To all accountants
To all accountants in here (probably not many) What makes you like accounting and how haven’t you killed yourself yet?
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lol I almost did which is why I got the hell out
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That’s why I’m at school lol
Lol I now work in analytics, but I actually like accounting more than most. All I'll say to it's defense is that it's super valuable knowledge because it's essentially trying to translate operations into dollars. I realize that some of the stuff doesn't always make sense or is impractical for finance purposes (i.e. depreciation being a non-cash expense and messing with free cash flow), but if you like understanding how businesses generate value, it can be interesting at a high-level.
In fact, I wouldn't have gotten my job in analytics at the level I did if I weren't a CPA beforehand. Anybody can learn at least the basic tools a lot of less sophisticated companies use (i.e. Tableau, PowerBI, Alteryx), but I got hired at manager instead of an IC level because I have business sense that I got from working for so many years as a CPA. Also, if you like operational work, accounting is super helpful because it helps you understand important processes like AR, inventory, AP, etc. I realize most of this forum is very strategy or "big picture" oriented, but for nerds like me who understanding areas of waste/inefficiency firms have in their current state, accounting is super helpful knowledge for communicating the "so what" of all my work (i.e. how much is the potential savings if we fix these issues).
Certainly Agreed with the above.
I would also add: the only people who stay in accounting long term are the people who really love it and the people who got stuck never doing anything else. Everyone else in between eventually kills themselves or leave to do something else quite different.
Good to know
Holy F, seriously 😳
I also hate accounting. I like this club. +SB
@theaccountingmajor
rip
bring him back WallStreetOasis.com
I got out of it haha
lol
I got out of it haha
lol
Flexibility in both hours and work location. I work in Big 4 and I stay because I can work in a lcol area by the beach near family and can pretty much set my own hours for the most part. I have a doctors appointment - no issue, I’m logging off early to go watch the game tonight - no issue. I’m going the Bahamas - no issue just work virtually. Literally have had no issues with leaving or logging off early as long as I communicated with my team. I’m also a top performer and really as long as the work gets done and I’m not missing any important meetings I have no issues. At the same time I can still get some exposure to large transactions just on the accounting side lol. I also get to work out every day, go out on the weekends, and still have time to work on my own business. Not to say this is the experience of all of us in the Big 4 and some of this changes during busy season, I can’t just run off in the middle of the day and the hours are longer, but for me it’s a nice job coming out of a cheap state school with an opportunity to lateral out into some more interesting lines of work after a few years.
Livin the life I see. Respect
Got out after I got my CPA credentials and switched to Lev Fin and then Mezz. Somehow worked longer hours for half the pay in accounting....
What do you mean?I thought accountants were paid low compared to the rest?
Was a little vaguely worded - I was working longer hours in accounting and got paid half as much while I was an accountant.
Big 4 is soul sucking, bad hours for bad pay, and the work is so mind numbing it's basically impossible to explain.
Not an accountant. Didn't do Big4 and definitely don't have an accounting degree. But somehow despite sidestepping all that I still wound up doing financial reporting. Wound up having to learn a lot of the GL/SL work and got involved that way. After working with the controllers and their teams during filing season, and the auditors that came in afterwards? Not only no, but hell no, thank you very much. That said, I used to joke about being able to sit for a CPA with how much accounting I actually wound up doing. In retrospect I'm very thankful I never made good on that.
Now I just translate between the client accounting teams and our firm.
...And actually enjoy my life lol
I just did it because I knew it'd be easy to find a job and my school's program was extremely focused on getting graduates into a career. Got my CPA, did some audit and then moved to Transaction Advisory. Very glad to not be auditing anymore.
Did you meet all the CPA school unit requirements straight out of undergrad or did you have to go back?
Did an internship Spring of my Senior year (our program was set up specifically for this, the internship basically counted as your classes) and went straight into Masters. In the state I tested in, so long as you were in school you didn't have to have all 150 hrs to take the test. But you did have to have all the hours within a year of passing.
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