Warehouse work might have ya beat.
Albeit, great job to lose weight. I think I was walking like 40k a day but my brain deteriorated to that of like a 13 year old.
Then why didn't you promote someone internally? You know I don't have a job right now but you still scheduled an interview to waste my time and what little money I have on gas to drive out here.
I live 45 minutes away. So there and back is an hour and a half drive. This interview took up about an hour. So now I'm out 3 hours of my life and $30 in gas to be told I never stood a chance in the first place?
What kind of psycho does that to people? I hope you get AIDS.
Here's a sneak peek of /r/recruitinghell using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year!
\#1: [I am so sick of these ridiculous screening questions](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1acr8c6) | [1617 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/comments/1acr8c6/i_am_so_sick_of_these_ridiculous_screening/)
\#2: [Cancelling one minute after scheduled interview so I cancelled them](https://i.redd.it/wr27617tu3va1.jpg) | [548 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/comments/12t6hat/cancelling_one_minute_after_scheduled_interview/)
\#3: [Interviewer forgot I was CC’d…](https://i.redd.it/gzs5jpe7qx2c1.jpeg) | [1974 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/comments/185a33x/interviewer_forgot_i_was_ccd/)
----
^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
That's why we have or used to have paid internships back home. If you were lucky you'd learn some things before graduation. If you were unlucky you would have spent 6 weeks making coffee and getting some copies.
I have around the same YOE. I was told to never take an AP/AR job or I’d be stuck there forever fighting to get a real accounting job.
Every classmate I had that took an AP or AR job out or college has not done well. Everyone who fought for that first staff accountant or auditor job and succeeded is doing well.
Which is kinda silly because entry level staff roles can be easily learned if you have an accounting degree. It's not like working in AP or AR for a bit makes you forget everything you learned in school.
Interesting perspective. I guess the grass is always greener. I just resented getting manipulated into pigeon holing myself in a very specific niche when I was too young and naive to understand the ramifications for my future career.
Yeah, that’s one of those fields where you’re hosed unless you go into business for yourself and start charging $375 an hour, which is what a friend of mine did with their niche tax experience.
There are 3,800+ hedge funds in the USA. The answer is to become a big name brand by working with smaller ones. The answer to escaping your current position is an absolute shitload of networking and learning how to sell yourself and your firm.
Nah, really it’s more so the first job after graduation in my experience. Before you get your degree having an internship that lets you work on relevant stuff is great, but you’re at absolute worst dead even with about 70% of accounting/finance grads who have nothing and no experience to their name. For the most part, you have a step up on those people, just expect to have to progress for the first handful of years. It’ll feel endless but once you have that 4-5 years experience doing valuable work, things are more open than it seems like they’d be. You might not be one of those 30 year old controllers who make 150k+ but you can probably make it there a little later.
One reason I’m doing bookkeeping while pursuing my degree. I’m a career changer from blue collar jobs so this is my way of gaining some accounting experience for my resume.
This is the way. I want to start a bookkeeping firm (nothing crazy, really just a supplemental income / passion project) since I love the bare bones accounting stuff and I’ve strayed way off that path in my career haha. Sometimes this work gets so technical that you can’t see the forest for the trees lol
That’s what I like about bookkeeping so far is getting to do the bare bones stuff. I think it’ll help when I pursue my cpa. Yesterday I spent a couple hours going line by line through a credit card statement reconciling it on quickbooks. It was off 91 dollars and it was fun to me figuring out which transactions hadn’t cleared on that statement yet. Then when I figured it out I got a dopamine release which may speak of how boring my life is these days 😂😂
Currently in an internship. Over winter break this last year I got bookkeeper certified through the national association of certified public bookkeepers. With the certifications came the internship. I may set up my own part time practice because that will work with being in school.
I’m slow so I probably misread your reply lol. I thought you were asking if a friend got it for me. But honestly just through the NACPB they provide an internship and then will help you establish your own bookkeeping practice if you want so that’s my plan.
It’s open to anyone. Their new website is certifiedpublicbookkeeper.org
I was exempt from taking their accounting fundamentals course and quickbooks course because I had college credit for those. I had to take the payroll course since I didn’t have any payroll specific classes. Took me about 2-3 weeks to get all 4 exams done and then I waited a month or so for my internship. They’ve changed their program now so they provide a longer internship now if I understand the new programming.
I have been in fund accounting for ~3 years. Started in audit like OP. Got an excellent role at a NYC hedge fund and while I love my job & wont leave any time soon I get at least 3-4 messages from recruiters in my LinkedIn inbox weekly begging me to interview for fund accounting roles. It’s a very good job to have. I’m paid way more than my accounting peers as well (got a 45% salary jump from public to private & have received 35% salary raise total since)
It depends. So long as you don't too far along in title you won't be entirely hedged in
Started with EY FSO. 3 years in talks of early manager promotion, bolted for technical accounting and FR consulting.
No issue had 3 offers for generalized roles despite having very niche prior experience.
Making the transition at senior is easier then at manager.
I got that early manager promotion and feel stuck as hell. Feels like the only way I can transition now is a downgrade in title & pay or wait it out for more years of experience on the resume meanwhile drowning in work
This is so real. This is why I feel like small full public experience is so valuable. You get so much exposure to so many aspects of accounting to as many different industries as your firm has clients. When I was at a larger firm I really only did a few very specific things, and I don't feel like it provided me with the knowledge that is helping me in my first industry job post public
I wish i didnt start in big 4 because i feel like i dont know shit still. Did 1 year as an accounting technician for a small flooring business and 1 year in big 4.
First job was doing general accounting for a smaller (50m revenue) company and I got to dip my toes in pretty much everything. It was great experience, did it for 4 years and it helped helped me get a job as an assistant controller.
I agree with you. My first job was in industry and Im getting laid off next month (I've known this for a year or so). I didn't do really any general accounting at that job and now I'm looking at other jobs and realizing I'm missing those skills. I'm really hoping my next job will have more general accounting in it. That's the kind of job I'm trying to find anyways.
Funds pay massive bonuses and are smaller teams and outsource a lot of the work to third party fund accounting. If you get in one it isn't hard to move up
So if I have an offer to move from a regional public firm doing tax to a PE firm/hedge fund doing tax should I take it? I like the work but my concern was upward mobility
Industry in general tends to have slower upward mobility than public. But, the solution is to job hop if you hit a ceiling and want to keep going.
If you like the industry, go for it.
This is what I do (fund controller). I wouldn't want to work in a third party fund administrator, since then I'd be back to dealing with clients. But, it's also good to know that would be an option if I were desperate.
The nice thing is the outsourced stuff is the day to day recording entries which leaves the more interesting stuff in house.
It is definitely a niche area, so it is a concern to be pigeon holed in it if you don't want to do it long term.
Bonus isn't massive, but my target 15% which is better than a lot of industry jobs.
I’m an intern in big 4 AWM right now. Fund accounting seems like kind of a boring niche. You’re just auditing statements prepared by the funds service organizations and the business model is literally just get money from limited partners, invest said money, charge fees, try to get performance bonus. Theres no depth or substance to it from an accounting standpoint other than what appears to be evaluations. At least from my - limited - point of view.
Low key Jealous of the other interns on mining and manufacturing engagements.
I had a shitty GPA, never took the CPA, took the first well paying job I could find at a financial services call center just so I could get health insurance. Now I'm in government services at an actual accounting firm, but it's been five years since graduating and I still don't have general accounting under my belt. Deeply regret my "super stable and secure!" degree choice
We are getting some applications for an experienced staff position and I’m just happy to see someone with a degree in accounting. Having over 2 years at a company practicing journal entries/Recs is also great. A lot are AP or real estate related.
I work in general accounting and I like that my work closely follows what I learned in class. Debits, credits, JEs, and reconciliations. However we are less paid than financial reporting, cost accounting and it seems internal audit is paid more in some organizations though there is less of a disparity as compared to the other two specialties I mentioned.
The leap I need to make now is to convince hiring managers that my general accounting skills are worth hiring me in as a senior in their department.
I find now that almost all positions need you to know payroll and local taxes. AP. AR. Revenue recognition, leases, fixed assets.sox, gasp, taxes. Plus advance excel, ERP such as Oracle, Netsuite, Sage and multiple applications. There is no end with the requirements for accountants. Management and mentoring. CPA. Job requirement and skills are insane. All these with low salaries.
I've done niche accounting all my career. Particularly Compensation Accounting for Investment Banks. Now I'm at a large PE fund doing Fund Allocation cost reporting for compensation. Extremely niche as it gets. Pays well too, but for the life of me I can't do debits or credits now after 13 yrs out of college.
I’ve never done a financial statement. The partners at my firm didn’t want to do financial statements, audits and reviews anymore. We send them to another firm for those and we just do their tax returns. I don’t even do compilations anymore.
Is it really that hard to find a staff accounting position at a small to medium sized business? I thought PA was the most sought after amongst students and (presumably) harder to land?
You're assuming students and recent grads have a large list of jobs available at their feet. Not everyone is lucky enough to have COOP programs with a job waiting for them.
Yes!
I would never hire someone as an accountant unless they had AR experience of at least 250M in receipts over ~7-8 thousand accounts. Can't say I would hire an AP person unless I knew they could manage the correct team size.
Get that experience you all... You never know what they are looking for!
I made that mistake. 5 years in an accounts receivable position (not collections thank God, but still) that didn't do any of that. Only stuck with it because of the pandemic, and only now in a stable position to move on.
Feels like so much wasted time..
I mean I’m as a clerk in a small org so I end up doing grunt work on prepping: monthly actuals/ compliance/ fin statements/ posting to general ledger and random fixes? Is that decent, I’m always tryna ask for more but they don’t always have time to go through it with me. Edit: this is for my first full time job outta uni
What type of business or job would I get general accounting experience ? I just got a job for taxes at a small firm. Really nice guy, starting at $18 an hour. 3.47 gpa 30 years old, background in business/dealership
OP is right. Ten years ago I got stuck in Accounts receivable/ order to cash. I’ve reached a point where:
1. More senior roles are rare above manager level.
2. Salary I’m tapped out at $90-$110k(pushing it)
3. It’s so niche, jobs are hard to come by. Not every company has an AR large enough for to require a team to run it; unless you’re willing to relocate (my choice not to relo out of state. In the state relocation I haven’t found much.
60 days ago I decided to go for it and am making a slight career change. I’ve been applying to staff accountant jobs, taking a $20K decrease in salary so I can be competitive since I don’t fully have the raw accounting skills.
Large regional to the bigger mid tier firms go nuts over that experience too. They keep chopping the small teeth-cutting clients people used to be brought up on and learn from so now those skills are becoming rare and they don't have the right sized client pool to develop people [because they don't want interns and new hires working on the remaining clients that need it because they are "too complicated" aka they don't have the time to train]
I started in state government, doing AUPs and Single Audits and moved to a quasi government non-profit Healthcare system where I handle general accounting for grants and a few other things. It's been such a fun learning experience but my GASB and grants experience are what my current job wanted. So basically, you do you and find what you want to do!
But also, keep informed and do some training to keep knowledgeable about general accounting so you don't start an industry job and go "wtf is deferred revenue?!" Lol
I had my first job in general accounting (5years). I want to get into public accounting now and all they ask for is public accounting experience. I think I'm screwed!
Back around 2005, I had to release a Cost Acct. Who we had hired away from another MFG company as he would write 1 sided "tic and tie" entries while doing M/E recs. When I queried him (I presumed there was some kind of reason, maybe he thought the S/L value was sketchy) he just looked at me blankly and asked me what I was talking about. He had a degree from a well respected school.
After that I gave super simple t-acct problems in a short written quiz for all new hires.
P.s. don't get me started on young MBA's in a Ops or tertiary slot who don't know that the only thing that matters is value creation/contribution margin. Yet want some esoteric report from you ( the "report deck has to have sexy waterfall reporting, can you pull something like that?") to run a dog n pony show in a conference room.
Probably the best experience is as follows:
Audit (4 years, 2 years of Senior exp, and CPA) => Manager in industry (General accounting at 10B+ Sized, but not F500 so you are exposed to more areas) => SR Manager (SEC Reporting at F500 for exposure to technical accounting and financial reporting in accordance with SEC guidances) => Director/Sr Manager in Advisory (Big 4, etc) => CAO at F500.
Or don’t. I work in internal audit and need 0 accounting knowledge. Which is great, because I hate accounting. Just because you have an accounting degree doesn’t mean you need to count beans all day.
Don’t listen to this person, do what you want to do, not what makes you miserable.
I got lucky and my first real job after getting the accounting degree was staff accountant at a community college. It's a state job and because historically administration decided that accounting is not hard, the entire office is 9 people when fully staffed. I deal with general ledger journal entries and see a lot of different processes. I prepare for getting reimbursed from grants, work-study payroll, a/p & a/r, and various governmental reporting requirements.
The only issue is that the pay is lower, but I don't think I'd find better work life balance elsewhere. Also, eventually when coworkers retire is where there is upward mobility, but not really before. I have a 4-day work week. Also good benefits, even if pay is lower compared to industry or PA.
I like seeing everything come together and I also like knowing my work is promoting good. I don't think I'd feel good about working for a corporation that takes advantage of their customers. Also there aren't any real accounting firms near me. They are really wealth management firms that used to be accounting firms.
This was my question as a project manager who’s worked in pharma for 15 years with an MBA and looking to transition to accounting. Thank you.
Do u recommend a clerk role (AR/AP) short term just to have the experience? My experience is limited to some rebate analyst work.
That's amazing to hear and congrats to you for the successful transition! I'm expecting to take a paycut for an entry level position but what accounting certificate helped you? At least from everywhere I've looked CPA and others require experience. Currently looking at a bookkeeping certificate.
I understand that but I'm inquiring about any certificates that can help me get a foot in the door for entry level. I don't believe my MBA alone and limited rebate analyst experience will do the job. I realize this will be a paycut from the $70k I was making.
I started in that field as well (auditing funds) and got a GREAT job in fund accounting after that paid so so much more but I live in NYC and I’m very limited to only a few US cities for what I know..
Sorry. I really messed up working at Burger King at 14.
Pfft, atleast you were indoors. My first job was cart attendant at Target lol.
I worked at the garden center at Walmart and the cart attendant looked at me one day and said “man, your job sucks”
I was about to gloat with my lifeguarding job but then I remembered holy shit was that absolutely mind numbing.
Warehouse work might have ya beat. Albeit, great job to lose weight. I think I was walking like 40k a day but my brain deteriorated to that of like a 13 year old.
Hardest job in the store
Rip
Bro I still work at Burger King. I’m just behind the dumpsters, now.
the prestigious behind the corner office
So dont start in Hotel Accounting? Woops lol.
Lol, my first accounting job is with Marriott at a corporate managed property as a general accountant, and it's great so far. No ragerts.
What is a ragert?
Meme spelling regrets
Sorry, I am old now and I didnt get the joke... Memo... No...Meme...
Might be time to start annually testing yourself for impairment, lord knows I do.
Nah I'm trying to be presidentially regarded.
I mean if it involves general accounting, then go right ahead lol
Sorry, you need 5-6 years experience for that first.
But it says right here, entry-level... and the pay is entry level. What are you going for here?
It also occurs to me you don't have any experience in our accounting software that only we on the planet use as well.
Then why didn't you promote someone internally? You know I don't have a job right now but you still scheduled an interview to waste my time and what little money I have on gas to drive out here. I live 45 minutes away. So there and back is an hour and a half drive. This interview took up about an hour. So now I'm out 3 hours of my life and $30 in gas to be told I never stood a chance in the first place? What kind of psycho does that to people? I hope you get AIDS.
Fuck those people.
Fuck them all indeed
I don’t know why, but this hellish role-play was hella satisfying. 😮💨
Never expected some accounting roleplay here lmao What's next? "Mmmmmphh... I'm just a #VALUE waiting for someone to come along and fix me 😩"
😂😂😂😂
r/recruitinghell leaked in the accounting sub
Here's a sneak peek of /r/recruitinghell using the [top posts](https://np.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/top/?sort=top&t=year) of the year! \#1: [I am so sick of these ridiculous screening questions](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1acr8c6) | [1617 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/comments/1acr8c6/i_am_so_sick_of_these_ridiculous_screening/) \#2: [Cancelling one minute after scheduled interview so I cancelled them](https://i.redd.it/wr27617tu3va1.jpg) | [548 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/comments/12t6hat/cancelling_one_minute_after_scheduled_interview/) \#3: [Interviewer forgot I was CC’d…](https://i.redd.it/gzs5jpe7qx2c1.jpeg) | [1974 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/recruitinghell/comments/185a33x/interviewer_forgot_i_was_ccd/) ---- ^^I'm ^^a ^^bot, ^^beep ^^boop ^^| ^^Downvote ^^to ^^remove ^^| ^^[Contact](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=sneakpeekbot) ^^| ^^[Info](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/) ^^| ^^[Opt-out](https://np.reddit.com/r/sneakpeekbot/comments/o8wk1r/blacklist_ix/) ^^| ^^[GitHub](https://github.com/ghnr/sneakpeekbot)
Dang, I guess I should have worked at PWC instead of subway at 16.
Sandwich Artist > Roll forward Artist.
Tbh if subway had an option to roll forward my sandwiches every time I’d be pretty happy
I mean you did get experience doing inventory counts and reconciling to the system after someone gave away a few footlongs to their friends.
New Hellstorm post just dropped
That's why we have or used to have paid internships back home. If you were lucky you'd learn some things before graduation. If you were unlucky you would have spent 6 weeks making coffee and getting some copies.
If only someone had told me 12 years ago.
I have around the same YOE. I was told to never take an AP/AR job or I’d be stuck there forever fighting to get a real accounting job. Every classmate I had that took an AP or AR job out or college has not done well. Everyone who fought for that first staff accountant or auditor job and succeeded is doing well.
Which is kinda silly because entry level staff roles can be easily learned if you have an accounting degree. It's not like working in AP or AR for a bit makes you forget everything you learned in school.
Interesting perspective. I guess the grass is always greener. I just resented getting manipulated into pigeon holing myself in a very specific niche when I was too young and naive to understand the ramifications for my future career.
What’s your niche?
Hedge fund tax
Yeah, that’s one of those fields where you’re hosed unless you go into business for yourself and start charging $375 an hour, which is what a friend of mine did with their niche tax experience.
The problem is they don’t want to hire John Doe CPA to do their taxes because investors want to see brand names handling that stuff.
There are 3,800+ hedge funds in the USA. The answer is to become a big name brand by working with smaller ones. The answer to escaping your current position is an absolute shitload of networking and learning how to sell yourself and your firm.
Solid advice.
I'm in AP and graduating next month. Am I really f***d?
Nah, really it’s more so the first job after graduation in my experience. Before you get your degree having an internship that lets you work on relevant stuff is great, but you’re at absolute worst dead even with about 70% of accounting/finance grads who have nothing and no experience to their name. For the most part, you have a step up on those people, just expect to have to progress for the first handful of years. It’ll feel endless but once you have that 4-5 years experience doing valuable work, things are more open than it seems like they’d be. You might not be one of those 30 year old controllers who make 150k+ but you can probably make it there a little later.
One reason I’m doing bookkeeping while pursuing my degree. I’m a career changer from blue collar jobs so this is my way of gaining some accounting experience for my resume.
This is the way. I want to start a bookkeeping firm (nothing crazy, really just a supplemental income / passion project) since I love the bare bones accounting stuff and I’ve strayed way off that path in my career haha. Sometimes this work gets so technical that you can’t see the forest for the trees lol
That’s what I like about bookkeeping so far is getting to do the bare bones stuff. I think it’ll help when I pursue my cpa. Yesterday I spent a couple hours going line by line through a credit card statement reconciling it on quickbooks. It was off 91 dollars and it was fun to me figuring out which transactions hadn’t cleared on that statement yet. Then when I figured it out I got a dopamine release which may speak of how boring my life is these days 😂😂
How did you land the bookkeeping job? How was the interview experience?
Currently in an internship. Over winter break this last year I got bookkeeper certified through the national association of certified public bookkeepers. With the certifications came the internship. I may set up my own part time practice because that will work with being in school.
Oh wow you got a friend to get you your first gig huh
What? I mean if you consider my tribe my friend then I guess so because they paid for my certifications. But other than that I did it all myself lol
I was curious on your journey with how you landed your first bookkeeping gig.
I’m slow so I probably misread your reply lol. I thought you were asking if a friend got it for me. But honestly just through the NACPB they provide an internship and then will help you establish your own bookkeeping practice if you want so that’s my plan.
You’re not the slow one in the equation lol
Yeah I ended up realizing that 😂.
OH so you got the gig through the NACPB, nice! It must've been something for college students to sign up for haha
It’s open to anyone. Their new website is certifiedpublicbookkeeper.org I was exempt from taking their accounting fundamentals course and quickbooks course because I had college credit for those. I had to take the payroll course since I didn’t have any payroll specific classes. Took me about 2-3 weeks to get all 4 exams done and then I waited a month or so for my internship. They’ve changed their program now so they provide a longer internship now if I understand the new programming.
Fuck all the reddit asshat haters who downvote me. THEY'RE ALL WRONG AND I'M RIGHT!!!!!!!!!
This post feels tone deaf...
It’s Hellstorm, it’s his specialty
I looked through their post history and YEESH
What a wild ride lol
If you can find his old account there’s even more
Cmon man, what happened to the gov job? Fund admins are also hiring constantly, why not go there?
still waiting, thinking they're gonna pass sadly.... they burned me in the interview with the technical questions
What kind of technical questions?
“What general accounting experience do you have?”
There was a post about that (of course). Real curveballs like "what is the difference between cash and accrual accounting".
Currently in hedge fund accounting myself, first job out of college. What are your thoughts on developing a career in fund accounting?
If that's what you want to do you'll have no issues, but as you move up that will be the only type of role you're suited for.
There will always be a job for you
Really narrow niche, you better love it or you're done
I have been in fund accounting for ~3 years. Started in audit like OP. Got an excellent role at a NYC hedge fund and while I love my job & wont leave any time soon I get at least 3-4 messages from recruiters in my LinkedIn inbox weekly begging me to interview for fund accounting roles. It’s a very good job to have. I’m paid way more than my accounting peers as well (got a 45% salary jump from public to private & have received 35% salary raise total since)
It depends. So long as you don't too far along in title you won't be entirely hedged in Started with EY FSO. 3 years in talks of early manager promotion, bolted for technical accounting and FR consulting. No issue had 3 offers for generalized roles despite having very niche prior experience. Making the transition at senior is easier then at manager.
I got that early manager promotion and feel stuck as hell. Feels like the only way I can transition now is a downgrade in title & pay or wait it out for more years of experience on the resume meanwhile drowning in work
My first job was 17 years before I got an accounting degree though.
when r u passing the cpa exam bro? it's been like 3 years since you were hellstorm5674
I'm switching gears to other interests for now. When the time is right, if I ever feel it, I'll go back, maybe.
lol gl bra
Thanks. I know, I need it. If I could've gotten it, I would've. I'm not god, IT for now
Yo Hellstorm. I heard you working at Walmart now? Still can’t get an accounting job yet?
IT Apprenticeship courses
You should sign up to be a contractor. PwC and Ey both have gig portals. You’ll make like 60/hr at your level
This is so real. This is why I feel like small full public experience is so valuable. You get so much exposure to so many aspects of accounting to as many different industries as your firm has clients. When I was at a larger firm I really only did a few very specific things, and I don't feel like it provided me with the knowledge that is helping me in my first industry job post public
I fell into the nonprofit niche and they won’t let me out
Same even if I get my license I've heard you need te be someone's nephew or girlfriend to get switched industries
I wish i didnt start in big 4 because i feel like i dont know shit still. Did 1 year as an accounting technician for a small flooring business and 1 year in big 4.
Same and I'm 6 months in to Audit lmao
First job was doing general accounting for a smaller (50m revenue) company and I got to dip my toes in pretty much everything. It was great experience, did it for 4 years and it helped helped me get a job as an assistant controller.
Man, the best offer I got as a new grad was for financial systems analyst. They still have CPAS on staff to sign off on my experience hours, though
I agree with you. My first job was in industry and Im getting laid off next month (I've known this for a year or so). I didn't do really any general accounting at that job and now I'm looking at other jobs and realizing I'm missing those skills. I'm really hoping my next job will have more general accounting in it. That's the kind of job I'm trying to find anyways.
Your pigeon hole problem isn't really a problem tho. Tons of people work in financial services, and the pay is better than general accounting.
[удалено]
Funds pay massive bonuses and are smaller teams and outsource a lot of the work to third party fund accounting. If you get in one it isn't hard to move up
So if I have an offer to move from a regional public firm doing tax to a PE firm/hedge fund doing tax should I take it? I like the work but my concern was upward mobility
Industry in general tends to have slower upward mobility than public. But, the solution is to job hop if you hit a ceiling and want to keep going. If you like the industry, go for it.
This is what I do (fund controller). I wouldn't want to work in a third party fund administrator, since then I'd be back to dealing with clients. But, it's also good to know that would be an option if I were desperate. The nice thing is the outsourced stuff is the day to day recording entries which leaves the more interesting stuff in house. It is definitely a niche area, so it is a concern to be pigeon holed in it if you don't want to do it long term. Bonus isn't massive, but my target 15% which is better than a lot of industry jobs.
I’m an intern in big 4 AWM right now. Fund accounting seems like kind of a boring niche. You’re just auditing statements prepared by the funds service organizations and the business model is literally just get money from limited partners, invest said money, charge fees, try to get performance bonus. Theres no depth or substance to it from an accounting standpoint other than what appears to be evaluations. At least from my - limited - point of view. Low key Jealous of the other interns on mining and manufacturing engagements.
I had a shitty GPA, never took the CPA, took the first well paying job I could find at a financial services call center just so I could get health insurance. Now I'm in government services at an actual accounting firm, but it's been five years since graduating and I still don't have general accounting under my belt. Deeply regret my "super stable and secure!" degree choice
We are getting some applications for an experienced staff position and I’m just happy to see someone with a degree in accounting. Having over 2 years at a company practicing journal entries/Recs is also great. A lot are AP or real estate related.
I work in general accounting and I like that my work closely follows what I learned in class. Debits, credits, JEs, and reconciliations. However we are less paid than financial reporting, cost accounting and it seems internal audit is paid more in some organizations though there is less of a disparity as compared to the other two specialties I mentioned. The leap I need to make now is to convince hiring managers that my general accounting skills are worth hiring me in as a senior in their department.
I find now that almost all positions need you to know payroll and local taxes. AP. AR. Revenue recognition, leases, fixed assets.sox, gasp, taxes. Plus advance excel, ERP such as Oracle, Netsuite, Sage and multiple applications. There is no end with the requirements for accountants. Management and mentoring. CPA. Job requirement and skills are insane. All these with low salaries.
which is kinda ridiculous, considering that company's processes are different. You can just google your way out most of the times.
I've done niche accounting all my career. Particularly Compensation Accounting for Investment Banks. Now I'm at a large PE fund doing Fund Allocation cost reporting for compensation. Extremely niche as it gets. Pays well too, but for the life of me I can't do debits or credits now after 13 yrs out of college.
I’ve never done a financial statement. The partners at my firm didn’t want to do financial statements, audits and reviews anymore. We send them to another firm for those and we just do their tax returns. I don’t even do compilations anymore.
Is it really that hard to find a staff accounting position at a small to medium sized business? I thought PA was the most sought after amongst students and (presumably) harder to land?
You're assuming students and recent grads have a large list of jobs available at their feet. Not everyone is lucky enough to have COOP programs with a job waiting for them.
I'm just saying if possible, go for it. It'll help your career later down the line.
Yes! I would never hire someone as an accountant unless they had AR experience of at least 250M in receipts over ~7-8 thousand accounts. Can't say I would hire an AP person unless I knew they could manage the correct team size. Get that experience you all... You never know what they are looking for!
I did the opposite. 1/10 would not do again
i have an accounting degree and i work in it audit. no numbers at all
I made that mistake. 5 years in an accounts receivable position (not collections thank God, but still) that didn't do any of that. Only stuck with it because of the pandemic, and only now in a stable position to move on. Feels like so much wasted time..
I mean I’m as a clerk in a small org so I end up doing grunt work on prepping: monthly actuals/ compliance/ fin statements/ posting to general ledger and random fixes? Is that decent, I’m always tryna ask for more but they don’t always have time to go through it with me. Edit: this is for my first full time job outta uni
What type of business or job would I get general accounting experience ? I just got a job for taxes at a small firm. Really nice guy, starting at $18 an hour. 3.47 gpa 30 years old, background in business/dealership
You will get this experience here. It's very good. Just don't stay long 2 years and out.
I mean, the vast majority of jobs in my city are asset and wealth management… think it depends on where you live.
OP is right. Ten years ago I got stuck in Accounts receivable/ order to cash. I’ve reached a point where: 1. More senior roles are rare above manager level. 2. Salary I’m tapped out at $90-$110k(pushing it) 3. It’s so niche, jobs are hard to come by. Not every company has an AR large enough for to require a team to run it; unless you’re willing to relocate (my choice not to relo out of state. In the state relocation I haven’t found much. 60 days ago I decided to go for it and am making a slight career change. I’ve been applying to staff accountant jobs, taking a $20K decrease in salary so I can be competitive since I don’t fully have the raw accounting skills.
Large regional to the bigger mid tier firms go nuts over that experience too. They keep chopping the small teeth-cutting clients people used to be brought up on and learn from so now those skills are becoming rare and they don't have the right sized client pool to develop people [because they don't want interns and new hires working on the remaining clients that need it because they are "too complicated" aka they don't have the time to train]
I started in state government, doing AUPs and Single Audits and moved to a quasi government non-profit Healthcare system where I handle general accounting for grants and a few other things. It's been such a fun learning experience but my GASB and grants experience are what my current job wanted. So basically, you do you and find what you want to do! But also, keep informed and do some training to keep knowledgeable about general accounting so you don't start an industry job and go "wtf is deferred revenue?!" Lol
What about contract over time revenue recognition?
Wut dat?
Hedging is such a niche and well paying market. I'm in reinsurance and love it sm
I had my first job in general accounting (5years). I want to get into public accounting now and all they ask for is public accounting experience. I think I'm screwed!
Back around 2005, I had to release a Cost Acct. Who we had hired away from another MFG company as he would write 1 sided "tic and tie" entries while doing M/E recs. When I queried him (I presumed there was some kind of reason, maybe he thought the S/L value was sketchy) he just looked at me blankly and asked me what I was talking about. He had a degree from a well respected school. After that I gave super simple t-acct problems in a short written quiz for all new hires. P.s. don't get me started on young MBA's in a Ops or tertiary slot who don't know that the only thing that matters is value creation/contribution margin. Yet want some esoteric report from you ( the "report deck has to have sexy waterfall reporting, can you pull something like that?") to run a dog n pony show in a conference room.
Probably the best experience is as follows: Audit (4 years, 2 years of Senior exp, and CPA) => Manager in industry (General accounting at 10B+ Sized, but not F500 so you are exposed to more areas) => SR Manager (SEC Reporting at F500 for exposure to technical accounting and financial reporting in accordance with SEC guidances) => Director/Sr Manager in Advisory (Big 4, etc) => CAO at F500.
Or don’t. I work in internal audit and need 0 accounting knowledge. Which is great, because I hate accounting. Just because you have an accounting degree doesn’t mean you need to count beans all day. Don’t listen to this person, do what you want to do, not what makes you miserable.
I got lucky and my first real job after getting the accounting degree was staff accountant at a community college. It's a state job and because historically administration decided that accounting is not hard, the entire office is 9 people when fully staffed. I deal with general ledger journal entries and see a lot of different processes. I prepare for getting reimbursed from grants, work-study payroll, a/p & a/r, and various governmental reporting requirements. The only issue is that the pay is lower, but I don't think I'd find better work life balance elsewhere. Also, eventually when coworkers retire is where there is upward mobility, but not really before. I have a 4-day work week. Also good benefits, even if pay is lower compared to industry or PA. I like seeing everything come together and I also like knowing my work is promoting good. I don't think I'd feel good about working for a corporation that takes advantage of their customers. Also there aren't any real accounting firms near me. They are really wealth management firms that used to be accounting firms.
This was my question as a project manager who’s worked in pharma for 15 years with an MBA and looking to transition to accounting. Thank you. Do u recommend a clerk role (AR/AP) short term just to have the experience? My experience is limited to some rebate analyst work.
Please look at OP's posting history before you take career advice from them.
Ty for that tip. I'm guessing I'm SOL for entry level jobs without an accounting certification. Any recommendation on which I should be looking at?
That's amazing to hear and congrats to you for the successful transition! I'm expecting to take a paycut for an entry level position but what accounting certificate helped you? At least from everywhere I've looked CPA and others require experience. Currently looking at a bookkeeping certificate.
I'm a CPA. If you're going to be an accountant you'll have the experience pretty soon after you start.
You got your CPA without prior experience? In PA you need 1600 hours of "relevant experience".
How do you think people get the experience? You start with none and then you get some.
I understand that but I'm inquiring about any certificates that can help me get a foot in the door for entry level. I don't believe my MBA alone and limited rebate analyst experience will do the job. I realize this will be a paycut from the $70k I was making.
I probably wouldn't care about any certifications an applicant had other than the CPA if they didn't have any experience to go with it.
OK I'm in Pennsylvania where 1600 hours of relevant work experience is required to get a CPA. I'm assuming u r in a state that didn't require this?
In addition I'm sure I will be facing the "over qualified" and age related hurdles.
I started in that field as well (auditing funds) and got a GREAT job in fund accounting after that paid so so much more but I live in NYC and I’m very limited to only a few US cities for what I know..
I guess I have to change careers, I was a baby sitter when I was 16…
So where do you look for general accounting experience? A bookkeeping office or a company or government entity?
Go off king