It’s never too late to change careers: Marie Krnakova’s story

After challenges such as COVID, Brexit, and living costs negatively impacted her business, Marie Krnakova decided to refresh her finance knowledge and find a part time job as a bookkeeper/accountant.

She’s currently studying AAT Level 3 and here’s her experience with Eagle…

What is your journey into accounting and bookkeeping?

It is a long journey. Back when I was deciding what A Levels I wanted to do, my mum suggested doing A Levels in Business Studies that involved accounting. So I went into accounting already quite young. After my A Levels, I went on to complete a university bachelor degree in Business Studies. But I was young and I had different ambitions, I always wanted to do something within the health sector.

So I then went back to university and this time I did a degree in Health, learning about the health department and sector. And I started working in Nottingham City Hospital, in Cancer Care as an external contractor, so it was on a self employed basis and I had to do my bookkeeping and taxes, etc. So I never kind of stopped using my accounting and bookkeeping skills. Of course, my accounting is very basic. But I was very glad that I had it because it’s useful and saves me a lot of money as well. When COVID happened, I realised that my job security wasn’t as good as I thought, I needed to figure out what to do, how to make my earnings more stable.

I thought maybe now it’s time to go back to accounting. Many years have passed, since my degree, many things have changed. So it would be great to refresh my memory and do exams again. I was searching the internet and came across Eagle. I did some reading around and I saw Eagle pass rates are very high, and students were saying that they felt prepared for exams, that was a bonus. I think the most important thing for me was because after COVID my budget wasn’t as high for studying. So the fact that I could actually pay fixed payments every month, rather than paying everything upfront, which is a lot of money for accountancy diplomas or certificates, was really helpful. Made it really really affordable and I thought, yes, I can do this. I chose the monthly plan and stayed on it, and have been on it since.

When did you decide to study AAT?

I started from the wrong end because I was looking at bookkeeping jobs and realised I can’t jump straight into the job market because I do not have experience. Whilst reading through the descriptions for each job, it frequently said AAT qualified and so I knew that this is what employers want, and the minimum is an AAT qualification. It seems that an AAT qualification is recognised and it’s something that employers value. I decided to study AAT, then it became about picking where I can study AAT and that’s how I came across Eagle

How’s your experience been with Eagle?

My experience is positive, because of the resources. There is the study buddy, which is great. You get access to all the Osborne books, you get the study modules, which I believe is from Kaplan books, and you also get the knowledge check. And then you get the AAT resources, mock exams, and green line tests. There are plenty of materials to test your knowledge and make sure that you understand the topic really well.

If I compare this to my university degree, university is very theory oriented and sometimes you’re overwhelmed with other subjects that are not really related. You end up memorising things for the sake of passing your exam, but that kind of defeats the point because in practice, you would really want to use your skills and knowledge and be confident that you know how to use it. I feel like with Eagle that’s already covered, you’re already on that level, you’re prepared and understand what each unit wants from you and how to apply the skills you know practically. I like it because that’s the point of studying and being confident. And when applying for a job, you can demonstrate that you understand the skills and knowledge.

With the exercises and case studies provided, you understand immediately how it’s used in practice, which I don’t think you always get through a university degree, that kind of the practical side of it is lacking.

How have our tutors helped and supported you throughout your study journey?

I can’t really fault the journey in any way, I feel supported. The materials, everything is so well explained, especially through the study buddy, it breaks it down to a basic level, when sometimes you get easily lost in terminology, you can always go back to study buddy. I now understand what they mean, or how it’s calculated, etc. The resources provide different approaches to the material and with the study buddy, it is broken down into smaller pieces and in language that anyone can understand. You feel like you’re supported. You need the terminology for your exam but if you don’t understand the terminology, the bookkeeping principles or the calculation, it doesn’t matter you can remember the terminology if you don’t know how to use it, or what it means then what’s the point? So the study buddy provided by Eagle helps with that.

What advice would you give someone considering starting their accountancy journey with Eagle?

If you are passionate about accounting, I would say go for it. It can get challenging at times, like any other studies, but persevere. Every single chapter follows the previous one so you are building on even though it may seem a lot at times, it is kind of a string with the same theme running through, so you can’t really get lost and it’s all connected. When you just pause and kind of think about it, you realise, actually, everything is connected.

I like how the Osborne books are written and how the Eagle study buddy is put together because nothing is kind of out of place, everything is linked to the previous chapter, you’re just building on and growing the knowledge. I would say, as much as you can, do all the exercises, don’t skip any case studies or the activities in Osborne books, even though it may be frustrating when you find out that you don’t understand why you got some of the exercises incorrectly, that’s part of the journey. It’s better to make mistakes while studying than at the exam. Make sure to do all the exercises and all the challenges and knowledge checks, anything that is provided is there for a reason. It may seem like a lot, you have to do the case studies, knowledge checks, green light tests, and mock exams and it’s worth it.

Why Eagle?

Without Eagle, I wouldn’t be able to study accountancy because I wouldn’t be able to afford it. It’s as simple as that. I’m really grateful for Eagle, I really am, and reading through comments on the internet, a lot of Eagle students have commented how manageable and affordable it is for them to be able to pay on a monthly basis. There are other places where you can break it down into payments, but you have to go through credit checks, therefore you have to have some earning history, making it so complicated. With Eagle, it was so easy to enrol and start studying, having access to all the books and the materials instantly. I haven’t experienced this before and I was pleasantly surprised. If anyone said, “I want to study accountancy”, I would say go with Eagle and I would mean it 100%.

Anything else you’d like to tell us?

I love that you have access to all the books, at all levels. I have already scanned through some AAT Level 4 materials, because you get some modules you can choose, no other college will do that for you. I thought it would be nice to decide in advance and check what jobs are available.

I was watching one of the webinars about Eagle a few months ago. It was mentioned that you are getting the best because you are getting Osborne books, you’re getting Kaplan books. And everyone who studies with AAT gets the AAT support but they don’t get Osborne or Kaplan books together. It’s either/or, so it made me realise how lucky we are as students. Reading that students admitted that they feel they are ready for exams and the score or the achievement rate is high. It makes sense because they have access to all the books and each book is written in different styles so you get to approach the topic from different angles.

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