Am I ready for an Intermediate Accountant role, or still considered Junior?
Hi everyone,
I’m trying to get a realistic view of my current level in accounting/tax and would really appreciate some honest feedback.
My background:
I have around 2 years of experience as a bookkeeper / assistant accountant, and around 1.5 years of experience as a tax accountant. However, all of this has been part-time, around 3 days per week, so I understand that my full-time equivalent experience may be lower.
In my current tax role, I’m familiar with preparing different types of tax returns from ITR to CTR.
For company clients, I have worked on entities with turnover from around $100k up to about $3 million, but most of the work I do is for companies under $1 million turnover.
I’m reasonably comfortable with standard tax compliance work, bookkeeping, BAS, GST, PAYG, payroll-related matters, and preparing returns from client records. However, I still have limited or no experience in more complex areas such as FBT and PSI.
I’m also currently 4/6 subjects through the CPA program.
I’m starting to apply for Intermediate Accountant roles, but I’ve had mixed feedback. Some people say my experience sounds closer to intermediate level, while others say because my experience has been part-time and I still lack exposure to some technical areas, I may still be considered more junior.
So I wanted to ask:
Based on this background, would you consider me a Junior Accountant, Junior-to-Intermediate, or Intermediate Accountant?
Also, are there any specific areas I should study or improve to make myself more competitive for intermediate tax/accounting roles in public practice?
Any honest advice would be appreciated. Thanks!