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numerrik posted:Would it look bad on my resume if I had a sparse/non-existent job history right out of school? I was thinking of getting a job with the IRS or do independent book keeping for local businesses, and the book keeping I have been doing to pay for college has not been for anyone reputable enough to put on a resume and hope for employment. There is demand for campus hires so you'll still have a shot at landing a decent job out of school, but you'll likely be going up against a lot of other candidates who have experience and/or internships. If you graduate with a good degree and have a solid GPA with a demonstrated willingness to study for and take the CPA exam, then I think you would only get passed up for a job because other people look better and not because you look bad.
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Jul 28, 2011 03:12
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shrike82 posted:Just curious (I work in another field) but what's the salary trajectory like over a career - assuming you start out with a Big 4 and lateral somewhere else? The answer to this question will vary by city, by firm and by group, but I work for a Big 4 in Boston and in my group, currently the general trajectory is as follows: Associate/Experienced Associate (1-3 years): 52k-57k Senior Associate: 65k-83k Manager: 89k-120k plus 10k-20k bonus Sr. Manager: 135k-165k plus 20k-40k bonus Managing Director: 220k plus 50k-ish bonus Partner: 600k base, more if you have any sort of leadership role, plus random other comp Recently in my group there were people complaining about the transparency of pay, so the partner group decided to break it down like I did above, that is the only reason I know.
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Aug 7, 2011 00:56
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shrike82 posted:Interesting... and what are the time frames for promotions to the various titles? You will be an Associate your first year and Experienced Associate your second/third. If you're good, you might make Senior after two years, but the norm is three. Then you do three or four as a Senior and make manager, two to four years to make Sr. Manager. After that it is a waiting game to partner.
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Aug 7, 2011 07:15
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Moneyball posted:I live north of Boston, could you advise me how to get to about where you are from where I am now? I had an internship lined up for the summer going into senior year back when I was a sophomore so my path was pretty much set early on, but you should talk to your school's career center and see if any Big 4 (or other firms if you're interested) recruit there. I'm not sure if we do, but there was someone from your school in my group for a while. If they don't actively recruit there, you can still go to any of their websites and set up an account and apply, get more info, etc. The number one thing is to get an internship because they almost always result in a full time job offer. You should also be prepared to answer questions about how you plan on getting 150 credits (most big firms only let you start full time once you've obtained the 150) and getting credentialed. I started working in the fall after graduating college and started taking the CPA exam as soon as I started working, though I would recommend getting the ball rolling on that as soon as you're eligible to sit. Once you're working, the rest will work itself out in terms of promotions and all that - I just got promoted to Senior after working for 2 years and currently have no plans to leave. Hope that helps.
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Aug 7, 2011 21:00
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Moneyball posted:Actually, I have a follow up question. How did you go about lining up an internship so far in advance? Was it part of a specific program, like a coop at Northeastern, or is that how it normally works? And what school did you go to? As you can tell, I don't know much about internships, so I plan on seeing what career services can do for me at my new school. Career Services will definitely be able to help you through the process, and hopefully put you in contact with recruiters or point you in the right direction. I got my internship early because I did "leadership conference" type thing with my firm for 2 days at the end of sophomore year, and all 30 of us who did the program got internship offers for the following summer at the end of the two days. To my knowledge, all of the Big 4 still have programs like that for rising juniors. Once you get an internship, you basically just have to not completely gently caress something up and show a positive attitude and you'll get a full time offer. I went to a small liberal arts college south of Boston - my firm was (and still is) the biggest recruiter for any major at my school, and at the time they were the only Big 4 that recruited there although now all four do.
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Aug 15, 2011 00:12
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RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS posted:I've thought about doing accounting but I have zero background in business/accountancy/etc. but do have a B.A. in a completely unrelated field (Japanese). Would doing something like a certificate in accounting from a community college open any doors to me? Would it be a good use of my time/money or would I just be chasing meaningless certifications? Like it was said, you really want to get a degree in accounting or a related field and work towards getting credentialed to go far in the industry. However, I think your background in Japanese could be very useful in many aspects of finance and accounting such as transaction services and work involving foreign operations - you could potentially even get short or long term assignments in Japan if you were interested (down the road, of course).
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Aug 16, 2011 02:43
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masada00 posted:You also need 150 semester hours overall. They try to say that you don't necessarily need to get a Masters, but that being a CPA is so "technical" that you probably should be taking graduate level classes before you get certified. If you're close to having the 150 credits and the required accounting courses, I advocate for taking extra undergrad courses instead of getting the graduate degree since it is cheaper and the MSA degree in particular isn't especially valuable. Most of the skills and knowledge I have that have made me good at my job were gained through actual experience and not through schooling - you can absolutely be successful in this industry without a graduate degree.
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Aug 22, 2011 03:34
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Walk Away posted:I agree with the above poster. However, I have talked to a few partners and managers at local firms and they tend to say that if you want to go into taxation, you will likely be expected to get your Masters in the future. Personally, I would wait to get into a firm where they might pay for your graduate education. I meant to touch upon this in my post, and I do agree - an MST is a pretty valuable degree and if you can handle the workload and expense, I wouldn't deter anyone from pursuing it.
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Aug 22, 2011 21:54
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Moneyball posted:So what you're saying is, as someone halfway through an accounting degree and isn't very good with excel, it's time to start studying? You don't need to be awesome at Excel out of the gate to get a job or be successful at it - chances are wherever you go will have some training to help you out and others will teach you tips and tricks along the way. It will however be very helpful to you in terms of just doing your job, and if you are good with Excel it can make your work life a lot easier. I'm 200% better with Excel now than I was when I started working two years ago, but there are still other people who are way more proficient with it and certain tasks I groan about are easy for them. The day I learned how to successfully use vlookup changed my life...
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Aug 23, 2011 03:28
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Mush Mushi posted:Is there as much grey area to deal with in tax as there is in audit? I've been having paranoid thoughts that improvements in automated tax software will eventually render tax accountants obsolete. As I said earlier though, I don't know much about tax work for large companies. Tax work for big companies or high worth individuals is not limited to just the tax return preparation, as much of the work also involves tax planning, estate planning, and so on. Big companies and wealthy people pay for tax accountants to advise them on financial strategies that will limit their exposure to taxes and this is more than automated tax software can do. Additionally, tax returns for these organizations and people can be very complex and even though there is software involved, human involvement is necessary to varying degrees. To tie taxes into the audit world, somewhat new regulations (in the last few years) require companies to disclose uncertain tax positions and deferred tax assets/liabilities. Sometimes us auditors can figure it out on our own if its a smaller company, but we usually involve our tax groups in order to better understand what we're dealing with.
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Aug 30, 2011 21:41
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Three of Clubs posted:I work in forensic accounting and have to deal with IT staff that understand VBA, SQL etc but can't be trusted to do anything on their own because they have no accounting knowledge. As a result, an accountant needs to hold their hand, check everything they do, and invariably get them to do it again correctly. I've been toying with the idea of moving into forensic accounting within my firm (a Big 4). I've always been interested in it and enjoyed the two forensic accounting classes I took back when I was in college. I haven't talked to anyone at my firm about it yet, but I think my biggest obstacle at the moment is that I just got promoted in the audit practice and the forensics jobs we have available are either for the staff level below me or my current level - I don't want to move down, but it looks like they want a little more experience at my current level for that position. From what I understand, forensic accounting can be very similar to auditing but with the added twist of being more investigative and also involving other non-financial factors such as IT audits as you mentioned. Is this a pretty accurate understanding, and do you think it would be a smart and/or easy enough transition from audit to forensics? I'd be interested in hearing more about what you do on a day to day basis, how you got into that specific field, and if there is anything you might suggest I do over the next year or so if I want to make the transition. For reference, one of the specific areas I was considering transitioning to was forensic accounting with government contracts and accounting.
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Sep 10, 2011 04:47
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Mush Mushi posted:What is the best way to contact a campus recruiter who won't be visiting my campus this semester? Career services at my school doesn't have any contact info. Searching on the internet isn't turning up anything current. I feel like calling an office and asking to speak with someone could be received negatively. I'm really surprised your school's career center has no contact info for any recruiters at any accounting firms. But if that really is the case, I know you can get in touch with any Big 4 recruiters through their websites. Specifically, both PwC and Deloitte have somewhat user-friendly websites for recruiting, so give it a shot. I look at my own firm's (a Big 4) external job site somewhat often and it's always current within 1-2 days of posting jobs.
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Sep 11, 2011 09:03
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Three of Clubs posted:I've never been in audit so I'm not sure about the comparison to audit. As a brief overview of the work I do, I'm a senior analyst (possibly almost manager) working for a boutique Australian forensic accounting firm. The big 4 don't seem to do the kind of forensics work we do; the only times I've heard of them in the context of forensics is a high profile investigation of a large rugby league club breaching the salary cap rules, and a small insurance claim prepared by one of them. That is very helpful, thank you. I am a fairly strong writer and don't mind doing it at all, and I usually take the lead on writing both internal and external reports involving specific and significant issues our clients ask us to look at so I don't think I'd mind the writing portion of the job. At this point I think I will probably do at least one more busy season in audit and then look more seriously at forensic accounting. Of the different types of things you mentioned in your post, what is your favorite part of the job? The aspect of your work I think I'd be most interested in is the fraud investigations, but I'm not sure how our forensics practice is structured as compared to yours.
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Sep 12, 2011 00:40
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Harry posted:You can't do prepaid because you aren't prepaying anything. (to sukashi) I think scribe jones basically had the right idea, but I agree with you that you shouldn't plug to prepaids even though at the end of the year the misstatement resulting from doing so would likely be immaterial. If you end up getting a bill for less than you cumulatively expense, I would reduce expenses and if you get a bill for more than you cumulatively expense, I would debit the expense. Even though Utils Payable and accruals are both liabilities, technically I think you should be crediting Accrued Utils when you record the initial expense, and then move it to Accounts Payable when you get the bill. If you're actually paying the bill immediately upon receipt, it doesn't need to sit in payables and you can just reduce the accrued liability with the credit to cash. Since it is just a balance sheet reclass and financials for many small private companies show AP and accruals in the same line item it may or may not be worth it to do this.
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Sep 15, 2011 03:01
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VanishXZone posted:I graduated December 2010 with a BS in Accounting from a small southern private college. The accounting department was sold to me as being the best in the area (and it was great) but the school is so small so no one came to campus to recruit and the school's career center is useless ("oh you just need to go out and network"). I was going to try to get a job with the IRS, but the Revenue Agent hiring earlier this year was cancelled for budgetary reasons. So I've spent the last 9 months applying to jobs online and the best I've managed is two interviews that ended with "sorry, you just don't have enough experience." I'm broke so I can't afford CPA review, much less to take the exam, same with GMAT so Grad school is out. I don't mean to throw a pity party, but what do I need to do differently? Like the poster above me suggested, you could go out and get a related job in industry to garner some experience. There are also some cheaper review programs than the ones you typically see people using like Becker - check out https://www.another71.com for some additional resources on those. What kind of firms have you been applying to? Most firms in my area, the Big 4 I work for included, need resources. Granted, most prefer experienced hires because most if not all new hires without experience come from campus recruiting and there is only so much help a new hire can provide to an understaffed firm. But, if you can show your desire to be on the CPA track, you'll be more attractive to them. Right now is the major recruiting time on campus for the big firms, so it might not be too late to get an interview. You should also consider trying to get an internship with one of the big firms - they will often hire graduates who didn't intern with them previously so that they can evaluate you in the field and give you more time to get your required credits and exams done. This past summer I had an intern who was actually a couple of months older than me and had just graduated in May, but he didn't have 150 credits so they wouldn't hire him full time (yet). If you don't have the credits required for certification in your state, start pursuing those now so you can help your case. I know you said you can't afford grad school, so look at alternative options like online courses that are cheaper and still get you the credits you need.
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Sep 26, 2011 19:19
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Harry posted:We took over a property about 2 weeks ago and I have been asking the previous management company for their ending trial balance, and ytd income statement. I finally got them today (as if they had to do any real amount of work on them), and the trial balance was off by 2 million dollars and showed there was never any RE at any point. 10 minute later, I get a call from the owner saying he needs some current financial statements for a refinance he's been working on. Who the gently caress switches management companies during a god drat refinance? This sounds like a pretty interesting situation. I agree it is strange to switch management companies in the middle of a refinance, and that fact plus the TB being off by so much would make me a bit suspicious. Whatever bank or company he is working with in this refinancing deal will also probably be a bit suspicious, and whether he switched or not I can't imagine any situation where they wouldn't want audited financials before moving forward. In terms of that reclass, what's the deal with that? Is he trying to move it from fixed asset additions to capital improvements, or from fixed asset additions to repairs and maintenance?
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Oct 1, 2011 04:00
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Absentlife posted:Anyone here studied for and passed the CPA exam while not working? I don't have much experience in the field out of school and it's been terribly difficult even landing an interview. I took/passed the exam while working, but I can add some of my own insight to your questions. If you don't have a job right out of school, the next best thing you can do is study and pass the exam. When you pass and start interviewing, it will look a lot better in the eyes of potential employers if you spent your time after college studying and passing the exam as opposed to working an unrelated job or sitting on your rear end. Most people that get hired at public accounting firms (particularly the big ones) are campus recruits who have no experience or their experience is limited to an internship which is more or less just an extended interview process. I don't think many people would fault you for getting the exam done in the meantime. Put it this way - you'll be a lot more attractive to prospective employers if the exam is done, because they won't have to give you time off to study and they won't have to pay for your exams or give you a bonus for passing it (if that particular firm offers such incentives). I recommend you keep looking for a job or even an internship as a graduate (this is more common than you'd think) and in the meantime, study. Studying is a full time job in itself so it won't be a waste of time for you to do it.
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Oct 21, 2011 03:07
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Harry posted:I'm pretty sure most firms give bonuses if you have it pass already. It's really worth it for them, since they know they'll have a CPA in a year. This may be true, but I can't say for sure. At my firm, it sounds like if you are hired outside of the normal recruiting process (i.e. campus recruiting) you will just get a slightly higher starting salary than you would otherwise. Either way, it's still worth it.
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Oct 22, 2011 07:09
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Tiax Rules All posted:As someone who is going to school in Southern California, is there any method to get the attention of a New York CPA firm? On-campus recruiting isn't exactly an option. Should I try peppering their websites with my resume and cover letter? You can try submitting your resume through their websites, but if any of the Big 4 recruit at your school locally you can talk to them about getting an interview for one of their NY offices. I know plenty of people who went to school across the country and in other states that got jobs in my office that way. And speaking of Quickbooks, I'm in the midst of my first experience with it right now. As someone who normally audits companies with more complex accounting systems, it is making my life harder than I would have expected given its limited capabilities. That being said, maybe the person who uses it just isn't very good with it and is blaming it on the software...
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Nov 1, 2011 02:37
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Harry posted:It's not the most robust system ever, but the person probably doesn't know what they're doing. Fair enough. There are just certain things I expect to be simple for my staff, such as bank reconciliation testing - yet it appears to be a huge deal to find out what actual checks make up the outstanding check listing. This is the first time this particular client has ever been audited (although they are part of a larger group that my firm has audited for years) so I can appreciate their lack of preparation and understanding, but the fact that it takes our contact 3 hours to provide a real outstanding check listing (since her Quickbooks reports just aggregate amounts) is ridiculous.
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Nov 2, 2011 06:15
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Mandalay posted:I just took Individual (206) & Corporate (207) Tax this summer. Huie is a good prof, really liked her. I assume because you guys said "OC" that means you're in California and you've probably researched the exam and certification requirements. But, just a word of advice to those in other states (I'm in MA, so I"m speaking from that background) your credits from a CC need to transfer into a 4-year school (i.e. you take CC classes for extra credits while you're still enrolled at a 4-year school as opposed to taking them after you graduate). In MA and some other states, after you graduate from a 4-year school you need to get your credits from another 4-year school. So for example, I only needed 17 more credits to be eligible for certification when I graduated from college. Instead of getting an MSA I wanted to take CC classes on the cheap for the extra credits, but instead had to take online classes at a 4-year state school since the CC credits wouldn't have worked.
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Nov 9, 2011 03:52
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Creel posted:I recently got a job but it's not really what I want. I want to change jobs, but I don't want to make any enemies by leaving so soon. The position I have isn't what I wanted, it's a highly specialized position that has no use outside of the Bank I work for($35,000/yr). I am not advocating that you make one decision or the other, but I would just caution you against making a move simply because you think the Asst. Controller position is a better job. It very well could be, but make sure it is something you could see yourself doing. Depending on the size of the company, Asst. Controller could just be a glorified Accounting Manager role where there are lots of journal entries and cost/managerial accounting, particularly because it is a manufacturing company. Cost/managerial accounting isn't for everyone so I'd just make sure it is something you could see yourself doing. You could always stick with your current job and work towards certification, after which you'll probably have even more opportunities. That being said, if you do think this other job is the right fit for you, I think RedTonic gave solid advice as to how to handle it - at the end of the day it's your life and your career and you should do what's best for you (as long as you handle things properly).
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Nov 26, 2011 04:36
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Turkeybone posted:Okay.. so who actually has a rewarding and happy accounting career? Like for all that I read about the rise and need of accountants, there's like the accountemps thread and other people talking about how they can't find any work, despite having passed the CPA exam and such. My experience comes from a Big 4 in MA, and I can confirm there is a need for (public) accountants but unfortunately for many people in this thread the need is more for experienced candidates. There is obviously a rigorous campus recruiting process each year, but new hires are only so useful in times when we need more staff. Experienced candidates are harder to find because there would need to be incentives to cause them to leave one public accounting firm for another, as well as for those in industry to come to public (usually after having spent some time in public previously and having left for specific reasons). I think for most people who say they are having trouble finding jobs right out of college or soon after, it is due to a lack of experience (no internship etc.) or because there isn't a lot of recruiting at their particular school. In terms of it being happy and having a rewarding career, I would say I'm pretty happy. Of course, we all wish we made more money, especially with the hours we sometimes work, but in general I'm satisfied with my job and the way my career is progressing. I went into accounting not so much because I had a lifelong dream of being an auditor, but because I knew it would provide opportunities down the road. Even though I'm content at the moment, I see myself using my current position as a launching pad into something else in the next year or two - hopefully a gig in Advisory doing either forensic accounting or M&A consulting.
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Nov 26, 2011 20:30
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rentilius posted:I just passed all 4 parts of the CPA exam, did volunteer work through VITA, have an internship done, and have all 150 credits, and I graduated with a 3.7. I know this might sound weird, but do you think that, since I graduated, my chances at getting into a big 4 have sailed away? I'm getting worried. I don't think they've sailed away, but you may have to be more independent and proactive in the application process. If you graduated somewhat recently (and maybe even if you haven't), you can probably still utilize your school's career services office, at the very least for some direction and contacts. Otherwise, all of the Big 4 have recruiting websites that you should look into, submit your resume to, and so on. If you have internship experience, 150 credits and the exam completed, you'll be a pretty attractive candidate for entry level positions. quote:This is an interesting thread and would like some input for those who have considered similar paths. For background, I have a B.S. in Business Administration with an emphasis in Computer Information Systems. Most of my jobs in college and a for a spell after graduation were I.T./networking types positions. A bit over two years ago I left an I.T. job and am now in accounts payable for the Department of Defense. Since I have been in this position I have taken 24 credit hours of accounting from a university with a satellite campus on base. If you pursue the MSA, it won't be completely overlooked when you're applying for jobs but having the exam completed and 150 credits under your belt will be much more valuable. There are cheaper/quicker ways to get your 150 than an MSA and as other posters have said, it's not looked at as a huge asset but more as a way to get your required credits. I'm thinking the only way it would truly help you in the application process is because of the fact that your business concentration wasn't in accounting. In terms of going into forensic accounting, in my experience the Big 4 usually prefers to hire people into that type of group after they have some previous experience (most often in audit). I would suggest doing what you need to do to get the credits and exam completed, then going into audit for a Big 4 or regional firm to get experience. Once you have the experience and a network, it will be easier to transfer into a group like forensic accounting but that's just my $.02. hellboundburrito fucked around with this message at 17:58 on Dec 23, 2011 |
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Dec 23, 2011 17:53
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RedTonic posted:I'm doing some operations work now It sounds like right now, your biggest barrier will be getting noticed by recruiters. I'd say you're about as an attractive candidate as a senior in college, because although many of them may have internships in accounting they will not have gotten their 150 credits yet, nor will they have passed the exam. I'm not sure how old you are or if you could still use your school's career services department (which would be one option) but you should be putting your resume on different firms' recruiting portals if you haven't already. Ideally, you would pass the exam and then you'd be an even more attractive candidate, but either way I think you would generate some interest for an entry level audit position. I know many people who have worked at my firm that came to us after working in a completely unrelated industry (it sounds like you're at least in the business world) but they got their MSA, had 150 credits and showed that they had a clear plan to pass the exam.
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Dec 27, 2011 05:41
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which is insanely dull. If I pass my CPA exams, have the 150 credits, and am employed, will that make me an attractive prospect? I've not gotten much attention from recruiters; I know not having experience definitely hurts my chances, but it seems impossible to actually get experience (I want to go into auditing, but federal tax would be fine). I've already completed an MSA, and going back to school isn't really an option right now. I'm in the state association for CPAs, but they are pretty somnolent and there's nothing there for employment resources.
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Moneyball posted:I replied to this ad looking for a tax preparer Hey, you're near me! In terms of the ad, I don't think it's unusual for there to be no company name, as most job ads I've seen on craiglist don't have the name of the company in them. As far as paying for books go, it could either be legitimate and they don't want to pay for materials for people they aren't (necessarily) going to hire or they could produce their own materials and this is just a way for them to earn supplemental income. As long as you are aware of what you're applying for (season tax preparer, think HR Block) and are fine with it, I'd say you should find out what the books cost and take it from there. Seasonal tax prep work isn't exactly glorious, but if you're just looking for some extra cash or some experience with tax work, it isn't a terrible idea.
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Dec 28, 2011 04:11
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Moneyball posted:As an update to my previous post, it turned out to be a new Liberty Tax franchise, and the owner is paying for the books this year. It depends what you want to do. Experience is experience, and firms understand that internships are both a way of evaluating you as a candidate for full time employment as well as a time for you to evaluate them and figure out what you want to do in the field. Using this experience to get an internship won't limit you to tax internships for the summer, and given that an internship is very important for your career aspirations I would say you should pursue what you want but be flexible if you only get offers for tax-related internships.
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Jan 4, 2012 18:37
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Captain Beans posted:Accountants help me figure out where in accounting I need to be in. You probably don't have the experience or background to go right into consulting, but you may want to give auditing a shot. Without having 150 credits or being on the CPA track, you probably won't get any interest from a Big 4 but you could look into a regional or local firm doing smaller audits. Since it sounds like you want to interact with clients, you'll have that opportunity in audit although it won't be quite like doing personal taxes, since your client is usually a business and you interact with client contacts who usually view you as a necessary evil rather than someone who is trying to help them save money on their taxes.
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Jan 15, 2012 19:44
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Usually I try to answer questions in this thread, but tonight I have a question of my own. I work for a Big 4 in audit, and someone I went to college with who worked at my firm but left for another Big 4 because they couldn't accommodate her transfer gave my name to her recruiter. I got a call from that recruiter yesterday asking if I'd be interested in a management consulting job in NYC (I'm in Boston). How would those of you who work at a Big 4 feel about this? In general, I think I need to stick out the rest of busy season here so as to not screw anyone over. At the same time, audit this time of year sucks and I was planning on applying for a job within my Firm for a different group (either M&A or forensic accounting) at the end of busy season. Would you guys recommend I hold out and apply within my Firm, or give this offered interview a shot?
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Jan 22, 2012 10:15
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WarpedNaba posted:As much as I wish I could confirm this, I can't really say I've had such luck. All local and national positions I've applied for tended to require 2-3 years experience (Not preferred, required. They won't accept anyone roughly under the age of 25) for entry-level positions. And when I say entry level, I mean junior accountants/assistant accountants or positions in Acc R/P, payroll, so forth. And no, a Bachelor in business with an accountancy major doesn't count. I asked. I do think this is because you're in New Zealand. I don't know anyone who graduated with a degree in accounting here and didn't get a job out of school. The job market is pretty good for accountants here as long as you put the effort into looking for a job.
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Feb 9, 2012 03:45
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Mush Mushi posted:I'll be participating in at least one Big 4 "National Leadership Program" this summer. From what I hear, participating in these programs, especially the more selective national versions, greatly increases your chances of securing an internship for the following summer. Every single person I know who has attended one of these, myself included, got an internship offer at the end of the program. Makes the rest of college a lot less stressful.
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Mar 8, 2012 04:04
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Mush Mushi posted:Well that is definitely encouraging, thanks. Did you fly home offer in hand, or were you contacted later in the summer? I lived in the area of the one I went to, but I had my offer in hand when I left the program. You're going to love this when everyone else is interviewing like crazy.
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Mar 9, 2012 03:31
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BlueArmyMan posted:I do have a Bachelor's, in Mass Communications, and I got that in 2003. I figured that I'd have to start fresh, considering my previous degree is a BA. If that's not the case, then that's great to know. I'm not necessarily bringing this up as a recommendation, just a consideration, but I think you could also just take specific business and accounting courses and pay for them separately in order to be eligible to sit for and take the CPA exam. You don't *necessarily* need a BSBA in accounting or an MSA to be an accountant, though at least one of the two could make you a more attractive job candidate. If you got the required credits and classes for the exam and then passed all four parts, you would likely still be looked at for quite a few jobs. In terms of the logistics of it, I think in many states if you take additional courses in business/accounting at an accredited four year school, you can submit your undergrad transcript and transcript(s) from the other schools for the purposes of applying for and sitting for the exam. After I got my undergrad degree I took a few general online courses at another school to get my required credits, and it was sufficient for me to become a CPA.
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Mar 22, 2012 03:13
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Democratic Pirate posted:Thanks, I'll be interning in Dallas but I'll be open to moving anywhere once I get out of school. All of the internships I've interviewed for have been for more of the Risk Assurance/ITRA stuff like you've mentioned, but I'm also interested in Security as well. I'm on track to intern for this next fall semester and then go back for my MIS Master's and finishing up the acct bachelors. The controls testing is what I've been telling people so far, I just say that auditors check the financial statements while I'll be checking out the system generating the statements. I just don't know if I'm signing up for a few years of sifting through excel files daily to find errors or if the work is a bit more engaging. I'm not in Risk Assurance, but I think it's a little more engaging than Excel files all day. Based on what I see when I ask a RA team to come into one of my clients, they do a lot of walkthroughs with accounting personnel, test accounting system security and other good stuff. I have always been interested in this aspect of accounting too and almost switched into that group a little over a year ago but didn't, and I think I'm a little too far into my current path to switch.
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Mar 29, 2012 03:28
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Sukashi posted:I'm currently wrapping up my second busy season, and also want to make the jump over to Risk Assurance myself. I think I'll have to be held back at the associate level for another year or two since the skillsets I would imagine are pretty different (especially since my market team handles exclusively private clients that are not SEC registrants/don't have many controls/ITGCs in place), but I'm willing to take that hit... I find auditing in general fairly interesting, but I definitely know that I don't want to do "rote" accounting for the rest of my career. Private companies eh? Sounds like you work for the same firm and in the same group as myself. Risk Assurance aside, I know I find my current role more interesting than anything in industry at my current level (Senior). I've looked into some other groups at my firm and am considering a move, but so far travel requirements are a hang up for me.
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Mar 30, 2012 03:30
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Turkeybone posted:Ok, point taken, but would you agree with the statement, "If I like intermediate i, I'll probably like a career in accounting"? (as much as one can like it, heh). I didn't necessarily love my accounting classes, but I enjoy what I do now (audit at a Big 4). One thing to remember is if you are looking to go into public accounting, you won't necessarily be doing the things you took classes for in college. Obviously you need to know about accounting and all those classes help, but I think my job is far more interesting than the classes I took in college. Yes, you are "checking" other people's accounting, but you also see more interesting things like unique transactions that you need to consult on or issues with your client's accounting policy. I think what you meant by "as much as one can like it" was more of like "hey, how can anyone be super interested in something like this" so I think if you do enjoy it to an extent, a few years in public accounting could be good for you.
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Apr 1, 2012 07:05
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SirPhoebos posted:I recently took the Auditing Section of the CPA test. Though I don't know the results yet, I feel as though I did a pretty good job. I'd say FAR as well, it's an mile wide and an inch deep.
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Apr 12, 2012 02:59
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Something lawful posted:Has anyone here got Big4 audit experience? I'm worried about committing the 3 years to it right away. I'm in audit at a Big 4 - are firms now requiring you commit to 3 years or something, or are you just assuming to make it worthwhile you will be there for 3+ years? When I joined a few years ago, there was no commitment other than you had to stay for 6 months to keep half of your signing bonus, or a full year to keep it all. Generally, life at a Big 4 is pretty similar across the board. You're likely going to find people you enjoy working with at any of them, and pay/benefits is pretty similar as well. I think it depends more on what line of service you want to go into (or if you don't have a preference, the specific group you just get placed in). For example, if you are in a group that audits huge asset management or financial services clients that are publicly traded, you might work longer hours in the typical busy season than other groups, work on fewer clients with much larger teams, and get exposure to fewer types of audit areas at the beginning of your career. Compare that to a group that maybe focuses only of private companies in a variety of industries, and you may work less in the typical busy season time frame but also have busier times throughout the year such as summer or fall due to different fiscal year-ends. You'd also likely work on smaller teams and more clients, but get exposure to more areas and have more responsibilities at a lower level.
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Apr 15, 2012 04:04
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rockin peanut posted:I learned a lot of general office-life habits that are worthwhile, but 1-3 years in accounting doesn't give you 'business' knowledge in the way recruiters might tell you. That comes after, when you start to specialize by industry/area of practice. And even then, most of what you're doing is still just debits and credits. I have a slightly different opinion on this. If you're in audit and you get to work on different clients across different industries and get exposure to more complex areas, I think you can learn a whole lot about business. Granted, you won't know enough to go and run a business or be a CFO somewhere in that time frame, but you can definitely get a solid understanding of how those businesses work, how to read financial statements and interpret financial information, understand the financial reporting and control process, cash flows, business trends, etc. If the opinion above was geared more towards being in industry, then I agree, as posting journal entries for a few years won't give you a ton of exposure to how businesses operate. As for learning a lot in training, in public accounting you'll basically just learn how the firm operates and some other basic skills in your initial training, but most of what you get out of this job is on the job learning. Having been through copious amounts of training since starting at my firm a few years ago, I think the usefulness of the training depends on what your role is - for some people it is new and useful, for others it is just review of things you've already been doing. Outside of a couple of trainings I've taken that were geared more towards managers/partners (I'm a senior), most of the ones I've attended have been fairly useless.
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Apr 18, 2012 02:22
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Cyrezar posted:Yes, it happens. When I came on board at the IRS there were quite a few people from Big 4 or similar backgrounds. Most of them got tired of the hours. This is anecdotal, but I know a guy at my office who received a job offer from a Big 4 as a senior associate for 52K. He was already making 57K at the IRS working 40 hours a week so needless to say he didn't take the job. With a CPA, MST and experience you may be able to come in as a grade 11. I know some CPAs with non-big 4 experience who were hired as grade 12/13s off the bat but that's pretty rare and it would be in an area like Large Business and International versus Small Business/Self-Employed where most new hires seem to start. It obviously depends on your location, but $52k as an experienced hire at a Big 4 (especially at the senior level) seems extremely low, so I don't blame him for passing. But I'm curious about your thoughts on advancement and the salaries that advancement at a Big 4 would have. If you stay in the IRS for 7-8 years, what's the expected compensation? My general thought, and I may be wrong, is that while you're averaging 40-50 hours/week, there isn't a lot whole of room for advancement or compensation increases. Is the draw to an agency like the IRS more a function of decent pay with less hours and decent benefits than it is the potential for advancement? Also, this is a dumb question, but do any IRS agents get firearms and arrest powers as a federal agent?
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Apr 21, 2012 08:28
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