[Anonymous]

Hi~~~I checked in indeed and the range varies from 50k to 75k for a staff accountant role in San Jose area, just want to get a more clear idea about the range. I am holding a license from a state in midwest and making mid 50k now, with 1.5 years experience in a local CPA firm. If I am looking for a staff accountant position in mid-sized IT company, what is the range am I expecting for? Can I expect 10k more than my current salary? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Salary might be in that range, but “affordable” housing can be difficult to find. I know alot of guys who got hired into Big 4 there and are living roommate style.. Rents are ridiculous there and sometimes in short supply, due to the inflationary push from Facebook, Google and other Silicon Valley types.

[TommyTheCat]

I would expect something around 60k salary for a 1.5 year experienced accountant, but I can't speak for what it might look like in industry at an IT firm.

Cessna is spot on, rents are ridiculous. 1 bed apartments are probably close to 2k a month. I haven't been in the rental scene for 4 years or so, but when I last rented an apartment is was up in Sunnyvale and was going for about 2,300 for two bed. The market has been on fire since then.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your reply. So it is about the same as I can get in my area now, for I can make around 60k if I make a move to industry. I know the living cost is incredibly high in bay area, my hubby is in IT industry and looking for an opportunity in the area. Just feel so disappointed that his salary will make a huge increase if he find a job there, but nothing changed for my side.

[ultrarunner]

I live in the area as an accountant (industry). Based on your credential and working experience, I would say you could try to get the maximum range for staff accountant. But as someone says, living experience here is insane. Average rent for 1 bedroom is 2,000+.

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

[Anonymous]

Actually good school district even cost more. 2 bedroom apt rent in cupertino is 3500$. Even in sunnyvale it is above 2500$. Maybe some places in San Jose and Fremont you can find less expensive apartments. Again home prices are ridiculous. Average home price in cupertino is 1.8 million. Saratogo above 2.5 million. Even Sunnyvale is 1.4 million.Definitely it is very difficult to live with one salary in bay area unless you make tons of money in stocks which most people do .When I dropped my son at his high school last week I saw 3 Teslas continuously within few seconds.I think Tesla sells its car mainly in Silicon Valley.It has become very difficult for a normal person to live last 5-6 years. The positive side is tons of opportunities and great weather.

[Goingallin]

Depends which industry you're in. If it's software, with a license and a little experience, you could get as much as 75K. It really boils down to if it's a tech or nontech company and weather it's a startup or a large corp.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your info. Do you think it is easier to land a job in that area with my experience, or should I ask are there more opportunities for accountants in bay area than midwest?

[Anonymous]

Thanks, I heard that for big IT companies, like google, Facebook, apple etc., the accountants are graduated from ivy league colleges， so I think it will be very difficult to get into big ones.

[Anonymous]

OMG, I know the home price is above 1 million, not know it is near 2 million or even above 2 million, it is ridiculously high, and I am wondering how much the pre-tax salary can afford these kind of houses? Considering the high state income tax rate, 400k might not even be sufficient, so for ordinary people, renting forever is the choice. So sad about the truth.

[TommyTheCat]

my wife and i purchased our home here in SJ back a few years ago before the market got SUPER hot, and at the time we had a household income of about 220k between our two jobs. Now i would imagine it would take even more to afford.

We bought in 2013, when we thought the market was silly hot, only to then see it run up another 25% or so the past 3 years.

It's the downpayment nut that is the hard one to hit IMO. Cash flow for the mortgage isn't tough, its not that much more than the monthly rent. But saving $120k – $180k for a downpayment is the tough part. We went FHA and then refinanced out of it once we had enough cash to get to the 20% equity hurdle.

Good luck to you.

[Anonymous]

@TommyTheCat – OMG how you scored 97 in REG. totally amazing.I am waiting for my REG score on thursday. Fingers crossed and stressed.

@cpatobe2013 Good luck to you. I personally feel there are lot of opportunities in bay area. Even you can switch into software/IT later if you like. There are some great companies which needs CPA's for their product development.Some companies to my knowledge which do financial/EPM software like Oracle,SAP,Intuit,Adaptive Insights,Tidemark,Anaplan,Workday,Salesforce and numerous startups..

Software is eating the world.
https://a16z.com/2016/08/20/why-software-is-eating-the-world/

Again good luck in your move.

[Goingallin]

There's a lot of opportunities for accountants in the bay area. There are A LOT OF big tech companies other than Google and Apple so don't limit your search to ones you only hear about on the news. The software start ups pay a pretty decent amount of salary. The staff accountants at all the startup I worked at got paid a min of 65k WITHOUT a license.

[Anonymous]

I think you can get around 80k with your experience and license in the Bay Area.

[TommyTheCat]

@esenthil – Best of luck with your REG results, I will be right here with you waiting on my BEC results coming Thursday as well. I've been working in tax for 10 years so REG is my strong suit. Shit's going to hit the fan with the other sections haha. Even with my work experience I took REG really serious, used Roger and studied 2.5 months for it. I've been putting off the credentialing for the last 10 years while i focused on moving up the ladder and time is precious to study, so i am not taking things lightly now that i am finally doing this. Was my first time sitting for the exam and I didn't want to underestimate it.

My advice to anyone is to get the CPA stuff out of the way as soon as possible. I don't regret what I did because I was making really good money fast and worked up the ladder quickly, but now its keeping me from making partner. I wish I had knocked this stuff out back when I was 23 and had a fraction of the responsibilities I have now.

Rooting for you come Thursday.

[Author]

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