Advice For Kenyan CPA’S & Accountants.
Accountants jobs in Kenya are many. so why am i not getting the job i want? Read on for some advice.
As a qualified Kenyan accountant its easy to despair when job hunting. Accounting jobs and vacancies are being advertised on a daily basis and even though you’re making applications almost on a daily basis no one is calling you for an interview. some candidates have gone to the extent of asking whether the jobs advertised are for real. Well, the jobs are real and candidates are being picked.
If you are looking for an accounting job then you need to read this carefully.
1. You need to realize that you’re very very many. Accounting is the cheapest profession to study in Kenya. Provided you have the right K.C.S.E qualifications you only need to register for exams. Many high school graduates choose to register with KASNEB ‘before something serious’ comes up i.e joining campus and all that. It’s no wonder you will find a law student having a CPA qualification. Back at the University of Nairobi Main Campus CPA was referred as a common course. After all 90% of the students were in various stages of studying CPA. The end result is many qualified candidates chasing fewer opportunities. And it’s going to get worse now that we have all manner of private universities coming up.
2. CPA (K) is only important if you have experience. Currently the trend is for one to register for CPA and get to the K part in the shortest time possible. The end result is CPA-K candidates applying for jobs, quoting higher salaries while in essence these individuals have no practical experience. some don’t know how a bank recon is done and yet you apply for even an accounts assistant position. As a recruiter who gets to interact with Kenyan Chief Accountants my advice is for you to seek any form of experience right after passing section four/part two. You stand a better chance of getting a job at section four than CPA K.
3. Salaries. This goes hand in hand with paper qualifications. Nowadays many candidates are getting the right papers at a young age. Fresh graduates are coming out with B.Coms, CPA, CPS and some CFA’s. With this kind of papers and as a human being its natural to think of yourself a little bit special and hence demand a higher salary. The fact is if you’re a fresh graduate you haven’t proved yourself and sincerely speaking those are just paper qualifications. Many candidates will turn down job offers because of low pay when they don’t have the experience to match.
4. Different Sectors. The good thing with accounts is that you can work in many industries. You can work for a bank, an NGO, college, hospital etc. The disadvantage of this is that different sectors have their own way of operating. Kenyan NGO’s are notorious for requiring you to have prior NGO experience. And this is perfectly in order. For the employers its easier for such an individual to fit in easily than you coming from a manufacturing concern. If you’re trying to enter a different sector from the one you are currently in then you need to learn what those fellows do before hand and give yourself some time. At this level accounting is not just about debit and credit and skills transfer is not an easy task.
5. Be willing to start from ground zero. This goes hand in hand with points 2 and 3. No one will employ you on the strength of your CPA & degree alone. May be banks who will put you in customer service and this is not accounts. If you envision yourself having an accounts careers and as a way of beating competition then get some experience. You should be prepared to even work for free. Ask around your friends who seem to have made it in accounts and they will tell you stories of how their first jobs paid them 5K or nothing.
6.For Those Having CPA-K and not working in Accounts. I had discussed this in another article but the point remains, if you want to change jobs from your marketing job to accounts then you need to have relevant accounting skills. You can get this by finding some part time work or even volunteering and in the process getting to gain the required skills. If you don’t know how to file VAT, do bank recons, handle debtors/creditors, file statutory returns i.e PAYE, NSSF etc how o you expect to beat competition from individuals who do this on a daily basis? Jobs are scarce and its in order to do sales as you wait for that accounting job but don’t neglect your skills.
7. Are you all rounded? Still on experience you will find individuals employed to handle only one aspect of accounts. For example if you’re working for a large company you might be allocated debtors only. Day in day out you only know of debtors. Obviously you will become an expert on debtors management but this is very hard to sell unless you want to concentrate here all your life. To make it in accounts you need to know something on everything touching on accounts. specialization is good but only at those higher levels. For individuals with less than 5 years experience strive to know practically all departments in accounts and as your career progress you can get to choose area of specialization.
At the end of the day it whats you know that will separate you from the thousands of qualified CPA’s. A decade ago having CPA K was a big thing because few candidates had it but today with job seekers having the right papers you can only distinguish yourself by the level of expertise you posses.