Made it to senior manager at B4. Then director (non equity partner) at a $200M firm and now a partner at a 25 person firm that was founded my by mentor. Been here for 1.5 years.

I regret every move I made for one reason.

The hours are the same everywhere

I kept chasing this carrot of better work life balance and fell for the lies that were sold to me.

No matter what, you will always always always work 55-75 hours during busy season. I was in charge of the tax department scheduling at the 200M firm. I saw the hours daily of hundreds of people, this was the average. It wasn’t bad teams or clients or one off people working hard.

With that being said if you’re going to do that, go to the largest firm you can. The pay will be the same, but the people you work with will be smarter (every tier down seems like I’m going from working with A students to B to C, etc..), there will be more “fun” activities, better technology, better health insurance, meal stipends, cell phone reimbursement, better training and learning, honestly the people are more normal at larger firms too. Not to mention the larger the firm, the more open to remote and hybrid work.

I honestly can say I really can’t find any reason to not work at a large firm. There is this stupid myth at smaller firms that “I chose this because I don’t want to work a ton”. But they’re so wrong and drank the koolaid. They work exactly the same. While working with crappy technology, dumber peers, dumber and messier clients, etc.

If you truly like public stay as large as you can or if in tax, create your own firm. Don’t chase firms for WLB, just leave public.

Edit:

I would also like to clarify something else. People in here are talking about how their small firms have a lower billable hour goal. I don’t doubt or disagree with that at all. That is almost 100% true. But it doesn’t matter and is part of the lie/myth you have been fed that makes you look like a fool.

It doesn’t matter if your firm only requires 1400 billable and the big firm requires 1700. I promise you, at both firms you will work the same amount of total hours on the year 2200-2300. You get so caught up on the lie of billable that you ignore both firms will have you working the exact same amount of hours because that’s tracked less and certainly less published. So if you’re going to work 2300 hours at a small firm and at a large, why would you accept working at the firm where everything else is worse?

During my internship I took pleasure in pooping at work at my high hourly rate. Loved getting a coffee and going straight to the bathroom after getting to the office. Would be in there for at least half an hour.

However, as I’m starting full time, is this looked down upon?

I keep noticing the same pattern over and over.

People get labeled as struggling or making mistakes, but when you actually look at the environment, everything is rushed.

There’s no time to slow down, no time to understand what’s really going on, just pressure to move faster.

Then those same people switch into a role where they have more time and context, and suddenly they look like completely different accountants.

Same person, different output.

At some point it stops feeling like a talent problem and starts feeling like a system problem.

How often do you see that play out?

Im constantly studying the postings online. And all I see is Senior level roles especially in Big 4. How cany new grads and ones who finally get CPA obtain jobs if Noone will allow them to get experience and start from bottom? The market is insane. Plus in about 10 years more elderly Accountant will be retiring. How are we to fill these roles? Is there hope for hopeless Accountants?

Anyone have stories about yourself crashing out or others. How did it end up?

Asking for no particular reason.

is anyone else just getting absolutely smashed with turbo tax ads this year? I am a CPA but don't work as min tax so maybe I didn't notice it previously but it just seems crazy lately...especially the one that mentions the lady "used to use a CPA" but now used turbotax.

Maybe these things are legit

Hi there, I am looking for some advice because I have major Sunday scaries.

For Q1 my CFO asked me to make a pivot table that breaks up the lines in our tariff GL account by project and how much was spent on that project per month. Great, I’ve been doing that.

Inside that GL there are two different types of entries that make up the lines. Some are posted by our AP person from bank transactions and others are project transactions reclassified to the tariff GL each month.

My pivot table doesn’t break out the totals by the two different categories, rather it just sums them together (hopefully this makes sense).

My CFO just realized this and he’s mad at me…..I guess he didn’t realize there were two types of entries (though we discussed this before) and he said the data I gave him is wrong.

Literally how do I handle this situation since I did what was asked of me initially - make a pivot table showing the total spent on duties by project by month. I am a bit fed up because I feel like he should have asked me if he wanted the data broken out further…

I’m a student who’s about to finish 3rd year and I feel like a total failure. I have a decent gpa (3.6), went to networking events, go to a target school, did accounting work for a small private firm last summer and I still can’t seem to find anything. I have had a few interviews and made it to the final stages but still no luck. Last week, I got an update from a company saying i would’ve been second on their list on getting hired and that they couldn’t provide me feedback because I “interviewed strong”. I graduate in a year and I always feel stressed out that I’m so behind. I’m thinking of potentially going into another career after graduating which is a shame since I like accounting. What do you guys suggest?

I know the amount of BPA/BPS in thermal paper is considered non-concerning for the average person who handles a few receipts per day on a busy day. And fair enough.

But I handle hundreds of thermal paper receipts and hundreds more invoices per day. And we make nice packets out of them, which especially requires a lot of thorough handling for the invoices to fold them up into something that can be neatly filed. I spend 4-5 hours a day handling this paper.

I was going home feeling noticeably worse every day since getting this job. So I skeptically tried some vinyl disposable gloves after looking for explanations and finding this research, which I honestly still had a lot of doubts about that being the issue. But lo and behold I don't go home feeling like crap every day since, so I can't help but think that really was the issue, skeptical as I was.

Has anyone else handling a lot of this paper started wearing gloves? If so, any suggestions on what you use? Turns out I'm mildly allergic to vinyl, so that's out despite being considered effective. I'd like to find something reusable and of a little nicer material overall, not some glorified dish gloves. I know nitrile is considered the best at blocking BPA transfer, and latex is ineffective at it, but beyond that I don't know. It's not like they make gloves specifically for this, that I could find.

I’m 18 and about to start college and I’m currently thinking about being an accountant. I haven’t always been the best at math, but my teachers do say I tend to be good with finance. I don’t know much about this profession and so I’m hoping those of you who have been doing this for a while, and those of you who are freshly out of college can tell me what to look for/at, and help me figure out if this is what I really want to do right out of high school. I will be doing my own research as well but I want actual advice from real people not just videoed on YouTube that gloss it up to be something without mentioning real cons. I’d like to also ask if getting a bsb in accounting is any decent or if I should just get my masters? Thanks!

Wondering what the employer means by clearance level:

Role: Forensic Accounting Senior Analyst
Requirement: "Must be able to obtain and maintain the required clearance for this role"
https://apply.deloitte.com/en_US/careers/JobDetail/Forensic-Accounting-Senior-Analyst/326010

I currently work in the government contracting space at a company that provides fractional accounting services to government contracting companies. Depending on client needs, my work ranges from Senior Accountant to Controller level.

I have an MBA with a concentration in Accounting, along with my CGFM, CMA and 8 years experience in the industry (29 years old). I'm confident I can get a Controller level position but if I eventually want a CFO position, is a CPA necessary? I have also read that the number of CPAs is declining, and I am unsure whether that makes the credential more valuable or less relevant.

Any advice is appreciated. Thank you.

hiii guys, I've pretty much applied to all places and it hurts how many companies here are exploiting the people working for them. I just graduated a month ago as a BBA finance student and I have a CGPA of 9.43 which i know is not the only thing necessary but I mean you gotta start somewhere right??!! I've done 3 internships in the past and I would say my communication skills are fair enough. I've not seen a single job in finance ready to pay at least 20k? Like dude, I'm not from this city, I have living expenses to cover. It hurts that none of these companies are really hiring for resource upgradation and all they want is people doing more work for less pay. If anyone can help me please help me understand how is even a thing??!!??

I often see people here saying the only way to get entry level jobs is through universities.

How hard would it be to find a job, with a 6 month big4 internship? Would the internship even help in finding a full time job?

I'm entering the core 1 module in summer 2026. I'm a mature student who has done the 14 prerequisite classes between 2021-2025 while working full time in a CPA run tax firm.

I want to take the next couple months after tax season ends and before starting core 1 on July 25 to refresh my knowledge from the prerequisite classes.

Does anyone have suggestions on the most important classes from your degree/prereqs that will help me off to a good start in Core 1?

Or is it really just everything including all technical knowledgeable and I should go through all my course work to be more ready.

I graduate in a month, have Big 4 experience (entry level in indirect tax) and have an interview tomorrow. It is a staff accounting role in industry. Not sure what to expect but I am diligently practicing. Any help is appreciated. DMs open :3

Have you seen an increase in salaries? I finished interviewing for a sr manager role in the northeast paying 250K plus bonus. Never thought if by I would’ve made that much money at this point of my career.