Have You Missed Your Chance To Build A Career In Accounting?
One thing I have noticed over the years are that people sometimes have this idea that they have missed the chance to build their career.
This is something that I notice among accountants who have perhaps qualified a little later in their career.
Now I know how easy it is to focus on all the things like how much better they are in areas like IT than you are.
And if I’m honest unless you are under 30 now, chances are you were not brought with computers and technology being the norm.
So unsurprisingly the younger generation are going to be better than you at using packages like Excel. They are probably more social media savvy than you are.
Yet what I’ve found over the last 37 years is that you can be the most technically smart accountant around.
But being technically smart will get you a bit of the way up the career ladder or along the career path.
After a while technical skills while still important don’t have the same level of influence as they do early on.
Recruitment decisions are made on the basis of you being able to:
Fit in to an existing team or function.
Build relationships and work with people from a whole range of different backgrounds.
Manage people, processes, projects and performance.
Demonstrate a track record of success rather than just a theoretical understanding.
Deliver results through others and through collaborating with others.
Have the maturity and confidence to handle challenging and demanding situations that you will face.
Bring real life experience to the table to help navigate the organisation or your function through tricky times.
The trick is to look at all your past experiences and then show how these will without doubt help you to better perform in the role and bring the value that someone less experienced would struggle to bring.
So start seeing maturity and experience as an asset that you put to work to build your career, wherever you are on the path right now.
About the Author Duncan Brodie
Since 2006 I’ve worked with in excess of 8,000 accountants and professionals in workshops, seminars and one to one helping them land their next jobs and become better leaders, presenters and business partners. Before that I spent 25 years in accountancy climbing the career ladder from Payments Clerk to FD. I’m a CIMA Fellow, Certified Professional Coach and Team Coach Facilitator.