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May 16, 2025
If you’ve hit a wall in your career, you might be thinking about ways you can pivot or change to a new path entirely. Accountancy is a career that individuals may come to later in life, as the drive to become an accountant is less likely to be particularly strong in your teens and early adulthood.
It often takes some time in the business world to get familiar with the role and to decide that this is the right path. Anyone with a strong head for numbers can excel in the accountancy sector, and many will tell you that it isn’t always a requirement.
A career as an accountant can be incredibly rewarding. First and foremost, there’s no shortage of interesting opportunities out there. You might work with large organisations and help to shape business growth strategy. Or you might work with a charity to help them to maximise their impact.
For those looking for more freedom, freelance accountants can build a rewarding career that allows them to work with individuals and organisations that are aligned with their personal interests and values. In short, there are no limits to the opportunities available for accountants, including rising to the top of organisations as a CFO.
It’s never too late to make the switch, as your past working experience can be repurposed towards this new goal. With this in mind, let’s look at different paths into accountancy later in life.
While some career changes are certainly possible without formal qualifications, accountancy isn’t one of them. While you might have worked closely with accounts and assume that you have a grasp of the core competencies, there is no substitute for formal training.
Many roles have a legal requirement that you have the correct training, as the accounts will have to be prepared by a qualified accountant. Online, part-time and evening courses are available if you want to combine learning with earning.
Before committing to a training provided, make sure they are accredited and that your qualification will be recognised.
If you don’t have any direct experience as an accountant, you’ll need to think about how you can reframe your existing experience to be relevant to an accountancy role. While you might not have any direct experience preparing accounts, you might have experience in detail-oriented roles, or in reporting and analysis.
The easiest way to update your CV would be to look at a job description for an accountant role and look for ways you can demonstrate these competencies with your existing experience. You’ll also need to be prepared to explain your career pivot during interviews.
You might need to join an organisation in a more junior position and quickly demonstrate your worth and value. With any career pivot, you can expect to be starting back at the beginning to a certain extent. Carefully consider if this is something you can afford to do and if you’re willing to be in a less senior role on a lower salary.
In job interviews, it’s important to make it clear that you expect to be on a fast-tracked upward trajectory once you have had an opportunity to show your skills. It should quickly become clear that – although you might be new to accounting – you have extensive experience in the workforce, and this needs to count for something.
When you start to secure interviews, be prepared for interview panels to want to know why you made the switch. You’ll need to prepare your answer so that you can deliver something clear and defined. A sudden change in direction without any underlying reason could make some employers nervous. They might worry that you are flighty or lacking in focus.
To counter these concerns, frame your change of direction as a positive move towards something new rather than a negative move away from what you were doing before. This is a far more positive stance and will alleviate the fear that you might be looking for a new career path in another 6 months.
Shifting to a new career path later in life doesn’t mean that you’re done with training and education. You’ll need to keep your skills fresh and remain ahead of the curve by keeping up to date with the latest developments. Technology is transforming the accountancy sector at an alarming rate, so you need to ensure these latest developments don’t push you out of the job.
While AI might be able to do lots of the tasks associated with accountancy, it doesn’t replace the insight and experience brought by an enthusiastic and engaged accountant. As a newly qualified accountant, you’ll be at greater risk of being pushed out if you can’t show how you bring value to the company, so be prepared to push your training to ensure you become indispensable.
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