[Jriver]

What kind of job duties do you look for in experienced positions besides the daily accounting tasks that are involved in most “staff accounting” positions such as reconciliations, AR, AP, monthly JE’s? I am thinking of going back to private industry, already have few years of private industry exp. doing daily accounting tasks which I found repetitive and boring. With that experience behind me, what kind of more challenging positions can I do and companies willing to give me but don’t have exp. in? More analysis? Financial reporting (whatever that means)? Kind of still idealistic but want to know what specific duties that I would like to take on and where that can lead me.

Thank you for your help!

[wendywhite]

I'm currently a senior accountant and have thoroughly enjoyed the work. I do most of our closing duties -some are more standard like accruals and reconciling and some are more complex with extensive spreadsheets and multiple sources of data. We have a lot of oversight & reporting and I am involved with that as well.

Internal auditing, budgeting, pro-forma statements, reporting, and analysis are all duties with a private firm but you will almost always have journal entries and reconciling as the core of what you do.

I challenge myself by constantly reviewing how to improve the process, learning more in excel, etc… I extend my duties beyond the basics required to teach and train whenever possible. I assist with writing the manuals for my position and I enjoy tackling problems that the prior seniors just let go.

Its geeky – but there isn't much that gives me more job satisfaction than a sweet new spreadsheet that automates what I used to do manually, especially if I self-taught and it's complex.

FAR 11/2012: 80
AUD 2/19/2013: 90
REG 5/14/2013: 76
BEC 11/2013: 85
Ethics: 100
Waiting on the packet....

[Jriver]

Thanks Wendy for your input! What do you actually do when you say reporting? Is it more Excel/software work trying to get all the data summarized onto the Financial Statement?

Thanks again!

[lpribac]

I had to laugh at your post Wendy! I am right there with you getting excited over a new problem to solve or learning something new in Excel!

I'm at the Sr Accounting/Manager level trying to push myself upwards. My advice if you want more experience is to go to small companies. SmallBiz and non-profits is my niche. I get to do every aspect of accounting AND be part of the management team working on strategic planning, financing, etc. Yes I have my boring repetitive duties but also new challenges! I'm always busy. I take on projects and If I don't know something, I learn it!!

FAR-end of Aug
AUD-Oct
BEC-end of Nov
REG-January

[Anonymous]

I currently have an offer for a senior accountant for the consolidation financial reporting group for a very large pharmaceutical company. How are the hours during non-quarter and non-year end? They already told me during the quarter its about 2 weeks of busy time, year end might be a bit longer. Thanks.

[Author]

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