letters end up in the big round filing cabinet under the desk.

Emails that get through will be deleted.

Accountants get way too many such requests. (along with letters from newly qualified bookkeepers asking to give assistance).

Its nothing personal against those new to the business, it's just that accountants in some areas are getting several requests per day for work / mentoring.

Personally I still answer the ones that I get, but I feel that I'm one of the few that do.

To my mind the only way to get a mentor is to know the accountant and if you don't know any accountants the only way to get to meet accountants in a professional capacity is either as a client or via networking events.

Also consider what is the accountant going to get from the arrangement? Their time is £35+ per hour. What is their incentive to invest any of that in mentoring someone who will eventually be competing in the same market as them but at a lower price.

Sorry that this comes accross as a little negative on this question,

kind regards,

Shaun.

Perfect solution for you would be to get some temp work in practice or industry which will expose you to working with people who are the one's that you need access to.

In the past I've taken some positions at ridiculously low rates in order to pick up new skills and experience (I did a couple of months in a good quality Credit Control department at £10 per hour. Deciding that one credit control department was not enough I took a position with a second one at £15 per hour which turned out to be a call centre arrangement rather than a proper accounts department settup and told them exactly where to put their job after less than a day).

The key is that you need a transferable skill that will open doors across areas. Verifiable advanced Excel skills do that for me but any skill that you have that has a rarity value and the client needs it would do the same (MS Project, MS Visio, SAP, BPMN, etc.).

This isn't anti Sage (I have to say that considering some of my other posts) but having a Sage qualification is not that rare so in itself would be unlikely to get you noticed.

Finding a first position can be problematic but once you are in one, moving from business to business becomes much easier.

kind regards,

Shaun.

Actually...

now other peoples experience may differ on this and would be good toi get input from others but, you seem to be falling into the assumptions that many make about where to market your services.

The issue is that the micro business is the bread and butter of many bookkeepers making it a highly competitive market.

trainee accounting positions are extremely difficult to obtain because people working towards the higher level qualifications such as ACCA have to gain the practical experience requirement in order to be able to use the letters so you would be going up against qualified accountants who have already passed the exams for trainee roles.

The one that I have quoted a couple of times before was the accounts assistant role that came up in Wolverhampton. Within two hours there had been over 900 applicants for the role.

The roles that will give you a foothold espechially in more use of the software are temp sales and purchase ledger roles and good quality credit control roles. These may not be the roles that you were aiming for when you set out but think of them as the foundations upon which to build as once you have a ground floor position, seek as much responsibility as you can get in order to gain more varied experience to break out into the next role.

If I were coming to this from the same position as yourself I would be concentrating on entry level accounts related positions in larger businesses who are more likely to be able to take on trainees without effecting productivity of the department.

Small accountancy practices don't have that luxury and need everyone to be running at full steam all of the time so tend only to hire people who are already experienced and / or have higher level qualifications.

And that is the mistake that I think many newly qualified bookkeepers make in that they believe permanent employment will come from small local practices where such to my mind is only true if they actually have experience in the first place and their efforts would be better spent approaching larger businesses.

And then we hit the second tier problem.

Most positions with larger busineses go through agents and getting your CV past the agencies is a major achievement.

I've been on the other side of the desk receiving CVs that were not suitable for the positions and on talking to the agents found that CVs were being rejected of people who would have been perfect.

All in all, the agent is not your freind. They work for the employer not you and seem to do everything possible to stop people without the appropriate experience getting through to interview.

The sollution. You apply to companies and miss out the agents all together.

Many of your CVs will go nowhere but occassionally one will get through and thats one more than would have got past an agent for the advertised positions.

First job that I ever had was on the back of a tentative application.

kind regards,

Shaun.

Any business with an in house accounting function.

Accountancy practices are more interested in brought forwards experience.

And talking of battlefield it's Friday, that must mean that its bad company 2 night :)

kind regards,

Shaun.