Hi, I am a final year student at Nottingham University studying Finance, Accounting and Management. I want to work in Corporate Finance or a related discipline. I reached final assessment centre stages for both PwC and KPMG before being informed that they had filled all their vacancies in this area. Both have given me the opportunity to apply for audit instead of my original service line, as this is all that is now available in Manchester. If I were to join audit and qualify as an ACA, would it be possible/easy to move into Corporate Finance, M&A advisory etc once qualified?
A manager in Marks Sattin's corporate finance team replied:
Many thanks for your email. As a niche recruiter within the Accountancy and Finance market, we are specialists at finding ACA candidates, opportunities within the Corporate Finance teams within Investment Banks, Advisory Houses and Top 4 Practices.
This is one of the most competitive areas of recruitment as there are always too many candidates for not enough roles when it comes to qualification time in Quarter 3. There are steps however to put you ahead of the game:
- Qualify with first time passes. Many of our clients are only willing to interview candidates that have a perfect academic and exam record.
- Fight for a secondment to a deal focused team such as Transaction Services, Lead Advisory or M&A.
- Keep up to date with the Financial markets. Many ACAs we meet have a basic lack of general financial understanding and struggle with Corporate Finance interviews.
- Undertake the new Corporate Finance Qualification (CFQ). This should give a great overview of the markets and modelling/valuation techniques.
The ACA is a fantastic qualification to have and will give you many options when you qualify. The training schemes are well respected and will give you the skills and client exposure to allow you to apply for many roles at your level upon completion.
Good luck with your exams and job search and please feel free to email with any further questions.
2 comments:
I have a fairly unrelated question but still relevant question.
You referenced first time passes. I had to retake at the professional stage (I didn't pass all four the first time they were sat.
I know this is detrimental when it comes to applying for jobs but how much of a negative impact will this have.
I am currently at a small firm (top 20) and would like to move to audit/assurance/forensics at one of the mid-tier or preferably Big 4firms.
Am I still likely to find a post?
What career options would a transaction services ACA qualified Big 4 candidate have in the job market? Is a move to private equity/fund management a possibility?
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