Post: #1

To make a long story short , I'm a 21 year old student who , up until recently , was studying accounting and finance at uni and working a part-time job .

Due to circumstances outside my control , I have been forced to leave the family home and to support myself economically .

Bearing in mind that i'm living in London , where the cost of living is already astronomically high , and due to my nationality , I am not eligible for a student loan meaning that my only source of income is my part time job .

My family were kind enough to pay a deposit and one weeks worth of rent but starting from now : I'm on my own and I cannot rely on them for help .

This means that I'm going to have to find a full-time job just to survive and put uni in the back burner for a little while.

However at 21 year old and having only a high school diploma to my name , I feel like im selling myself short if I just start working full-time as a retail slave just to pay rent and to survive .

My part time job was serving me as pocket money before this situation but now its barely enough to pay rent , so studying full time is out of equation right now .

I feel like these are the years where I should be laying the first bricks in the foundation of my career . Not working a dead end job in retail just to be able to survive whilst heading no where .

I'm looking for someone with experience in working in the world of finance to tell me if there's anyway I can enter the world of finance without a college degree whilst still being able to support myself .

Maybe a paid internship ? Being an apprentice accountant ? Just something that is going to give me some actual experience and get my foot in the door , rather than just asking for more hours at my retail job which isn't going to get me where I need to be .

Post: #2

The real question is immigration. I'm assuming you got a student visa to get into the UK because there's no way at all you'd score a general tier 2 visa working part time minimum wage jobs. How much longer before they start hunting you down?

Have you considered saving up as much as you can to go to school in Germany?

Post: #3

(06-24-2015 07:27 AM)The Beast1 Wrote:  The real question is immigration. I'm assuming you got a student visa to get into the UK because there's no way at all you'd score a general tier 2 visa working part time minimum wage jobs. How much longer before they start hunting you down?

Have you considered saving up as much as you can to go to school in Germany?

No , I'm from an EU country . I can come and go as I please .

As an EU student I'm eligible for a tuition fee loan but not maintenance . Meaning they pay my £9000 tuition fee but that's it . I'm expected to support myself .

Post: #4

(06-24-2015 07:39 AM)Sensei Creation Wrote:  

(06-24-2015 07:27 AM)The Beast1 Wrote:  The real question is immigration. I'm assuming you got a student visa to get into the UK because there's no way at all you'd score a general tier 2 visa working part time minimum wage jobs. How much longer before they start hunting you down?

Have you considered saving up as much as you can to go to school in Germany?

No , I'm from an EU country . I can come and go as I please .

As an EU student I'm eligible for a tuition fee loan but not maintenance . Meaning they pay my £9000 tuition fee but that's it . I'm expected to support myself .

D'oh that makes sense. I could have sworn I saw something that said you were from the US.

I can't help with you getting into a finance or accountant job. Those are highly credentialed industries. Someone else here can provide better insight.

Are you comfortable working a part time job while you go to school? I fed myself back in college working two jobs though I was lucky in that I had on campus job nestled in between classes.

Post: #5

I qualified as an accountant by studying at night (With no degree) . At the start I worked in crappy retail jobs but once you are a year or two in you can start describing yourself as a part qualified accountant and get a pretty basic accounts technician / AR / AP position and start working your way up.

The problem with this way is you have to pay for the tuition, membership fee's and exams yourself until you get an employer to do so.

The lack of business degree will hold you back with larger companies but do you want to go there anyway? I'm self employed now so it's irrelevant. Best of luck.

Post: #6

Have you seen my Accounting data sheet.? Link below in my signature.

Maybe keep the question in there as there are others that can answer the question or have even addressed already.

Post: #7

If you really want to get into banking try to get a job in the back office (settlements recons etc.) of a City bank. Will likely be difficult without credentials, but it's probably the lowest you can start if you want a professional career in banking. Cleaning the floors at an office building in a Canary Wharf building won't get you there without additional courses and certifications.

I don't know if it's still the case but in the past the big banks liked a certain type of person as traders. Basically male(testosterone and drive), smart/high IQ(rapid calculation and decision making) and poor (hungry/bloody minded). Not sure if that is still the case. Maybe they are only hiring the upper middle class after Summer internships now, but I think the male,smart and poor served them well so can't imagine them ditching it completely.

You will probably have to take an unrelated job to survive and study for courses/certification in your spare time before having a shot entry level back office jobs. Check out this organisation for example if you are interested in the foreign currency markets:
https://acifma.com/

They are a professional multinational organisation with actual bank members, not a online forex trading outfit.

Post: #8

I'll help.

I used to work in Finance for 15 years before I quit the industry to travel.

What you want is the British equivalent of a Series 7/ Canadian Securities course. No idea what it is in Britain but I am fairly certain there is some equivalent. It is the minimum necessary paperwork the government requires for you to get employed in the financial industry. You do not need a finance or accounting degree. Having this piece of paper will go a long way to getting you hired. If it's similar to the USA/Canada, the test is pretty easy. If you study hard for a month, you can get it. The drawback is that it costs money to acquire. An employer may hire you and pay for it on the condition that you pass the course within 6 months.

Once you have your certification, you can apply. Start small. Target the discount brokerages in England. Their turnover is high. Starting conditions won't be the best but much better than working for a bank as a teller. In general, try to stay away from retail banking.

Once you learn the basics of the stock market, the sky is the limit. You may become comfortable enough to start trading for yourself. I don't recommend this for you until you have established yourself and saved at least 10K pounds. You will probably lose money at first. If you can become a successful day trader, you can be self employed and live in any country in the world (with much better women than the UK). This will be your long term goal.

Post: #9

You could try go get an internship but I know in london you get very low pay if at all for them. Apprenticeships pay are way below the minimum wage so I don't think this is what you need given your situation.
It's possible to get a job in the city without a degree, but you either need to have some experience in the field or know someone inside who can push your application through. Networking is very important in a city like London; do you know someone working in finance? is yes try to leverage your contacts, if not you could try attending networking events and make relevant contacts. I once got a job like that.

Being a EU national living in London I was in a similar situation not so long ago.
Whilst I was studying full-time I could hardly sustain myself and basically had to find a part-time Job. But the problem with part time jobs in London is that you need to be flexible in terms of hours worked per week, so it was difficult to obtain a reliable income.

So I went the opposite way and decided to pursue my studies part-time and work full time. My university had a weekend part-time course so I was was working during the week studying during weekends. I went through difficult times in term of pressure especially around exams, I hardly had time for myself and was always exhausted. The upside is that I could further my education whilst gaining relevant experience. Now I'm working in finance in the city and earn a decent income.

I know a few people with a similar story as mine, e.g. a colleague of mine got a job in our finance department through his brother; he had no degree, but he's been studying part time since he got the job and he is now about to qualify as an accountant.

Maybe an avenue for you to explore.

Post: #10

You dont need to solve the rest of your life during a temporary change / cash crunch whatever. Get your basics sorted out now and then look for new steps toward what you want.

I just put up a temp job on upwork for an accounting type no degree needed. Ill see if I can find the link.

Post: #11

(06-24-2015 07:39 AM)Sensei Creation Wrote:  

(06-24-2015 07:27 AM)The Beast1 Wrote:  The real question is immigration. I'm assuming you got a student visa to get into the UK because there's no way at all you'd score a general tier 2 visa working part time minimum wage jobs. How much longer before they start hunting you down?

Have you considered saving up as much as you can to go to school in Germany?

No , I'm from an EU country . I can come and go as I please .

As an EU student I'm eligible for a tuition fee loan but not maintenance . Meaning they pay my £9000 tuition fee but that's it . I'm expected to support myself .

Since you're an EU citizen look into moving to Germany. College education is free there and I've heard that most of the classes are taught in English. I could be wrong about that though.

Post: #12

Thanks for the advice , I'd like to give an update on this thread .

So what I ended up doing the past couple months was working on weekends and study the AAT level 2 qualification full time on weekdays in a fast-track course .

It was tough as working part time meant that all my income went toward paying rent , food and commuting .

Now I'm getting ready to pass the last exam before finishing the level 2 and starting level 3 .

I've already received an offer from a big company as a junior accountant working in the city on a decent salary and I start in January . The great news is that the role also comes with study support so the company allows me to go to college one day a week to complete level 3 .

This are the last days for me in my retail job and I can't wait to quit so I can focus on my career .