[Anonymous]

Good Morning All,

I have lurked on these forums for a few months now and must say that y’all provide a great level of insight into this process so thank you.

I am hoping to get some wisdom on which of two paths I should take at this crossroads. I am currently 23 and working in the AR department for a smaller company. Not even considered in the accounting department and they only have 3 staff accountants so a future here is not exactly ideal. I’m extremely bored and making south of 40k. Due to having to help my father’s business while he was injured, summers in college, I never had a chance for an internship and missed the oppurtunity to get in with a large accounting firm.

Option 1: I am working on finishing up some cc classes to reach the education requirement for NC, and assuming they dont reject any of the classes I could start taking the exam in May or July. My problem with this option is assuming I passed all on my first attempt (unlikely at best) I dont feel like I will be a great candidate for a staff accounting position (positions in Charlotte list CPA or Master’s as well as experience as requirements) until spring or summer of 2014, which is frustrating cause I wish I could leave as of yesterday.

Option 2: I know this probably a waste of future debt, however its been in my mind a lot lately. I have been considering going back full-time for a year to get my Master’s and hopefully another shot at recruiters in the top 10 firms or atleast large companies. I graduated with a 3.6 GPA so I feel I can get into a pretty good school. I also wouldn’t mind taking the oppurtunity to live in another city while getting this done, but thats irrelevant I suppose.

Any kind of wisdom/insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time and have a blessed day,

CarolinaCandidate

[Groud]

smaller public accounting firms > Big4

Especially early in your career.

✓ AUD: (85) Apr2014 ~~ (87) Apr2016
✓ FAR: (74) Aug2015 ~~ (74) Oct2015 ~~ (79) Jun2016
✓ BEC: (77) Apr2015
REG: ___

[Keely]

Just my experience: I never had any relevant experience throughout college (I worked for my dad's business too!) and I didn't have a super awesome GPA, nor do I have a Masters. I was offered several public accounting jobs despite all of this. I was offered two positions with two exams passed, and one with three exams passed.

I just want to throw it out there, people get so hung up on Big 4 or very large firms, but I work in an 8 person firm and I would not trade it for anything. I do both tax and audit. Everyone in our firm does both, except for one partner who is strictly audit. I have already helped audit a ton of areas, whereas at a huge company, you are likely to be pigeon-holed into a single area or making copies for awhile. I was handed a tax return my first day of work. I've learned more in a few months at my job than most, I'm sure. Granted, when you say to someone that you worked for KPMG or PWC, it garners a lot of respect. Several of the people in my office worked for both of those companies, actually. But you shouldn't write off smaller firms. You'll learn a lot, and applicable experience is something that will take you much further than how large of a company you worked for, in my opinion.

BEC: (4/2012) 88
AUD: (5/2012) 91
REG: (8/2012) 82
FAR: (1/2013) 78 🙂

VA CPA #42010

[SammyJ]

I agree with Keely and Groud. Granted I've never worked a full time job for an accounting firm before, but I think as a recent graduate, us college students get Big 4 firms crammed down our throats. And I dont wanna offend any Big 4 workers here because this doesnt apply to you but the few that I met at social events or at job fairs are really obnoxious and lets just say they dont seem very personable. And I think thats one of the bad things about big 4 firms, they care too much about GPAs. They aren't really looking for people who are friendly in the work place. They are looking for people who can work 50-60 hours/week without overtime pay and who won't complain about it. They are looking for those super super hard working ones. And thats why they are ranked so high in the public accounting pecking order.

However with that said, the friendliest people I've dealt with are small companies. Like I've interned for a non-for-profit and everyone there is super humble about themselves. I'm actually about to start a new non for profit internship next week. It has nothing to do with accounting, but I like the message behind the product and I'm going for it. After I'm done with that Imma go for the 1 year work experience requirement for California and I'm aiming for a boutique CPA firm opposed to a Deloitte.

And once again, for those Big 4 firm employees reading this, I have only dealt with a few that have been obnoxious. And apart of this might be because I was bitter I couldn't get an internship when I was in college.

As for you Caroline, if you're really bored making south of 40k, then maybe you should quit. However, I dont think you should make the danergous assumption that working in a larger CPA firm will cure that boredom.

FAR-81!!
AUD-69, Retake: 84!!
REG-86!!
BEC-81!!
Education- Done
Ethics- August 2013
Experience- 7 Months of CPA Experience and counting!

[splinter1643]

Big 4 can is very hyped, but you might be able to work for a smaller sized firm not in the big 4 and maybe even get a broader experience, if that's what you're looking for. I've been in the big 4, and it does seem like there could be lots of opportunities, but it really depends on the location. When I interviewed, my interviewer practically discouraged me from pursuing a rotation (not directly, but I could tell from how he spoke that it was hard to get)! Most of my co-workers started out specializing in a very specific subset of tax and for myself, it was hard for me to get an audit rotation-I only know of 2 people out of the hundreds of people I started with who did this. I'm glad to see that there are companies where employees can actually do both tax and audit!

CPA license in progress....

[Author]

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