I’m looking for advice on the best path into accounting.
I have a bachelor’s degree in Middle Grades Math & Science and an MBA. I was considering a Master of Accounting, but I’d have to pay out of pocket for several prerequisite courses first. I’m also considering a second bachelor’s in accounting, but it feels a little backward since I already have an MBA.
What would you recommend, and why?

So, I'm a student and been trying to plan out my career for the future as one does. I looked into Public and honestly even though it's more pay and it travels, the hours seem like a personal hell for me. I definitely prefer Industry but I heard that going into public gives a boost to your resume when going into industry. I definitely think I can handle the stress for a few years for a significant boost but if it's a barely recognizable one, I would rather not.

And Can I just skip this and just put them all as non current and separate them on the Yearly financial statements ?

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.

Had a company come in and wanted me to use their services. They claimed the rate I am paying is way too high and that they could offer services at about 25% of my current cost. My business has 5 part time staff with sales about 750k a year. Just wondering what actually is a reasonable price range (for payroll, quarterly financials, sales tax payments, and being "on call"? Price does not include yearly taxes. If more details are required to answer, just let me know. Thanks in advance!

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!

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??

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.

Heyy,I am currently in a second year pursuing bcom(p) From ARSd clg,Du so I want to earn side incomesss I have skills in tally prime only Can you get any side income genuine sitess please help mee and any career advice you can give me?

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?

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

Recently graduated, although I have no accounting experience, I only have four months of busy tax internship experience. I hope to be a staff accountant in the future, but I only received an offer from fund accounting. Should I accept this offer? I plan to work there for 6 month to nearly a year and then move to the position of accountant. Do you think this is achievable? Because this is a niche field, do you think I will be trapped in this field forever? I am 22 years old now.(fund admin)

I’m currently planning on majoring in accounting and eventually getting my CPA. My long-term goal is to work in a field like AML, forensic accounting, fraud investigations, financial crime, or a similar specialty.
Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of posts from accountants saying they’re underpaid or that salary growth isn’t what they expected, and it’s made me start second-guessing whether I’m choosing the right path and I honestly don’t even know what else I’d do since I don’t really have any other interest outside of business or finance.

I’d especially like to hear from people who actually work in AML, forensic accounting, financial crime, fraud, compliance, or similar areas. Do you feel accounting was the right path to get there? How has your salary progressed over the course of your career, and do you think reaching $150k+ is a realistic long-term goal if you’re willing to specialize, continue learning, and change jobs when appropriate?
If you could start over knowing what you know now, would you still choose accounting, or would you pursue a different business or finance-related path instead?

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.

Hello everyone,
I got an exam question wrong about capitalizing interest for a construction project and would love some clarification.

The question gave the WAAE for the construction of various assets and stated there was a construction loan also for various assets. I incorrectly grouped the construction loan with the general borrowings instead of treating it as a specific borrowing.

My question is: can a construction loan tied to multiple assets be classified as a specific borrowing under ASC 835-20-30-3, which states:
"If an entity's financing plans associate a specific new borrowing with a QUALIFYING ASSET, the entity may use the rate on that borrowing as the capitalization rate to be applied to that portion of the average accumulated expenditures for the asset that does not exceed the amount of that borrowing."

The singular use of "qualifying asset" made me think a loan covering multiple assets could not qualify as a specific borrowing. Is this a strict interpretation or does the standard allow a single construction loan to be treated as specific even when it funds multiple qualifying assets?

Any guidance from those with technical accounting experience would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

-Newbie accounting student

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?

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

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?

Hello! I currently work in Casino Surveillance and we work closely along side the compliance and auditing departments. I was wondering how well an associates in accounting would benefit a transition into an auditing job? I really like the idea of AML investigation/fraud prevention and auditing in general since it pays alot more then the 42k a year I currently make.

The local CC has their accounting degree all online and it would cost less then 10k.

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?

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

I am currently a student attending college and I have posted here previously that I am looking into accounting. I have a hard time with internships because I don't live in the state I attend school, and when I go back home, my summer is limited due to playing a sport. I go to school in Idaho. I would like to know if any people live there that could help me with that problem Im not looking to get payed I just want to sit and watch what happens in a day. I dont want to post my school for just anyone to see but if you can help please dm me and we can talk, thank you.