financial analysis in the information technology industry, and is now vice president and chief financial officer of Sony Picture Entertainment Networks Asia (SPENA).

Rising to the challenge

During each stage of their career, ACCA members learn skills that help prepare them for their next set of challenges. At NOL, Hui Keng worked on internal audit with local Singapore subsidiaries, as well as overseas subsidiaries and joint ventures. 'The basic auditing and accounting knowledge gained from my ACCA qualification prepared me to perform my duties at NOL effectively and efficiently,' he recalls. 'Through my internal audit assignments, I also gained valuable experience of internal controls, and learnt effective ways to work in different cultures and systems.'

Then Hui Keng moved on to IT company Maxtor Peripherals. 'I was constantly working on business critical financial analysis and other ad hoc analysis to add value to the business,' says Hui Keng, which he did with the help of the cost and management accounting module he had studied with ACCA.

'In 1995, I was able to apply experience I had accumulated at NOL, and at Maxtor, to help start Maxtor's sub-assembly plant in Thailand,' where he spent a year as finance manager. Now at SPENA, Hui Keng is responsible for overseeing financial planning, network distribution, human resources, operations, and business development. 'I was a key driver in SPENA's portfolio growth from one to six channels,' he says, and he is also taking a significant role in the company’s joint venture plans in Korea.

All of this gives him the sort of résumé that makes him appealing in business and practice - despite having no professional services experience to call on. 'The Big Four are always looking for people with broader horizons,' says Braham, who can bring their commercial experience into a firm. So it is possible to have a finance career that spans both commerce and professional services, as Andrew Steet FCCA has found.
Like Emerson, Steet saw accountancy as a means to an end. 'I am originally from Malta and spent most of my childhood there,' says Steet, but he knew that he was unlikely to make his home on the island. 'I wasn’t sure where in the world I would work or what I would do, but I knew I wanted to go overseas,' he recalls, and he knew that he would therefore need to plan his professional education carefully. 'I needed a qualification that offered career flexibility and international mobility,' says Steet, so after considering banking, insurance, and accounting, he opted for the latter.

'I have spent a number of years abroad,' says Steet, who studied for his ACCA qualification in the UK, then went on to work in audit and financial reporting in Australia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa, and Spain. 'I have also worked in a range of businesses,' he says, listing Mobil Oil, retailer Marks & Spencer, and German pharmaceuticals group Boehringer Mannheim, as past employers. 'This has given me a tremendous insight into the way that business is conducted in many parts of the world,' he adds.

But after decades in industry, Steet joined KPMG as a direct entry partner. 'When the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed in the summer of 2004, I decided to become an authority on the subject and rapidly became one of KPMG's most knowledgeable partners in this specialisation,' he says. This made him attractive to employers in professional services and industry, and within a relatively short period of time he was headhunted and had moved back into industry to lead a group of Sarbanes-Oxley-focused auditors at Shell.

'My ACCA qualification has given me the skills to rapidly assimilate new legislative requirements, understand their business implications, and help a business ensure cost-effective compliance and value from the process,’ says Steet, adding: 'In 2007, Shell achieved a positive attestation, with no reportable exceptions, under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and my team played a key role in this.' And he has a few words of wisdom for ACCA trainees who want to make themselves as mobile and sought after.

'When you are studying you need to look beyond the facts you are learning to their implications for business,' he advises, 'because the effects will be different in oil, retail, and financial services.' So if you want to be able to work in a variety of sectors, you need to be prepared to explain the commercial implications of finance activities.