HOW TO GET A JOB OR WORK WHILE OTHERS ARE BEING RETRENCHED

I was fortunate to get my 1st job just a month after my graduation. It was not a high flying one by any standard but I was so excited to have got a job! Many a graduate would have despised it, which Bachelor of Commerce degree holder would have wanted to work in an Indian family owned service station in a small town?

A couple of months into the job, they announced that they were going to retrench because the company was not doing well. I remember they had to choose between a secretary who could do accounting work or an Accountant who could do secretarial work. I happened to be the latter. Sadly therefore the secretary and personal assistant to the MD lost her job. I therefore became an Accountant and Secretary-cum- personal assistant to the MD.

The end of the accounting profession as we know it?

The accounting profession will face significant changes in the next three decades, and professional organizations, their members, and educational institutions should respond

Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) research—Drivers of Change and Future Skills—has explored these important changes, expected to be encountered by the year 2025. I was privileged to have been part of the team from Uganda discussing the future of the Accounting profession. One of the highlights was on the need to have professional Quotients and below is an excerpt from the report.

PROFESSIONAL QUOTIENTS (PQ): This analysis suggests that to add value for their employers and clients, the professional accountant of the future will need an optimal and changing combination of professional competencies: a collection of technical knowledge, skills and abilities, combined with interpersonal behaviours and qualities. By 2020, all professional accountants will need to develop and balance the necessary professional quotients to fit their role and stage of career.

PRO BONOs DO PAY

A friend called me to speak to a group on a topic ‘Successful Financial Management Practices for SME's’. She made it clear that it was going to be pro bono and I willfully accepted because it’s a topic I am passionate about. After my presentation, one of the group members who had come in towards the end of my presentation requested if I could go and speak to their senior management team. She asked me how much I would charge for an hour but for some reason I felt hesitant to quote a fee and left it to their discretion. I was therefore very pleased to receive an honorarium from this organization after making the presentation.

A couple of weeks later, I received an email from the same organization requesting for my profile for possible future areas of engagement. This was followed by ‘interviews’ for potential consultancy work. We ended up signing a contract for 15 days of consultancy work and eventually other support services.

The point is, there are somethings that one can do for free, expecting no payment or reward, but in the right time, the reward duly comes. The reward may not be monetary; it may be new friendships, networks even new knowledge. Money is good! However, it should not be the only motivation to offer a service.

As the good book states, cast your bread on the waters: for you shall find it after many days. May 2018 be a year filled with many of those days, may it be a year of a bountiful harvest!

6 Ways of Maximizing your ACCA Membership

This was my speech to the 104 new ACCA Affiliates in Uganda on the 5th September 2014 on value of ACCA membership. I salute and congratulate Affiliates of 2014 once again.

I identify better with real life stories, therefore I chose to reflect on my own journey thus far, though am a believer that my better days are ahead. I preferred to narrow it down to 6 ways of maximizing ACCA membership as follows.