[Anonymous]

Hi All,

I am a CPA and have industry experience for 6 plus years in general accounting. I have never worked for public accounting not tax or audit. But I always felt like I should have tried to work in public accounting for a year or so just for some public experience. If I have to go to public, I have to go as an entry level now. Do you guys think its a good idea to go to public as entry level? Comments are appreciated.

[jm962011]

Hi CPA, I was in your position but I had half the experience in industry (3 years) and in sales and use tax. It was way too monotonous for me and when I left, the VP of tax suggested I get out of sales tax because I was so bored. Honestly, props to you for being a gl account for 6 years, I think gl accounting is more boring than sales and use tax.

I don’t know if the gl accounting experience will help you come into an audit position above level 1 (I think most firms have Staff – Levels 1-3 and then Senior – Levels 4-5). If you’re interested in tax, it’ll most likely be a level 1 but your gl accounting might help if your experience is GAAP. In order to do tax returns, you have to understand what was done for GAAP so you can make the tax adjustments.

You have to ask yourself if you want to put up with the change in work/life balance and if you want to be challenged. For me, I did because I hated doing the same thing over and over again at work every single month. Plus, I already had my CPA so that helped – I am a little less stressed out than my peers who still need to pass. I also liked the idea of higher yearly raises (industry is like 2-3% if you’re lucky but I think public is more of a minimum of 5%) and a better idea of when you’ll get promoted (in industry, someone has to die before you can move up). I will say the 401k match isn’t nearly as competitive but again, pros and cons to everything.

So far, the hardest thing for me going from private to public has been tracking my time. Not that I jacked around in industry but I didn’t track what I was doing every 6 minutes. Public is also good for me right now because I was always a person who came to work to get my work done. It was always quality over quantity for me. In industry, there were people who would come to work, jack around a couple of hours and then have to stay late because they didn’t get their work done.

[marqzho]

Make your own scenario analysis : What is your “cost” to go into public?
Let say
Worst case: you go in, find out you hate public, waste probably a year of time, need to find a new job at private again. But you know what it looks like in public.
Best case: you go in, find out you freaking love public, you find out what true happiness is 🙂

But if you never step foot into the public
You will think about it this year, next year, every year. You will come to a point in your life where you think what would I be if I went to public. For every year of your life, you will probably think you are too old and you should have done this in 2016.

REG 90
FAR 95
AUD 98
BEC 84

[Sang]

From what I have read here, I think the main downside for starting out in public as an entry level accountant for some people is because of the pay cut. I read that on average, many accountants starting off at the big 4 CPA firms get paid around $57,000 a year. That could be a pay cut for people that are currently making more than that in the industry.

I am in the same boat as you. I have 6 years of staff accountant experience, doing Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, and Payroll. For the past year, I tried to apply to other accounting jobs, but haven’t been successful. I think my resume is usually passed up because I lack accounting experience in other fields. I think I only got 2 calls from recruiters, and they didn’t lead to anything.

So this is the reason why I am pursuing my CPA license now. My future career goal is to become a senior accountant or a controller. My plan is to pass the CPA exam by summer of next year, and then apply to the big 4 CPA firms. I want to work as an auditor for 2-3 years for the experience, and then go back into the industry. If I can’t get into the big 4, I am fine with working for a mid-size CPA firm.

I read that there are many horror stories about working for the big 4 CPA firm. If you don’t want to go through all of that, you can always apply to a mid-size or a small-size CPA firm. I heard that they are less stressful.

Good luck on your journey!

FAR: (05/24/16) | (07/15/16) | (10/22/16)
AUD: (09/07/16) | (11/29/16) |
BEC: TBD
REG: TBD
Using Roger CPA Review + Ninja (MCQs, Notes, Audio)

[Anonymous]

Do you actually WANT to work in public accounting long-term? That's the only reason I can imagine it being useful to start in public as an associate after 6 years in industry.

I know it's frustrating to see “Big 4 or public experience required” in job postings, but the truth of the matter is that demand is outpacing supply for good accountants in most cities, so companies are having to let go of the idea that only a Big 4/public accountant is good enough for their open roles. IWith any luck, this will reduce the number of future job postings that outright reject industry accountants for industry accounting roles.

[Missy]

Think what your long term career goal is. If you want senior level or higher in a F500 company then having big4 experience keeps you competitive with other candidates for the same position. If you want senior or higher in a mid sized company then public experience doesn't necessarily need to be big 4. If thats the end goal then without a doubt make the sacrifices that need to be made to do it.

If you picture yourself in your 50's as an accounting manager for a small company that isn't even audited very few companies will care that you've had public experience. Having the CPA license alone is enough to make you an outstanding candidate combined with relevant experience. If you stay in industry also remember that if you've got 10 years experience for a company that builds desks, a company that builds airplanes may not see your experience as relevant especially if your competition for the same position has worked for companies that build airplanes.

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

[Sage]

I am now working as a controller at a not-for-profit, but think having some public accounting experience is incredibly beneficial. I got hired as an audit associate at a small CPA firm when I graduated from college. I was only there for a year, primarily because the public accounting field just wasn't a good fit for me personally, along with some other personal reasons. But some of the knowledge and techniques I learned form being an auditor have benefited more than I can ever explain, even though it was just one year. I joke that sometimes I still have an auditor mindset, and find myself preparing spreadsheets and reconciliations similar to how my firm did work papers (which is REALLY helpful if someone else needs to follow your work or you reference back to it nine months later).

That being said, I agree with the other posters that you need to weigh the pros and cons. Will there be a pay cut involved? If so is that worth it to you? And are you prepared for busy season? As jm962011 pointed out, one frustrating part can be tracking your time. My firm had ridiculous expectations of billable hours, but then was also really strict about budgets on a particular job and the two never worked together. I found it beyond frustrating trying to balance meeting my billable hours and staying under budget on the areas I was assigned particularly. Our busy season while I was there wasn't that busy, but they still expected 60+ hours from everyone, even though we were all completing our work in around 40-45 hours and begging for more work.

Good luck with your decision!

FAR - 89
AUD - 78
BEC - 81
REG - 5/28/16

[jpump]

I have a similar story. I worked in various low-level industry accounting positions for nearly 8 years before getting into public accounting. I passed the CPA exam before transitioning – I think that is almost mandatory if you want to be taken seriously as a candidate. The more you are willing to travel, the more options you may have available to you. I was already married with a kid, so I wasn't looking for a lot of travel. I ended up getting in at the ground floor of a local CPA firm, 20-30 people. I work in the Accounting & Audit department – in addition to audits, we do monthly book accounting for small businesses. You'll find that a lot of smaller firms do that – our audit book of business isn't big enough for someone to be a year-round auditor. The monthly compilation work isn't so bad – it keeps you sharp, as far as maintaining your book knowledge – debits and credits, etc.

I've found that the starting pay in a smaller firm is fairly competitive at the staff level – we will start someone in the 52k-55k range. And if you are a solid performer, you can get some decent raises in addition to your annual bonus. I think my first raise was 5%, then it went down to 3.5% – but almost a month later, I got promoted to Senior and they added around 7% to my pay. Since then, the raises have not been too exciting – 3% or so…and the bonuses in a small firm are not the size you would get in a bigger firm. 2k is a pretty decent bonus for someone in my position at my firm. I don't know how that compares to larger firms, but I've heard you can do much better elsewhere. I've been there for 4 busy seasons now, and am starting to look into working for a bigger firm.

[Anonymous]

My situation is similar to the OP and I was about to post similar question yesterday. I have 8 years of private accounting experience from Staff Accountant to Senior Accountant in G/L,A/R,A/P, month end closing, and Bank reconciliation. I am debating whether i should make the jump from private to public or not since a lot of job postings do prefer auditing experience. I would probably have to take 10-15k pay cut with such a jump. The pay cut would be as high as 20-25k if i am factoring my next job increase.

I am not sure if it is worth or not because I would be working as a staff again for the next 2 years with longer hours. Those are the biggest two cons for me. Eventually, I do want to become an accounting manager or controller for a small/mid size company.

[Anonymous]

CalCPA, We are in the same boat. If I have to switch to public accounting, I will have to go with the pay cut of at least 20K. But I found with the job search that having a public experience is an incredible advantage in your resume. I am still debating which route to go.

[CPYay]

Likewise. 6 years of experience as a Staff Accountant. Fortunately/Unfortunately, my company has given me the responsibilities of a Senior Accountant, but won't give me the pay or title because I didn't have my degree. I just graduated last weekend and am now studying for FAR. I will receive a significant pay increase no matter where I go because I'm grossly underpaid.

Still though… I'm debating about going to Public because of the hours (I have a family) and the commute (all the firms are about 15 miles away, but in SoCal, that's like a 1.5 hr drive in the morning!).

[Anonymous]

Public accounting is too much of a resume booster NOT to take up. If you dont like it, bare with it long enough to be a Senior for a year.

Everyone I know in Public has careers leagues better than those who have only done private.

[GHardesty]

Wow there are other people in similar positions that I'm in. I'm a sr. accountant with 8 years of private industry accounting experience. I work for a really good company and I'm happy here. However with that said, I know that to get to the corp controller level or to be a revenue recognition manager/director it is hard to get there even with the CPA and progressive private accounting experience (I started as an accounting clerk>jr staff>staff>senior). I still have to pass AUD, which will be end of month. Then the ethics exam, then wait for the license. So IDK…maybe a few months from now at best? However, it is something I've been pondering considering I'm in my early 30's now, pay cut would be >$20K is my guess, work more hours, and I'd probably have to report to a 25 year old. I didn't realize life would put me in this predicament – just bad planning on my part. But as far as the public accounting experience and having to overcome the obstacle of not working for public the rest of my career it might be worth it to take a step back for a couple of years.

Thoughts?

AUD 80 05/31/16 (1x)
BEC 80 01/16/16 (3x)
FAR 78 11/23/15 (2x)
REG 87 02/29/16 (2x)

[GHardesty]

Nvm – After reading mla11692's response I think I have my answer. Thanks.

AUD 80 05/31/16 (1x)
BEC 80 01/16/16 (3x)
FAR 78 11/23/15 (2x)
REG 87 02/29/16 (2x)

[Anonymous]

Thank y'all for the inputs. I would love to hear more stories who want to move back to public from industry.

[Author]

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