[Anonymous]

Just curious. Been hearing horror stories and I start in two months. Hoping to get this exam out of the way before.

[Study Monk]

Thanks Lilla for your time:)

@Mayo I can't speak for GSU, but I tend to flip flop quite a bit as well. I think the public accounting career is more exciting hour per hour compared with the private accounting career. The problem is the excess hours you have to work. I understand the March/April 15th deadlines and SEC deadlines justify it to some extent, but most public accounting firms don't offer additional benefits for the larger hours. How much easier would our lives be if the IRS and SEC decided to assign company's different filing deadlines based on a random assignment; thereby distributing the workload evenly through out the year? If working in the public accounting industry came with a standard two month paid vacation I would sign a 20 year contract today.

@GSU It's easy to get frustrated at the career choice we made, but we also have the freedom to go back to school for the computer science majors whenever we want. Also many computer related jobs do require multiple certifications, many of which need to be updated yearly. At least we have the luxury of never having to get certified again 🙂

I spoke to an ancient wise man who sent me on a mushroom induced journey through an ancient forest to find the key to passing the CPA exam. A talking spider monkey told me to throw the last of my drinking water in the dirt to find what I was looking for. So I followed his instructions and the following message appeared in the soil:

"Do 5000 multiple choice questions for each section"

[Mayo]

@Study Monk,

” I understand the March/April 15th deadlines and SEC deadlines justify it to some extent, but most public accounting firms don't offer additional benefits for the larger hours. “

The additional benefit doesn't show up in your paycheck or in your vacation time. It shows up in the skills you acquire, the breadth of experience, the amount of exit opportunities available to you, and the accelerated timeline for promotion.

Working in public is not the cat's meow all the time and it's also not everyone's cup of tea. But it's hard to argue there are no additional benefits.

However, what it seems you and GSU-CPA are describing is a conflict between having a high paced entry level career and sine semblance of a personal life. I'd argue that kind of setup is hard to find.

I mean think about these careers and then consider that all of them work a lot of hours in order to have a nice lifestyle:

Surgeon

Artist

Junior Investment Banker

Lawyer

Video Game Designer or Video Game coder

Professor (not the same as a lecturer)

Entrepreneur

Management Consulting

Private Equity

These are all considered great careers for one reason or another, but they also entail working long long hours. Many of which are much more than what people in Public Accounting work in. But all of these can be leveraged into something that pays well in the future and with more of a work/life balance. Except for Surgeon…screw that.

Mayo, BBA, Macc

[Study Monk]

Mayo

That is a very good point. I often think of Lawyers at good law firms who work busy season hours all year long. What makes public accounting a little bit different from those careers is that candidates have access to private and government accounting jobs which offer similar pay and better work/life balance. I agree with you that many people don't think about all of the experience they gain in those long hours. I also agree that public accounting can definitely open doors down the road.

I spoke to an ancient wise man who sent me on a mushroom induced journey through an ancient forest to find the key to passing the CPA exam. A talking spider monkey told me to throw the last of my drinking water in the dirt to find what I was looking for. So I followed his instructions and the following message appeared in the soil:

"Do 5000 multiple choice questions for each section"

[GSU-CPA]

@Mayo

Im not flipflopping anything. I have come this far and im not gonna give up without even trying it out. If I had to do it all over again knowing all I know now would I……heck no. Yes I plan on trying to do big 4 tax and I dont mind doing it fo 3 or 4 years to learn the job and then either moving on somewhere where I can work 40 hrs with nice 60 70k pay or opening my own tax office.

The person in that post was making 43K had 10 years experience was getting more and more work piled on and they refused to give a raise. On top of that they mentioned that average pay for that area was 58k a uear.

Even by shitty accounting standards nobody should be making 43k w 10 year experience and working with boss that is refusing to give you a raise. I told that she should have no problem finding a job with proper working condition meanining a job that pays atleast 58k which they mentioned was the average. Also a boss and coworkers whocare not complete assholes.

REG-77
BEC -Waiting on score May 5th
AUD - May 30
FAR - Q3 depending on if i pass above two in Q2

[Mayo]

@GSU-CPA,

Points taken. In retrospect your post about that other person's chances was a bit off subject for me to bring up. since it wasn't specifically public accounting.

Edit: Deleted long ass post, since it sounded like I was just rambling. I might start another thread later that is more coherent.

GSU-CPA, I take it then that you're saying that you'll go this route if you have to, but if you had to do it all over again there are easier/better ways?

Mayo, BBA, Macc

[GSU-CPA]

What i am saying is that if i had to do it again i would not go into accounting period.

I would either do engineering or computer science.

REG-77
BEC -Waiting on score May 5th
AUD - May 30
FAR - Q3 depending on if i pass above two in Q2

[Mayo]

@GSU-CPA, Gotcha.

Lol at the engineering part. I was actually an engineering major before I switched to accounting.

Mayo, BBA, Macc

[pjypjy8520]

Regional Firm: Just completed my second busy season and ranged between 55-60 starting in January through March. No Sundays and mandatory Saturdays but you come in whenever and leave when your work is done. However, our seniors have put on significantly more time. I think the Seniors in my office ranged from 58-65. Maybe @WannabeCPA123 is onto something. I do feel somewhat overpaid for what I have done in the first busy season. They also gave me a raise bigger than anticipated for 2014. But I think a lot of that gets evened out when you make Senior. You have to manage staff (however many you have with you) and get your work done, then detail review the staff work, who may or may not know what they are doing. That's a stressful job and in my opinion, no senior at any level (Big 4 or otherwise) gets compensated fairly. Yes it's a big jump from staff, but at the end of the day, probably not enough. Just my humble opinion.

@GSU-CPA: My friend works as a field engineer in Texas. Definitely gets compensated well. Gets bonus every time project gets done either on time or on budget. He has to work in the sun ALL the time. Sun up until sun down. He looked like a kid from Scandinavia region when he first started. Now he looks like he's from Bombay, India. He's ACTUALLY building stuff so he can realize his accomplishment and progress better than I can, but I also don't like to be baking 10 hours a day.

One thing I will say though, like others, I like accounting a lot and I do feel right at home doing the work. I also thought I'd be making it rain with dough. I guess I should have had modest expectations but when you're 19, what is modest to you? you know? I figured CPA = CFO. But that is not the norm but result of really hard work for a very long time. It also takes the right connection. That's what Big 4 provides their employees I think (I have no Big 4 background). Whether having Big 4 on your resume defines your intelligence and competence is another question. I have met Big 4 people who couldn't do simply could not accrue expenses correctly and I also met Big 4 people who blew my mind with their knowledge and expertise (more latter than former) However, I think it justifies all your hard work to have those exit opportunities like @Mayo has mentioned. If it is 70 hours a week, 80 hours a week, or even 90+ hours a week, hopefully the more you have put into the Big 4, more doors open up for you. That's what I am hoping for if I get an opportunity at Big 4. I know what I am working for, I know what it will mean for me and what I want to get out of it. In return, I will do whatever is asked of me.

[lancebvs]

Just curious, anyone here can comment how the hours are at a large national firm, such as Grant Thornton?

[Anonymous]

Tax here…

My last YE provision busy season (Jan-Feb) was about 55-60 hours for the first few weeks, and then the last few weeks was about 85-90 hours/week.

I had another compliance busy season (Mar-Apr) hitting about 60-70 hours/wk.

Off-season you're hitting 40 hours or less.

I imagine my next busy season come July will be consistent 60+ and hitting high 70's-80's come deadline weeks.

@lancebvs, I would imagine a mid-tier like GT will have similar hours at a big 4. We all do the same thing.

[Anonymous]

When I was still in public accounting my busy season was like such:

January: 55 – 70 hours a week (prob usually in the mid-60s)

February: 75 – 85 hours a week (easily was the worst month for me)

March: 55-60 hours a week

April & May: 50-75 hours a week (I was on a march year end, but usually only as we got closer to the filing date did it get real busy – so except for a couple of weeks, usually around 55 hours was the norm)

What some new hires don't realize is that you can have multiple busy seasons depending on your client's year ends. For example, someone who gets put on two December year end clients is not going to be nearly as busy as someone on a December, march, and September year end. With that said, December year ends are almost always the most difficult because the office's staff are stretched thin across a lot of engagements that time of year (compared to off-calendar year ends). With that said, I've known certain off-calendar year (esp. in March) where the audit teams consistently work like dogs in April and May – which sucks.

Public accounting (particularly big 4 public accounting) can be a drag. You don't get nearly well paid enough for either the stress or the hours; much less both.

[Author]

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