Remember the Monty Python sketch where an accountant wanted to become a lion tamer? Well, more accountants are seeking a fresh career – not as lion tamers, but in a range of other roles. It has never been easier to change career in mid-stream – or more necessary to know how to do it.

The idea of a “job for life” is as dead for many accountants as it is for other professions. But if they’re to navigate this new world accountants will need the flexibility of an acrobat and, yes, the courage of a lion tamer – like the three former accountants featured in the case studies.

“Organisations don’t have the career paths they had before and you’ve got to be proactive and look at career change before someone makes you redundant,” says Ciaran Wrynne, manager at Hays Career Transition.

“We are seeing people taking less predictable career routes, where they make more lateral moves,” says Angela Baron, an adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

“People are zig-zagging through organisations and bringing their experience to different tasks.”

Baron points out that more companies are focusing on talent management.

“It’s about developing people to make them more employable in different situations. It’s about helping people to develop themselves and then building a job around them so they can contribute in a different way to the organisation.”

She says that organisations are looking for finance professionals who have broader backgrounds. “They want people who understand finance but can apply it in ways that add value. Getting broader-based experience is the way to building that agility.”

Many management accountants looking for a career change could seek alternative posts within their existing organisation. But what about those who want to make a more radical move?

Wrynne says that the first step is to understand what you really want to do. He adds: “I advise my clients to think about the times when they were really energised. I ask them to relive those moments and write a diary about them. They should focus on the skills they were using at those moments and think about how they could be transferred to a different environment.”

Wrynne believes that skills are more transferable from one job to another than people realise. But when applying for a job in a different industry or area, it’s important to relate those skills to the new environment.

“Talk about outcomes rather than generically about skills,” advises Wrynne. “Saying ‘I have got three accountants qualified with CIMA’ is better than saying ‘I’m good at people management’.”

And when talking to a new employer, it is important not to become defensive about lack of experience in that area.

“Make the connection between your achievements in your last post and what you can bring to the new one,” Wrynne says. “You should make the connection between your experience and the value you bring to the new job – such as saying you had a 100 per cent staff retention rate and you’re convinced you can apply that to the new organisation.”

Baron says that many organisations regard a background in finance as an excellent springboard into other areas. So for more accountants, the desire to make a life-enhancing career change can become a reality. But not as a lion tamer.

CASE STUDY 1: NIGEL HALL
Nigel Hall knew he wanted a high-flying career from the moment he joined the RAF as a boy recruit. After a few years working on pay and personnel, he quit the service and trained to become an accountant.

And, then, after 21 years, he decided on another career change and became a business coach. The change came because the insurance company he worked for was restructuring.

He was offered another job at the firm, but thought this would be a good opportunity to strike out on his own – especially as he walked away with enough compensation to change career without any financial worries.

The move came when he was 45. He says: "I was at the age where if I didn’t move I would just stay in corporate life. Besides, my daughter was two and I hadn’t seen much of her in the first years of her life. And the new job I was being offered would have been 24/7."

Hall took a week-long accelerated course on coaching with the Coaching Academy. This was followed by a longer period of coaching that was observed by an invigilator. He then became an accredited coach.

The shift from corporate life to sole trading is a big one and Hall warns other accountants thinking of making the move.

"First, you’ve got to have some money behind you to give you a chance to survive. Very few people bring in revenue straight away, so you need a year’s worth of living behind you. You’ve got to realise that you don’t have the back-up in a smaller business that you would in a large company. You have to find a way of doing things yourself or they don’t get done. Then you have to get out there and market yourself. You’ve got to bring your own work in."

But there’s a surprise twist in Hall’s story. After nearly three years as a coach he’s decided to look for another finance job.

"I’ve really enjoyed being a coach, but I want to get back into something bigger where I can roll up my sleeves and push one company or group forward."

CASE STUDY 2: VERONICA PEIRCE
Management accountant Veronica Peirce says that she has spent 35 years looking for the purpose in her life. And now she’s found it.

Peirce is winding down her accountancy career and becoming a certified passion test facilitator. The passion test was devised by Janet Bray Attwood and Chris Attwood, co-authors of US best-seller The Passion Test: The Effortless Path to Discovering Your Life Purpose.

Peirce will be using passion test principles to help entrepreneurs build more successful companies.

She says: “I want to align their commitment to building their businesses with their passion and purpose so that they’re not wasting a lot of time, energy and money going in the wrong direction.”

Although she’s leaving management accountancy, it’s hard to believe Peirce hasn’t also had some passion for it. She was originally attracted to accountancy because she enjoyed maths at school.

She says: “It’s a similar pleasure getting the figures to balance, particularly if I’m doing a complicated reconciliation. A lot of the work we do as accountants is like being a detective and tracking down the clues by finding out where something isn’t right.”

In 25 years as a management accountant, Peirce has worked in engineering, financial services, mail order, oil and charity organisations. She’s worked for companies with between 15 and 600 employees.

She first heard about the passion test at a meeting addressed by a motivational speaker. “Having passion in my life has made such a difference that I want to help other people to find the right business and build it.”

Peirce’s training to become a passion test facilitator included a four-day seminar, with a month’s follow-up work featuring weekly webinars. She has launched a website and Facebook fan page and will be marketing her services through social media and networking.

She believes she has spent less than £5,000 setting herself up as a certified passion test facilitator. She will offer one-and-a-half hour telephone sessions and workshops that last for three and a half hours, as well as working two days a week as a management accountant while she builds up her passion test business.

She says: “When people find their passion, the light comes on in their eyes.”

She will look back on accountancy with some regrets: "I do enjoy working with figures, particularly if I’m reconciling and looking for something that’s gone wrong. Now I will be solving problems with passion. I’ll get a different reaction than I do from seeing spreadsheets balanced nicely."