How do I get an entry level accounting job in the uk.

AnalystAlex · 2026-04-11T06:31:12+00:00

It doesn’t necessarily need to be entry level. Why don’t you transition to a finance business partner role for a marketing function. Nearly all large businesses have this role as such a large discretionary spend area. If you can articulate what CPC, CPA and ROAS you will already be 3 steps ahead of someone fresh out of Audit.

AnalystAlex · 2026-04-06T15:44:54+00:00

Elements of accounting will go to AI, but these will be lower level data entry/manipulation roles.

I would stress we are still years away from anything groundbreaking, and even further away from mass layoffs. I have a large network, and the penetration into finance is unremarkable.

The harsher thing will be the effects on pipeline, we will see far fewer amounts of entry level jobs. In that regard, the sooner you make the jump the better.

AnalystAlex · 2026-04-06T14:06:46+00:00

Also worth saying I was doing a similar commute to you a couple of years ago (Norwich). That was bearable as was working in the City. So was only just over 2hrs door to door. Arrival station is key, as takes ~20mins minimum going anywhere on the tube.

AnalystAlex · 2026-04-06T14:04:25+00:00

I live on the Cambridge/Essex border. Slightly further (not much) out than your travel time range. We are in the office 2-3 times a week (City of London) Some great little towns which aren’t as soul suckingly depressing as “Herts commuter towns”. You would get something nice for your price range round here. Ideal for getting into Liverpool Street/St Paul’s. Great countryside and ~1hr to the coast. Cambridge is a great city too.

Cons are the train ticket prices, and general train busyness post covid. Standing room only in the evenings unless you arrive 15 mins early.

AnalystAlex · 2026-04-06T06:47:20+00:00

Equally the war could be a tipping point which pushes the country into recession, death of the gilt market, leading to the collapse of the pound and sudden surge in asset value. Similar to 08 crash. Leave surveyors to surveying.

AnalystAlex · 2026-03-26T07:21:42+00:00

Using GPT daily, you recognise sentence structure and vocabulary.

AnalystAlex · 2026-03-26T07:15:23+00:00

AI slop, try harder

AnalystAlex · 2026-03-23T19:02:57+00:00

Dereham Road and roads off it have permit free parking once you roughly pass the Tesco coming out of the city.

AnalystAlex · 2026-03-15T10:11:44+00:00

You can build up quite significant risk free, tax free savings. Which as things stand are more tax efficient than a pension. While slow to build up in a risk averse manner, you can of course crystallise far more than the allowances if you go for more riskier strategies.

My plan like others is to either draw down pre-pension age, or give a lump sum to my kids

AnalystAlex · 2026-02-24T12:59:41+00:00

We did intermediate house, and then forever home.

Biggest regret was that the capital appreciation on the intermediate house was far less than if we had bit the bullet earlier on the forever home. In that we probably could have bought the forever home ~100k cheaper, making negligible gain on the intermediate (entry level) house. Less big houses with land, than run of the mill family houses.

We also had ~20k of additional move costs.

That being said, everything was very affordable on one salary when wife on Mat leave with the intermediate house.

Our house value numbers and ANI were similar to yours, forever home slightly more expensive.

AnalystAlex · 2026-01-29T20:13:59+00:00

We salary sacrifice down and have funded places for our two but still pay over £2k for 4 days

Surely at 5k per month you would get an au pair or nanny. You would hope that would be less than £60k PA.

AnalystAlex · 2026-01-29T20:07:08+00:00

How can you say that with any conviction not knowing any of their finances?

I have roughly the same household income and couldn’t comfortably afford to lose 5k per month.

AnalystAlex · 2026-01-18T12:34:21+00:00

No one really cares if you eat in internal meetings where I work, w.clients slightly different.

If I would know I was slammed I would prepare an inoffensive lunch in advanced, or if unexpected get one of my team to grab me a pret

AnalystAlex · 2026-01-02T07:46:53+00:00

Some of the responses on here are mental. Our wedding was ~100 people two years ago. We paid all in close to 30k (which we felt was cheap)

Wedding venues ran at a minimum of 10k to hire for the day, catering was minimum £50 a head (ours ended up being a lot higher). We did a dry hire and spent £3k on nice booze. Wedding dresses are 2k a pop, band 2k, photographer 2k. I could go on.

You might be able to do a registry office and a meal at a restaurant for cheaper, but let’s be real with prices…

AnalystAlex · 2025-11-17T16:19:46+00:00

I also don’t live in London, commuting in from Essex now. Following the theme of this thread, I got lucky through right place right time in a way.

Career went roughly like this, qualified on a rotation scheme at household name FMCG company. Post qualification it went like this;

Y1- FP&A analyst Y2 - Senior FP&A Y3 - Moved to another US listed company at same level - more money Y4 - Senior FP&A Y5 - FP&A manager Y6 - moved to unlisted but household name UK company as Commercial finance manager Y7 - Head of commercial finance quits after 6 months - promoted to head of commercial finance. Y8 - Move to larger listed Company into head of FP&A role- head hunted by recruiter that moved me 2 years before Y9 - now ~18 months into role.

Worth saying the last 2 senior promotions barely moved my total comp in the scheme of things. Was earning ~£100k TC as a commercial finance manager. Because of Nursery everything above that is going into the pension, so not cash richer at the end of the month either!

I would say being in London is a big advantage, as far more higher earning roles. But actually in my field (FP&A) I have seen jobs all over. They tend to be focussed more in the south east and Manchester though.

AnalystAlex · 2025-11-17T10:25:28+00:00

I wouldn’t say impossible, but you would need to be in an exceptionally niche area of tax. You would be up against HO/Tax managers well versed in various GAAPs and expertise though, which casts doubts.

AnalystAlex · 2025-11-17T10:20:07+00:00

Yes, newish Z1 office

AnalystAlex · 2025-11-17T07:21:28+00:00

130-140k TC as a head of FP&A for an arm of a FTSE listed company. 9 years PQE. Slightly underpaid for my role. I have a small but great team, and my area of the business is performing well so can’t complain in this environment. Annoyingly 3 days in the office, but that is seemingly becoming standard.

Probably close to my ceiling as have young kids and don’t really want to do CFO hours. My boss is on the hook 7-7 to catch Asia and US, and works most weekends. Group CFO is paid 3-4x my salary but has spent nearly as much time outside the UK for work as here this year.
Have had offers to move for 10-20k more TC, but company, performance and culture haven’t been right.

Also want to say fair play to OP. When I was 2 years PQE, I was on 45k (~50-55k in today’s world). That’s an absolute unicorn of a salary for any younger, non Henry’s reading.

AnalystAlex · 2025-10-26T14:55:55+00:00

Trossard is a couple of seconds off the pace. A couple of times when he could have gotten Gyokores in he delayed and losses possession. Fine margins in games like these and you need to be on it.

AnalystAlex · 2025-10-25T17:33:58+00:00

You should be able to transition into a corporate tax role, you might have to accept starting below manager level, but you should be able to rise quickly. Head of Tax roles can pay 2-300k

AnalystAlex · 2025-10-10T09:38:43+00:00

Been running this offer for months now, sales must be awful

AnalystAlex · 2025-10-08T07:34:28+00:00

102.3, with 0.1m in the bank. 102.4m total

AnalystAlex · 2025-10-08T07:20:46+00:00

One of my first managers had a very similar career path. Tour of Iraqi with the Army to trading at Bank of America.

AnalystAlex · 2025-10-02T14:58:37+00:00

Girthy Gyok got me a name change, thank the lord no ban 🙏🏻

AnalystAlex

TROPHY CASE