[Tawpeak]

Mini rant and general question ahead.

I’ve worked for this CPA firm for a little over a year now and when I interviewed, I explicitly stated that the goal would be to become a partner. I’ve never questioned the possibility of this happening until recently. My coworker has an offer to take over her mother-in-laws firm (which is really just her doing everything by herself) and she doesn’t want to leave without having more people join her, as she wants a partnership. She told me about her plans to leave (not immediately but within the next couple of years or sooner) and she said that if I want to join her, I’d be welcome to come and join her “all female” CPA firm as a partner.

These are her reasons for leaving (not including the monetary increase, of course):

1. The partners never listen to the audit team (it consists of four people) and they take on clients no matter what the team says.

2. They recently moved me out of audit (someone capable of handling a small audit by myself) and hired a new guy who the audit team voted no to hiring. It turns out that he doesn’t know how to use excel and he works extremely slowly. They are also sponsoring his visa to stay in the country (which is really weird for such a small firm to do). Turns out that the “main partner’s” wife teaches the new guys kids at their private catholic school and she pushed for him to get the job. All the other partners said no.

3. One of the partners is on a his retirement track, so they promoted someone else to partner. The person they promoted has fought being promoted for a long time before finally giving in. The last time they tried to promote him, he said no. Instead of promoting someone else (like the woman who has been here 20 years and handles all the bills and payroll for the firm), they were looking to hire a partner from outside of the firm.That woman was finally promoted to manager this year.

4. We have one female partner and barely anyone knows she’s a partner outside of the firm. She wasn’t even there when I was interviewed- all the other partners were. She doesn’t have the workload the other partner’s have either. So, she’s basically there for “diversity”. And unless she leaves or retires, there will be no more female partners. Even though the firm is composed primarily of women.

The general consensus is that no woman will become a partner and that the highest you can go is manager, and even then that may take a long, long time. In my family, I’m the career woman and my husband has a crappy job that he works just so he can put his check into our savings account. The “main partner” (and his dad, who is retired) is the one against more women partners. I don’t know if it’s their religion (staunchly catholic) or if it’s still men in general who think this way, but they don’t think a woman can lead as well as a man because women have obligations to their family.

Is this how a majority of firms are? Should I hang around and find out for myself if becoming a partner will never happen? Should I leave with my coworker and join her firm? Or should I just abandon public accounting for good and go to industry, which may be as sexist as my current firm?

*If you got to the end, congratulations. The post is long, but the background information is important.

Done.
AUD 95
FAR 86
BEC 82
REG 84

[Anonymous]

My firm has over 25 employees. And until this year had only 5 men (1 out of 5 partners is a guy). The last two hires were men. so we are in an inverse and hopeful situation.
I've seen firms that hire primarily / only people of “X” religion. I don't think my firm is sexist at all but these sort of skewed numbers can have a major impact on a person's life, especially if you are in the minority.

That said, do you really think an all female group is any real solution? How do you think a male would feel if he were eventually hired there?

[jm962011]

I think there are sometimes just some bad apples. I dodged a bullet with a micro firm that a recruiter sent me to.. it was literally two men who could've been my grandfather. Everything screamed “white old men” and the typical stereo type you get when you say CPA.

I'm a large CPA firm now (not quite Big 4 but not “regional” either) and the managing partner is a woman. The VP of Tax at my old job in industry (even though I didn't report directly to her) was a Big 4 managing partner (however, she was the only woman with a significant role.. can't think of any female finance directors or managers, actually 🙁 )

I've also been in large public companies where I got the same feeling that women just were promoted. If you do go to your coworker's firm, please be active in the community and definitely say “woman owned business.”

[Tawpeak]

My coworkers firm wouldn't just be an all female firm- it would be all females from this firm actually. There's a lot of hidden unrest happening. So, if my coworker did leave, she would take probably four of us with her (there are only 12 CPA's here, including the 6 partners). This would really devastate the firm, of course. Her mother-in-law currently does auditing, tax, compilations, and consulting all on her own. My coworker only does auditing. With all of us with her, there would be no need for us to hire anyone else unless we expanded. That being said, there would be no need to ever have to hire anyone else.

Done.
AUD 95
FAR 86
BEC 82
REG 84

[Chris]

Regardless of the politics, I say take care of yourself because no one else will. You'd really regret it if you didn't go out on this venture with your co-worker and then got stuck waiting 20 years to become manager. If it doesn't work out, then you can always join another firm or go industry like you said.

On the political said, where I'm at, there are two female partners of five total and all seem to be equals. Where I interned, it was an old boys club from what I observed and heard. It took a very long time for them to finally promote their first female partner last year. After working with her and keeping in touch, it was a surprise they made her wait as long as she did. I also know of a small female owned firm 20 miles away. There are clearly different standards everywhere so you're experience could be different at many places. Tale a chance. You can always bounce back 🙂

AUD - 86
BEC - 77
FAR - 77
REG - 88

Now I could let these dream killers kill my self-esteem or use my arrogance as the steam to power my dreams.

Licensed in NH. Working in MA.

 

NH CPA
REG: 07/03/2014 - 88
AUD: 08/30/2014 - 73 - Retake 10/16/14 - 86
BEC: 05/31/2015 - 77
FAR: 08/08/2015 - 64 - Retake 11/23/15 - 77

Becker*NINJA Notes/MCQ*

Now I could let these dream killers kill my self-esteem
Or use my arrogance as the steam to power my dreams ~ Kanye West

[Spartans92]

Hey Tawpeak,
Your post is very interesting and I recall taking a business law class just not too long ago. My professor have always said make sure when you set up your business you are doing it on your down time because that may violate your current job since you have a fiduciary duty as an employee to the company. However, “downtime” is very subjective and he said the best is when you are on vacation. This class was mainly for accountants too because he said even during busy season you would have to work on weekends. Hence, the weekends do not fully consider as downtime. Also, the person who is going to be the owner should not be doing the soliciting, that is, she cannot be the one to initiate but it is okay for her to leave her contact info to you if she wants you to join. However, if she is already doing this as a side job make sure she can moonlight and not affect her current work performance. If your firm finds out this could result in a potential lawsuit. As you said there are only 12 of you guys and if she takes off with y'all this could devastate the firm. That doesn't sound good. Best of Luck!

BEC - 76
REG- 67, 85
AUD-63, 74, 80!!
FAR-65, 62, 57, 79

3 down 1 more to go. BEC is on the Line 🙁

BEC- PASS

[CM]

I think this is just a general issue around the world. Unfortunately, women still have a long way to go to break the stereotypes. I have been dealing with this since I first started working. I believe that is up to us to prove and change the business world. We need to stop complaining and start acting not like men act but better. It wasn't until I understood this that I started to climb up the ladder and gain respect from my fellow men colleagues. We need to be strong and show that we are strong and are as capable as men to perform our job. If it super difficult to change this in your current firm, move on to another one, but keep in mind that this could happen everywhere.

AUD - 80
BEC - 73
FAR - 78
REG - NINJA in Training

"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible." Francis of Assisi

I really cannot believe BEC is giving me such a hard time.

FAR: 78 (5x)
AUD: 80 (3x)
BEC: 9/07/2016
REG: 12/06/2016

Failure is never an option.

"Faith in your own powers and confidence in your individual methods are essential to success." Roderick Stevens

[acamp]

Where do the people who “handles all the bills and payroll for the firm” get promoted to partner?

No where, that's where.

You seem to have a lot of political insight for being their just a year, its a wonder you get any work done.

Your friend's “firm” that consists of one person who “is really just her doing everything by herself” will need to somehow grow exponentially to support the four of you.

I'd suggest leaving now. Doesn't sound like you're all that happy. Larger firms do have woman partners (not sure on percentages), I'd guess still weighted more men, but that is changing. The two most recent partners promoted this year in my Big4 office were women. I certainly wouldn't perceive their promotion as being “diversity” related, but hard workers who navigated the firm to promotion. Good luck.

Self proclaimed: Highest ratio of Replies to Others v. Posts Created on A71

California CPA - Big4 Aud Manager Alum - Private Accounting at Startups

FAR, REG and BEC with Ninja Notes + WTB Only

Ninja + Wiley Test Bank: [FAR - 81] [REG - 76] [BEC - 88] [AUD - 73](doh!)

Becker Videos: [AUD - 82]

California CPA

[EuroAddict]

The reason for not many female partners is probably due to the fact that accounting for the longest time has been a male driven occupation.

Not sure where the payroll woman comes into play about being promoted to partner.

-----------------------------
BEC - 77, 03/2015 (first try)
FAR - 79, 05/2015 (second try)
REG - 83, 12/2015 (first try)
AUD - 84, 03/2015 (first try)

I got 99 problems but the CPA ain't one.

[Tawpeak]

The “payroll woman” is the only one in the entire firm who knows how much everyone here makes (besides the partners) and she handles the financials of this CPA firm. She's not the payroll person doing outside payroll, she does OUR payroll and pays this firms bills. She's also been here 20 years and has her CPA certificate. If I were her, I'd expect to be a partner by now.

Done.
AUD 95
FAR 86
BEC 82
REG 84

[ahugemistake]

“I'd be welcome to come and join her “all female” CPA firm as a partner.”

I don't think starting a firm with the sentiment of excluding men fixes the problem at all.

FAR: 78*, 75
REG: 76*, 85
BEC: 79*, 76
AUD: 79*, 93

All scores expired, let's try this again.

FAR - 78*
AUD - 66, 79
REG - 73, 76
BEC - 79

[Biff-1955-Tannen]

Wow is this firm restricted to whites only too? What a wonderful place this sounds like

AUD - 93
BEC - 83
FAR - 83
REG - 84

Nobody calls me chicken

AUD 93 Jan 16
BEC 83 Feb 16
FAR 83 Apr 16
REG 84 May 16

99% Ninja MCQ only

[CPA2BEE]

Partnering with the “all female CPA firm” sounds pretty sexist too.

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

[jm962011]

I don't think you can market or even keep the firm as “all female” without getting in trouble for discrimination. However, it can be marketed as a “woman owned” business.. similar to “minority owned” business.

[Anonymous]

oh you poor things..if you want to run an all female based firm and be a partner start your own firm and quit your bitching..

I'd never promote you either..AS opposed to doing this you post on an internet blog crying foul and discrimniation..THIS IS WHY YOU ARENT A PARTNER!

[alboreland]

You can model it after Hooters and have hot girls walk around carrying laptops and doing taxes.

[Author]

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