[Anonymous]

They go into work and do the same thing day in and out and rarely ever feel challenged (whether technically or interpersonally) and have had this position for over 1-2 years? If so, what type of position and company is it (public/private, large/small, general location/region)?

[Missy]

I did when I was very entry level (accounts payable)-but had lots of downtime which I filled by creating projects like an analysis of going paperless, ditching 1/3 of our office rental by getting rid of 30+ filing cabinets then evaluating vendors for offsite scanning and storage. My efforts were appreciated and implemented and I was promoted. Private international company approx 80 employees, six in accounting.Was there 12years.

Licensed Massachusetts Non Reporting CPA since 2012
Finance/Admin/HR Manager

[Ryan – Just Another Dollar]

I had this in my most recent position. Large, global, public company (700 accountants in my office in the Midwest). Glorified bookkeeping work and endless monthly reporting for clients. Not challenging work and poor manager, the espresso machine in the break room was nice. I left after 2.5 years for a job in public, which was my plan the entire time I held this position and probably contributed to my overall lack of motivation and fulfillment.

B - 88 (2/16)
A - 84 (4/16)
R - 73 (6/16), 82(7/16)
F - 67 (1/16), 84(4/16)

Ethics - 93

Roger course & Ninja MCQ - HiYa!

[ultrarunner]

That's me. I am over 1+ year for the current company (a public company; total employee # is 140+; 5% of workforce is in accouting). There was quite a learning curving in the beginning. But once the training ended, nothing more to learn, but still many tedious and same things over and over every day. I plan to get out and pursue a job in public accounting.

FAR 72,67,79 (Roger+Wiley test bank)11/15
AUD 80 (Roger)10/15
BEC 80 (Roger)4/16
REG 63,78 (Roger+Ninja MCQs)5/16

[SeattleCPA]

Maybe I lack objectivity, but I see fewer and fewer of those super-routine crushingly-boring accounting jobs these days. Technology is eliminating them.

To use two examples that everybody here appreciates or understands, TurboTax basically vaporized the market for profitably preparing simple 1040 returns… and then QuickBooks did something similar to the market for small business write-up (aka bookkeeping) services.

The *other* side of these changes, though, is that they also mean that “small CPA firm” CPAs do way less easy, routine work than they did two or three decades ago. Or at least that's the way it seems to me.

Similar changes should be occurring in larger organizations.

Final comment: If you're someone who can, independently, work on complex problems, you do have ability to get a job where you're not doing routine work.

[Author]

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