It may not sound glamorous and it is doubtful whether a payroll professional will hit the celebrity pages along with high flying lawyers and creative accountants but that’s a good thing.

Being a payroll manager is a good solid career, not as much subject to the fickleness of the market than the more prestigious professions. For a start, no one ever sued the payroll manager and that’s a huge plus these days.

Along with other similar professions, you can’t just stroll into a payroll job. You have to have pension qualifications and meet the educational requirements as specified under the payroll legislation. There are a number of ways to study the ins and outs of payroll and pension, but we recommend you affiliate to a professional organization.

All information you require in this regard is available from The Institute of Payroll Professionals (IPP) the UK’s leading provider of qualifications, training and consultancy for payroll and pensions.

It is advisable to become an IPP payroll member to draw the full benefits of the organisation, which includes a free monthly payroll magazine, PayrollProfessional for up-to-date payroll news. The IPP currently has 5000 members.

Your first step in educating yourself for payroll jobs will be to obtain a payroll diploma. For information about this see the IPP web site. They also stress the importance to ongoing self-education in the payroll field. You will be kept informed of payroll conferences and other further payroll education opportunities via the site and the magazine.

Once you are payroll qualified you will want to find the best possible payroll position. There is a job section on the IPP website or you can go through employment agencies such as Boyce Recruitment and the Career Moves Group both of which will be eager to market the skills a qualified payroll manager to prospective employers, particularly in London, UK.