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Out of Articles? How to plan what’s next

Out of Articles?

Coming out of articles as an accountant or tax professional is an ideal time to assess where you want to go to in the future. At this point in your career you will have more visibility on your market, and a greater understanding of the options available to you.

What are the key questions?

Is salary the most important thing, do you want to travel now or in the future, is work life balance central to your decision making or is being based in a certain location top of your list?

When you identify and order what it is that is most important you can then start to look at the options you have and the steps you need to take to get there.

Getting more information

A good exercise which we recommend is to look at linkedIn profiles of people that have a similar career history to you but are now a few years ahead.  What kind of roles have they moved into and how do those roles fit into the hierarchy of needs which you have outlined.

Once you have a tighter picture of the type of career that is going to accommodate your expectations, you can then start to analyse what you are willing to give up/trade in order to get there.

Putting it into practice

Look at a potential career path objectively and identify the trade-offs. A role may offer a higher salary but reduce your overall marketability due to specialisation. Or a role may offer access to a higher quality of work, but less scope for individual progression.

When you start to reach some decisions it is a good time to speak with a recruiter to see what the market is likely to offer you. You may decide that you are best suited where you are or you may need to move to a different environment to help you develop exposure to other specialisations.

If you are unsure about the types of opportunities available, we strongly suggest that you take meetings and interviews to get more informed about prospects. You will learn something from every process you enter and create a more precise picture of your future career as a result.

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