I did 5 years of retail management while getting a BBA in Business, realized that was the broadest paint brush you could possibly paint with, and re-enrolled immediately after graduating to do a second BBA in Accounting (we didn't have a separate degree for accounting so I now have 2 BBAs to hang).
I interned for a local firm doing tax during my accounting program. Roughly 4 CPA operation spread over 5 offices in 1 county. Plenty of growth room. I graduated and that same firm made me a full-time offer. I took every scrap of a return or IRS notice I could eventually carving out a representation segment eventually jumping from staff to manager of one of those offices. It sucked at first, I think I made $12 an hour for the first 6 months and billed 3x my payroll costs. Bumped to salary at 40k, limited bennies.
We improved at what we did, merged and ate other businesses, more pay bumps. Eventually I'm preparing about 500 returns a year and managing an office pumping out 1500 in total. I'm also in-charging several reviews and 12-15 audits (a few were every other year government entities). Charge hour commitment shook out to 2000 billable hours and 200 admin for the year at 60k – 65k salary. No schedule commitment. At this point it's been about 5 years since I had started.
I felt I had outgrown my peers. I was consuming complex issues without a lot of oversight because the scary stuff went straight to me. I didn't like that because I wanted to be mentored and molded into what I thought of as a great CPA. Mind you I've passed all but 1 exam situation at this point but kept putting my testing off to run the business.
The firm started to feel like a cage that I was suddenly too big for and had no room to move. I could make partner but to what end without being fed more knowledge? The current partners were too old to stay much longer than the 5 years I had already put in so I started looking, found a Senior Accountant spot with a top 12 firm and went for it. Hired in 2 weeks flat on an audit team.
I spent 6 months in what I would call mid-size spanning 20 states and overseas. They gave me a pay increase to join. My charge hours were about 1800 for the year but that was to look nice on paper, the actual charge hours were more like 2400 on average. Traveled all over the US depending on what team needed me.
But why would a nice sized company take a chance on a non-licensed senior from a small firm background? Because I had my hands in everything in that small firm. If I had a dollar for every auditor I've met that's never done a payroll, filed a form 990, or even posted an accrual JE I wouldn't need to work. The larger firm utilized my input on every aspect of our process to become more efficient in testing, decrease charge hours in non-essential areas, and integrate more work our team could do that was typically farmed out for lack of knowledge.
I really appreciated the experiences I was able to have and the clients I had the opportunity to work with at the larger firm but all of my essential experience came from the grind at the small firm. You'll hear a lot of people with experience in both refer to it as a breadth vs. depth situation.
I personally left public after six months in that larger firm. I wasn't any closer to passing that last CPA exam and there was just a lot of struggle to get settled into a larger firm lifestyle. I landed an offer to be a Financial Analyst for a large governmental organization (Higher Ed) in the Big 10. I handle our external audit, budget, financial statement preparation, as well as pieces of the day to day accounting. I've never dreamed of such great benefits and out by 4pm. I still love tax so I remain consulting and preparing returns outside of my primary role. Salary raises are less of a % but competitive with the market in terms of initial rate and for each position you can be promoted to.
Any experience is good experience. If you've got time to try something new I say go for it, learn from it, and use it to finish painting your idea of the perfect end game position.
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