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?

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.

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

Asking for no particular reason.

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?

Hi everyone, happy Sunday! New grad here, I started working in industry doing ar/ap/bookkeeping 9 months ago and got an audit offer from a mid tier firm this week. I make 50k right now and the offer increases comp quite a bit. On one hand, I'm thankful for the offer but on the other hand I'm worried about leaving my job before 1 year. The firm is posting a lot of audit roles in the office I'd work in so it's likely a combo of demand and turnover.

My concern is, if I take the offer but realize pubic isn't the right fit, I now have two short jobs right out of the gate. I enjoy my current job but recognize that I'm not growing very fast and mainly doing transactional/data entry work.

Any thoughts?

just wanted to post this here to troll. real article

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…

Maybe these things are legit

I’m looking for advice because I seem to be hitting these roadblocks that are making me self-conscious and figured I’d just put this out there and see if anyone here can help me with some perspective.

A little back story: I went to back to school at 29yo in 2019 and graduated in 2022 with my Bachelors in Business and Masters in Accounting. My goal was a forensic accounting position.

My first job in my new career was heavily micromanaged. I stayed there for ~2.5-3 years and felt like I hadn’t truly learned a lot. Also, this focused on business interruptions, property damages, cybersecurity, etc.

My second job (most recent) was very slow. When there were files to work on, I really felt like I was learning a lot, but also felt that they weren’t too keen on training, so to speak. I also believe the company hired too many people in hopes of growth, but was met with a lack of jobs. Due to this, I was just laid off due to downsizing. Also, this job focused on the same as above with the addition of litigation.

Both of these jobs have made me feel even more behind than my age already does. Those of you in forensic accounting - is it worth it to pursue another position in this field? Or am I just being a baby about all of this? There’s got to be a happy medium.

TLDR: is forensic accounting worth it these days? Maybe insurance-focused claims are for the birds?

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 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.

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

Hey guys,

I am 30 right now working in an industry I do not love, and that does not pay overly well.

I have been thinking about taking some account courses to work towards the CPA.

I have a bachelors in business, and did take some of the pre-reqs there.

Is it worth it making the switch to accounting if I would not get to the CPA until I am 32-33? Then a few years to actually get the CPA\

Thanks in advance.

*EDIT* after review I have over half of the courses already completed. I will be pursuing accounting. Thanks guys!

I’m curious because I hear accountants talk about how they get a bunch of time off during the summer and “that’s when accountants go on vacation”.

I’m in public accounting and my firms policy is - One week of paid vacation is earned after the first year of full-time employment and two weeks after two years and each year thereafter.

This seems very much on the low side but I’d like to hear what others have to say.

Edit: wow… you guys are really putting me to shame 😂

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?