Pay as an accounts assistant
 

Hi all. Would like some help here. I am a Diploma graduate, and I am currently in my final semester in RMIT degree in Accountancy and Law.

I have been offered this job as an accounts assistant, and the pay is $1700. Would like to know if I am underpaid? My last drawn was $1600, but I have minimal experience in the accounting line.

Another thing I would like to ask is, does anybody know what is the career progression rate in the accounting industry?

TIA for all your help. :)

So are you a dip holder or deg holder? You have to be very clear coz the $1700 that they offered you is probably based on the rate of dip holder (I assume you show them your dip instead of your deg since you havent offically grad based on what u mention.)

My advice is, go try the big 4 accounting firms (after you got ur deg), get the brand name and then jump. No point wasting your time and effort for $1700 coz you will get stuck with a low pay even after you get your deg. ie start low end low.

hi I am a diploma graduate. will be getting my degree at the end of the year.

The company has offered me $1,800 in the end. The thing is that I am not really interested in working at big 4, not my cup of tea.

I would like to ask if anyone knows what the career progression is like in the line of accounting? And once I get my degree, will my pay increase immediately? or what? thanks a lot.

After your degree, go for ACCA. Then see if your present company offer a promotion for you. Else go somewhere else with your experience.

But, from your degree title, it is also good to work for a law firm's corporate services.

Hi I am definitely going to pursue ACCA after I complete my degree. But that is going to take some time to complete. My last paper is in November, so I will definitely not be able to produce my cert in time for the annual review for my pay raise. So I am very unsure of my steps at this moment, I am afraid that I will continue getting $1800 even after I get my degree. Any advise?

Hi Imbiah,

Long story short, a typical corporate finance career map in big MNC is like this:

1) Accounts Clerk or Assistant $1.5k
2) Senior Accounts Clerk $2k
3) Finance Executive $2.5k
4) Senior Finance Executive $3.5k
5) Accountant or Finance Assistant Mgr $5k
6) Snr Accountant or Finance Mgr $8k
7) Snr Finance Mgr $10k
8) Financial Controller $13k
9) Finance Director $20k
10) Regional Finance Director or Group Sub Finance Director $20k - $35k
11) Group Financial Controller >$35k
12) Group CFO >$50k

Of course titles and salaries are just indication and will differ on individual circumstances, but this is pretty much a "standard" route map for people who study Finance / Accountacy.

Based on my experience, there are a few choke points where a lot of people get jammed and somehow never advance beyond that.

~35% will jam at the Finance Executive or Finance Assistant Mgr level due to no ACCA or choosing other priorities over career progression like family, work life balance etc.

~50% will jam at Snr Accountant or Snr Finance Mgr because the need for strategic business thinking and deep understanding of Corporate Finance beyond accounting compliance is required to move on to Financial Controller or Finance Director. Most people will not posses such competencies.

~15% of the population will reach levels of truly senior managerial levels. Of course out of them, an even smaller subset will move on to multi-country role or global role at group level.

If you are a regular Finance professional who is prepared to work hard and accept the long hours during peak periods as well as load volatilty, then you can reasonably expect to end your career as 1-2 levels below a Financial Controller maybe drawing around $8-$10k per month.

Hope this helps.

hi madgoat. thank you so much. your reply has definitely let me learn a lot more on how everything works.

my last paper for my degree wil be somewhere in November, which probably means that I will only get my official certificate a few months after that. Do you think my pay and designation will increase together with the cert? or no? Please advise.

Thank you all for your input so far. (:

In most companies, getting a cert does not trigger any automatic salary increases. A common mistake among employees in similar scenario is to march to their bosses and basically demand for an increment based on new qualifications and "fairness" compared to their other degree peers.

I think it's a bad idea. Boss want to say yes also no strong justification to HR, say no everybody face black black and duno how to get down the stage. Keep quiet and procrastinate the whole thing become festering wound affecting your work relationship.

What you need to do now is to covertly note down the various duties your degree Finance Executive peers are doing. Also be on the lookout on areas around your immediate scope of work where you can enlarge or move up the value chain.

What you want to do is that once you get your cert in early 2012, go up to the boss and make a case in the following sequence:

1) Background, i.e. inform decision maker you are now a degree holder in Accountancy
2) Explain in detail the work the Finance Executives are doing and why you are up to the task
3) Provide examples on your everyday work where you can further contribute [note: move up knowledge chain, not increase amount of work load] with your new found qualifications

If boss, supportive at this point. Congratulations! If he is hesitant, proceed:

4) Offer a 3 month trial period where you move on to a larger role. Say you fine with just a token increment for the company to try you out. Agree that if after 3 months they are satisfied with your performance to have a salary review to mark you up to a typical degree fresh grad.

If boss still say no, politely explain you understand. Then start the CV pumping!

Bottom line is you need to help the boss to justify to HR or big boss, cannot just go in with a "should be automatic mah" attitude. Follow above no guarantees for success, but it will increase your chances significantly compared to do nothing or barge in and demand.

hi I am back. have been working in the company for close to 7 months at a miserly 1.8. have spoke to my heads about my degree last yr. they said they will look into it and now it is the end of March and apparently they are still looking into it. long story short, have decided to stop waiting for them to look into it.

so I went job hunting. kept getting job offers as accounts assistant (again) and a salary of 2.3. pardon me if I sound really ignorant here, but shouldn't a degree garner a higher position instead of an assistant again? I understand that i do not have a lot of work experience as of now, maybe like for accounts related, close to 1 year? 7 months here plus 4 months from a previous stint.

is it the fact that my degree is not that recognized, or the market is bad now or I really do not have the experience to step into a higher role.

please advise as I am really feeling quite confused now.

I see you have been fortunate to get some quality advice on top, it is not easy to get knowledgeable advice here.

There are 2 issues here – the job title (Finance Assistant) and the pay (2.3k offered).

Job Title – Theoretically with an accountancy degree you can apply for a Finance Executive role, but the market reality in Singapore is such that we are now flooded with Finance/Accountancy graduates due to the hype on banking in the past 5 years. People who have very good CVs but fail to make the cut in a bank’s FO are now active and competing in the corporate finance space as well.

Your major disadvantage would be your weak degree, lack of accreditation and absence of experience in a big 4. My prediction is you will eventually end up with either Assistant offers from big companies or Executive offers from smaller companies (which is not really different from an Assistant role anyway).

The Finance function is a highly competitive place. Since you have made a conscious decision that Big4 is not your cup of tea, you prefer work life balance and would like to go for ACCA at your own pace, you need to moderate your job expectations as well. Finance & Accountancy world isn’t the place that offers what you are looking for.

Pay – 2.3k is pretty decent considering your background. Employers will not give much stock to your 7 + 4 months patchy experience anyway. Despite the hype around the accountancy profession, most Finance Executive jobs average at 2.7 – 3.5k starting as well, so considering your background, 2.3k is also around what I would offer if I’m looking for someone with your CV.