Accounting Jobs (Honolulu: real estate, home, job market)

[noah]

How is the job market for Accountants Honolulu. Preferably in private industry as opposed to accounting firms. I have several years of experience and about to obtain my CPA. Figured this would be the first step to get a feel for if a move would be possible.

Any insight would be appreciated.

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by noah

How is the job market for Accountants Honolulu. Preferably in private industry as opposed to accounting firms. I have several years of experience and about to obtain my CPA. Figured this would be the first step to get a feel for if a move would be possible.

Any insight would be appreciated.

Unemplyment is only 5.0% right now - plenty of accounting jobs on indeed,com and careerbuilder.com - you are very unlikely to get a job or interview applying from the mainland - you have to be here.

[WannabeCPA]

I am an accountant in Honolulu but I don't have my CPA. I have worked in public and private accounting. Yes there are plenty of accounting jobs but unless you obtain a supervisory position many accounting jobs pay barely livable wages. So you better have something on your resume that sets you apart from the crowd. I would think a CPA would help a lot, experience helps even more. Yes unemployment is lower than the national average but many people here work 2 or more jobs to survive and many of those jobs are low paying service sector jobs.

You should ideally secure a job before moving here but if not have a few months of living expenses saved up, and enough for a plane ticket home. Just wondering why do you want to move to Honolulu?

[noah]

Thanks for the info, very helpful. When you say many accounting jobs barely pay living wages I am curious - are you speaking of accounting jobs that require a 4yr degree plus some experience (say a staff or senior accountant position) or are you referring more to accounting clerk type jobs. If staff and senior type positions, is it mainly because what is considered living wage is so high?

As for why Honolulu. My wife and I have wanted to live in the tropics (even another country) for some time and figured it might be time to make such a move soon. We have taken a jump and moved without jobs once before and it did work out but certainly would not do it without much consideration and a plan, most likely if we did not find work within 6 months we would move back home.

Originally Posted by WannabeCPA

I am an accountant in Honolulu but I don't have my CPA. I have worked in public and private accounting. Yes there are plenty of accounting jobs but unless you obtain a supervisory position many accounting jobs pay barely livable wages. So you better have something on your resume that sets you apart from the crowd. I would think a CPA would help a lot, experience helps even more. Yes unemployment is lower than the national average but many people here work 2 or more jobs to survive and many of those jobs are low paying service sector jobs.

You should ideally secure a job before moving here but if not have a few months of living expenses saved up, and enough for a plane ticket home. Just wondering why do you want to move to Honolulu?

[WannabeCPA]

Noah, I am speaking of accounting jobs that require a 4 year degree and something like a staff accountant. A senior accountant probably pays a nicer salary but you won't be living the high life by any means. If your wife would also work it would help a lot of course and you may be able to have a fairly decent standard of living. Accounting jobs here pay roughly the same as many mainland big cities, although less than expensive locales like San Francisco or New York, but the cost of living here is just so much higher, especially real estate. Hawaii as a state has the highest home prices in the nation. Try to search for cost of living calculators on the internet. There are some that will compare the pay of similar jobs for different cities and you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about.

If you can survive 6 months with no work in a worse case scenario and then move back I say go for it. You only live once, you might as well go for your dreams. This is one of those cases where if I were you I'd much rather feel regret after I took the chance and it didn't work out, than feel regret as a result of never trying at all.