You are waiting for your ACCA Examination Results and Status Report and praying that you get good marks. As your mobile gives you a notification you get anxious whether you have received your result, and your heart beats like a drum. But you must be wondering why am I telling you what you already know. After you have experienced this anxiousness for the last time, you wonder with your Examination Results in front of your eyes, “What to do After ACCA?”.
Nowadays, it is not enough to just have an ACCA qualification, you have to hold multiple qualifications or degrees. Don’t worry, you are at the right place, at the end of this blog you will know which way to go after completing your ACCA qualification.
How to Decide What to Do
Keep in mind these 3 questions before you start searching for different options you have:
- Where do you see yourself after 10 years? – Do you want to have your own firm? or see yourself as an Auditor in any of the Big fours or MNCs?
- What are your Interests? – Do you wish to go for a core finance job? or have a knowledge of diverse fields?
- Do you wish to pursue your career outside the field of finance? – Pursue Law?, or any management degree?
After you have found the answers to these three questions you need to assess what options do you have.
Best Options after completing ACCA
Go for an MBA
After completing ACCA one of the best options you have is to go for an MBA Post Graduation degree in a top management institute of your choice. I would suggest that after you gain a Practical Experience of 2-3 years you should go for an MBA. You can give Common Admission Test (CAT) which is a All India Exam for students who want to do MBA and is common for all institutes providing MBA course. Or you can apply for an MBA at Oxford Brookes University, UK and you can easily enter that course as you are an ACCA qualified professional. If you have the resources you can also apply for any B-School outside India for MBA.
Pursue CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst)
CFA is the best Post Graduate degree after completing ACCA, which will give your finance career a boost. It will land you with the best organisations worldwide, including the Big Four. CFA focuses more on the Financial Aspect rather than the Management Aspects. A series of 3 levels of exams is included in the course. As you are already an ACCA qualified person it maybe easy for you to learn and complete CFA.
Start your Own Business
You can also start your own business if you want, in the field of finance or any other area. ACCA will help you in many unexpected ways to run your business. You can also start your own consulting firm as well as work as a free lancer or an Independent Financial Advisory to small and medium sized businesses. Working overseas as a free lancer or starting your own business is also a good option.
3 Year Law Course
One of the most deadly combinations in today’s scenario is a degree in finance with a degree in Law. If you are interested in the field of Law you should pursue this path. Having a law degree will not only give you insights but also help you work efficiently in the corporate environment. Law also provides you an edge against your competitors and will give you a direct jump to a position on middle level or senior level of Management.
At the end, I would like to say that choosing a career depends totally on your choice and your opinion may differ from mine but don’t stop after ACCA and even after pursuing any of these paths, keep learning and keep increasing your knowledge.