[Anonymous]

Hello All,

ANY advice is appreciated!

I’m ready to admit defeat in the accounting career field. I think that it was a mistake to major in accounting to begin with. I should have majored in a more general “management” degree (or maybe even a completely different area, but I think that ship has sailed..) I rocked the business section of the CPA without even trying, but stink at the other parts. I got my BS & MS with great grades from one of the best accounting schools in America because I have a very good general all-around skill set, and I’m really good at multiple choice and term papers, etc. It was all so easy until I started day 1 on the real job. It was like I hit a brick wall. Apparently, I do the math half as fast as everybody else and am not “detail-oriented” enough. I get good jobs because I can talk “about” accounting and I’m generally intelligent, but my bosses all eventually get disappointed in me because I can’t deliver on the day-to-day stuff.

Is there a clearly defined career field that is a step or two more “general” than corporate accounting? I had a job being a store accountant at a small business and enjoyed the mix of bookkeeping 101 with general management functions to keep the business going. Whatever needed to be done that involved money, I did. but I didn’t have to do hardcore accounting like GAAP or tax returns. I was like a business manager. But the problem was that position was a dead-end unless the owner was going to leave me the company in his will. I guess I should consider an MBA if necessary, but I wouldn’t spend the money unless I knew of some defined career title to look for.

Thank you.

[cpagal]

Lots of corporations need CFOs. It would require you to know more of a management style accounting but general employers in my opinion know the title CPA over CMA. I am getting both even though I have no desire to go into public accounting.

Maybe titles like Controller or CFO would be up your ally.

FAR - 08/30/15 - 90
AUD - 11/12/15 - 92
REG - 01/19/16 - 82
BEC - 02/29/16 - 83

Passed all on 1st attempt using GLEIM (full program) and NINJA (MCQ only)!!!

Louisiana Licensed CPA

[Missy]

How early on in this job are you? If youve been there less than 6 months there is a definite training curve and of course you're going to be a bit slower and make more mistakes.

The problem with going to a more general field is that you're likely to see it as a dead end job like you did as a store accountant. The suggestion of CFO or Controller is unfortunately not likely. First of all those are both VERY detail oriented positions and you do need to be able to do calculations quickly and on the fly. Also those positions generally go to people with several years of experience, you'll be hard pressed to find a company to hire for such a position based on good school grades.

I think you're looking for the best of both worlds, some low hanging fruit as it were with a clear distinct job progression path. I truly believe you need to identify and improve your weak areas OR look for positions like the one that you had and excelled at the store.

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

[Anonymous]

perhaps teaching accounting?

[Anonymous]

Yeah, sometimes I wish I could just be an executive….. My college professors bragged that they were teaching us to be “leaders”… Too bad you have to do 20 years of grunt work first. It's like they taught us to be great Generals but never tested us in actually marching or shooting….

I tried public for two years, staff corporate accountant for 4 years (until my job was outsourced to India), store accountant for 2 years, and now corporate staff accountant again for the last 6 months. Same problems over and over again. I've finally improved to the point where I do the staff work really well, but I still need help doing anything more advanced. The details and amount of raw data usually get over my head sometimes. I really would consider going back to school to do something completely different but my wife is disabled and doesn't work. I make just enough money to pay our bills in a one-bedroom apartment in NJ, so I'm afraid to go back to the drawing board without a clear plan. But I don't really make enough money to progress either.

[Author]

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