[mike0910]

How much could I make as an accountant in the industry with a bachelor’s, CPA, and 5 years of experience, assuming I never do public accounting and don’t have Big 4 experience? And how will not having Big 4 experience affect my career? I’m specifically curious about the NYC and Detroit areas.

Also, how is work life balance in the industry? How many vacation days do you usually get and how many hours do you work per week?

[Texan_Stuck_In_OK]

Check salary.com or Robert Half for market salary information. You can look through the different job titles and compare. I've always been in industry. Vacation time usually depends on time with the company. I've been at my current company (hospital) for just over two years. I earn 7.76 hours of PTO every two weeks. That PTO is used for vacation, sick, and holiday pay. Once I have been here five years, I will earn 9.66 hours of PTO every two weeks.

Hours are fairly normal at 40 a week unless it's during audit or budget. But other than that…8-5. I can even work from home if I need to.

A 88, B 76, F 84, R 76 Passed 2014

Licensed in OK

[ridiqls]

I'd be interested to know too. Industry is tricky because it depends on which industry you work at. Manufacturing apparently pays a lot. Places like a small law firm or a privately owned retail company probably would not pay as much. Got a job offer as a staff accountant that paid in the high 30k-low 40k as an entry level job. This is in the los angeles market. Entry level position and no CPA. I looked at the Robert half salary and it looks like you'd have to work as staff accountant for 1-2 years and maybe the salary will go up to 50-55k. Then in 2-3 years you might jump ship or get promoted to a senior accountant position and I think those go from $65-70k. Anything higher than $80k seems to start in the manager position and that's where the CPA gets important.

I turned down the job because I didn't want my ceiling to top out at $75k (and that's after years of working). So I'm gonna get my CPA and hope to get higher position later on. 5 years of work experience definitely is a senior position and maybe even a manager position. I'd guess 100-120k if you have a lot of responsibility but I'm just guessing.

I know in government though, you can make GS-13 in 3-4 years (Definitely 5) and that starts around 90k or something and tops out at 115k over the course of 20 years. And government seems to be pay less than private or public so there's that for reference.

[Anonymous]

It depends on way too many factors. Size of business, which industry, complexity of capital, demand for accounting talent and so on.

Once you're past all that you have too look at location. In Detroit I think you can make $3.00 per hour but that's OK because a house costs $100. In New York you can make $50 an hour but your apartment will cost $55 per hour. I am genuinely not sure if you could have picked more opposite cities…

Go look at job listings in those cities and then go look at housing prices in those areas. I think that's going to give you the best gauge.

[mla1169]

Depending on where you work and what you're doing, someone with a CPA license but no Big 4 experience can probably make north of 150k but thats not typical and I'd say average tops out around 90-100k. Thats not necessarily someone with 5 years experience, either. Could be many more years to get to senior or manager in industry, there has to be a position open and you have to be the best candidate for that position so senior or manager can take 10+ years, or it can take 1 year.

As to your other questions there is no answer. It depends on the employer. I worked for a company where we were expected to pull 65+ hours the first week of every single month and the rest of the month was 40 hours. I've worked places that were never once over 40 hours in a week. I've had anywhere from 2-7 weeks of vacation time and had employers who paid either 21% or 80% of my medical insurance premiums (I should mention ALL of my experience is in manufacturing).

The biggest impact to your career of not having big 4 on your resume is if you desire to get into a senior or management position at a large publicly traded company. You might be able to start at the bottom of the totem pole and work your way up but generally people get to those positions because they do have big 4 experience.

FAR- 77
AUD -49, 71, 84
REG -56,75!
BEC -75

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[Author]

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