A career in chartered accountancy offers exciting and limitless opportunities, with a range of industries and sectors to work in. Whether you want to influence the strategy, direction and profitability of an organisation, or make a difference by ensuring your employer has the funds to deliver its charitable work, find out where a career in accountancy could take you.
Public practice
A public practice firm’s accountants deal with accounting and financial needs of a client whilst remaining independent from their staff. Accountancy practices vary in size, type and location as well as what services they offer, including:
- Audit and assurance
- Business advisory
- Business recovery and insolvency
- Consultancy
- Corporate finance and risk management
- Forensic accounting
- Tax advice
Why work in public practice?
While public practice can be challenging, it can also present trainees with a wide variety of experiences working on multiple industries and providing a lot of flexibility. Public practice is often seen as a sector that can offer job security, as other sectors can be hit hard by recession, and there is also the chance to specialise in areas such as audit or consultancy in this area of accountancy.
Routes into public practice
There is a lot of variety for graduates entering this area of accountancy.
Large international firms sit within public practice, and include the “Big Four” accountancy firms – PwC, EY, KPMG and Deloitte. On the other end of the scale there are also smaller accountancy firms, known as small and medium enterprises (SME’s). They both have their benefits and their drawbacks, so be sure to do your research before you decide which firm is right for you.
Specific entry roles into public practice include Audit Trainee, Assurance Trainee and Financial Analyst.
Public practice can be challenging, but it does present trainees with a wide variety of experiences working in multiple industries
