Tax Career Crossroads: Practice or Industry?

As a Recently Qualified Tax Professional, you are more than likely faced with a tough decision right now – to stay on the tax practice path or move to tax industry.

If you have decided tax practice is for you long term – you have one less decision to worry about, allowing you to focus on building your career in practice!

If you’re finding it hard to decide between tax practice and industry, don’t worry, you’re not alone. We have a few tips to help make that decision a little bit easier.

1) Firstly, do you see yourself in tax industry in the future?

If you’re not sure, now might be a great time to do some research – chat with some tax industry professionals and read over some tax industry job descriptions online. If you want to know what your day-to-day in tax industry might look like, check out our insights here>>>

2) When should you transition from practice to industry?

This is probably the most frequent question we are asked. The answer really depends on the person. Staying on the tax practice career path just to get a Manager title is the wrong reason to stay. If you feel there is more that you can learn from your current role that could benefit your tax industry career then yes, it may be worth staying in practice for longer. However, it is possible to make the move to tax industry as a Tax Senior or Tax Assistant Manager.

3) Is it possible to move back to tax practice in the future?

Broadly speaking – yes, it is. Many professional service firms really value the knowledge and expertise gleaned from people with tax industry experience. We have seen an increase in tax professionals moving from industry back to practice in the past few years.

4) If you speak with a Tax Recruiter now, will you be expected to interview for jobs?

Definitely not! Here at Barden, we are advisors first. Discussions about active jobs come second. Our initial chat with any professional, no matter what stage of your career they are at, is focused on getting to know them and educating them on their career potential, in the short and long-term.

Looking for tailored tax career advice?

Kate Flanagan is a Partner with the Tax, Treasury, and Practice area of the business, within the accounting and tax talent advisory and recruitment practice in Barden Leinster. If you want bespoke career advice, connect with Kate on LinkedIn or at kateflanagan@barden.ie