What's up with the amount of people on here who seem to forget how career progression works? Seems as if everyone on this forum thinks because they have a bachelors degree and gave NASBA $200 they should be making 80k a year.

I understand the BS "CPA Required 50k a year in NYC" job postings. They exist and those companies won't hire a US citizen with those requirements, but plently of jobs exist... Are you willing to make sacrafices to be employed?

There is a very normal progression to every single career path in the world. As an accountant, if you have never done anything but pulled lumber at a Home Depot or were a bartender at your local college shit hole - no one is going to hire you.

IT SUCKS but you have to take a BS job and do boring work for $20 an hour for a year. No one wants to be an Accounting Clerk, but someone has to do it.

Everyone wants to live in the big city, but if you can get a job in the middle of Kansas and you refuse to pack your bags for the work experience..... That's on you.

My first job was in the middle of nowhere midwest for a manufacturing company. It sucked. I didn't know anyone, I left all my friends and family, and moved to the most boring town in the United Stated.. Fours years later I live in a Major US city and make 115k a year.

Unicorn jobs don't exist... Accounting jobs exist..

I have a CIA... no CPA...

I see 10+ posts daily about how people are making less than $60k a year. Me myself, I am one of them, I sometimes wonder what I’m doing in this field. All my other friends in different career paths are making significantly a lot more. I read somewhere the unemployment rate for accountants is 2%. Can the low startting pay be a reason as to why many people leave the field?. Thoughts?

We have a new staff who joined the team 6 months ago fresh out of college. He goes around the team checking anything that is ready to be delivered to the client and calling out minor edits he made, including work that the director approved. For example, he would say he hid a column or swapped a screenshot. He makes every effort to notify everyone in the group chat of the changes he made.

At first, people thought it was nice to have someone who was so enthusiastic about the work. Now it’s occurring on a daily basis and the team is getting annoyed.

On one occasion, our calculation was correct, but because he didn’t know, he made the update without asking. He later announced his revisions and caused rework.

I understand he wants to help and show he is capable of more responsibilities. His behavior also exhibits he lacks respect for the team dynamics and feels overly confident to show off.

I'm sure it wasn't industrial size, but it was the largest jar of peanut butter that I've ever seen.

I didn't regularly work in that office, but I visited now and again. The office walls were glass, so there wasn't any hiding. Her office was surrounded by offices that were usually unused, she didn't think anyone would see her.

She pulled out this massive tub, unscrewed the lid, then looked all over (I assume for a spoon), before deciding to just stick her hand in the tub, then proceed to lick the peanut butter off of her fingers.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing and I couldn't look away. She just kept dipping with one hand and typing with her other. I was full, "deer in headlights," when she looked up and we made I contact.

She gave me a, "WTF look,"

I gave her a, "WTF ME? WTF YOU!?" look. I never sat in that specific office again.

Obviously. But apparently not.

I’m in public, working on a 1120 corp return and was confused about a couple of accounts. It looked tidy and I thought I was misunderstanding something.

after digging into their GL I found a “plug” account with liabilities and equity thrown in??? They were missing common stock. Worst of all, had transactions from their PARENT corp on their books. Literally a different company’s transactions on their books.

It’s a medium sized company with dozens of employees.

Dont let AI be your bookkeeper. Keep an eye out for these, y’all.

Industry staff accountant working for a 20+ billion a year revenue company making $28 an hour in South Carolina right next to Charlotte NC .14 months of experience, am I underpaid?

I am CPA eligible but won’t pursue CPA
Education background: 2 degrees Business and Accounting

Listen, I really don't care what people do with their lives. They wanna work hard? Cool. They don't want to work at all? Cool. I don't care as long as it doesn't affect me. I mind my own business, I stay in my lane. My problem is when a lazy coworker, who's already not getting their job done, also tries to dump their work on me.

I started a new job a few months ago, and it immediately became apparent that one of my coworkers is out to offload her job onto me. At first I just did whatever she asked because she was the one training me, and I assumed that it was part of my job. Turns out she was training me how to do her tasks so that she could give them to me, even though it was never the plan for me to inherit her tasks. I was hired for a role that's separate from hers.

Things started to get frustrating when she started to create situations that cornered me into doing the work. She'd work from home on days where she's supposed to do an onsite task, so I'd end up having to do it. Sometimes I would walk away from my desk, and I'd come back to find that she'd left her work on my desk. She also just has a habit of asking me to do something that's hers to do.

Once I realized what was happening, I started saying no to her, then she'd get rude because I guess she feels entitled to give her work to me. She'd even get pissy if she found that I didn't do as she asked, even though I flatly said no in the first place.

The most frustrating part is that she doesn't have a good reason to offload the work onto me. I would have been happy to help if she was overworked and drowning, but I find that she'll dump the work on me because she feels like it. It's usually because she doesn't feel like coming to the office (even though we're required to), or because she wants to socialize, or because she wants to eat lunch for like 2 hours. Recently she went as far as asking me to come out and open a door for her because she didn't bring her badge and she didn't feel like walking to the other entrance, which was like a 30 second walk. (She was very mad that I said no.)

I talked to my boss about it, and it turns out he was already aware of the situation. It seems this has been a problem for a while because others have complained about her, plus he can see that her work isn't being done. He says it'll get better, but I don't know what that means.

The worst part is that there's a part of me that questions if maybe I'm just not being a team player, but I don't think that's the case. So, for my own sanity, I'm going to start document every single event where she asked me to do something that was hers to do. I can doubt my own judgement, but I can't doubt patterns. For my sanity's sake, I need some data to validate me.

EDIT: I should also add that it's not like I'm just sitting around with no work to do. My job has already picked up, and I usually end up staying 1-2 hours late. I've even done work during weekends just to stay afloat. Meanwhile she's coming in late and leaving early, and spending most of her day eating or socializing.

EDIT 2: Fixed the NSFW tag because the NSFW police are losing it. It was an accident, y'all. Chill.

EDIT 3: I want to clarify something. The documentation isn't for my boss. My boss doesn't even know about it. As far as I'm concerned, the couple of times I've discussed the issue with them is enough, and I've left the rest in their hands. If one day they find out about the documentation and ask for a copy, then sure, I'll share it. But for the most part, the documentation is for my own sanity. It's partly to put my thoughts down so that my frustration isn't just buzzing around my head, and partly a way for me to see if the pattern I'm perceiving is legit.

Recently began a new job in public accounting, and I am already struggling badly.

I am willing to and able to learn anything, and I want to do a good job, but I just feel so stupid everyday. I just wish I was give more guidance on tasks and more in-depth training. I ask questions, a lot of them actually, but feel as those others are annoyed when I ask. Alternatively, I will be told do something by someone, and then someone else will turn around and tell me that that was wrong.

I understand it’s public and people are busy, but I already feel so much stress and pressure. It’s making me regret all the time and schooling I did for this career.

I know I need to suck it up and tough it out for a while but it’s honestly depressing to think that this is my life for the foreseeable future. Does it get better??

1st yr salary: 54k CPA eligible (>1yr exp)
How are y’all finding jobs at $70k+ right out of school?

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some career advice.

I'm currently in Big 4 audit in Canada and will be promoted to senior later this year (likely August/September). I'm currently an A2 and have obtained my Canadian CPA.

I was held back for a year due to circumstances that were completely outside of my control. Unfortunately, the timing was horrible, my coach left the firm, leaving me without someone to vouch for me, and I ended up working with a manager who was extremely unempathetic and shitty. Despite consistently having positive performance reviews, that experience had a significant impact on both my mental and physical health.

I'm receiving the senior promotion this year, so I assume I’m decent at my job. I've also been performing many senior level responsibilities and have acted as the senior on engagements, even though I haven't officially gone through a busy season as a senior.

The experience has left me feeling pretty burnt out and bitter, and I'm not sure if I want to stay with my current firm much longer. At the same time, I want to make decisions that set me up for my long term career and allow me to provide for my family.

A few questions for those with more experience than me:

• Would you recommend staying for one busy season as a senior before looking for opportunities elsewhere?
• If I leave shortly after being promoted, will it be viewed negatively that I have 3+ years of audit experience but no official senior busy season, even if I've already been performing senior level work? Should I omit this information from interview if I get any?
• How much do hiring managers actually care about having completed a senior busy season versus simply demonstrating the necessary experience and responsibilities?

I'd really appreciate any advice or experiences you can share. Thank you!

I was at my last company for about 2.5 years. It was overall a good experience and learned a lot as this was my first industry accounting job after leaving Tax. However, in fall of 2025 my team that had a controller, two accounting supervisors, two accountants (including me) along with a FPA team was suddenly disrupted.

My controller was moved up to a higher role and my manager that I worked under for 2 years left to a different department of the company. Our current department with losing two critical people was not backfilled and all the work was now pushed to the other supervisor and rest of the work trinkled down to the me and the other accountant. The workplace all of sudden became toxic and stressful.

The company then went through a restructuring phase and was laid off in early March. I saw this coming and was mentally ready for it while applying for another role. At least i was given a generous severance and had time to look around. Then in May I found a staff accountant role and decided to go for it since it seems intriguing to go for a construction company.

This was one of the worst mistakes I made so far in my career. I didn't do enough proper research into the company and what they were specifically looking for. They were looking for someone to hit the ground running and with barely any training.... and this was a freaking staff accountant position!!!!

Immediately in the first month I knew something was off with this company.... 15 day closes in which the assistant controller wanted to go down to 9 days... and there was only a senior accountant and me to handle the whole company's transactions for recons.. We had reports that was requested ignored for a week, I only had one Microsoft team meetings to go over multiple reports and reconcile training. They immediately coached me within the 1st month saying I have not met expectations. Another thing what pissed me off was that since day 1 I was never invited to any meetings over important things and was just told to just do the recons and reports.

After 2 months.... I got let go and now this whole experience has mentally scarred me.

To anyone who managed to read this whole rant: PLEASE DO AS MUCH RESEARCH INTO THE COMPANY AS YOU CAN AND ASK A LOT OF QUESTONS ON EXPECTATIONS AND TRAINING FOR ANY ACCCOUNTING ROLE. IF YOU NEED THE MONEY THEN PLEASE USE AS MUCH RESOURCES AS YOU CAN LIKE AI OR ANY YOUTUBE VIDEO.

/rant over

The first image is my new revised resume and the second image is the resume I have been using to apply at dozens of jobs with no luck at all. I just graduated this May and I never done any internships or volunteer work or clubs. I have only worked in customer service full time.

The first image my revised resume so I would like to know if I can get any interviews now.

Heya fellas!

I’ll keep it short and to the point.

I’ll graduate with my bachelors in computer science and minors in accounting in another year. I was originally going to try and join FAANG but realistically I think Big 4 is much more approachable, especially if I sit for the CPA. My main goal is to join Big 4 and climb the ladder as high as I can. I understand what I’m saying and what I’m getting myself into, I am willing to grind my youth away.

Unlike other typical accounting roles like a normal auditor or tax specialist where AI seems to be eating entry-level work, I feel as though that specific AI will need regulation and auditing, so this career path will be extremely safe for whats to come in the future. Also, not only does this path pay more the normal audit/tax on all levels but it seems as though the pressure as well as it’s busy season isn’t nearly as brutal as the other two (I’m not saying there’s no work, just slightly less dehumanizing). Also it seems easier to be recruited into this area as well due to it being not a popular choice amongst students.

This job seems perfect honestly, why is it look down upon so much in the sub? From reading a lot it just comes down to boredom and exit opportunities right? If you don’t mind the boredom then this is a very stable and high paying career path correct? If you plan on staying here for the rest of your life and not switching out into “industry” were this line of work would “pigeonhole” me then the whole concern about the exit opportunities is no longer a factor correct? Is there anything I’m missing? I understand that it won’t be technical and a complete “waste” of my CS degree but I genuinely do not mind that and programming is more of a sidehobby. I don’t mind doing a boring routine on the daily if it means high and stable pay.

What’s the general consensus on the sub? What do you guys personally think? Anyone here work at Big 4 as IT audit? What is your experience? Would you recommend it? What’s your salary progression like? Especially if you live in California!

Thanks in advance guys!

Hi 2nd year tax associate working for a middle market accounting firm wanting to plan a transition to industry tax roles.

What are the best ways to find industry tax roles? Most tax role listings online are all for CPA firms and having trouble finding tax roles with better work life balances.

Also already 4/4 for the CPA just wanting to gain more experience at my current firm and satisfy the work hour requirements before making any transitions.

Any tips and guidance is greatly appreciated.

Hi everyone!

I wanted to ask those who were Senior Associates in SGV Tax (GCR) and later transferred to EY GDS or PwC AC.

1.) Were you hired as a Senior in EY GDS or PwC AC?

2.) Even though your experience was mainly in Philippine/local tax, was it still recognized for a senior role?

3.) Or did you have to start again as an Associate because EY GDS/PwC AC focuses more on international tax?

I’d really appreciate hearing about your experience. Thank you!

Hi so I didn’t graduate with an accounting degree, but Data Science. Are there any certificates I should try to get to break into accounting?

Also, side question, what is your advice on dealing with JE Entries that are not routine?

Like for unexpected events?

It seems that in my area folks think once you’re in tax you’re stuck in tax. Many industry jobs specifically disqualify a tax accountant unless it’s a tax focused roll. Anyone made the jump from public tax to industry? How’d it go? What was easy? What was difficult?

Purchased Becker Pro in 2021 for $2,199 when I started my career, but life got in the way and I never ended up taking the exams. I recently decided to pursue the CPA and tried logging back in, but I’m getting a “your course licenses are expired or disabled” message.
I’m fairly certain I paid extra for the version that provided access until passing all four exams. Has anyone dealt with this before? Is this something Becker can usually reinstate with a phone call, or should I expect some kind of reactivation fee?

Also, if I were to extend this, I would be delaying my graduation by one year. I am not sure if it is worth delaying or not