Negotiating your first (or next) promotion

Whether you’re an experienced tax professional ready to take the next step in your career or a junior accountant or lawyer who wants to make your first move up the corporate ladder, knowing how to negotiate a promotion is an essential workplace skill.

Asking your boss for more responsibility – and money – can be daunting, no matter how many times you’ve done it before.

Here are four tips for negotiating with your employer and landing the role you aspire to.

Lifelong learning – the key to optimal earning

After you have completed a decade and a half of primary, secondary and tertiary education, it can be tempting to call it quits when it comes to further tax training.

However, if you’re smart enough to make it to the end of a university degree, you’re probably also smart enough to realise that taking it easy is, eventually, a recipe for career and income stagnation.

Career alternatives for tax graduates

An assumption often made about students pursuing a degree in tax is that they’re on the fast track to a certain career in accountancy. However, not every tax graduate follows suit. So what are some of the other career options available?

Tax-based education gives you a unique combination of skills, including the ability to be a team player, the ability to not be a team player, communication skills, research skills, maths skills, analytical skills and commercial awareness. The combination of these means you’re equally well prepared for a numerical, analytical or communication-based role. After completing postgraduate tax training, you are spoilt with a unique spread of career options.

Here are five paths you might consider.

You have just 7 seconds to make your CV shine

by Simon Cauchois *

Your potential new boss spends an average of seven seconds looking over each CV before deciding who to interview, according to studies. That means you need to make an incredible first impression to stand any chance of making it through to the next stage.

There are several simple but effective ways for your CV to catch the recruiter's eye.

Put your best assets at the top. Start your CV with a summary of your top skills and accomplishments. This will grab the boss's attention and make the right impression. Many CVs start with data such as qualifications and work experience, so give yours the personal touch. Tell them about your strong skills, such as being great with people, your enthusiasm for your work and your unique selling points such as being a first-class website designer or imaginative sales assistant with an eye for window dressing.