Quote:
Originally Posted by Gh0st
Have a family member and several friends in the accounting field. They did the standard diploma / bba in Accounting / Finance then went on to article while they work on their designations in public practice mainly.
Pretty surprised at how many people aspire to be accountants. Long fucking hours. Brutal office politics. Working in a firm with 50-200 people (depending on size) with everyone competing with you to move up from staff accountant to accountant to senior accountant, ect.
All the unpaid travel hours and unpaid overtime paired with not being able to take time off in December because of year end, and not until at least May because of tax season is absolutely crazy.
Ya'll work hard. I respect the grind and work ethic. I noticed many people spending all of their pay cheques at indochino on budget suits since the pay is so incredibly shit. No one ever talks about how shit the pay is.
Starting 36k, after 1 year get like 42k and after 2 years maybe get 44 max? Then you get your CPA designation and like someone posted above earn anywhere between 45-55k.
You don't really get ROI until you are at least 10+ years deep in the game. By then you'll just have only paid off your massive student loans. The accounting field is prestigious and you learn amazing things from the industry that you can apply to your own life... but will you even have a life after the insane amount of hours you're working.
Every accountant I know is in a state of burn out and misery. It's sad. I wish the best for all accountants out there. Keep up the grind and pray for the best.
I went into a different area of business.. with the spare time I have I am able to start a business of my own.. doing 100k at the age of 25.
I have one buddy who made smart plays in his career, went into internal accounting for a mid size firm in downtown. He's about 6 years in the game and after much strategizing and playing his cards right he's now at 70-80k salary working like a dog. Literally doing coke and drinking every weekend to unwind.
Sorry I just felt the need to write about this as I'm sure many seasoned accountants here can probably attest to most of my points.
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^Yup, heard all of the above points. I knew a friend that worked in audit for one of the Big Five Firms at that time in the 90's and he said he was being paid $65K and busting his ass out 60+hours every week. He got so tired and said fuck it and opened his own accounting firm, never looked back since then. Every year drives a different car lol.
I feel like if you have potential to move up to a management role, CPA designation/accounting is well worth it. Even my CFO says the the years after getting designated, salary complete shit until later on in your career. If you are lucky you would land a management role position after designation. It's really what you do with it. If you don't plan to do anything with the designation, then it's clearly not worth the time/stress. I know people that have the designation and just stay as staff accountant making a shit salary.......makes me wonder what's was the purpose.
I ain't designated but when my firm is busy, literally 60 hour weeks and no life. Eventually the stress caught up to my body, definitely not worth it. Not 25 years old anymore.