[isp1217]

Hi, I am a newbie at this awesome forum, and I am glad to join here.

My first posting will be about my current situation, and I would really appreciate if any of you could give me advice.

I have been working at a small sized CPA firm in Los Angeles, CA for a little more than a year (14 months now, started as an entry level, now a staff accountant). I am getting paid for $11.00 per hour. Obviously I cannot make a living with it, so my parents are helping me out financially for the meantime. My boss considers doing overtime as mandatory and keeps giving me pressure to work overtime even when it is not a busy season. I understand people work for a number of hours at public firm when it is really busy, but I believe they get commensurate compensation for it whereas I don’t. Sometimes I work double time but just get paid as overtime which is one of many unfair treatments I get here. I value the balance between work and personal life very much, which I can’t keep in this current situation. Due to many factors, I am considering to quit here and look for a new job. The only thing that gets me hesitant about quitting here is the period of my work here. I heard that the interviewer don’t perceive short term experience (less than 2 years) as attractive feature when hiring. Although I spent just a little more than a year at this place, due to the size of the company, I had a chance to learn and obtain experiences in broad range of accounting since there were a few employees (2 to 3) including myself who had to handle the whole work. So my question to you all is “Would you endure and work for another year to fill 2 years of work experience or Would you quit and look for a new job if you were in my position?”

Thanks for reading my posting and for your answers as well in advance !!! You guys are awesome !!

[Anonymous]

At $11 per hour, I will find other job and leave ASAP. you are very underpay. With 1 year experience and a bachelor degree, you should be getting 40-50k in the Los Angeles area. After you have read this post, please go to http://www.Indeed.com and search for a better paying job (seriously!!!). The work balance and experience are not worth being pay at $11 an hour. If you work there for another 2 years, you might as well go flip hamburgers at a McDonald for $15 an hour in 2020.

[JohnWayneIsGod]

I'd go in there singing ‘You Can Take This Job and Shove It' by Johnny Paycheck.

$11 an hour? That is not just low pay, that is an insult. You have worked there too long already. Get the (censored) out of there.

FAR - 80

Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.

-John Wayne

[rbrown15]

Is it an accountant position? If so, that's way too low. I'm in the Miami area, and I'm making $12 an hour as an A/R Clerk right now. (Really $15, but the temp agency I'm with takes 20% off the top as their fee). I'd be looking for a new job ASAP.

[cpagal]

At my company (industry), we pay our receptionist 12.50 and hour in southern Louisiana.

You are WAY underpaid

FAR - 08/30/15 - 90
AUD - 11/12/15 - 92
REG - 01/19/16 - 82
BEC - 02/29/16 - 83

Passed all on 1st attempt using GLEIM (full program) and NINJA (MCQ only)!!!

Louisiana Licensed CPA

[Mamabear]

I would find another job and leave. The 2 year mark is to make sure you aren't a job hopper, not because of some arbitrary amount of knowledge you should have learned in that time frame. Any intelligent manager that you interview with will know your pay (or lack thereof) is why you left, if you choose to share your pay with potential new employers. That pay is ridiculous for accounting work in a city like Los Angeles.

CPA Exam - Finally DONE (November 2014)
BEC (08/10/13) 80
AUD (08/24/13) 65 (11/13/13) 85
FAR (04/12/14) 81
REG (07/19/14) 69 (11/29/14) 87!!

[Nute]

Start applying elsewhere. That is an absolute joke to be working in a major US city as an educated staff accountant and be paid $11 an hour. Heck its a joke to be working in the middle of nowhere for that weak wage. Baseline, you need to be pulling in 40k (19.23/hour) minimum in LA as a staff.

Here is the data for an LA staff accountant.

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/los-angeles-staff-accountant-salary-SRCH_IL.0,11_IM508_KO12,28.htm

Go out and get yourself a new gig!

Passed All Four Exams!

Best Exam Advice (came from a fortune cookie after I got a 74 on my first exam):
"Study and prepare yourself and one day, your day will come"

That day came on June 9th, 2015

Licensed NJ CPA

[Anonymous]

Is it time to look for another position? YES. A year plus is fine. My first accounting job was at a small 2-3 person firm and I was hired at $8/hr. I'm in an area with a lower cost of living than LA, so probably, comparatively, this was making a little more than you are, even though the official dollars are less. However, it was still just $0.75 above minimum wage, so not much more…! Anyway, I worked at that job a year, almost to the day. My next employer didn't mind that I'd only been there a year; a first job is seen as a stepping-stone and not expected to be forever. Then a year later I switched to the job I have now, and it was with the knowledge that if I did another 1-2 year stint at a job, I'd be at high risk of being labeled a “job hopper”, but this one I have now is one I plan to be at for a long time.

Should you quit this job to look for the next position? NO. Once you quit, you're less employable. Send out resumes, put out feelers, apply to jobs, etc., but do it all while remaining employed.

[jenpen]

I would definitely be looking for a new job ASAP. I don't know that I would quit in the meantime, but I would definitely start applying. Like Lilla said, you are less employable when you're unemployed. And I have always operated under the assumption that it's easier to find a job when you have a job.

As a frame of reference, I started last year with a small CPA firm in the St. Louis area (2 CPA partners, one part-time person, and then I was hired as the first full time). I have a BS in BS, and I was in the process of finishing my MBA with an accounting concentration to work towards the CPA requirements, but I had ZERO accounting experience. It was hard to get anybody to give me a chance even though I had a good work record and had been working in the legal field for about 8 years.

Anyway, I got an offer from this firm starting at $38,000 and was ecstatic that I didn't have to go down in pay from my last job. I would love to make more money, but knew that I was in a tough spot with the lack of experience. You have the experience, and I am guessing the education, so for your area with the cost of living, you are seriously underpaid.

AUD - 56 - 68 - 61 - 9/8/16
REG - 75
FAR - 7/15/16
BEC - TBD

Wiley CPAexcel and NINJA 10 Point Combo

[PublicGuy]

$11 an hour in a year in a high cost of living city is a joke, as stated above. Clean up your resume and get out of there. Conservatively, you should be able to double your salary.

[fuzyfro89]

Get your resume together and start networking.

You may run into situations where people will wonder why you would accept a job where you are so underpaid. You can make $11/hr as a lifeguard on the beach (nothing against lifeguards).

Your last worry in the world should be being labeled a “job hopper”. Being a job hopper is only bad if you don't manage to move up as you move around. I know people who have had 3 jobs in 4 years, but they continued to move up and got good experience, so a 4th employer would likely be okay with that… so long as there was a skills match and each job change seemed logical.

A “good” job hopper is someone who makes smart decisions to advance their skills and experience.

A “bad” job hopper is someone who appears to move around with no direction and for no apparent or logical reasoning.

It's okay to jump out once or twice, but if it keeps happening, eventually people will think you are the problem… at best, you're a terrific person and brilliant, but just make poor career decisions.

[Mamabear]

Fuzyfro–I am surprised it is working out so well for your friends that have had 3 jobs in 4 years. Even if they are getting better jobs and advancing their skills, as a hiring manager I would not want those people. They would appear to be short timers that are just trying to build their resumes and not actually commit to my company or be happy in a stable position for an extended amount of time. That seems like a bit of a waste for the companies on training unless those are contract positions intended to be short term. I completely agree with your last statement–eventually people will think you are the problem if jump around too much and that is my first thought when I view resumes with a lot of movement into different companies unless there is an explanation (i.e. moved to another state, etc)

CPA Exam - Finally DONE (November 2014)
BEC (08/10/13) 80
AUD (08/24/13) 65 (11/13/13) 85
FAR (04/12/14) 81
REG (07/19/14) 69 (11/29/14) 87!!

[Anonymous]

My first job only paid $40K and I thought I was being underpaid. I only stayed a year and then got out. You should be looking for a new job starting yesterday.

[fuzyfro89]

Mamabear:

I'll give one example of a close buddy from undergrad.

Spent ~1yr at a small public firm. Decided he didn't want that career and would like more opportunities in large companies. Those clients are mostly served by big 4/national firms, so he went out and ended up at PWC. Stayed there for 1.5 years, and came across an opportunity in a corporate audit rotation program. Big raise, global experience, more variety in work and introduction to finance/operations. 1.5 years at the last (and current) job now. Some recruiters may not like this, but his experience and ability speaks for itself.

It's definitely a negative factor if he were to look for another job, but one I think can easily be overcome. Again, not to say it's GOOD to jump around a lot, but it's more complicated than just “# of jobs in # of years”. Showing progression in compensation, responsibility, skills, etc., is what you really need to do.

In my personal view, the onus is on the employer to remain the best option for an employee, but I understand not everyone feels that way and it can be a challenge in a weak job market or if your skills just don't line up.

To the original poster, I'd frame the issue of “job hopping” ask the lesser of two evils:

a) move out (and hopefully up) a few times in the next few years in order to get up to a better career path… you risk being labeled a hopper, but you skills have improved

b) don't move out for fear of being labeled a hopper… you risk being left behind and delaying your career progression

It's up to you which risk you want to take, and how you want to manage that. There's no “perfect” decision. Everything carries risk. Don't avoid risk. Manage risk. In all aspects of life.

[Anonymous]

Aside from people who flit from one industry to another with no real logic behind their decisions, the mindset about “job hopping” is changing. Millennials and younger generations are trending toward shorter stints because this is how you make more money and get more experience. Companies that have learned to embrace this as a chance to get young, mobile, innovative employees who bring experience from a multitude of business environments are going to pull ahead in the race for talent. Companies that insist that you're only worth a shot if your average tenure with an employer is 3+ years will end up with second-tier employees who just want a steady paycheck, not an opportunity to make a difference.

Seriously, anyone who tells you “I'm concerned that you've had 3 jobs in the past 5 years,” is really saying “I want people with no ideas, no ambition, who will keep their mouths shut, and who will never consider leaving.” They actually think this works in their favor. You don't want to work for people like that because they are not trying to make money or solve problems for anyone but themselves.

[Anonymous]

I agree with Casey. A VP at my last job told me that at my age, there's no reason that I should stay at a job for longer than three years. Getting a new job every year isn't a good idea, but staying at the same job for more than 2 or 3 years doing the same work and not being promoted shows a lack of ambition. Especially if you've only been out of college for 10 years or less.

[Author]

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