[Anonymous]

Hi everyone. I have worked in public for a few years out of college preparing taxes for high net worth clients. I have always wanted to own my own business. Is it recommended to work in a public firm or private in gaining the knowledge and expertise to one day open up shop. I am working towards my CPA and not planning on starting a firm until I have more experience, but I do have some opportunities/job offers at private and public firms and would like to know if there is a benefit to either for someone looking to possibly start their own practice. Thanks!

[Minimorty]

From a credibility standpoint, it will look good having a big firm's name on your CV.

From a knowledge and learning standpoint, you will be exposed to a much larger variety of situations if you work for a smaller company (though still in public accounting).

My thoughts are that the benefits associated from the experience and exposure to a variety of topics will far outweigh the benefits of just being able to say you worked at XYZ Firm. You will learn a lot more from a smaller firm.

Do NOT just go run the books of a private company or do random accounting tasks in industry. You definitely need the public accounting experience.

Note: Edited my post for clarification.

[Whatdidyou]

If you're gonna set up a CPA firm – it's better to have experience in public accounting – cause that's what you're gonna be doing…I don't know how having private experience would be more helpful.

I'd say the ideal situation would be to work at a large firm for a couple years, and then get a job at a small local firm for a few more years. Since your goal is to start a small local firm (that'll hopefully be successful and grow), I think having experience at one and learning how to provide the services that those types of clients want, would be crucial.

I just graduated though, so what do i know.

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[Anonymous]

Very good points. I do agree that working at the public firm would be crucial, but the private firms I have been interviewing with have a “family office” group that specializes in the tax consulting for a group of individuals within the firm.

[Author]

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