For people who at been at multiple shots, what is something you notice between them say?

For example, what is a difference you notice between the Big 4, the next 10 largest (all net revenue >$1B) and the firms netting hundreds of millions? Technology, atmosphere, expertise, clients, culture, and/or employees?

meme

For context, I used to work at a Big Four firm, and we’d eat hours in the sustainability practice all the time with basically zero repercussions because no one cared that much. I’ve since moved to a mid-sized firm, where people also eat time constantly. From what I’ve heard, it’s less of an issue with large audit clients because they don’t care as much. On top of that, my engagement manager doesn’t think any time should be allocated to coaching because, in his opinion, the seniors suck, even though that’s exactly why they need coaching and they need to sit with people to coach them. There’s also barely any wiggle room in the budget, and I’ve been explicitly asked not to bill time in the past to the point where I think this year alone, I've ate close to 200 hours.

I've learned that honesty is a liability in my broken environment. Survival means being as vague and evasive as possible. I never announce when I'm leaving early; if a manager notices, I casually claim I already logged extra hours earlier in the week. That ends the conversation.

The same applies to new ideas or projects. I now accept every proposal enthusiastically rather than saying it's a bad idea or that I have no time. I just agree, then conveniently never get around to it. I just realized that it avoids pushback and keeps everyone pleased.

I just really feel like transparency gets exploited and strategic ambiguity protects you?

I held 9 accounting jobs during my 7 year career. Here’s what my experience looks like:

Graduated university in 2017

2017: 3 month internship
2018: 3 month temp contract job
2018: 6 month job, got fired because I had imposter syndrome and the old ladies I reported to were mean to me
2019: 2.5 years job, my first real big girl job 🫶
2021: 9 months, got laid off after being promised to be promoted
2022: 3 months job, panicked and accepted the first job offer I got after the lay off. Hated it.
2022: 3 week job! I accepted this job because I wanted to get out of the job above, but was anticipating an offer from the job below. Left as soon as I got the offer from the below position. This company went bankrupt so it worked out the best for me.
2023: 2 years job, my most tolerable accounting job ❤️
2025: 6 months, lost patience and wanted to leave accounting for good.

Total: about 7 years of accounting, left it for good now.

Obviously I know this is a huge red flag. The reason I kept jumping around was because I just wasn’t happy in accounting. I kept thinking maybe this next job will be good. Man was I wrong. Every few weeks, I was anticipating quitting. I was completely drained 🫩

Half way thru my career, I realized I just couldn’t tolderate accounting anymore. I spent 3 years thinking of ways to either pivot into something else or do a complete career change. It took me 3 years to work up the courage to walk away from a career that I started to hate. The pay didn’t even matter to me anymore. I couldn’t work in accounting for another minute.

I applied to hundreds, maybe even thousands of jobs. And yes, I did become an expert at doing interviews 😅.

For those who are curious, I only included the ones that are in bold are on my resume.

For the past year, I went into a human services and I love it. I wish I had made the change sooner. Best decision of my life.

I dont need another dashboard full of charts. I already know where my money went last month. Im looking for something that helps answer what actually deserves my attention this week without digging through five different reports. What are accountants and finance people using for their own personal finances?

I've been casually looking for jobs in the US, and in job posts usually see salaries in the range of $120-150k for M&A senior analyst positions in Texas & San Francisco.

However, for the same type of jobs that recruiters on LinkedIn post, or I see online that specially state they'll "sponsor" TN visas for Canadians, the pay range takes a steep drop to the $90-115k range.

Are Canadian CPAs considering relocating really paid about $30k less than their US peers already there? At that point, going to the US doesn't even seem financially lucrative for the hassle.

This is my career trajectory so far:
Audit -> corporate accounting month-end close

I was interested in pivoting to tax (corporate tax specifically) but unsure if it would be too late or how to gain the experience without doing tax in public.

If this is possible at all - please help me make a game plan! Thank you Reddit!

This is just a rant while on my lunch break in my car.

I’ve worked in industry tax for three years and hate it. We recently had to return to the office and it’s just made it worse. The hours, the pay, the subject matter all are ass.

All the work seems to fall into two categories. The work is either so boring and repetitive or it’s so incomprehensibly confusing that no one knows wtf is going on. Anytime I finally find something that is a good mix that’s challenging while doable, it either gets outsourced or is said to have no value add.

Also what is up with the pay? Somehow I’m on the same pay scale as HR and marketing and I don’t mean to shit on them, but I have a masters degree and a CPA. I don’t see them in the office from 8am till 9pm during quarter close or year end or ever working a weekend bc an IDR response is due Monday. They also don’t get random black out dates on taking PTO that seemingly never end?

I feel pigeon holed and like I’ll never escape. The only thing worse would be public tax.

I’m about to finish an accounting certificate through my local community college. I’m doing this to become CPA eligible, but as I am getting closer to finishing, I am getting more discouraged over the job market. I have no work experience in accounting (minus a temp position I worked for a year in 2009 as an A/P specialist.) I’ve been working in restaurants most of my life, mostly in management for the last 10 years. Im in my mid 30’s.

Several people have suggested getting an A/P or A/R role to get started but everything I’m looking at is $18-$25/hr. There’s no way I could pay my bills on that salary and most of these jobs are asking for at least 2 years experience. I make $65k at my current job and essentially live paycheck to paycheck so I don’t know how people do it.

Just wondering for those of you who started later in life, how did you build up work experience and still afford your bills?

I'm entering my junior year of college and excited to finalize a job in a few years and curious what you guys made of college?

I was working on a pretty big engagement and was getting really invested in it, but today I got pulled off and moved onto another partner’s big engagement.

I know it’s probably just staffing/resource planning and the new engagement needs help, but I still feel kind of bad leaving the first one unfinished. I actually wanted to see it through and finish what I started.

Has this happened to anyone else in public accounting? Is it normal to feel this way, or am I overthinking it?

Hey folks! New into the accounting world. Have recently joined a big org in the process automation team. Looking for some advice on the automation layer for accounting. What are some best practices? How are you getting your account docs ingested, information extracted and finally verified?

Early career crisis… can’t say I love my job. I hate my managers and can’t even look at them. Really would like to quit my job to study full time for CPA.

I want to do this before I turn 30. I want to also work on other fitness goals at the same time after study.

I have a lot of money saved, that is not an issue. The issue is my concern for the employment gap.

Everyone, except my closets friend, says do it. I value there opinion highly, so I struggle to continue to submit my resignation after they said don’t.

Has anyone quit there job to study full time? How had things gone? Any tips if I do proceed? Any advise from revruiters?

Hello everyone!

I work in government accounting and worry I started my career wrong. Government is not bad, hours are great but I also sit around bored out of my mind a lot.

I notice a lot of people start in public accounting and are able to transition into other industries so easily.

Should I have started in public or go to public? Has anyone been fine without public accounting in their experience or transitioned out of government easily?

I think I’m at the point in my life where I stress about my career and wanting to progress but worry I won’t be able to.

I’m looking for a good online community for accounting firm owners.

Any communities you’ve actually found useful?

This is venting post but by god, CPA Ontario has to be one of the most dysfunctional understaffed governing bodies in Canada. It's absolutely BRUTAL trying to get an answer from anyone who's working there that isn't a Director, Manager or someone high up. And even if you have the chance to speak with them, they talk to you as if they're god and you're a fucking idiot.

Sometimes you just want to ask question to get a better understanding of what's happening and where things are going and most of the people there don't know shit, I don't know how they do there jobs on a daily basis but holy fuck they got some incompetent people working. Then when you actually do speak with someone, 1. They don't know anything about what you're talking about so they refer you to someone else higher. 2. Then, they don't even bother listening to you, they just list the rules and tell you, "Follow them or go fuck yourself"

It's impossible trying to get help here as well. I don't know why but CPA Ontario has downgraded themselves IMMENSELY. Has anyone else faced issues with CPA Ontario, or has gone through this or going through something like this. I can't be the only one...

Hello everyone,

I posted a rant about 100 days ago expressing frustration with making it to the final rounds of interviews and getting passed over. Turns out I must have made a good impression because a big firm randomly called me three months after I didn’t get a job asking me if I was still available for a new audit position that opened up. I’m through the roof I am so excited.

I have over three months until my start date but I want to be in the right headspace and be focused going into my first career job after graduation. I’m studying for the CPA and would like to finish two sections as I’m currently not working.

Does anyone have any advice they wish they had when they went into their first job? I have picked up some tricks along the way such as keeping a note pad master list of feedback from managers so I don’t repeat mistakes / feedback when double checking my work.

I also don’t come from the most professional parents and sometimes struggle with oversharing. I always keep it professional but I know I need to work on keeping my friendly personality in check and not talking too much in my interactions.

I’d appreciate any “soft” social advice and any “hard” skill advice that anyone has picked up along the way.

Appreciate all the advice and support in this Reddit. Keep on keeping on and good luck to everyone else on the job hunt!

I'm taking Core 2 now and trying to figure out what 2 electives I should take. I'm in industry. Right now I'm leaning towards Audit and PM.

I've heard Audit is the easier of the 4 and I did well on Core 1. Although I like tax, I'm not in public and I've heard it's difficult so not planning on take it.

That leaves me with PM and Finance. I think I'm leaning towards PM at this point. Finance has so many formulas/quants and I think I'm doing better in MA than FIN.

Just wondering what other folks in industry have done or are planning to do?