Hi, I'm in the process of switching from marketing to accountancy. I have over 13 years of marketing and communications experience in corporate and public sector. Graduated with a MBA in Business, and 2:1 Hons in Business & Computing. I have also completed several modules in Marketing working towards the Professional Marketing Post Graduate Diploma CIM qualifications. Ideally, I would like to use more of my qualifications rather than just touching the surface in marketing; slightly frustrated with the amount of opportunities available in Manchester in marketing, and hence considering to change career paths and work towards at ACA or ACCA qualification. Can anyone suggest if this is a good choice, and if so, the most appropriate route, please?ThanksLuckvear

Getting into practice from the entry level can be ageist. Given your experience I assume you are at least 30 years old.You can still get a training contract with an accountancy practice, but your best bet maybe to go into the client side (i.e. commerce/industry). Be warned, if you are starting from the entry level you may need to adjust your pay expectations.Meet with a few recruitment agencies, speak with friendly accountants and best of luck.

This is an interesting career move.... especially given your qualifications, experience and age.Please think very carefully before you embark upon ACA, ACCA, CIMA or CIPFA training. Think about to what ends are you seeking to requalify? There are many ways of qualifying as an accountant.... and many different roles that you might be performing in the future.Career moves need to be carefully thought out - and you need to make sure that they make sense for you.... but you also need to think about future employers and what they will think of a person who makes what may be seen by some people as a fairly radical move into (chartered?) accountancy.You will need to perform your own research into what form of career outcome will be provided by the training from each accounting body.Chartered Accountancy might be a little problematic because of the rigid hierarchy / age / experience criteria. You should avoid auditing if at all possible - there are other areas such as insolvency that could be more exciting.Then again the other versions of accountancy - particularly CIMA and CIPFA - might lead on to interesting careers. You may even be awarded some exemptions by CIMA for your MBA studies.Have you considered swapping Manchester for London and sticking with marketing?By the way I qualified as a CA, who then moved on to an Executive MBA and then the CIM Diploma.... and more recently an MSc in organisational psychology. Now focusing on business consulting, business coaching and change management. I found the CA qualification gave me a great understanding of financial matters - but I did not like auditing and could never see myself producing tax returns. However, an accounting qualification with your experience could put you in line for an interesting senior management role in finance / General Management.I hope that this helps..... keep asking yourself "to what end I am I doing this?"