Pam

Has any current CIMA associate members been through the process of applying for membership for the ICAA? I understand I have to pass the CA program, but not quite sure what that entails? Help!

worzel

Hi. I am ICAEW and am still in the UK but my take on this is that if you are working in industry (I would imagine being CIMA you are) you probably don't need to pass the ICAA exams to get a job.

If you feel you need to, the ICAA website is a good place to start with plenty of help for migrants:

http://icaa.org.au/

Pam

How can you be sure about getting a job? Have you looked into this? I'm worried that although I have 5 years PQE that this may not count in Australia without an Australian professional qualification?

chris n

Personally I'm FCCA but I would have thought that you would only need to convert if you wanted to go into practice - as you're CIMA I assume that would be the last thing on your mind. ACCA have a branch in Australia and New Zealand - do CIMA? If yes, try contacting them.

I'm heading out in a couple of weeks to validate our visas and will take the opportunity to talk to recruitment consultants in Perth. I have a member of my team who was out in Australia in January and they were told that you may have to take a side or downwards step for around twelve months but after that you'll be fine - she is CIMA qualified.

Chris

Alan Collett

Pam,

I would call Membership at the ICAA in Sydney ... I have found the Institute in Sydney to be helpful and they know about CIMA qualifications. Telephone +61 2 9290 1344.

There are also Sydney and Melbourne branches of the ICAEW that might be able to give you some guidance - I will try to find some contact details ...

Best regards.

Alan Collett

OK, here we are - Sydney branch of the ICAEW, contact Richard Stokes on +61 2 9416 5634, or email stokespartnersinternational - at - compuserve - dot - com

Good luck.

JAJ

If you look on the ICAA website you will see they have a strategic alliance with CIMA and that entails usually 2 out of 5 papers of the CA program exempted (plus tax/law bridging study as normal). There will be hoops you have to go through in terms of getting the necessary work experience.

But as others have said - CIMA is building its own reputation in Australia, there's no Australian equivalent accountancy body, and you may find you don't need to join one of the Australian professional bodies in order to get employment.

Even if you did have an Australian qualification, as a new immigrant you're still something of an 'unknown quantity' to employers.

As far as migration is concerned, the CIMA qualification in itself meets the ICAA requirements.

Jeremy

Elaine M

I'm CIPFA which is of course less well known than the other UK bodies; I found as Jeremy says that it's not so much the qualification as the fact that you've no Aussie work experience that held me back.

However I've got a job now at the University of Adelaide, they're happy with my qualification and are not pushing me to do the exams to convert, unless it would specifically help me to do my job better. Having said that, I can have time off to study if I decide I want to go for the CA.

From my experience, I'd say it depends on what kind of job you're after. I'm more a management accountant so for the roles I was after the employers were really looking for relevant experience first, backed up by a professional qualification.

It may be different elsewhere of course - this is just what I found.

Elaine M

Pam

We are also looking to move to Perth, so I'd be interested to know how you got on with the Consultants out there if you wouldn't mind - thanks!

numbers

Yeh me, too, were moving to Perth and im CIPFA and would like to know what prospects are out there for me. Im happy to take a downward step. Tony

worzel

Well, I guess it is a gamble but in my eyes nowhere near as big as the one to sell my UK house and leave friends and family on the other side of the world. In a worst case scenario I could get something way beneath me on low pay and build a career from the ground up and my wife would have to find a part-time job for a couple of years.

But I am a lot more optimistic than that. I read the job adds in the Aussie press every couple of weeks and do the same on the main recruitment agencies websites. Accountancy wouldn't be on the MODL if there weren't enough jobs to go around. I also had a chat with an Australian working in the London offices of an international recruitment agency who has lived in most major Australian cities in the last 15 years. The agencies are reluctant to do this on the whole as they don't want to waste time on you unless you at least have a visa and ideally a plane ticket but I got some good vibes from her. She also told me that in industry the lack of an Australian qualification is unlikely to be an issue.

I am also lucky (actually good career planning / boredom) that I did 18 months in audit in the professional standards dept, worked as a financial acountant then a management accountant and in the last 5 years have done all sorts of systems work including a good deal of IT work and liaison with procurement / warehousing / sales functions. I have also moved around industries, audited charities etc etc so whatever job comes up the chances are I have some relevant experience.

chris n

Need to revise my earlier comments a little...

I was told that if I marketed myself to the right companies I WOULDN'T have to take a step backwards in the short term. The market for accountants is certainly stonger this year than last and is expected to continue in 2005.

Salary packages, of course, are different from employer to employer but I was given an assurance that I could expect to get a salary in the kind of band that I was hoping for.

In terms of getting a role, the contract market is probably the quickest with the timeline suggested at a couple of weeks. Permanent market still strong although it may take a couple of months to secure the right role (if happy not to dive into the first job offered).

In terms of sectors - mining, financial services and manufacturing stonger than others. Most large companies do have offices in WA but a lot of the retail giants are of course eastern based (do Coles Myers own everything in Australia? - tongue in cheek, I know the answer !). Don't worry - the mining comanies have their head offices in Perth not up north though.

Looking in the West Australian there were accounting jobs but from a personal point of view for the level of role I would be looking for I would still expect it to be sourced from an agency as in the UK. Remember, you can still look on all the job web sites to look at what's available - they should be indicative of what is on the market.

As an aside, any female accountants with brick layers for husbands (or vice versa!) will have a great life - there is building in WA all up the cost from south of Bunbury to north of Quinns Rocks (if you aren't familiar with the area that's a bloody long way!!!). In the two job editions of the West Australian I picked up I counted nearly fifty adverts for brickies in EACH edition.

Hope this helps,

Chris