Advice on a job offer

[doggies6]

Hey all, just need a bit of advice on what I should do.

I'm currently a 3rd year uni student majoring in accounting and finance and due to graduate towards the end of next year around October.

My grandad worked at Visy for around 30 odd years and built up plenty of contacts in that time and I was lucky enough to get an interview with the CFO there. After a couple of meetings I was offered a really good full time role in their accounting department which they managed to bring down to 4 and a half days a week due to my circumstances.

Now there are a few catches:
- Would still be studying at least 3 subjects at uni (9 contact hours).
- Travel time is around an hour each way (Ringwood to Coolaroo).
- If I were to decline this role, there would be opportunities to undertake vacation work over summer and a high chance of another role opening up after I graduate.

My gut feel is that the workload is to great for me at this stage. Also taking into account that I play footy which takes up the entirety of Saturday and is not something I plan on giving up. I'm just a bit lost on what to do so any advice would be fantastic.

 

[Shoei]

Hey all, just need a bit of advice on what I should do.

I'm currently a 3rd year uni student majoring in accounting and finance and due to graduate towards the end of next year around October.

My grandad worked at Visy for around 30 odd years and built up plenty of contacts in that time and I was lucky enough to get an interview with the CFO there. After a couple of meetings I was offered a really good full time role in their accounting department which they managed to bring down to 4 and a half days a week due to my circumstances.

Now there are a few catches:
- Would still be studying at least 3 subjects at uni (9 contact hours).
- Travel time is around an hour each way (Ringwood to Coolaroo).
- If I were to decline this role, there would be opportunities to undertake vacation work over summer and a high chance of another role opening up after I graduate.

My gut feel is that the workload is to great for me at this stage. Also taking into account that I play footy which takes up the entirety of Saturday and is not something I plan on giving up. I'm just a bit lost on what to do so any advice would be fantastic.

You sound like you have already decided you don't want the job. The company sound like they are willing to do you a solid due to your connection with them but if you reject the offer remember people don't forget. There's also a high chance of no jobs being available after you graduate like for the vast majority of graduates.

Can you drop a unit?
Why does football take up your entire Saturday?
Your priority is playing football over a good job?

If you want to roll the dice and skip the opportunity remember that there are hundreds of grads willing to do the hard yards to get ahead of you.

 

[Golden_6]

You sound like you have already decided you don't want the job. The company sound like they are willing to do you a solid due to your connection with them but if you reject the offer remember people don't forget. There's also a high chance of no jobs being available after you graduate like for the vast majority of graduates.

Can you drop a unit?
Why does football take up your entire Saturday?
Your priority is playing football over a good job?

If you want to roll the dice and skip the opportunity remember that there are hundreds of grads willing to do the hard yards to get ahead of you.

I could drop a unit although but coupled with the fact that I was planning on going to uni over summer to speed up my degree, this would mean I wouldn't graduate until the following year.

By the time pre and post game commitments are done, it's roughly a 11-6 timetable. Not the entire day but not far off. Football just brings too much to my life in terms of enjoyment/fitness/friendships/socially to take out of the equation. It would be taking a huge chunk of my life away that I'm not willing to do at this stage.

I'm just trying to look at it from an opportunity cost approach. If I knew that this was the only oppurtunity and the door would close then I would take it. The people I have been in contact with have said that other opportunities will be available in due course and I was initially very keen on accepting the position until they ran over all their potential concerns to think about that I've listed above which has really made it a hard decision.

 

[doppleganger]

Is the role at a graduate level and salary from the get go?

If so why the rush to finish the degree? Most people need to get the degree before getting their foot in the door, it sounds as if you have your foot in the door without a degree.

Drop a unit, stretch out your time spent studying part time, whilst actually working...will be great for your actual results too, as your learning and 'studying' whilst working.

 

[Brad Goodman]

A job doesn't have to take over your life, although a daily commute from Ringwood to Coolaroo will get tiresome pretty quickly. Three subjects, full time work and footy will be tough to fit in but if you have a job sorted you don't really need to be in a huge rush to finish your degree so cutting back the uni workload probably isn't a terrible idea.

Visy will look very good on your CV and will probably give you a leg up if you decide to go down the grad route once you get closer to finishing your course. I would take it.

 

[PoppedCorn]

take the job and spread the uni load right out

the commute sounds a pain but get a half decent car and some tunes cranking and it wont be all that bad

jobs arent exactly massively easy things to find at the moment
grab it
if it goes pear shaped down the track, so be it

 

[MWPP]

Take it! Jobs are hard to come by at the moment, and it sounds like a really good opportunity!
There's no reason why you couldn't continue to play footy.
Not sure how you'd have time for uni (unless all 9 hours are by distance or online only ie no tutorials, in which case, definitely doable! ) after working 4.5 days a week though

 

[NUFC Tiger]

Personally, I'd echo what others have said and take the job - remember you can always drop a uni subject or two if it gets too much on your plate. If you don't like the job, you can resign as well (not like you'd be locked in if the work/commute get really bad). There's people where I work who still haven't finished their undergraduate degrees (due to work). Once your foot is in the door, your degree and grades becomes less important next to your relative experience and skills.

Getting paid, gaining experience and developing your skills will go a long way in helping you appear more attractive to other uni grads looking for roles. Not to mention, if the CFO interviewed you and helped create the role for you - that's pretty impressive. Would impress a lot of interviewers down the track if you could reveal that to them (as it probably doesn't happen very often).

 

[Barry_Badrinath]

+1 to what others have said.

Once you're getting paid by Visy it really doesn't matter if you finish your degree next year or the year after or in 2020.

Unless the job is dependent on you finishing your degree within a specified time frame, I'd drop the uni workload back a bit.

 

[TurboBreuster]

If you're worried about time, why not make your own audio notes to listen to when driving to and from work? It'd be a great way to kill two birds with the one stone (studying and driving to and from work).

 

[The Sultan]

UPDATES ???? - take the job!!!!!, in the end uni is a piece of paper that gets you and interview, unless its job specific uni just shows that you have a brain and can stick to a task…. You managed to circumvent the needing to graduate first, so drop a few subjedt, some employees will even finance you to finish uni ( it’s a tax write off for them), as for the commute that’s life, Visy have a few sights so put in the hard yards for few years and then you can look at internal transfers or changing companies… As for footy you may have to drop it I know it’s a love but in the end it doesn’t pay the bills…

just looking at travel time google maps says its approx 45 mins travel, so stretch that to an hour, most of which will be against the peak times once you off the Eastern Fwy. thats not too bad

 

[checkraiseulite]

Hope you took the job.

 

[Power Raid]

Hey all, just need a bit of advice on what I should do.

I'm currently a 3rd year uni student majoring in accounting and finance and due to graduate towards the end of next year around October.

My grandad worked at Visy for around 30 odd years and built up plenty of contacts in that time and I was lucky enough to get an interview with the CFO there. After a couple of meetings I was offered a really good full time role in their accounting department which they managed to bring down to 4 and a half days a week due to my circumstances.

Now there are a few catches:
- Would still be studying at least 3 subjects at uni (9 contact hours).
- Travel time is around an hour each way (Ringwood to Coolaroo).
- If I were to decline this role, there would be opportunities to undertake vacation work over summer and a high chance of another role opening up after I graduate.

My gut feel is that the workload is to great for me at this stage. Also taking into account that I play footy which takes up the entirety of Saturday and is not something I plan on giving up. I'm just a bit lost on what to do so any advice would be fantastic.

If you can, go for a job at a big 4 before going into commerce

You will probably earn less in the first three years but earn double the income in the long run. Not too mention managerial accounting roles will be all overseas in 10 years, so having a CA and financial accounting or tax accounting experience will keep you in demand.

 

[Demosthenes]

If you can, go for a job at a big 4 before going into commerce

You will probably earn less in the first three years but earn double the income in the long run. Not too mention managerial accounting roles will be all overseas in 10 years, so having a CA and financial accounting or tax accounting experience will keep you in demand.

If you want to be a slave in chartered your whole career, sure. Most people tough out 10 years at a Big 4 firm in order to land a good job in the commercial world. If you're being offered a way into commercial with a big company while you're still an undergrad, no point going the public practice route.

lol @ all commercial accounting going offshore in a decade. Even if it wasn't a clueless comment, most decent accountants will be out of accounting by the time they are 35 anyway.

 

[Power Raid]

If you want to be a slave in chartered your whole career, sure. Most people tough out 10 years at a Big 4 firm in order to land a good job in the commercial world. If you're being offered a way into commercial with a big company while you're still an undergrad, no point going the public practice route.

lol @ all commercial accounting going offshore in a decade. Even if it wasn't a clueless comment, most decent accountants will be out of accounting by the time they are 35 anyway.

clearly got a little excited and completely missed the first line and the word "before".

clearly you know nothing about big 4s as most people don't do 10 years. Most would do around 4.


just a bit excited today?

 

[Demosthenes]

You'd be wrong about that. 5-10. No point going Big 4 unless you stay to senior manager.

Once you get a job in commercial nobody cares about chartered experience. If you can get into commercial early then you'd be a fool to turn it down for time in a PWC sweatshop.

But don't feel bad, you're hardly the only bloke around here who thinks he has a clue and doesn't.

 

[Power Raid]

You'd be wrong about that. 5-10. No point going Big 4 unless you stay to senior manager.

Once you get a job in commercial nobody cares about chartered experience. If you can get into commercial early then you'd be a fool to turn it down for time in a PWC sweatshop.

But don't feel bad, you're hardly the only bloke around here who thinks he has a clue and doesn't.

retired in my 30s

fairly sure I know how the game works


oh and 4 years at a CA firm was enough.

 

[Banker]

If you can, go for a job at a big 4 before going into commerce

You will probably earn less in the first three years but earn double the income in the long run. Not too mention managerial accounting roles will be all overseas in 10 years, so having a CA and financial accounting or tax accounting experience will keep you in demand.

Sadly this is true, many big firms have already off shored many roles.

One big 4 has made their graduates sign non disclosure agreements, as many spend their time scanning documents to India in their first year.

 

[Power Raid]

Sadly this is true, many big firms have already off shored many roles.

One big 4 has made their graduates sign non disclosure agreements, as many spend their time scanning documents to India in their first year.

RIO perth shifted 12 of 14 accounts to india and the philippines

the trend will continue.


We have a gold and base metals play in the philippines and our key local accountant earns $8k which is 50% over local pay rates. By comparison the equivalent account here knowledge wise would be on $120k-140k but in terms of work ethic she would be in the top 1%.

It is not surprising the trend is outsourcing overseas. Nevertheless, we can all see what could go wrong with this too.

 

[The Sultan]

RIO perth shifted 12 of 14 accounts to india and the philippines

the trend will continue.


We have a gold and base metals play in the philippines and our key local accountant earns $8k which is 50% over local pay rates. By comparison the equivalent account here knowledge wise would be on $120k-140k but in terms of work ethic she would be in the top 1%.

It is not surprising the trend is outsourcing overseas. Nevertheless, we can all see what could go wrong with this too.

processing can and will be outsourced as to the decision making and meaningful accounting stuff, will always be done here.

 

[Power Raid]

processing can and will be outsourced as to the decision making and meaningful accounting stuff, will always be done here.

decision making probably for another 10 years.

meaningful accounting staff.......already shifting, so no


Give it 10 years and you will have unmanned drill rigs (you should see the technology already invented for this and in trial phase), we already have unmanned trucks. Given we are moving to unmanned or centrally located operations, why can't this be centralised in India?

 

[Banker]

decision making probably for another 10 years.

meaningful accounting staff.......already shifting, so no


Give it 10 years and you will have unmanned drill rigs (you should see the technology already invented for this and in trial phase), we already have unmanned trucks. Given we are moving to unmanned or centrally located operations, why can't this be centralised in India?

The funny part is that people are still ignorant and think it won't happen. Look at the Big accounting firms in the US, they now outsource complex work to their headquarters(sweat shop) in Bangalore and Mumbai. PWC Australia are doing the same thing, but some how how managed to convince staff here the complex roles are safe. They have told their graduates thanks to outsourcing they will be promoted to manager must faster. All I got to say is once a firm has a taste of outsourcing you can't turn back, the gains are too tasty.