Hi All,

Having read November 11's post and their confession to being an accountant, I thought that it was about time that I owned up too. I've been CIMA qualified for 6 years and my husband and I are looking to move to Adelaide next year. Does anyone know if employers will require / prefer me to sit the 2 exams required to become CPA qualified? The thought of going back to sitting more exams is not very appealing after a break of 6 years but I would be willing to do it if necessary. Two people in my office previously worked in Adelaide and Sydney and I don't think that they did any extra studying but I don't want to ask too much in case they guess what I am up to.

Also, can anyone recommend any good agencies to contact nearer the time. During our visit to Adelaide in March I spoke to someone in Hudsons briefly but I would appreciate a few more contacts for accountancy recruitment.

Thanks
Wendy

Certainly the Chartered qualification is immediately acceptable here. I do know that some of the others are not - but not which ones. You could try a PM to Elaine M. She's an accountant but I'm not sure which sort, who came over some months ago and got herself sorted out with a job.

http://www.icaa.org.au/entry/index.cfm?menu=5&id=A105824035

The above link to the ICAA website will give you the bad news, sorry. I am an ACMA with 10 years post qual experience. To become a CA/CPA you would have to do 3 bridging subjects, tax,law and audit which would then get you 1 or 2 module exemptions from the CA program which contains 5 modules. It is basically back to study books again.

My wife works for Hudsons part time and she sees a lot of CIMA members applying for jobs. Employers in SA look for CA/CPA but I personnaly got a contract job through Hays working for local govt which is the way to get a foot in the door.

Therefore the way into the workforce that me and some of my colleagues used was to get contract work through an agency and forget the CA/CPA programs.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the mention Elaine!

For the record I'm a CPFA.

When I started looking for work I wondered about starting on the exams but decided to wait and see what prospective employers said.

It wasn't mentioned as a problem either by the agencies or employers I contacted (but then I have an MBA too and was looking for mgt accounting/business support type roles rather than financial accountancy work).

I got a job involving financial control and business planning on the strength of my UK qualifications, my employer isn't bothered about me getting the Chartered qualification unless I feel I want to.

Not sure if my experience helps though as accountancy isn't the main focus of my role.

Elaine M :)