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puddingcatAt lunchtime I had the meeting with the recruitment consultants. It alsted twice as long as planned, because they decided to send in the MD as well as the tax specialist.
The options available to me appear to be:
- stay in practice, in the Big 4, and work up the promotion ladder. No interviews needed, moving location is easy, I know the job, posibilities of internal transfers.
- stay in practice, move to a mid tier firm. More experience of smaller (though not small; still FSTE 250) clients, sooner promotions, better work-life balance, broader scope roles including more project work & OMB issues.
- Move into industry in a financial reporting role. Keep some tax involvement & pick up on the accounting as well. Probably move into a senior role immediately or very soon.
- Move into industry, in a tax and treasury role. Learn about banking, hedging, gilts & bonds etc. in more detail.
- Move into industry, in a project finance / analysis role. Least tax content, but more mathematical / analytical.
Overall, staying in practice seems the least appealing to me. I'm not interested in smaller companies (ruling out the mid-tier firms) and staying where I am will restrict future options in a year or two, if I'm promoted, since the tax compliance role is so narrow. And that promotion isn't guaranteed.
So, it looks like I need to move into industry. The reporting roles would feel like a step back to me; it would involve working with auditors & preparing accounts, and I moved away from that when I went into tax.
Tax & Treasury appeals to the New!Shiny! part of me, since I don't want to feel as if I've wasted my experience in corporate tax. But then, so does project work & analysis; I get bored quickly & regularly getting new Things to pick over & model could be fun.
Regardless, I need to stay in the role into which I'm recruited for a year or two, look for an internal promotion / transfer (apparently normal practice) and then look to move on after that. The initial industry is unimportant, since it's getting me broader experience that's the main thing. Once I *have* 4-5 years' experience, then I can start looking for what I *really* want (read: send my CV to all the automotive companies' head offices & start a bidding war...)
So, I'll be in my late 30s before I get a job I want, enjoy, and that keeps my interest. I'm not sure how I feel about that. On the other hand, I'll be going up against newly qualified people for these first round of positions, and I have 4 years' experience to offer. On the other other hand, if I had the 4 years' experience in industry already, my CV would be on its way to Toyota for a £48k project finance position :)
*rubs hands* Right. If it's going to take four years, I'd better get started.
The options available to me appear to be:
- stay in practice, in the Big 4, and work up the promotion ladder. No interviews needed, moving location is easy, I know the job, posibilities of internal transfers.
- stay in practice, move to a mid tier firm. More experience of smaller (though not small; still FSTE 250) clients, sooner promotions, better work-life balance, broader scope roles including more project work & OMB issues.
- Move into industry in a financial reporting role. Keep some tax involvement & pick up on the accounting as well. Probably move into a senior role immediately or very soon.
- Move into industry, in a tax and treasury role. Learn about banking, hedging, gilts & bonds etc. in more detail.
- Move into industry, in a project finance / analysis role. Least tax content, but more mathematical / analytical.
Overall, staying in practice seems the least appealing to me. I'm not interested in smaller companies (ruling out the mid-tier firms) and staying where I am will restrict future options in a year or two, if I'm promoted, since the tax compliance role is so narrow. And that promotion isn't guaranteed.
So, it looks like I need to move into industry. The reporting roles would feel like a step back to me; it would involve working with auditors & preparing accounts, and I moved away from that when I went into tax.
Tax & Treasury appeals to the New!Shiny! part of me, since I don't want to feel as if I've wasted my experience in corporate tax. But then, so does project work & analysis; I get bored quickly & regularly getting new Things to pick over & model could be fun.
Regardless, I need to stay in the role into which I'm recruited for a year or two, look for an internal promotion / transfer (apparently normal practice) and then look to move on after that. The initial industry is unimportant, since it's getting me broader experience that's the main thing. Once I *have* 4-5 years' experience, then I can start looking for what I *really* want (read: send my CV to all the automotive companies' head offices & start a bidding war...)
So, I'll be in my late 30s before I get a job I want, enjoy, and that keeps my interest. I'm not sure how I feel about that. On the other hand, I'll be going up against newly qualified people for these first round of positions, and I have 4 years' experience to offer. On the other other hand, if I had the 4 years' experience in industry already, my CV would be on its way to Toyota for a £48k project finance position :)
*rubs hands* Right. If it's going to take four years, I'd better get started.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-23 10:20 pm (UTC)--
Tim Harris
The Seeker
Time Lord
no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 10:08 am (UTC)Accountancy is a very "young" profession. Most people in practice are management by 30, and those who make partner retire at 50. Those that don't, either burn out or hit senior management & the "who gives a ...?" at 50 ;)
no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 06:08 pm (UTC)Acquire tenure at an 8-year research university as a professor of religious studies (Eastern wisdom traditions in general and Buddhism in particular with a specialization in Chan Buddhism).
Achieve mastery of the Taoist internal martial arts (taijiquan, xingyiquan and baguazhong being the three primary such arts with qigong underlying all).
Receive Dharma Transmission from a Chan Master of a valid Chan Lineage.
If am successful, my legitimate professional title will be Reverend Master Doctor Seeker. I find that rather amusing. <laugh>
If you think any or all of those goals are unrealistic, I counter that (believe it or not) I am already acknowledged as a Hindu guru; my contact point at my ashram in India refers to me as "Respected Swami Mahaananda-ji S'ivaachaarya Maharaj" despite my repeatedly telling him I do not feel worthy of such a title. Go figure. At any rate, it is possible for Westerners to achieve success with the Eastern cultural milieu.
I once believed I had utterly ruined my life because I had made tons of bad decisions the sum of which left me as a debt-ridden non-degree-holding underachiever with no marketable job skills in his early 30s. My belief has changed radically over that past decade. While I still suffer the occasional twinge of "what if" self-doubt particularly when I tunnel-visionly obsess about my bills, I am satisfied that I have actually wasted no time at all.
To save time: <insert "smell the roses" screed here>.
Those things which I value most are by definition abstract: experiences, states of being, relations between entities. Though each of those might involve material objects and the possession (or at least usage) of same, they are not predicated on material objects and the possession (or at least usage) of same.
I have traveled back and forth across this planet and through its cultures. I have witnessed the diversity and divinity of humanity in many of its forms from the beatific to the despotic. I have been spellbound by the beauty and brutality of that stage upon which the human passion play occurs.
Have you ever stood in the ruins of Machu Picchu and gazed past the clouds to the jungle-covered valley floors almost two miles below you?
Have you ever climbed the 6,600 steps to Jade Emperor Peak at the summit of Tai Shan and watched the sun rise over the Yellow Sea?
Have you ever strolled through the labyrinthine alleys of Jerusalem's Arab Quarter haggling with Palestinian merchants over trinkets of hand-carved olive wood?
Heh. I am still young. I am working my way toward my goals in an admittedly roundabout way, but I don't view "roundabout" as frivolous or lacking in dedication or determination. I have plenty of time to complete multiple degree programs (you should see my list), find a professorship and work a full 20-year career and still retire at an age with a generous number of years left to actually enjoy that retirement.
In fact, my "career goal" is what it is because the very nature of that career continues the lifestyle I prefer: travel and research. Regardless of the extrinsic superficia of my life, the intrinsic reality will remain the same which, paradoxically, will be an unchanging parade of new experiences as my inventory of experience grows broader and deeper.
Then again, I might very well die in a traffic accident by the end of the week. <laugh>
To me, most people appear and behave as waves. I, on the other hand, relate more to the tide.
--
Tim Harris
The Seeker
Time Lord
no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 12:04 am (UTC)Good luck with whatever direction you decide on going!
*positive vibes and moral support*
no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 10:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 07:03 am (UTC)Mine's got a concept - but to achieve the concept there's a lot of 'ok, that's a calculated risk', 'ok, that's just leaping into the abyss' going on in the middle.
Can you have a life plan with 'aww fuckit, who knows! *jump*' - y'know when you're supposed to be, like, a grown up and stuff? *scratches head*
no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 10:31 am (UTC)It's less a plan than a goal. I want to work in the automotive industry. I want to work in the UK head office of a major car manufacturer. To do that, apparently I need to jump through these hoops.
Whatever I do, I refuse to grow up ;p
no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 07:51 am (UTC)*swoons*
I duly boggle at the advance planning type stuff for your career path - I wish I knew what I was going to be doing in four years!
no subject
Date: 2006-01-24 10:33 am (UTC)Besides, if I don't sort my lie out & look after myself, nobody else will do it for me.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-26 08:52 am (UTC)Well, quite. I really should try and sort mine out too. Vodafone's a great company to work for, but I want to see if I can step sideways and out of Retail if possible. :p
go you
Date: 2006-01-24 10:00 am (UTC)Re: go you
Date: 2006-01-24 10:33 am (UTC)