Our Successes - your words - or should we say YOUR successes.

Martin,

A note to say how much I appreciate the help given by matureaccountants.com.

Since I started looking about 3 months ago, I have applied for loads of jobs via other web-sites and not even had a reply to most of them. In a situation like that you start to wonder whether because of your age you are wasting your time. You know you're capable of doing a job but recruiters appear to have written you off.

Anyway I saw your advert for a very interesting job in Malaysia, applied, was interviewed and I start next month. Very exciting times!
I definitely recommend your organisation and it's a concept that will work. There must be loads of mature accountants like myself (not on £80,000 a year!) who want a fresh challenge and are more than capable of making a significant contribution to whichever organisation hires them.
Best wishes in your endeavours.

Kind regards,
Duncan MacLeod  

Greetings from war torn Iraq !

This has been a marvellous appointment for me. As I am based in Erbil, life is peaceful amongst the Kurds. Even though there is a lot of posturing between PKK and the Turks, that is in the mountains and quite a way from here.

The work is pretty straightforward and, financially, it has made a huge difference to us – my wife is delighted! Monies are all tax free and everything is paid for – accommodation, food, laundry, driver and even booze. This a small office. I have no staff, which suits me, and I run the finances for 4 high earning, high charging lawyers. The other part of my job is work as a management consultant, charging myself out to the American and British companies out here. There is a great deal of oil exploration going on so you can imagine the client list. Local accounting expertise is pretty dire so often these companies are grateful for my knowledge and “mature” experience.

The only downside (apart from missing my wife and daughters) is that I get paid in dollars. Every time I look at the rate it gets worse (for me anyway). I can’t believe it can dip much further so the positive is that if it moves to, say, $1.88 to the £ I get a 10% increase. Sorry to be selfish but a UK slump would suit me perfectly.

Thank you once again for the introduction. My wife thanks you, my bank manager thanks you.
All the best
Alan Crawford 

It was April/May 2007 when I first came across Mature Accountants advertising on the GAAP Web .The reason I was looking for a position was that for the third time in my career I found myself without a job (wrong place wrong time I guess)…anyway these things happen. I have held various FD roles in the service sector arena. Aged 51 (I'm now 52) at the time I was, as you can imagine feeling very vulnerable. It is very true what is said at that is that the majority of agencies are just not interested in you, regardless of experience, unless you are aged below forty. Therefore my tact was not even to bother with any of the agencies but to concentrate on my networking and apply for positions advertised in the FT…….And then I stumbled across Mature Accountants.

What attracted me without a doubt were the words but I prefer to look upon mature as meaning well seasoned or very experienced. Anyway having made initial contact with Martin and having applied for a position it was clear to me that this Guy was something different in that he understood what I was experiencing and was genuinely interested in helping me secure a position. In addition and maybe a bit of comfort I guess that I realised I was not the only one at my age seeking employment. I do not know about most individuals but I have a very strong work ethic and want to continue to work in the field that I am well experienced in.

Well it is now October 2007 and having applied for several positions one of which was via Mature Accountants I am now very pleased to say that I have secured the best position of my entire career via Mature Accountants. The role was originally advertised some two months ago and unfortunately was put on hold by the MD so I had written this one off but within a matter of a week I had been interviewed a further two times by the MD and offered the position. The role is in a completely different sector altogether as a Group FC (Group FD Designate) on a package that I have to say is excellent. Funny enough the role means I will have to relocate (no problem the company is assisting in this) but it takes me back to the part of the country which I left 30 years ago. Conclusion: There are some VG jobs out there for the more experienced individuals you just need to remain determined and focussed that something will come to fruition. Interestingly the MD of the company I will be working for bent over backwards to secure my services, not only am I genuinely thrilled by this but it just goes to show that there is a demand out there for the more "mature" accountant.

It only now leaves me to say a very big thank you to Martin for all of his help in sticking with this one. I wish him and his team the very best for the future. 

I first read about matureaccountants.com in the Sunday Times in November 2006 and I registered as a candidate soon after that. In my experience, the service that is provided is far superior to the large recruiting firms. It is possible to talk to someone who understands the market as well as the needs of accountants, regardless of age.

They actually have "real" vacancies unlike some of the high street recruiting agencies who I suspect have not been retained to fill positions but use the pretence of having a specific vacancy to attract a large number of candidates. My experience with matureaccountants.com can be summed up as being very supportive, positive and helpful.

The role that mature accountants have found for me is that of Regional Director in a company that provides financial management services to small and medium size enterprises. It is not an accounting firm in the traditional sense as it does not provide audit and tax but looks to fulfil the activities that might be expected from a finance department which normally would produce management accounts, statutory accounts etc. It is a challenge as I will have to find clients and then resources to fulfil the needs of those clients but it is position that I would not have found without matureaccountants.com. 

MA has proved to be a remarkable facet of my career and has provided me with very interesting and rewarding roles to play worldwide.

From the day I registered with MA I have been presented with opportunity after opportunity and since taking these up my work life has been totally refreshed. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

I must also praise the staff at MA who really couldn't be more helpful and hard-working. These capabilities are hard to find and really do pay dividends for all.  

Two years ago I read an interview in Accountancy (November 2005) with Martin Lloyd-Penny of newly formed "matureaccountants.com". At the time I was finding it increasingly hard to find interim or full-time work and, at the age of fifty-six, had begun to expect early retirement was the only solution, even though that was anything but my intention.

Since contacting Martin a few days afterwards, I have been amazed at how much he has done. Within a few days, I had two offers of interim work, with a host of other leads that I was suddenly too busy to follow up.

While all this was going on, he was busy building a business from the ground up and still the leads kept coming in.

Initially I thought Martin had identified a small niche in the market. Experience suggests has tapped into a rich seam of talent, gold, call it what you will. At all events, there is no doubt that he is providing a vital service to client and mature accountant alike.

Why should we be written off as soon as we reach some arbitrary indeterminate age greater than thirty-five? Why should all that valuable experience be written off - what a waste!

Not only that, he has woken up the accountancy institutes which is no bad thing. Judging by some of their responses, they did not appear to notice that something ought to be done about ageism and they needed to become pro-active.

Finally, in answer to any incipient criticism that Martin discriminates against the younger elements of our profession, let me say people can be mature at eighteen and immature at forty-eight. Between us, we have seen all sorts, haven't we?