What industry do/have you worked in? What are the pros and cons? - Page 2

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  • #187077
    ridiqls
    Member

    I thought it’d be cool to get some input from people in the vast world of accounting what various industries are like. I haven’t seen this topic discussed much.

    I just recently (less than a year) decided to change my career to accounting and have gone back to school to go full fledged study mode and to get my CPA. I’m wondering what are some of the pros and cons of the various industries out there especially for accountants, mainly for “industry”/corporate accounting.

    I’ll start with some of the things I have read/been told:

    – Manufacturing: Working as an accountant or even a bookkeeper in manufacturing is very demanding and in high demand. From what I read, companies drool over people with manufacturing experience. Probably because it’s so specialized and specific. I have also been told it’s pretty intense and demanding though, with lots of responsibility.

    – Health/medical: seems to be a lot of audit work here. either that or the clerk payroll type stuff if you work in the admin dept for a hospital.

    Does anyone work in the sports industry? What about automotive such as Honda Toyota, major auto companies? What about new and trendy companies like recent (less than 10 years) explosion of yoga companies such as lulemon, etc.

    What about electronics and consumer goods? Tv production or hollywood?

    I’m very curious what kind of experiences are out there and how they differ in terms of work environment, culture, pay, age, hours, etc. I saw a good amount of accounting jobs and interns for companies like disney and universal when i was in college.

    I’d love to work for an automotive company. As you can tell, this is geared more towards private industry type jobs but if you have public experience that’d be interesting to hear too.

Viewing 5 replies - 16 through 20 (of 20 total)
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  • #582587
    Tarheelgirl
    Member

    I enjoyed reading this thread as I am in the same position. Pursuing CPA, in my first real accounting job as a Tax Auditor for a State Dept. of Revenue. I enjoy tax that why I applied here because I knew I would learn so much. Boy was I wrong! I worked for 4 months and I decide I don't want to be sitting here the rest of my life so in order to move up and grow I need to pursue my CPA (which I am currently doing). I am in group where neither Supervisor, Manager, Asst. Director, or Director is a CPA. In my division of 115 people only 2 are CPA Supervisors so I would have to wait for an opening in one of their groups to get my experience or wait 4 years. Not happening! So new plan is pass at least half of my exams, start applying to local firms to get in to get my experience. Also I decided I would rather get experience in a firm to where I could possibly learn everything besides just tax, to be a well-rounded CPA.

    FAR - 46, 79 (7/8/14)
    AUD - 56, 59, 2/23/15 3rd times a charm!
    BEC - 69, 74 Really??
    REG - April, I hope. Fingers crossed!

    #582588
    Dan T
    Participant

    I work in the entertainment industry, we set up shows/concerts all over. Perks are obviously going to the concerts for free , pretty young culture, and not a heavy working schedule, laid back environment, can wear jeans and a tshirt if not working a show. Though summer is the busy time it still isn't that bad.

    General accounting duties AP, AR, FS prep,working at shows. Not bad but growth is kinda hard, and I'm not working under a CPA, so I'll be looking for other opportunities once this exam is over.

    AUD - 75 ☺
    FAR - 65, 71, 70, 77 ☺
    BEC - 80 ☺
    REG - 73, 66, 79 ☺ 2/28/15

    Done!

    #582589
    MsAvi77
    Member

    @Dan T: How did you get started in the entertainment industry?

    BEC 81
    REG 81
    FAR 76
    AUD 76

    Done Forever!!

    #582590
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    @CPA50 Working in forensics like that sounds like a constant fun challenge. 🙂 Maybe someday in the future when I have a lot of varied experience I'll be able to jump to something like that!

    My impression is that culture etc. varies more from company to company than industry to industry. I work for a business support services company (a lot of what we do is document conversion, but we offer a wide range of services, from data entry to legal services etc.). There's nothing I can really point to about my job that seems industry-specific. Since we're primarily a service company, there's not traditional cost-accounting, though you do still try to link costs to projects and be able to estimate revenues for that specific project. As far as the culture goes, it's fairly standard corporate America in my opinion. I am lucky to be in a department with an excellent boss who has picked good employees, so I've got pretty good coworkers too. If I'm ever in a position like my boss's (which I sincerely hope to be someday), I hope I can be half as good of a boss as she is. She's what makes my job awesome. 🙂 Beyond that, in my mind, the culture, work, etc. isn't that much different from one place to another. It's the direct people you're working with (your contacts throughout the company and/or clients) that really make or break the job.

    #582591
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Like fuzyfro89, I work for a very, very large company, in manufacturing (Fortune 50). I do work in the corporate accounting side of things, and see a little less of the daily product results. I work with capital management, so see project and product plans daily which is interesting.

    I did an internship in public accounting and knew it wasn't for me. My corporate job has steady hours (7:30 to 4, a little early on Fridays), better pay than public (by a pretty big margin for a recent college grad), and is more laid back.

    I don't plan to stay with this company forever and ever, it's a bit too boy's club for me, but it's a good starting position.

    The biggest difference tends to be the pay and the size of the staff. A smaller company probably has more of a family culture, whereas I only know my immediate team. It also pays much better than most similar companies, although we did take rolling layoffs last year due to the downturn in the industry.

    Oh and slightly sad to say, but your CPA will really only matter to you and getting your first management gig in some corporate settings. After that, some have them, some don't. On my current staff grouping, I'd be one of two people with a CPA.

Viewing 5 replies - 16 through 20 (of 20 total)
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