After three years and all those exams, the long awaited day finally arrives; the day you can complete your file, sign off your final hours and finish your file to be sent off to the ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales). Suddenly printing off reams of timesheet reports, counting up the hours and getting all those feedback reports becomes worth it. Looking back it has been both a tough and enjoyable time going through the ACA (Associate Chartered Accountant) qualification process.The work has been varied and I have met a large number of very interesting people. There will be audits I will no longer work on that I will be sad to leave; but I know that there will be other, equally interesting audits to get involved with.
As I have gained experience I have taken on roles of greater responsibility within the team. This began with a hastily performed planning of an audit (due to circumstances outside our control) to being responsible for areas in a departmental resource account audit to leading a full audit.
On the college side, the work was tough, with revision and question practice dominating my life for chunks of time. I sat at my desk with my eyes slowly glazing over and on occasion I found I dreamed of exam questions! However it is true that you can’t expect a free ride and this work is needed to have exam success. Unfortunately I did fail one of my exams; the dreaded Case Study. My top tip for exam success (outside of putting in the hours) is not getting ill!
There were many others from my intake in the same situation, and a few others who unfortunately failed a technical paper. With one final push of dedication we spent hours upon hours revising and preparing for our resits. Waiting for the resit results was difficult; I left the office about fifteen minutes before the release of results at midday to be somewhere else, just in case the news was not good. Luckily it was a pass so I went and bought treats for the area I work in! I later found out that all re-sitters had passed, much to our collective relief.
After that it was a case of completing the file as by then we were all time qualified. We all put together our ICAEW folders, ensured our Technical Work Experience form was updated and signed before submitting it.
And then, after three years, a lot of hard work, sweat and occasionally tears (I am man enough to admit to it); we received our hard earned three letter prize.
– Robert Trevett, ACA