[Anonymous]

What positions is better, which one gives better skills/experience and can give you more opportunities in the long-run?

[Anonymous]

Where I work, A/P Manager would be much better than Staff Accountant. Staff accountants report to a manager and have no management/supervisory duties. Once you start climbing the career ladder, having no management experience can be a roadblock. Staff accountants may have a wider variety of tasks, but having manager after your name looks much better.

[musicamor]

It depends upon what you want and what your career goals are. Being an A/P Manager can be very narrow and can pigeon-hole you pretty quickly. It would be better to have a foundation as a Staff Accountant, work with your A/P department and then make a determination as to whether or not you want a role that specific. It will be a lot better for you to have some good G/L experience as a staff accountant on your resume.

Texas CPA - licensed in 2012!!!

[twohearted]

This may be very unique, but I have some perspective on this topic. I began working at my current Company as a Staff Accountant. After 2 years, I was offered the AP Manager role (directly manage 5 individuals, likely to be 6 by the end of the first year). I took the opportunity to gain office managerial experience. Over a 3 year period, I was able to gain beyond the expected managerial experience, streamline or influence the streamlining of a number of processes, and take the lead on a project that took our Company from a paper-based invoice approval/retention system to a nearly paperless invoice approval/retention system. I have gained a lot of great experience and understanding of the cash flows of a mid-sized Company in my current role that I may not have yet encountered in a Staff Accounting position. I also decided to sit for the CPA exam during this period. I have just been presented with an opportunity to manage our AP, Cash Management (not attached to AP) and Financial/Operational Accounting groups. This will put me on track to have Controller or equivalent opportunities (small to mid-sized Companies) within the next 5-7 years in my career if I am able to be successful and grow within this role.

I was originally very skeptical of the opportunity, as I didn't attend a good business school to become an AP Manager. However, the benefits have been priceless. The potential downside of this decision, as @musicamor mentioned, is that you don't want to be “stuck” within AP if that's not your career goal. Depending on the size of your Company, you will gain what you need to gain within a 2-5 year window. Once you really feel that you've hit that point, you should either look for other internal opportunities or look externally. If you want to climb a ladder and manage people, it is likely that managing an AP Team will give you a ton of experience that you otherwise may not encounter in your career as a Corporate Accountant. Even prior to a recent advancement opportunity, I would not have gone back in time and changed my decision to manage our AP Team over remaining a Staff Accountant.

[Author]

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