[Oimie]

Guys I am almost at the end of my CPA exam journey and one of the toughest decisions that I have been pushing off have to be made very soon; What field of work should I go into and where should I work at?

I know everyone is different and it all depends on each individual, but advises, tips and stories of your personal or other people’s experiences would be a great help for me to make a decision. I also have questions that I want cleared up.

First of all I am 25 years old with no accounting work experience. I’ve only worked at small part time jobs that should have practically no positive impact on my resume. I’ve graduated from college and got my Bachelors degree on December 2014 and have just been chilling around and studying for the CPA exam ever since. But it’s time to get my butt off my chair and start working. I live in New York City and plan to stay here.

In the beginning I was considering going into audit; it sounded fun. Moving around everyday, doing new things, learning new things, meeting new people and etc. But after some research, it seems I have been mistaken. From what I read, you just make phone calls and asks questions for the first x amount of years. And you don’t really go out and do “real” auditing stuff until you reach some higher level position. Correct me if I am wrong or tell me if I am right.

Then I considered doing tax; just sit all day and stare at numbers. This field doesn’t seem so bad especially if you want to just laze around in the office all day instead of constantly moving around. Also I was thinking that after working with tax for x amount of years, I will start my own small tax service. From what I heard, starting your own small tax service can generate huge profits and you’re really just busy during tax seasons. Problem with this is, it sounds like a very boring life. Also with all the technological advances going on, I am afraid that some computer software is going to replace us tax preparers before I retire. I am 25 and assuming I retire at 55, we’re talking about a good long 30 years here. Tell me what you guys think.

So I was going back and forth between audit and tax. And now, I am considering whether I should just go into industry/private instead. I know people always recommend going public first for the experience before going into private because it would be much more useful on the resume. But from my understanding working in private is A LOT less stressful and it is A LOT easier to climb up the ladder in your company. Starting salaries should be around the same, but if I am going to be doing all that overtime and take years before I can go up in rank in public, maybe I should just do private. And to be honest, it’s not that I cannot handle all that overtime and stress, I know for certain I can. But the thing is, I am 25 and single. I need my free time to get myself a stable love life before I finally throw my time into work.

And by the way, I perceived working for government to be very stable but very boring with limited room for growth at the sametime so I have not thought about working for the government.

No matter what I go into, being an accountant, I am hoping to be able to learn and increase my knowledge so I can find myself other sources of income in the future besides from just my salary.

Thank you for reading this long post and please share your advises, ideas, stories and whatever that may help me with my decision.

FAR 85 June 2015
AUD 80 Nov 2015
REG 83 Nov 2015
BEC 79 Feb 2016

[MaLoTu]

I will be starting in audit this coming fall, but I think you are mistaken about early year auditors just sitting around on the phone, lol. From what I understand, the junior members are the ones sent out to do the dirty work and the more senior people get to do less hand-on work at the clients.

There are a lot of people on here that work in both fields. So I am sure they will chime in.

I am in the SF area and a small number of firms have entry-level programs that allow for the associate to rotate between tax and audit. Maybe you can research some firms in your area and see if that is an option. You would be able to choose which you like better after getting experience in both.

[Oimie]

@MaLoTu Thanks for the input!

FAR 85 June 2015
AUD 80 Nov 2015
REG 83 Nov 2015
BEC 79 Feb 2016

[Anonymous]

you seem to mention the word boring a lot. you should've thought of this before you started gettin the CPA… i hate to break it to ya, but accounting isn't exactly a sexy profession. i work in tax and i dont think its boring by any means, the tax code is soooo vast and with so many interpretations and possibilities to save clients money (for which they handsomely reward you.) i would recommend starting in public accounting and putting in 3 years there and then moving to private directly to a much higher salary than you would have achieved there had you stayed in private all along for 3 years. employers know what busy season (tax&audit) and teamwork and various other skills that come out public accounting, and they value prospective employees who are ‘jumping ship' to the private sector.

good luck in your search! you are not from the US originally are ya?

i will end with a joke by the late great james gandolfini as mob boss tony from the epic sopranos series:

“what do you get when you mix a jumbo jet with an accountant?….a boring 747” -tony soprano

[Missy]

You want lower stress and reasonable hours but expect to retire at 55? That aside, regardless of all the extraneous information you're considering, you're going to spend about half your waking hours at work, so choose something that won't make you miserable. Also apply to any and every position that will count towards your work experience to get licensed. Chances are once you're actually working you'll have a, clearer vision of what you want to do, and you'll find the things you believe right now are not all true (like working in private being less stressful, not always the case)

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

[hasy]

I was an auditor for one busy season and I have to say that MaToLu is pretty accurate. I have no idea how it is in NY but as a SoCal-er, you drive a lot to clients. I hear it's worst when working in a Los Angeles since traffic sucks. With a busy city as NY, I'd say the commute is the same. From first year to audit supervisor, every job, you're required to be at the client unless it's an in-house audit, which is unlikely if you're working for a big client. Just so you're aware, when you work at a client, you bring your laptop (possibly more extensive equipment, like an external monitor and other stuff) everywhere you go.

When you're doing corporate audits, you stay at the client's site for weeks, if not, maybe a month, depending on how big the client is. So even if I work 10 miles away from my main office, my client might be 30 miles from me and I have to travel there every single day for that long. I work for a f500 company and our Deloitte auditors are staying with us until the end of February (which is audit sign-off). The thing is, I didn't mind the travel for audit (though I am single). I think audit is a little more interactive with clients and you're exposed to how each industry works. I have worked in tax and I chose audit for the very reason that I like meeting new people since tax is a lot of following rules and discovering how this tax situation applies to the IRC and most of the work is very independent. Since I sat at my desk by myself, I only talked to the senior or partner if I encountered a problem with not understanding this tax situation. For audit, you're always with your team and you could be sitting next to your manager or partner occasionally (at least where I worked).

Pardon the grammar.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved - Helen Keller

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BEC 80 (10/23/15)
FAR 72 (4/2/15); 83 (7/11/16)
REG 52 (4/28/15)
AUD (9/9/16)

Roger + NINJA MCQ + WTB

[Chris]

I have a couple of questions for you. You said you have graduated with tour bachelor's in 2014. I just read the NY is not a two tier state. Meaning you'll need 150 credit hours and a years experience under the supervision of a CPA to use the designation CPA. Regardless of what you want to do in the future and when you want to retire, how do you plan on satisfying those requirements so you can benefit from your hard studies?

NH CPA
REG: 07/03/2014 - 88
AUD: 08/30/2014 - 73 - Retake 10/16/14 - 86
BEC: 05/31/2015 - 77
FAR: 08/08/2015 - 64 - Retake 11/23/15 - 77

Becker*NINJA Notes/MCQ*

Now I could let these dream killers kill my self-esteem
Or use my arrogance as the steam to power my dreams ~ Kanye West

[fuzyfro89]

If you would have asked a year ago, I would have suggested you find work first and then figure out a way to get the CPA exams done, but that's in the past now.

You have a lot of uncertainties in your post regarding what you might like to do. That is OKAY! It's very difficult to decide on a career when you haven't done it before. The truth is that you don't have to decide your entire life today. Choose something you believe would be a good move for your career in the near term (1-2 years), and go from there. Learn and develop some sort of skill set. Hopefully get your CPA license, and then re-evaluate your career each year. Life happens, so your priorities will naturally change. Also, as you learn more about other fields or applications of the accounting/audit/tax world, you may develop new interests.

Given a lack of direction, the best path(s) are those which offer the widest set of opportunities. Working in public accounting might be a good fit if you can deal with the hours and stress, because many people make changes in their careers after public and the experience benefits them in some way.

As a personal viewpoint, I began my career in big 4 audit. I sort of enjoyed it and was okay with things for about a year. I honestly thought I would be at the firm for 5+ years when I started. Then I began to realize I could not continue in audit for the long term (for various reasons, but let's just summarize it as lots of poor scheduling and not a ton of interest in the actual work). I looked outside, and ended up leaving big 4 right around the ~2 year mark for a corporate internal audit role. This time I had more realistic expectations. I planned to stay for 18-36 months and reevaluate… around 20 months into that role I realized I wanted to try out the finance side of the house, so I began networking internally at my (current) company and got promoted into a new role in product analysis which I am currently in today.

I began public accounting thinking I'd be there for 5+ years, and in 4 years I'm on my third role. Life happens, and you will develop new interests. Hopefully your formative ones are at least helpful in some way, but it's okay if they are not. It's part of your career learning process.

[Author]

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