[Anonymous]

Is it a good idea to start your career as a Fund Accountant right out of college. What are the career paths for them? I want everybody’s 2 cents! Thanks!

[teeteenounouche]

Unless you are in NY or CA, I say stay away. I started in fund accounting in South Florida and got stuck in that field for a while when I wanted to move to corporate accounting.

Florida:
AUD: 73, 81! Thank you Lord!
BEC: 73, 77! Thank you Lord! and WTB
REG: 71, 82! Thank you Lord! and A71
FAR: 72, 78! Thank you God and my Mommy in Heaven!

CPA Excel, Ninja Notes & Audio, Wiley Test Bank, CPAreviewforfree

[romajoon]

Currently i work for an investment firm as a portfolio/fund accountant. It's a cool field and can translate to corporate accounting if the firm is a public company. Its also good if you want to get your foot in the vc/investment world. I'm moving out of the accounting group into the investment group at the end of the month.

AUD 2/25/14 - 82
BEC 4/14/14 - 82
REG 7/5/14 - 66, 80 (11/30/14)
FAR 10/13/14 - 76
ETHICS - PASSED
EXPERIENCE - DONE

[Mayo]

There was an exact post like this literally a month ago. Use the search function and do some research.

*mumbles* so much for millennials being familiar with technology…. *mumbles*

Mayo, BBA, Macc

[Anonymous]

I remember that thread too…but to be fair, the search bar kinda blends in with the gray background …don't be making millennial generalizations Mayo! 😉

[Mayo]

Haha, well I'm a Millenial too! But even with younger coworkers, I'm shocked how little they use available technical resources.

@OP…Search bar is at the top of the forum screen. Also, it'd be helpful to understand why you're looking into fund accounting specifically.

General questions are hard to answer.

Mayo, BBA, Macc

[fuzyfro89]

General answer for general question.

Yes, it can be a good job.

Major thing to be careful about: exit opportunities.

If you live in an area with lots of investment funds/hedge funds/VC/PE/mutual funds/etc, then it won't be a problem, and there are probably a lot of people with heavy experience in the field.

If you don't live in an area with lots of opportunities, OR if you want to move into a different industry later, moves will be more difficult because you have a VERY specialized skill set that doesn't necessarily translate very well to other areas of accounting.

Career path? Fund accounting or something similar at a financial firm with similar accounting concerns as listed above. It doesn't set you up well with general skills that *easily* translate to other industries.

[Anonymous]

Very good! Thanks everybody!!!!

[Anonymous]

Fund Accounting is tough. And the career path in fund accounting is also tough. You can go into financial reporting, become a supervisor, or maybe move into the investment or corporate accounting side or compliance side. But when I had my interview to move into the corporate side, the CFO asked me if I knew what a debit and credit were. He had no confidence that a fund accountant could do “real accounting”. He did hire me because of who I knew. I never once saw a fund accountant move from fund accounting to investments at any of the companies I worked for. And if you get a job at a fund accounting company who takes on outsourced fund accounting there is no chance at all. The investment people I worked with thought they were very much better than the fund accountants.

In addition, my friends who are in financial reporting and fund accounting today, are seeing some of their jobs outsourced to India. I enjoyed my time as a fund accountant but I am very glad I had friends in high places who pushed the CFO to transfer me into corporate accounting.

I spent 6 years of my 15 year (so far) career in the fund accounting world, and it's fun, but I am very glad to be out of it.

[Author]

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