It seems almost unimaginable that someone would not want to be an accountant, but there really are people out there who want to do something else. And unfortunately, some of these people are already trained accountants.
However, like Liam Neeson, you have a very particular set of skills. Skills you have acquired over a very long career.
So, if you’ve got one foot out the door, and you want to secretly use your CPD hours to train for your next job, here are some roles that, while they don’t involve Excel, you can still excel in.
👩🏻💻 1. The company secretary
We’ve just published a 4-hour course called The Accountant as Company Secretary, and it might not be as obvious as some of the other roles we're going to go through. That said, it’s one of those roles that sits in a quietly powerful position, and accountants are unusually well-placed to succeed in it.
Company secretaries are present at every board meeting. They're there when the big decisions are made – acting as the glue between the CEO and the wider executive team. So, if you want to be in the room but don’t want to make it to CFO, stepping into the formal role of company secretary offers professionals a clear route to more board-level influence.
So, why would you be good at it? Well, you have the financial expertise, business insight, and an ability to communicate clearly with decision-makers that a lot of other professionals don’t have. Combine that with a strong work ethic and a detail-oriented mindset, and you’re basically a shoe-in.
🎯 2. The non-executive director
This one’s a popular path for late-career accountants – giving you the chance to forgo operational grind, and instead focus on wider strategy. Non-execs sit on the board, guide decision-making, and ask the difficult questions. The phrase you’ll hear is "critical friend” – it’s about being an independent voice.
It’s not a casual side gig, though. You’ll need strong business instincts, and the ability to stay out of the weeds – which might go against your instincts as a finance professional. But if you like strategy and governance, and you wouldn’t mind a free sandwich at a board meeting, this might just be your next chapter.
Oh! Looks like we also have a four-hour course on this! The Accountant as a Non-Executive Director. Wow! Lucky you.
💼 3. Chief financial officer
This is perhaps the most obvious career step up for an accountant. It’s so obvious, in fact, we not only have four-hour courses on it, we have an entire 21-hour career progression pathway.
Nowadays, the CFO role isn’t just about numbers – you’re also shaping strategy, managing risk, reporting to stakeholders, driving business performance, and steering digital transformation. You need technical expertise, but you’ve got to do some big picture thinking, too.
To succeed, you’ll need a credible vision that you’re able to bring people on board with. That means communicating with senior leadership. Luckily, you already speak finance – you just need to make sure you’re heard.
🌍 4. The ESG lead
It’s a sad fact that ESG reporting is going to become increasingly important over the next few decades. There’s a lot of focus on organisations committing to bettering the world – or at least, not making things worse.
So, it’s pretty much inevitable that ESG reporting becomes a non-negotiable part of doing business, and accountants are perfectly positioned to lead. ESG reporting deals with issues like carbon emissions, governance frameworks, or social impact data. It’s about measurement and targets – that’s your bread and butter.
As companies take ESG more seriously, accountants who understand the regulatory landscape will become essential. If you’ve got the numbers skills and the curiosity to match, stepping into ESG could be your next move.
📊 5. The data strategist
Accountants already know how to work with data, but data analysis and strategy are now full career paths in their own right, and they’re becoming more critical to organisations every day.
Finance teams sit on some of the most valuable data an organisation can collect – customer behaviour, supplier trends, operational bottlenecks – it just needs someone to interpret it. And, with a bit of upskilling in tools like Excel and Power BI, you can go from financial analyst to business-critical data strategist.
If you’re sick of analysis, you can pivot to protection. Data breaches and privacy regulation are all growing risks, and you’re no stranger to risk management. Applying your skillset to data protection just takes a hop, skip, and a jump.
Being a successful data strategist means understanding the story behind the numbers. Wait! That’s your job!
🏖️ 6. The retiree
Depending on who’s reading this, this might be a stone’s throw away. It might also be a zoomer – in which case, sorry, this probably won’t happen. You can still imagine it though – no more balance sheets, no more last-minute audit files – just peace and quiet. The spreadsheets are just for pleasure now, not business.
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🧠 Final thoughts
If you look across the office, you might discover that there are a lot of different accountants wearing a lot of different hats. Or, more likely, you might think that you can do their job better than they can. Every once in a while, that’s true, and you can pivot over to a new table.
So, whatever your plan is, it’s worth reminding yourself you’re not entirely trapped, even if it does feel like it.
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