7 Steps to Getting Accountancy and Finance Jobs

Are you looking for accountancy and finance jobs? Then there are some things you need to know. There are many jobs available for accountancy and finance work. However either they suffer from a lack of skilled workers or the competition is too intense.

Therefore it is very important to know the kind of market you are selling your services to. Depending on that market will your demand as an accountant or finance officer increase or decrease. We shall discuss seven steps to getting such jobs in this article.

Education

This is the first thing that you need to be sure of if you want to be in this field. It is important that you get a graduate degree in accountancy or a related field if you are interested in finance. Enroll in the best college of your area. Get a Masters Degree if possible. All this will add to the luster of your resume and make you a more desirable candidate.

Internship

There is nothing like working for free to gather some good experience. It also looks good on your resume. This is known as internship. Volunteer for free projects. These jobs test your level of expertise and also put you through different stress levels than in normal jobs. You get to see both aspects of the job while working on internships. They are your key to success to a bigger job.

Unusual Resume Elements

Now you might be thinking what kind of “unusual resume elements” would look good for accountancy and finance employment. The truth is that all kinds of jobs, no matter how technical they are give a great deal of importance to character.

Therefore if you have some unusual life experiences that show your courage and strength or deal with your leadership, then you should put that up in your resume even though they might not be directly related with your ambition.

Mentor

It is possible to do really well in your field if you always have someone pointing out your flaws. Therefore a mentor can do you good. You will not become over confident if you ask your biggest doubter to act as your mentor. It will help you in trying to always improve yourself.

Training Programs

The field of finance work is ever changing. It is filled with newer practices, techniques, and finance laws. To keep oneself ahead of the competition, it is very important therefore, to join these training programs. These programs not only help you revise your skills but also provide you with newer abilities.

Networking

Once you get into finance employment either through your college placements or training program or internship, it is very important to build connections. After hours office parties are the best places where one can find even the Manager of the company drinking in harmony with his subordinates. Talk to them. It is often through these people that you might get better offers. Networking is important.

Sources of Jobs

The best way to get accountancy and finance jobs is to keep track of the jobs in your locality and online. There are different sites on the net which help you to find various finance jobs in different parts of the country.

Your local newspaper is a great place to help you find out about the accounting jobs in your locality. But you should also take the help of a headhunter to help you find the best jobs suited to your resume.

Three Steps to the Top Finance Jobs

The current rough state of economy doesn’t mean that there will be absolutely no finance jobs. It just means that the finance jobs will be fewer, and the competition for them will be steeper. So if you are a finance professional, and happen to be looking for a finance job in these tough economic times, here are three steps, which if properly taken, can push you ahead of the pack in the competition for the few finance jobs available.

1. Update Your Skill Set. Unique circumstances call for unique skills, if one is to sail through them successfully. Most professionals looking for the top finance jobs right now are equipped with skill-sets which were adequate for the better times, but which might be considered inadequate for the current circumstances. Simply put, to beat your competitors in the search for top finance jobs, you will need to have skills that they don’t have. Having a unique skill-set gives an employer a reason to consider you for a job in preference to another candidate. And this applies whether you are looking for the top finance jobs in the financial sector, the middle office finance jobs in governments and non-profit organizations or even for the more ordinary commerce and industry accounting jobs. The unique skills in question need not be anything really fancy. Having, for example, a certificate in project management (which you can earn in a couple of weeks) puts you ahead of another candidate without such a certificate, even if you have the same basic qualification. Similarly if you are looking for commerce and industry accounting jobs, you might be well advised to approach the potential employer armed with at least some basic understanding of the workings of the business or industry you are considering working in. Armed with such a basic understanding of the underlying industry or business puts you at least one step ahead of another equally qualified finance expert who lacks such understanding.

2. Work on Your Resume. The presentation of your resume can make a great difference in your search for top finance jobs, and is likely to have an influence on the employer, even before they get to look at its contents. You might consider enlisting the help of a professional resume service, to help with the presentation of your resume. Remember the number of otherwise qualified candidates who get otherwise shoved out of the recruitment process simply because of poor resume presentation is huge – ensure you don’t fall for the same trap.

3. Consider enlisting the help of a finance recruitment agency. In a bid to reduce the workload involved in the recruitment process, many employers are increasingly turning to recruitment agencies for their staffing needs. This is especially true for executive jobs, like the top finance jobs, whose recruitment process might involve some level of head-hunting, and which employers might feel uneasy doing themselves, preferring to delegate it to recruitment agencies instead. Many employers are also increasingly turning to these finance recruitment agencies even for jobs which don’t necessarily involve head-hunting, like commerce and industry accounting jobs and other middle office finance jobs. This means that anyone looking for any sort of finance job is best advised to at least deposit their resume with the one of the major finance recruitment agencies. These finance recruitment agencies usually charge very nominal fees for their services, and the services they provide are very often worth what they charge.

Finance Jobs – Q and A About Finance Jobs

Planning to get into the finance industry? Well there is a lot you will want to know about the much hyped industry before you actually join in. It is indeed one of the most popular career choices today and finance careers are indeed looked upon as golden careers. Finance jobs today pay the best salaries in the job industry and you should stop worrying about the recession coz it is almost over. The finance industry has almost completely recovered from the recession and is back to making a steady progress. Fresh investment is flowing in and finance seems to be thriving like the good old times.

There are many avenues to finance jobs today. Government finance jobs promise you job security and are still a popular preference for many. In fact there are many government institutions which have a good intake for finance jobs. Except for government banks and financial institutions almost every government office does need a finance department.

Now if you are really ambitious and have huge set goals for the future the private sector is where you must concentrate. It’s not that one cannot develop in a government organization but there are many limitations to this growth which are absent in the private sector. There is a huge requirement for corporate finance jobs owing to the big scale corporatization of the business industry. Be it multinational companies or small local companies almost every organization is heading towards corporatization which again is a great advantage for finance aspirants.

Now how to begin a career in finance? The first thing you need is a strong educational background. Make sure you do your academics well and score the best of grades coz these are the only things which will help you in the initial years in finance. You firstly need to graduate from a reputed college for which you will need excellent high school grades. If you are still in high school this is the right time. Start getting serious about your education today itself.

After this you will need to get into one of the best finance internships available. Internships are one of the best ways to learn more about the finance industry. On the job training at an internship will groom the finance professional in you. You will also get a chance to interact with some of the big guns in the finance industry this way. It helps with developing a network in your industry which is very essential to grow high. This network not only helps you with job opportunities in finance but also ensures that your work moves on smoothly no matter where you are.

After the internship you should get into an entry level finance job. It is very essential that you give your 100% in these jobs as the competition is humongous and to leave an impression you have to prove your worth. Do not dream of reaching the skies in a day rather work to achieve your ambitions in a slow and steady way.