The thousands of accountants qualifying over the next few weeks must take care with their career planning if they are considering leaving practice after gaining the coveted “chartered” status warns Max Williamson, chief executive of at audit recruitment website www.careersinaudit.com. 

William says many companies are offering high salaries and exotic travel to lure newly-qualified chartered accountants, but jobseekers need to look beyond short-term gain to whether the role will enhance their career longer-term.

He says:  “We have seen a surprising number of recently qualified accountants returning to the market within 12 months of stepping out of practice. This is usually because they moved to a position that was not suitable or because they did not consider all aspects of what the job would entail.

“Newly-qualified accountants looking to leave practice need to look beyond the pay and perks to avoid an unsuitable job or ending up in a career rut that, 10 or 20 years down the line, will see them unable to progress to the senior and highly paid levels many covet.”