Hello, I have just received a job offer from KPMG in Dublin for their Business Performance and IT Advisory department. This is a very interesting prospect for me and of course a great company to work for. My main concern however is that part of the training of this grad scheme is to fo through the exams to become a chartered accountant (I am unsure of whether they are ACA or ACCA). I have just graduated with a first class honours degree from Queen's University, Belfast in Business Information Technology. My career amibitions for quite a while has been to enter technology/business consultancy and BPIT at KPMG is something very much like that, though with a financial side to it as well.I know this is a good opportunity but I am seriously wondering whether it is worth another 3.5 years of my life to become a chartered accountant when I won't even be working in accountancy. Does anyone have any experience and advice in this dilemma???

can anyone help me out on this??? need to give them an answer ASAP

I used to work for EY having just left. The way they were structured re: IT and accountancy was that the IT audit division would support the financial auditors for understanding and review of technology. There was a seperate division dealing with performance management, and advisory type work so I would not worry about becoming an accountant. Yes you may at some point support an audit, but if KPMG is setup anything like EY your more likely to be involved in IT process review or systems analysis.

Just to clarify often the big4 will use this as a way to tie down thier grads (i.e to disuade leaving) and also so you build up an understanding of thier core business. Hopefully this and my last post give you some clarity. Good luck