[Champhex]

Hello Everyone – I’ve been working in the Accounting/Finance field for 7 years and have yet to meet someone who loves what they do, or at least enjoys it. Most either dislike it or are content, but it’s definitely not something they boast about or are proud of.

Are you or someone you may know a unicorn and loves/enjoys working in the Accounting/Finance field?

If so, why?

If you don’t, why?

AUD - 83
BEC - 75
FAR - 75
REG - NINJA in Training

2 down 2 to go

FAR-PASS-10/26/15
AUD-PASS-05/21/16
REG
BEC

[hasy]

I'm still relatively NEW to this field. But for me, even if I had ventured into an area of accounting that I DID enjoy, there would be some parts of my job that I wouldn't like I feel. I wouldn't COMPLETELY enjoy my job, I'd say.

AUD - 83
BEC - 80
FAR - 83
REG - 78

BEC - 80 (Roger + NINJA MCQ + WTB)

FAR - 72; 83 (Roger + NINJA MCQ)

AUD - 83 (Roger + NINJA MCQ + WTB)

REG - 52; 78 (Roger + NINJA MCQ)

Ethics - 68, 96 (how I dislike you)
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This forum is more addictive than drugs. Still returning after licensure.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved - Helen Keller

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BEC 80 (10/23/15)
FAR 72 (4/2/15); 83 (7/11/16)
REG 52 (4/28/15)
AUD (9/9/16)

Roger + NINJA MCQ + WTB

[ng3926a]

I love my job, but I think it may be because I love the people I work with. Every day isn't fun at my job, but it's challenging and my coworkers make me not want to dread going to work. I do tax btw.

Also, I love it when friends ask me tax questions (hahah it happens often).

AUD: 74, 75

BEC: 81

FAR: 64, 66, 76

REG: 84

[CPA2BEE]

I work in tax and love it. I have a nice balance of number crunching/critical thinking matched with human interaction/selling the business that I am kept driven and actually enjoy what I do. There are some days that are bad and others that are great, but you're going to get that in just about any job you have.

I take a lot of pride in what I do and am definitely happy doing it 🙂

CA CPA - est. Dec 2016

FAR - 80
AUD - 82
BEC - 80
REG - 85

ETHICS - 90
EXPERIENCE - COMPLETE
Application for California license mailed 8/4/2016

[Anonymous]

it depends on the company and people you are working with. But one thing for sure, when it comes to closing we are always there to stay late.

Honestly, I am looking at some of the sales director making 600k- 1 million dollar per year, and they don't have the schedule we have, are they brighter? I don't know, but they are “charming” or good at bsing for sure. They also get a lot of entertainment reimbursements.

My controller worked at Big four and he is now making about 300k per year and CFO holds a MBA but no big 4 exp, technical wise…I don't think he is there but hey he average about 350k-800k a yr with stocks..My technical director who recently got promoted is making around 170k, though she still has to OT and comes during the closing/weekend it's easier than her time at big 4. My cousin also worked at big 4 for 5 yrs and she got a gig at a hospital as controller for 3 years now. I think she makes around 160k. For me, I am just trying to get my certification and hopefully get me up there.

Lastly, I want to say my direct manager is a dumb dumb. One of those trying to fly under the radar, and she makes 125k , and just telling ppl to do her job. But she has been here for 11 years and gonna stay until she retires. IMO, she has the easiest job for the amount of money she is getting.

[RyonT]

I loved working at my old firm. It was pretty small, but my boss and I got along great. Plus I got to experience several aspects of public accounting. It was a good mix of audit, financial statement prep, and tax. Which was a nice way of breaking up the year. The occasional 2 (or 3) beer lunches didn't hurt either.

I've since relocated and ended up as a controller in Upper Michigan, and although I don't hate it, I don't exactly enjoy getting up and going to work everyday.

AUD - 79
BEC - 85
FAR - 85
REG - 83

Licensed CPA (MI)

CPAexcel & Ninja

AUD 69, 73, 79

BEC 67, 69, 73, 85

FAR 85

REG 83

 

[Anonymous]

I don't hate my job, I've been in public accounting for 11 years-that's 11 tax seasons lol!!! I LOVE tax, if I could just be a tax accountant I would be perfectly happy, but since I work at a cpa firm by boss expects me to conform and actually become a CPA like him. I'm the strange bird who actually loves tax season, it goes by so fast and I get a big bonus for working extra so we take a huge vacation every year-what's not to love? During off season, it's fairly slow because we don't do audits, so I help out with monthly work that gets behind during tax time, or catch clients up on returns that are years behind-(it always amazes me how many people just don't do their taxes until they get an IRS dirtygram). I don't make tons of money, but I have job security and a very flexible schedule during off season. I've thought about going into industry or a bigger firm, but I'm stopped by the thought of the office politics and constant scrutiny that I don't have to deal with now, more money just isn't worth it to me.

[Jdn9201]

I've worked in tax for 10 years now (industry – International Tax). I've been at some companies that turned out to be bad experiences, but I've always loved what I've done for my job. Luckily, I'm at a good place now that I work more hours but I enjoy what I'm doing and who I'm working with. If anything, I struggle with work-life balance because I become so involved in my work that my personal life gets neglected. No profession nor job is going to be perfect, but one thing I'm glad I did is chose a career route for me – not what everyone else was or is doing. I never went into public because I just didn't want to and I'm glad that I went that route. Overall, I think it's important to not let your job become your identity, and this can be harder when you actually like what you do. I also think happiness is a choice.

BEC - 88 8/29/15
REG - 82 11/14/15
AUD - 83 1/8/16
FAR - 80 2/29/16

[Missy]

I've seen happy and unhappy people in virtually every field from accounting to fast food. Problem is too many people choose positions that they feel they “should” have instead of what they want to do. Never worked a day in public and it would have made me miserable. Kind of run a very small subsidiary of an international manufacturer and it suits me well and I'm very happy.

Old timer,  A71'er since 2010.

Finance manager/HR manager

 

 

Licensed Massachusetts Non Reporting CPA since 2012
Finance/Admin/HR Manager

[sonja90]

I love my job! I love the firm I work in, because of the people. I love that I have exposure to all sides of accounting, I do taxes, accounting, consulting, auditing, all of it. I've been in it for 3 years, and i don't remember a day that i have not learn something new. I enjoy that! I also enjoy, that I know more than many people, and I love to do research on things that i don't. I love that i will be able to become partner one day. And my bosses are cool ass people. I never had dull day at my work.

sonja90

[supergirl]

I love my job, at least most days! I work for a small CPA firm and am going into my third tax season. I like most of my coworkers, have great bosses, and enjoy MOST (I'd say about 85-90%) of the clients I work on. I do mostly tax, but also reviews. I work a lot of hours during busy season and September/ October and it sucks to miss out on things sometimes, but in the slow season, I take a lot of time off.

That being said, there are people I've worked with here (most of them have since quit and gone a different route) that have a completely different experience and hate it. I'm a people person and I really like meeting with clients, helping them, getting more responsibilities, etc. I also thrive in an atmosphere where I can juggle multiple projects at once – that way I don't get bored. Not everyone is like that.

Honestly, I think someone's experience is mostly dependent on two things, one being whether they like the nature of the work to begin with, and the second if they mesh well with their boss.

REG - 79
AUD - 94
FAR - 73, 66, 85!
BEC - 72, 79

[Anonymous]

I don't mind accounting, it's usually other accountants I don't like. You know the whole “public” thing and climbing the corporate ladder. Too many artificial personalities.

[Anonymous]

I am curious also, those of you that thoroughly enjoy your jobs, what size/kind of firms are you working for?

Every firm I've worked for it seems like no one is fully able to enjoy their jobs. It's always a constant feeling as if you were being tested or watched or even that your job might be on the line regardless of how well you were with clients or how much you completed your work under budget.

[Anonymous]

Working on 5 years in public and I love it. It's all about what drives you and what you enjoy.

[Anonymous]

First, “happy accountants” and “accountants who love their job” can and should be different things. I'm a very happy person 95% of the time, happier than most people I know, but that's not entirely based on whether I love or hate my job at the moment. I'm not “bubbly”-happy, like not someone that gives you a headache from their cheerfulness, just quietly contented.

Now…as to liking one's job…I've liked every job I've ever had – from working in cafeteria to my current job as Controller at a small college. I've also had reasons I was ready to move on from every job I've had by the time I left – most of them due to the people I worked with. Ex: when I was a cashier at a small-town grocery store, the back-stabbing between the employees drove me crazy, and my direct supervisor especially (thankfully she usually scheduled me to relieve her, so I worked opposite shifts most of the time). So, I enjoyed the work – active, on-my-feet, getting to know the people in my adopted town, etc. – but by the time I got a better offer, I was ready to move on, thanks to some of the people I worked with. I could go job-by-job listing the things I've loved, and the reasons I was ready to leave, but the things I liked would always be aspects of the work, and the reason I was ready to move on be a combination of concerns over the company (stability) and/or coworkers I didn't like and/or concerns over less-than-honest doings. Often all of them combining in one.

With that preface: I like my job. I enjoy accounting, from basic bookkeeping to financial statement compilation to preparing worksheets for auditors to planning new procedures to analyzing financial trends. I enjoy it. And, in this job, I get a mixture of all those things, so the parts I don't like as much (like researching some obscure point of IRS standards 😐 ) gets broken up enough with everything else that none of it gets monotonous. But, I'm not “passionate” about accounting, and I'm not so in love with it that I'd never consider anything else. It's an enjoyable way to pay the bills, but there might be even better ways available, and I remain open to them. Same with my job; I like my job, most of the time, and enjoy seeing the accounting department's work flourish under my leadership…but there's some days it doesn't flourish, and seems like “1 step forward 10 steps back”, and there's days that people are hateful, and there's days I want to run away and never come back. I think the key to enjoying a job is figuring out when you're tipping the scales to “run away and never come back” instead of “enjoying it”, and make a change before they tip all the way to “I want to run away”. Cause…when you really can't stand the place, and feel there's no way out, then you feel cornered and miserable. Move on before that.

So yeah. I really enjoy accounting, and I really enjoy my job, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to stay at this job doing this form of accounting forever. Sometime I'll switch jobs, and when that happens, I might switch to a related-but-different field of work, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to enjoy wherever I go, cause I've enjoyed everywhere I've been. Figuring out how to enjoy where you are, and move on before you can't enjoy it, is the key to a happy career IMO.

[Christopher]

I'm a Financial Systems Analyst for a public software company. I absolutely love my job.

AUD - 81, Wiley

BEC - 77, Wiley

FAR - 76, Ninja

REG - 69, Wiley, 70, Wiley, 88, Wiley/Ninja MCQ

[Author]

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