[Anonymous]

I am hoping to get a general consensus on opinions about public accounting.

Do you feel this profession complements your personal lifestyle? Do you enjoy it?

I find it to be a double edged sword, especially when having to deal with clients and management, etc.

The good thing about it, you get to interact professionally and more interpersonally with “rich” people. The bad thing about it, you get to interact professionally and more interpersonally with “rich” people.

Lol, in other words I find public accounting sucks because you are essentially catering to your clients needs and in most cases these are business owners, wealthy individuals, and more prominent folk in the community. You will have to “mature” and “adapt” personality-wise to deal with these types of clients which you may not agree with or even like, but that’s part of the job I personally have a hard time dealing with because to me these “wealthy” clients can be grossly artificial and self-centered to an extent, yet they have to be pleased as a paying customer.

Then again, the experience you gain from this can be greatly rewarding for your career and lifestyle.

Please share your thoughts and experiences!

[Anonymous]

Any public job you work at, people are self-centered and artificial. I dealt with this when working at a grocery store, college cafeteria, bank, online classes support office, and in accounting. It's my least-favorite part of any job with people. Surprisingly, though, it was worst when working at the college cafeteria. Since they were an athlete with an athletic scholarship, they didn't need to do more than grunt and point when getting food from a student who had to *work* through college!

But I totally get what you mean about the people being both best and worst part of public accounting. I hesitated to go into accounting since I didn't like the stereotype of working in an office all day with no customer interaction…but there are days I wish I had no customer interaction!

Overall, I'm not sure if public accounting is the best fit for me or not. I'm trying to figure that out – whether to be looking for private accounting positions or be focused on further my public career.

From my perspective…

Pros of public accounting:

Interaction with people

Varied work

Lighter schedule most of the year

Cons of public accounting:

Interaction with people

A million responsibilities

Crazy schedule during tax season

Beyond that, my impression is that private vs public is similar, and the rest of the details depend more on region and employer than field of work…

[HustlinHustlin]

I can chime in with my opinion, but I do not work for Big 4 so my experience is a lot different.

I do pretty much 90% audit, so this isn't really relative to tax work.

During our busy season August – December, I vary from working 50 hour weeks to 60 hour weeks and travel about 10 nights a year. Of course, this always varies depending on our turnover during busy season and

The Pros: You really do get a lot of experience, especially at a medium sized firm where the management is very flat. In my first year, I have done everything on an audit. When I go into the private job search I feel like I can be marketable to a lot of industries we work with. My coworker who has been here a little over 2 years got offered an opp for $97K internal audit job on one of our colleges this year. Afterall, it is all about WHO you know, really. Also, a lot of the overtime is spent on travel. I'm lucky to get paid overtime (a lot of firms don't pay you for it).

The Cons: It's stressful. Almost to the point where you're not working if you're not stressed. You can't be over budget on your jobs but also can't be billing too much admin time. I always thought, when I was in college, if you wear a suit everyday, you've made it. Now that I do that, I know that the people who dress however they want and make 5 figures are the ones who have really made it. I'm also not a fan of travel. Something about being in an airport on a Monday at 5 a.m. in a stiff suit makes me extremely sad. I am quite a homebody and in a relationship so it makes it difficult. Also, management is relatively flat so it can be irritating trying to work for several “bosses” and incharges who are at the same level as you.

Overall, I think I will complete my suggested 3 years, get my CPA and look to jump into governmental or private. I like having a steady routine everyday and it's hard to have that in public accounting.

B 71 - 79 EXPIRED
A 69 - 75 EXPIRED
R 65 - 48 - 45
F 56 - 61 - 65 - 64

Becker, Wiley Test Bank, Wiley Text and Ninja Notes

"The fish who keeps on swimming is the first to chill upstream" -311

Experience - Done, like WAAAY done.
Still need 30 more credits, in basket weaving (gotta love new CA requirements)

[ImaCPA168]

I'm confused by what you ask…

1. You think successful/wealthy people are conceited and artificial and you do not want to become successful and wealthy yourself?

2. You do not see interaction with successful people an opportunity to learn from them and to network with them so that the relationship you build can help you advance your own career in the future?

3. You don't think that to “mature” and “adapt” personality-wise is just a part of life? You have to mature and adapt to just about everything–professional or personal…from the rich and powerful clients that you are referring to, or a tough senior/manager/partner that you also have to please, or a demanding significant other, or a baby, or death in a family. Maturing and adapting is required no matter which path you choose, right?, etc

I don't think you have to worry about catering to your clients and getting interaction with your clients if you don't want to. If this is you attitude, your team (managers and partners) will see it and make sure you don't get face time with clients. I've kept unsuitable staff away from clients before to protect the business relationship. But really, what I hear from most newbies who get into public accounting is they get into it to get the kind of exposure that you seem to be dreading. So honestly, I'm really curious to hear your perspective. Because I think you always have to cater to and please someone no matter where you work.

B - 83 Done
A - 88 Done
R - 81 Done
F - 77 Done

Ethics - Done
Attest Hours - Done

Licensed-May 2013!

[Spur]

@Brickell CPA

It's interesting that you point out that you deal with “wealthy” people. This interesting to me because when I interned for one of the big 4 I didn't see any of that. In fact our group was so far removed from the actual client I wasn't even sure who, ultimately, the client was.

In any case, I understand where your coming from. I now work in industry and deal with the type of people you describe all of the time. It's complicated, but I think that you learn a lot about the ins and outs of business and entrepreneurship this way. Plus you get to see all of the interesting things these people own. My question for you is, how did you get into seeing these people. I personally would love to work for a big 4 firm that dealt specifically with HNW individuals. Is this something that you were placed in or did you want to work in that department.

I've always wondered how do you get into an accounting firm and work for the group that you wanted to work for. Who would you guys suggest to talk to if you had a specific interest in something and wanted to express it to a recruiter?

I want to deal with those people exclusively on the tax side.

FAR - Bad Fail '11, Fail '12, Fail '13, PASS It's a miracle!
AUD - Fail, PASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BEC - PASS!!!!!!!!
REG - PASS!!!!!!!! And I'm done!

[StephAV]

It has been 5 years since I worked in public accounting… I didn't really like it all that much. I was eager to get out, I did just over 2.5 years. Lol. I like referring to it like that. Anyway, I was really excited to start my job at a NPO with REAL work/life balance. After 5 years these are the things that I miss: the teamwork and friendships, the continuing education opportunities… Um, that's it. I sometimes miss traveling, but I'm so glad that I don't have to do that anymore.

I now work by myself all day just about everyday, sometimes the only interactions I have with other people are “Good morning” and “good night.” Also working in public accounting, you are all accountants, all have at least that in common. I worked in audit and in small teams that varied engagement to engagement. I made a lot of friends. There are still people that are now my co-workers that act elitest and make unreasonable requests… I do like my job though.

FAR - 7/13 - 72, 11/13- 74, 2/14- 82!!! Best score ever (for me)!!!
BEC - 1/14 - 75!!! Perfect score! First Pass! YAY!!!
AUD - 8/14 - 80!!!
REG - 5/14 - 72, 10/14 - 66, 1/15 - 78 - DONE FOREVER!!!
I did 5 of the UNA and CPAExcel classes to earn units.

[rockrlz87]

in most cases public accounting doesn't suck because of your client. after spending 3 years, starting my 4th, in big4, i found that it usually sucks for the people you are working with on your team or in the office.

most clients (except for about 3-4 people out of probably 30-50 people I've dealt with) are pretty easy to get along with as long as your nice to them and can build a solid basis of rapport. additionally until you hit manager or above, is when you start dealing with the wealthy people (sometimes as a senior but even that can be rare especially if its a really large client/team).

now the people on your deal are not usually afraid to backstab you, start rumors, give you bad evals (upwards/downwards) – I've seen it far too often. if you get on good clients and the team around you (and if you have any control over it, especially senior and above), you can make your public experience very enjoyable.

BEC - 5/2012 - 79
AUD - 10/2012 - 77
REG - 7/2013 - ???
FAR - 12/2012 - 80

[Anonymous]

I work for a smaller firm but our clients are multi-million dollar associations (I won't get into detail with the particular industry for sake of anonymity), but yes even as staff I have to deal directly with management and even BOD, many times having to educate them on a few things (more of the in-charge's or manager's job, but some things I could answer on my own).

Well my perspective is that I have gone through my entire life being well liked, lots of friends, always social and positive. I'm still the same way but this particular industry has some very socially conservative type of folks that have lots of money/power. And you almost have to act a certain way or carry a certain mindset in order to be likable to communicate with them.

There are all different types of people, but I am not interested in becoming more like those people just to PLEASE them. I would like to just come to work and do my job, which I happen to do very well, but in order to gain exposure and experience, you have to adapt and deal with it.

Just one of my frustrations, public accounting is such a pain ha.

[Mayo]

@brickell, it seems to me that you just don't like the client serving aspect of PA. Which I think is understandable. I mean you're in a position where you're supposed to be professionally skeptical of management while trying to maintain a cordial relationship.

This isn't always doable. Especially when management is in the wrong, but are giving you push back.

However, I'd argue that these are still great skills to learn. Even in industry you'll have to wade through the firm politics, and knowing how to communicate difficult information in a palatable way is important. So is knowing when to push back, how much to push back, and in what way. It's an art really.

But getting back to your question:

I'd say that I'm pretty happy with my job. I work with smart people who I generally get along with. The work is challenging, always changing, and fulfills my intellectual curiosity. It also will eventually lead to better opportunities down the line in my career.

I think the main problem most people have with PA, is very typical: Long hours, unrealistic budgets, understaffed teams, and difficult clients.

But let's be realistic.It's still a good job, and any professional job out there worth having has times when you just want to pull your hair out.

Mayo, BBA, Macc

[P or F.. I think Im gonna BARF]

In order to answer you question, public accounting would need to offer us the ability to have a personal lifestyle… at that point, I could tell you if it the job compares well to my personal lifestyle.

B - (08/29/2013) Passed
A - (07/02/2013) Passed
R - (10/17/2013) 73 - Rematch
F - (05/29/2013) Passed

[Anonymous]

Hey guys thanks for all the feedback! Glad to see I'm not the only one with these kinds of frustrations. I actually left my job and am going to just focus on finishing my last class to get the 150 and pass FAR and REG. So by January (and hopefully a new position by then), I'll be ready to focus more on just the job and have a lot more free time. I think that would help with the stress factor…just a bit 😉

Sorry if I missed answering any questions, if there were any questions just repost and I or someone I'm sure will get back to it.

[evesocal]

My favorite part of public accounting has always been my clients. They are, for the most part, smart, ambitious, entrepreneurial and very stimulating to work with / for. Of course there will always be some jerks but that's life.

I also enjoy my coworkers.

Worst part: the hours. I work a sh*tload of hours. There are “slower” part of the year but not many.

B: 75

A: 77

R: 80

F: 81

Ethics: 84, 92 and done!

Licensed in California

B: 75
R: 80
A: 77
F: 81
Ethics: 84, 92 and done!
Licensed in California

[Author]

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