This article, "Moving from software engineering into accounting," originally appeared on AccountingWeb.com.
After 20 years of designing electronics and writing software as a person with aptitude and interest (and after having had some good breaks allowing me to learn quickly), I feel like I have completed engineering. Alongside working in industrial units which are cold, a diminished set of working conditions (when I started as an engineer, they were fairly well respected, attracted good salaries and had perks like decent pensions and private healthcare) to the point where it’s not guaranteed that milk and tea is provided, I don’t feel inspired any longer in engineering. I’ve learned plenty about electronics but as performance needs drive integration, electronic design has become less interesting (ie it is all in chips now instead of discrete circuit design because that’s the way to get good performance) and software is software – once you’ve picked up one programming language you can largely write in any and design patterns don’t really change significantly quickly so there’s not much to learn there now either. The next stage is leading a team (which I’ve already done but stepped back form) but that’s even less about engineering and more about fighting sales people (slightly tongue in cheek but only slightly)! But that is a bit beyond the scope of this forum so lets move on…
If I hadn’t become an engineer I would have become an accountant. I’ve known this since I became an engineer. At the time, accountancy looked less fun and engineers were still “respected” and less commoditised which is why I went in that direction. Whilst I’m certain that moving into accountancy and finance is the right move, as I don’t know anyone who works in accountancy practice (my friends are and always were engineers or IT techs) I can’t work out what the best first move for a software engineer is. It would be useful as an experienced person/manager to move across initially into something where I can be useful outside of pure accountancy (I’m not talking about R&D tax credit reports really though I’d probably be really good at that).
To put more scope on this, I am a little torn between ACCA and CTA but I am definitely not wanting to go down the CIMA route as that’s more of a financial administrator role which I already do as a project engineer/engineer and I want to go into accounting practice, ideally with the big x. However, CTA is pulling ahead for more reasons than better potential crossovers – I think I am just drawn to it more.
I hope that was understandable, I wanted to talk more about me as the available qualifications/paths are all quite well documented but I wanted something from behind the scenes like for instance places where automation, scripting and technology are being used or, if indeed going into R&D but as an actual CTA (maybe ATT) grad might be the best route. I’m open to any inside knowledge.
(additional – I hate working on industrial estates in factories, I want to be able to get a bus to work, be in the city, have offices that are open 24hrs, have targets, not be asked to do things that defy the laws of physics and then have something I can retire onto – such as a few book keeping clients to keep me ticking over and I am keen to work in an industry that doesn’t require me to be on the M4 or the home counties to find work as I don’t live there right now).