[Anonymous]

Hey everyone,

I’m a first year working in external audit in Big 4 in the greater nyc area, and to put it frankly, I hate it. I’ve been assigned to a new client for about 3 weeks now, and everything I’ve done has been a train wreck. From control wlakthroughs to substantive testing, I’m not getting it at all. Aside from the client being new and not having PY workpapers to go off of, I don’t feel like the team likes me. It takes me a very long time to do everything and I’ve had to work this weekend to get caught up (it’s only interim, and not busy season)

I don’t know who to turn to for advice, as no one in my immediate family has worked in the field. I feel horrible about myself,

I hit the snooze button everyday and dread waking up, and I usually don’t get home until 9 (commute is long and having to stay late doesn’t help). I have anxiety attacks thinking about going into work tomorrow. To be honest, I want to cry when I get home at night, but I don’t want my parents to be upset.

I did well in college, graduated with honors from a good business school, interned with the big 4 firm I work with now, got inducted into the business honors society, the whole nine. Since I’ve been on this client, I feel like an idiot most of the time and question everything I worked so hard for in school.

I really want to put in my two weeks notice and go back to college and do an MS in accounting or something business, and finish up the cpa. I really don’t think public accounting or auditing is for me, but I don’t have the experience to land a job in industry right now. My parents tell me to stick out until a job offer comes my way, but at this rate I don’t think I can make it, I feel like I’m losing touch with who I am as a person, I haven’t felt like me since I started.

Any advice? Will quitting only 3 months in come back to bite me later on in my career? Is there a way I can tell HR I wanted to go back to school without it making it look like I hate the job?

I would never be open in this forum about my life, but I really don’t know who to go to.

[Anonymous]

An applicant who meets New York's 150 semester hour education requirements for licensure must present evidence, satisfactory to the State Board for Accountancy, of one year of full-time experience (or the part-time equivalent) providing accounting services or advice involving the use of accounting, attest, compilation, management advisory, financial advisory, tax, or consulting skills under the supervision of a certified public accountant licensed in one of the U.S. jurisdictions or a public accountant licensed in New York State. Acceptable experience may be earned in a public accounting firm, government, private industry or an educational institution.

[Anonymous]

An applicant who meets New York's 150 semester hour education requirements for licensure must present evidence, satisfactory to the State Board for Accountancy, of one year of full-time experience (or the part-time equivalent) providing accounting services or advice involving the use of accounting, attest, compilation, management advisory, financial advisory, tax, or consulting skills under the supervision of a certified public accountant licensed in one of the U.S. jurisdictions or a public accountant licensed in New York State. Acceptable experience may be earned in a public accounting firm, government, private industry or an educational institution.

[Anonymous]

unfortunately that doesnt mention anything about NFP so im out of luck…

[Anonymous]

unfortunately that doesnt mention anything about NFP so im out of luck…

[Anonymous]

LIFO- I stayed over 2 years. It wasn't easy but it fit into my larger plans so I just did what I had to do. Top MBA require over 2 years work experience and the application process is lengthy. If an MBA is your goal realize that if you started today you wouldn't be starting classes until August 2015! Anyway- it's just an example. Think about what is meaningful to you and how working at your firm will help you reach that. Maybe you want a really good letter of recommendation. Another trick I used was to piece my time out. Plan a vacation for 6 months from now and count down to that. Then make another target. Your not a prisoner. There is no reason to have anxiety. If your willing to quit today then what's the difference from quitting today or just seeing how long you can last until your fired?

[Anonymous]

LIFO- I stayed over 2 years. It wasn't easy but it fit into my larger plans so I just did what I had to do. Top MBA require over 2 years work experience and the application process is lengthy. If an MBA is your goal realize that if you started today you wouldn't be starting classes until August 2015! Anyway- it's just an example. Think about what is meaningful to you and how working at your firm will help you reach that. Maybe you want a really good letter of recommendation. Another trick I used was to piece my time out. Plan a vacation for 6 months from now and count down to that. Then make another target. Your not a prisoner. There is no reason to have anxiety. If your willing to quit today then what's the difference from quitting today or just seeing how long you can last until your fired?

[Wolfchicken]

@Accounting is my LIFO. I know other people on here say to quit, but IMO I think you should stick it out for a little longer. I think it's expected that your are going to feel like an idiot just starting out. I know I do. I just started my first auditing job a couple of weeks ago. I haven't even gone out on an audit yet and I feel like a dummy. But what I do know is most people feel like that starting out. In fact, I asked one of my old professors one time about feeling this way when I was doing taxes for the first time, and he said that you will feel that way from time to time after working in public accounting for 25 years. I don't think you can form the opinion this early on that public accounting is not for you. The Big 4 that you are working for wouldn't have hired you if they didn't think you were capable. You are probably like me, a perfectionist who doesn't feel comfortable not knowing what they are doing and is too hard on themselves. Stick it out, learn from your mistakes and realize that you are human and you will make mistakes. Maybe that particular firm isn't a good fit for you either. Maybe you would be better working for a smaller firm. Just don't write it off this early in your career. Besides, you already got a couple of exams out of the way!

BEC - PASS
FAR - PASS
Audit - PASS
REG - PASS

[Wolfchicken]

@Accounting is my LIFO. I know other people on here say to quit, but IMO I think you should stick it out for a little longer. I think it's expected that your are going to feel like an idiot just starting out. I know I do. I just started my first auditing job a couple of weeks ago. I haven't even gone out on an audit yet and I feel like a dummy. But what I do know is most people feel like that starting out. In fact, I asked one of my old professors one time about feeling this way when I was doing taxes for the first time, and he said that you will feel that way from time to time after working in public accounting for 25 years. I don't think you can form the opinion this early on that public accounting is not for you. The Big 4 that you are working for wouldn't have hired you if they didn't think you were capable. You are probably like me, a perfectionist who doesn't feel comfortable not knowing what they are doing and is too hard on themselves. Stick it out, learn from your mistakes and realize that you are human and you will make mistakes. Maybe that particular firm isn't a good fit for you either. Maybe you would be better working for a smaller firm. Just don't write it off this early in your career. Besides, you already got a couple of exams out of the way!

BEC - PASS
FAR - PASS
Audit - PASS
REG - PASS

[jrosen92770]

Awkward – That's good sound advice. There is something to be said about sticking it out. I have heard something rather counter intuitive but it actually makes sense, “Leave when it's ok to stay”.

BEC - 5/26/2013 75
REG - 8/31/2013 82
AUD - 11/24/2013 74, 2/9/2014 92
FAR - 5/25/2014 85

NY CPA

[jrosen92770]

Awkward – That's good sound advice. There is something to be said about sticking it out. I have heard something rather counter intuitive but it actually makes sense, “Leave when it's ok to stay”.

BEC - 5/26/2013 75
REG - 8/31/2013 82
AUD - 11/24/2013 74, 2/9/2014 92
FAR - 5/25/2014 85

NY CPA

[CPAsweetness]

Hey, LIFO.

For you to post your post, I am sure you are at your wits end! I think all of us who have been in public accounting, know exactly how you feel.

I do not work for a Big4, however, I work for a top ten accounting firm. I have been in accounting for four years now.

I can tell you for a fact, that your first year will be as you described. You are going to get a crap client, a client from hell, like the one you described. You will have no clue how to do things. And worst, no prior-year workpapers. This is a nightmare for everyone on your team, I am sure. It's that they have experience behind them and they should know how to handle it. If I was on your team, I would understand that you do not know what you are doing. I am sure they know that, too. My thought is, if they are getting pissed at you, they will say something. I have been in two firms now, and supervisors, seniors, PIC, all have said that they would rather have questions asked, rather than to get something wrong because the question was not asked. They were in your shoes, once, too.

If you give up, you will regret it. You are not giving yourself and your team the time it takes. It gets better. You need to ask questions. Who cares if you question to death. I'd rather have the question asked rather than having someone feel as bad as you are feeling.

-J

[CPAsweetness]

Hey, LIFO.

For you to post your post, I am sure you are at your wits end! I think all of us who have been in public accounting, know exactly how you feel.

I do not work for a Big4, however, I work for a top ten accounting firm. I have been in accounting for four years now.

I can tell you for a fact, that your first year will be as you described. You are going to get a crap client, a client from hell, like the one you described. You will have no clue how to do things. And worst, no prior-year workpapers. This is a nightmare for everyone on your team, I am sure. It's that they have experience behind them and they should know how to handle it. If I was on your team, I would understand that you do not know what you are doing. I am sure they know that, too. My thought is, if they are getting pissed at you, they will say something. I have been in two firms now, and supervisors, seniors, PIC, all have said that they would rather have questions asked, rather than to get something wrong because the question was not asked. They were in your shoes, once, too.

If you give up, you will regret it. You are not giving yourself and your team the time it takes. It gets better. You need to ask questions. Who cares if you question to death. I'd rather have the question asked rather than having someone feel as bad as you are feeling.

-J

[ZSRizvi]

I know you can get licensed in private as well; however, it's generally harder to go around asking “Hey do you have a CPA I can work under to get licensed?” My point was that LIFO is already in an accounting firm and has the chance to get licensed without looking around for other jobs (which, personally, I find to be tiresome, especially in this economy).

If NY only requires one year of experience, then that is great. Stick it out until next December (even if the though makes you want to run across a thorny bush) and just think that you'll have those CPA initials come next year.

@Candle

I don't know you personally so I can't give proper advice but I can say that I must have sent out 50-100 resumes and out of those, I perhaps got 3-5 interviews. One of the people even shut the phone on me because apparently I wasn't experienced enough. Also, as tough_kitty said, it might also be how you come off.

Having a masters doesn't entitle someone to a job. It's how hard you work to get a job. I'm not saying you aren't but if you know you aren't, then perhaps it's time to reassess what you're doing wrong: are you practicing your interviewing skills? Looking at the skills that most accounting firms want and applying them (i.e. taking Excel courses/QuickBooks courses)?

At the end, what got me a job was I did extra research and took those extra technology courses. They gave me the boost to break into the industry.

Trust me, coming from experience: don't have an attitude. I did and it doesn't get you anywhere.

BEC (July 2013)
FAR (OCT 2013)
REG (NOV 2013)
AUD (JAN 2014)

The CPA Exam is an opponent that not even the Fellowship of the Ring would want to come across.

I have a long...long...journey ahead of me.

[ZSRizvi]

I know you can get licensed in private as well; however, it's generally harder to go around asking “Hey do you have a CPA I can work under to get licensed?” My point was that LIFO is already in an accounting firm and has the chance to get licensed without looking around for other jobs (which, personally, I find to be tiresome, especially in this economy).

If NY only requires one year of experience, then that is great. Stick it out until next December (even if the though makes you want to run across a thorny bush) and just think that you'll have those CPA initials come next year.

@Candle

I don't know you personally so I can't give proper advice but I can say that I must have sent out 50-100 resumes and out of those, I perhaps got 3-5 interviews. One of the people even shut the phone on me because apparently I wasn't experienced enough. Also, as tough_kitty said, it might also be how you come off.

Having a masters doesn't entitle someone to a job. It's how hard you work to get a job. I'm not saying you aren't but if you know you aren't, then perhaps it's time to reassess what you're doing wrong: are you practicing your interviewing skills? Looking at the skills that most accounting firms want and applying them (i.e. taking Excel courses/QuickBooks courses)?

At the end, what got me a job was I did extra research and took those extra technology courses. They gave me the boost to break into the industry.

Trust me, coming from experience: don't have an attitude. I did and it doesn't get you anywhere.

BEC (July 2013)
FAR (OCT 2013)
REG (NOV 2013)
AUD (JAN 2014)

The CPA Exam is an opponent that not even the Fellowship of the Ring would want to come across.

I have a long...long...journey ahead of me.

[Anonymous]

@Accounting is my LIFO, I am in the same boat as you (also in the 3rd month). I feel that everyone here is giving really sound advice. At the end of the day, make sure to stick to whatever your decision is and do not regret it in the future. I am still thinking about what my next course of action is, but in the mean time, I am just trying to stay positive. I actually do feel like I am getting an anxiety attack right now thinking about going to work tomorrow.

[Author]

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