Is bigger really better in practice?

There’s no doubt that the extra compliance work brought on by Sarbanes Oxley, by the advent of International Financial Reporting Standards and by the general climate of anxiety created by high profile corporate collapses has translated into more work all round. Liz Loxton reports

More work and more jobs. The employment market for accountants at all levels and from all disciplines has been revitalised. And the gentle upturn in the UK economy has contributed to a growing sense that trainee accountants are no longer a ‘nice to have’ but essential to the growth of a firm.

With past cut backs in the number of training contracts being offered well and truly over, competition for partly qualified and qualified accountants is steep. PQs should in theory be in a strong position to negotiate better terms.

So if you are working in the world of practice, how does life compare between the small, medium and large firms? Pass asked the biggest - PricewaterhouseCoopers - and mid-tier firm Kingston Smith what they had to offer in terms of benefits, experience, exposure to senior clients and career development (see panel). We also talked to training partner Alan Knapp at Docklands-based small firm Littlejohn Frazer about the small firm experience.

On pay, there were some interesting differentiators. At PwC an ACA trainee would join (in London) on £23,500, while Kingston Smith offers £20,000 to £22,000. At PwC, that trainee will find their salary rise to £25,000 after 15 months. On qualification they would get a healthy hike in salary, up to £30,500. At Kingston Smith, a third-year trainee might already reach £29,000 during their third year.

In terms of training support, PwC like other big firms has a dedicated professional qualifications group, there to coach trainees through their first years, along with assistance from line managers and coaches. Kingston Smith offers a buddy systems as well as deploying senior staff as trainers and mentors. Both firms say they are committed to giving trainees a healthy level of responsibility throughout their three year contract.

And the bigger firms and the mid-tier are not the only ones offering well-rounded training contracts with good exposure to household name clients at senior level.

Alan Knapp says corporate governance measures like Sarbanes Oxley have in some cases conflicted the Big Four out of work, resulting in complex and varied work filtering down to smaller firms like Littlejohn Frazer. He says financial services in particular offers quite high levels of responsibility and varied experience, with taxation and accounting staff working closely together. This is good news, he says, as it gives trainees early exposure to the ways in which corporate governance issues can resonate throughout a client’s business.

He cites IFRS as an example. The massive amount of work involved will hone analytical skills and will also see accountants interpreting information and communicating the changes to clients at board level.

Even where trainees are working on apparently more day to day issues - helping clients with management accounting issues or payroll, for instance - means that they can gain a real breadth of experience and interact with senior clients. This kind of work also has the benefit of providing a career path for the trainees post qualification. The firm doesn’t keep all its trainees on once they have qualified and a number find their way to posts at client companies.

‘If you have someone who is a year three assignment leader - they are in the face of the client, demonstrating strong technical skills and team leadership skills. It’s quite a testament to their development when they move on,’ he says.

When it comes to recruitment, the bigger firms clearly benefit from their superior profile and hitting power when it comes to salary and benefits. But Knapp firmly believes that the smaller firms have a great deal to offer in terms of experience, levels of responsibility and recognition. ‘The firm is small enough that their work is recognised and acknowledged and that acknowledgement is a very positive aspect of working life.’

‘By the third year, you could be an assignment leader, dealing with the client, the managing partner and your team. That’s quite a tough role,’ he says, adding that the firm’s trainees seem to relish the challenge.