The allure of the CIMA

‘Demand for CIMAs is exceptionally good,’ says David Magowan, team manager for the telecommunications and leisure industries at recruitment consultants Robert Walters. ‘Salaries are commensurate with chartered accountant level.’

Respect for the CIMA qualification has increased within industry, recruiters say, having recently attracted higher calibre graduates. David Moore, senior consultant with northern recruitment specialist Hitchenor Maher, also notes the improved reputation of CIMA qualifieds. But salaries in the North West are still down on CAs, he says. While a newly-qualified CIMA should be worth #20,000 to #23,000, a chartered from a Big Six firm would get #25,000 easily.

Most demand for CIMAs is coming from the lighter industries, such as retail and leisure, and also the natural resources market, including giants such as Shell and BP. Construction and heavy industry have been depressed, with less staff turnover.

CIMA candidates score over CA rivals if their CV shows exposure to front-end operations, such as sales and marketing. ‘Candidates should have a good academic background, broad experience, and exposure to the commercial side of business,’ says Moore. Pure, technical accounting skills are not seen as adding much value to the business. IT ability is a selling point but simple spreadsheet skills are no longer sufficient – companies want people with an understanding of how systems architecture affects business productivity.

Employers prefer CIMAs for positions such as costing roles in the manufacturing sector and business planning. But companies are becoming increasingly project-oriented, allowing a variety of experience. ‘Some of the most talented individuals are being plucked from finance departments for projects such as systems implementation,’ says Magowan.

While many newly qualifieds worry about picking the right job title, preferring analyst roles, Magowan believes there are more serious considerations.

‘The sector is important,’ he says, ‘because newly qualifieds will be developing a specialist knowledge and that will govern where they remain if they want to do well.’ Promotion prospects are also important. ‘You need to be able to see two-steps ahead,’ he says.

There is no standard time in which a CIMA should expect to reach finance director level. But young management accountants might aim to be financial controller of a smaller business by their late 20s, or early 30s. Add a few years for a bigger company, while you might have to wait until 35 or 40 to have a go in a large plc. Moore adds: ‘If you want to make it to FD, then the better quality business you join the better. And you should try to get to a corporate strategy area where planning is important.’

If you opt for a large corporation, then be prepared to travel. ‘In Shell, you might spend two years in head office and then be expected to travel internationally for the next job, perhaps to New York,’ says Magowan.

‘It’s like the military – you go where your battalion is.’

CIMA newly qualifieds are also in demand in the consultancy world. ‘There is heavy demand for very good CIMAs with an understanding of business processes, who have had experience of rolling up their sleeves and getting their hands dirty,’ says Magowan.

Recruitment of CIMA qualifieds into the consulting division is increasing, agrees Ron Collard, human resources director for Coopers & Lybrand. ‘The financial management and business area is very buoyant and there is quite a high level of requirement for CIMA people. We are looking for people who have, or who are able to develop, their consultancy skills.’

Charles Keeling, management consultancy partner with Price Waterhouse, says firms are increasingly recruiting younger qualifieds. ‘We put them through specific training to give them some technical skills and develop them quickly through assignments,’ he says. Skills the new recruits will be expected to master include activity based cost management, change management, value based management, business process re-engineering and software applications such as SAP and Oracle. CIMAs are attractive, says Keeling, because ‘they will have worked in industry or commerce and have experience of the real world’. Candidates should have ‘great interpersonal skills and preferably come from a blue chip background’, he adds. Successful recruits could make partnership within eight to 12 years.

Moore advises: ‘There is strong demand for CIMAs who have worked in sectors where the firms are looking to do business. But it needs to have been a quality, high-profile company, not Joe Bloggs Engineering.’

If you are tempted by consultancy but unsure whether it would be your life’s mission, the switch from industry need not be permanent. ‘You could do management consultancy for two or three years,’ suggests Magowan. ‘That’s an ideal option in many respects because it gives you a broad understanding of many industry sectors and you get exposure to board level decision making. And it gives you the opportunity to travel the world.’ Returning to industry should not be hard. ‘A lot are snapped up by the clients they work for,’ he assures.

John Fraser, managing partner of recruitment consultants Fraser Dawson, says there are career openings across the range of consultancies. Picking the right one to join will come down to personal factors. But Fraser suggests: ‘Look at the quality of the clients and projects. You also need to be able to see a career plan mapped out.’

Remember that consultancies may concentrate on particular types of assignment.

For example, Arthur Andersen tends to be very IT oriented, while Coopers & Lybrand or Ernst & Young might do more business process re-engineering and activity based costing projects. Some want expertise in the latest accounting software, such as SAP. ‘If I had a CIMA who had worked in industry and implemented SAP, I could easily sell them to a consultancy,’ says Vanessa Moon, manager at Robert Half in Bristol. ‘They are like gold dust.’

Pay packets are generous. ‘Individuals good enough for consultancy can command that little bit more,’ Magowan says. ‘But it does demand a sacrifice in terms of the travel and the time commitment.’ Newly qualifieds should not imagine that consultancy is all glamour. Success means hard work.

As Keeling says: ‘It’s a maniac’s life.’

Taking the initiative at interviews

Written by Max Messmer, chief executive of Robert Half International, 50 Ways to Get Hired is the essential job-seeker’s handbook. There are fifty copies up for grabs to Accountancy Age readers with the worst interview horror stories. To enter the competition, fax us your tale of woe by close of play on Friday 14 February (0171-316 9250)

There are 13 questions that crop up regularly in job interviews. The most devilish by far is the invitation to candidates to discuss their own weaknesses. Anyone whose answer involves having trouble getting out of bed in the mornings deserves to be shot.

The other 12 questions are just as predictable, ranging from why you left your last job to salary expectations and hobbies. Even so, hardly anyone is really prepared for them, ready to jump in and demonstrate just how well they fit the job spec. They master nightmare exams, an aborted social life and other such minor setbacks, but when it comes to the business of getting a job accountants show little of the single-mindedness they used to get into the profession in the first place.

If there’s one piece of good advice about job-hunting, it’s this: regard your job-hunt as a military operation with you as its chief tactician.

It’s all about strategy, followed by execution. Above all, be proactive and focused.

Magic and mystique have a place in all personal interaction. And it might well help to look like Liz Hurley or Liam Neeson – it can have just the opposite effect too. But one fundamental axiom applies no matter how gorgeous you are: to get the job you want, you need the skills it requires. If you are lagging behind on software skills, unfamiliar with programmes that are now a routine feature of most offices, you’ve got to tackle that head-on.

Your unique selling point

Then the creativity begins. Do you know what your unique selling point, is? Think like an advertising director. Why should anyone buy you over a host of similar products? Do you have a scripted 15-second sales pitch that brings your assets to the front of your introduction?

Pretend you’ve been asked to write your own recommendation and include at least five assets. These could be the ability to speak a couple of foreign languages, competence in all the major software programmes; you could be an exceptional communicator or exceptionally tenacious in everything you do, or a brilliant motivator. Once you’ve identified them, make one your headline and build a marketing strategy around it. Mention it in covering letters and at the interview. You must sell these strengths as well as selling yourself.

But first, you need to know about the job. Don’t wait for things to appear in print. You could hear about an opportunity from a supplier; perhaps there’s a new tenant moving into your office block. There are thousands of companies whose names are freely available in directories (themselves freely available in libraries). A good system is to establish your own database with basic criteria – region, industry type, size – and draw up a shortlist matching your requirements.

A more intimate approach, though, is likely to be the most productive.

Knowing someone who knows someone who may know of a job is ‘networking’ – 80% of jobs are filled this way. Again, you can make a conscious effort to build up a list of contacts. Come up with ten people whom you would feel comfortable approaching, then ask each of them to come up with three people they know. This would put you up to 40 people. Repeat the exercise to create another layer in the network and the number has already mushroomed to 130 people from an original list of ten. It takes time, effort – and, no, you’re not using people. Networking is an accepted practice and one day others will come to you for help.

There’ll rarely be more than one chance to talk to most contacts so you have to make each conversation count. You should aim to come out with one or more of the following: a lead about an opening, awareness of a company that may need people with your background and skills, names of other people and names of companies in which that person knows other people.

Charming your way into a job

And so to the interview, presuming your CV and covering letter have worked.

In short, they’ll have told the prospective hirer in one or two pages your specific business or professional experience, career accomplishments, training and education, focusing on the aspects likely to capture the would-be employer’s interest.

How do you clinch it? To hear some people talk, you’d think that handling yourself well during a job interview required a set of highly complex, esoteric skills. Not true. What you need most is basic human charm: the ability to listen and show genuine and enthusiastic interest in what the other person is saying. Generally, those who come over best are not skilled game-players. They’re solid candidates, who’ve come well-prepared, project a positive attitude and are not afraid to be themselves.

You can never know too much about the company, the person conducting the interview, key executives, trends in that industry or the competition.

Homework will give you the ultimate competitive edge.

Finally, don’t shoot yourself in the foot by getting the date wrong, talking on your mobile phone in reception, eating chocolate while you wait, bringing your spouse or turning up in any sort of outfit that stops you looking professional and blending in.

Try to find common ground with your interviewer as soon as you walk in.

First impressions are as important in these situations as they are in life in general. And when that question comes – the no-win query about your weaknesses – have an answer ready. Forget the inability to get out of bed and substitute a weakness which has attached strengths – becoming fixated by a particular task or having tunnel-vision on projects.

Always play to win. Even if you find after all this you don’t want the job, give it your best shot. Getting an offer of work never hurt anyone’s morale.

Jeff Grout is UK managing director of Robert Half International

Jeremy Tait

Age: 29

Finance control manager with Marks & Spencer, Jeremy Tait began his CIMA training with food retailer Safeway in 1991 as a systems accountant.

He joined numerous project teams conducting profitability analysis and modelling the factors affecting gross margins. Later, as part of the main accountancy team, he liaised with Safeway’s marketing department, analysing the commercial impact of promotional activities.

After qualifying, Tait moved to Blockbuster Entertainment as a financial planning analyst putting together budgets for UK stores. ‘I also developed their promotional analysis which hadn’t really been done before,’ he says.

But Tait was looking for opportunities for promotion and so moved to M&S in June 1996 as finance control manager in the foods division. ‘I look at the strategy of the food division and how we can improve profitability,’ he says. He is happy about the move. ‘I feel a keen interest is taken in my career,’ he explains.

Jeremy Thomas

Age: 32

Jeremy Thomas completed his CIMA qualification during two years as a management trainee with defence group Dowty before moving to Hereford cider maker HP Bulmer in 1988.

‘I chose Bulmer because it was a high-profile company in a fast-moving sector,’ he says. Over the next eight years his roles included financial controller of the soft drinks division and an acquired cider company.

He also gained commercial and operations experience and worked on a range of projects including strategic review and business process re-engineering.

‘Working alongside external consultants made me realise I was capable of doing consultancy myself,’ he says.

Inspired by the experience, in 1996 Thomas became an executive consultant with KPMG in Birmingham as a member of the profit improvement team involved in activity based management. He has not been disappointed. ‘There is plenty of variety,’ he says.