State of the Nation: Newly Qualified Accountant

1) Availability of Roles

As you can see from this graph for job postings on LinkedIn in 2024, the quantity of finance roles advertised ebbed and flowed throughout the year, with quieter times in December, January and April. Assuming 2025 is similar, you should be mindful of this and consider taking a more proactive approach to your search if you are looking to start something new in April/May/June of this year.

2) Understanding the Mix of Roles

Titles in industry mean nothing without context, and in a lot of cases do not correlate between companies. Two companies can be looking to hire a financial accountant, but the nature of their roles can be vastly different. What % of the person’s time is spent on what activity will matter to talent. Broadly speaking newly qualified accountants’ roles fall into the below categories:

• Financial Accounting roles 65% of the time (the balance of activity in these roles will matter. Larger companies often come with more specialised roles.  There are lots of rules of thumb like this. We can talk about them when we meet).
• Financial Analysis roles 15% of the time (very hard to get straight out of contract).
• Internal Audit roles 10% of the time (an excellent route often overlooked).
• Other roles 10% of the time (the ones we’re not talking about here).`

Below is a visual representation of the activity in a basic finance team along with some of the variables that come with the context of the role. The % of time you will spend either side of the line below is a critical consideration for you.

3) Hybrid Working is the Norm

As you can see from the pie chart, 3 days a week in office was by far the most common WFH policy for NQs in 2024 with over 40% of positions at this level adhering to it. Another interesting takeaway is the lack of fully remote opportunities at the Newly Qualified level.

We’ve already seen a shift towards more office-based working in 2025 however, with a lot of US multinationals calling for 5 days in office. We would expect the 4 and 5 day in-office policies to continue to increase over the coming year.

4) Reward Package: What to Expect

Base salary is only a part of Total Compensation (Base + Package) – want to know about total comp for newly qualified accountants?

• The average Salary for H2 2024 was €65,083 (The average Salary for H1 2024 was €63,889 and H2 2023 was €64,482).
• The average Bonus for H2 2024 was 7% (The average Bonus for H1 2024 was 8% and for H2 2023 was 8%).
• The average Pension for H2 2024 was 5% (The average Pension for H1 2024 was 5% and for H2 2023 was 6%).
• The average Annual Leave Days for H2 2024 was 25 Days (Average Annual Leave Days for H1 2024 was 24 Days and for H2 2023 was 24 Days).

*these are Dublin-only numbers. For outside Dublin, you would typically apply a 10% reduction on base +/- 2.5 % depending on location. For bespoke advice on salaries in your location contact one of our expert team in a Barden office near you.

You may hear of people getting salaries outside of this and it usually will be taking account of factors such as travel involved in the role, higher intensity of work, a niche/ specific role or there are no additional benefits offered as part of the package. These are all important factors to consider when accessing the compensation package attached to a specific role.

5) The Wider Economy

The jobs economy over the medium term is uncertain and as a result we are seeing a lower volume of roles on the market versus this time last year. There may be increased contract roles and likely a drop in permanent roles.

What does that mean for you and what can you do to increase your chances? Well, if you have 10 important factors that you are looking from a new role, a compromise may be needed and maybe say focus on 6 of these factors. This could involve taking a role in a company of interest but on a contract basis or in a not so ideal location. You may consider internal audit roles as a way into a company or a role that is full office based but the location suits.

This may not be a market where you can have it all but there are still opportunities to be had.

Be informed about your career…

If you’re not in touch with Barden, you could be missing out on up to 40% of the market. While it’s absolutely your choice how you move forward and if you are comfortable making a decision without this visibility. It’s worth knowing that many of the roles we work on are exclusive, so they will not be visible elsewhere. Drop us a line today on hello@barden.ie and we will take it from there. Simple.