Question For Those Familar With The Finance Field...What is the Job Like/Does AS fit?

[ohiogirl22]

Originally Posted by Hudlander

What does wholesale have to do with my interest?

45 hours is not bad....I am more concerned with unpredictable schedules, and 8-8 or midnight oil hours.

No what I am saying is I work an easy job where we get 40 hours.Although if you like working with numbers you would probably like my job it's all numbers.

Finance, you will be working close to 80. I know many people who work in finance and you get there at 8 and go home at 8 sometimes.

[Hudlander]

Really? All finance?
IS accounting that way too?

I like numbers, did good in accounting/finance but need a career with more "bankers" hours.
I thought you could do that in finance, not accounting (tax season)!

[e_cuyler]

About the only accounting jobs that allow you to work a regular 40 hour schedule are jobs in government. Smaller public accounting firms sometimes have a schedule where they try to limit overtime even during tax season, but that generally means working maybe 50-55 hours a week instead of working 60+ hours the way you would at a larger firm during busy season. One thing about the government jobs, though, since you can't work overtime, you have to develop excellent time management skills. You're dealing with the same type of deadlines and multiple projects as people do outside of government, but you aren't able to stay late or work on weekends.

The lower level bookkeeping/accounting clerk jobs might have a more stable schedule, but you would probably have to work a lot of overtime when you're doing a monthly close. Private company accounting generally has fairly stable hours, other than at the closing period each month.

I know each person manifests AS differently, and what could be a good job for one person might not for others, but from what I've seen, public accounting is not nearly a good fit for individuals with AS as some might think. It is essentially a service oriented job, and even if you aren't dealing with clients much, your career depends on your ability to network. In a larger firm, it is easy to get lost in the shuffle unless you are good at "marketing yourself." Accounting is a really social line of work in most cases. It also requires a ton of flexibility and ability to adapt to change, two qualities that people with AS generally are not known for.

[Ron.]

Originally Posted by Hudlander

Really? All finance?
IS accounting that way too?

I like numbers, did good in accounting/finance but need a career with more "bankers" hours.
I thought you could do that in finance, not accounting (tax season)!

Botton line, it depends on the position and job tasks. I think you're asking people to give you something that we can't..........a concrete answer.

I've been in Finance all of my post college career(over 13 years) and I'm currently working a normal schedule for a finance gig and I still put in 60 hours a week....to me, that's a great schedule. 5 days a week I work 12 hours a day. I actually get to go home and it's still daylight outside. I show up at 7am and leave about 7-7:30pm. EVERYDAY. If you plan on going far in Finance and want to get into a Officer,Director, Vice President position, get ready to put in the hours.

To be honest, I don't know of Anyone in Accounting or Finance that have gone far ant NOT put in the hours. That goes for MOST jobs. To get promoted you have to put in the hours.

All of what you've heard about 80/hour weeks---yes, it's true. I did it for years.

As I told you before, try to work for a Gvmt agency. Because if you work for a firm, be it a CPA firm or Investment bank you WILL BE working 80 hours a week. PERIOD.

If you get you CFA than you can manage a fund and be apart of a team that manages a fund. That's a good gig, again, you'll put in the hours. You'll also travel a lot and meet with a lot of sales people that want you to allocate some of your fund to their fund.

The CFA is one of the hardest designations to get but well worth it.

I am not saying all Finance gigs are 80 hours a week, they're not but you have to think long term and I don't know anyone in Finance or Accounting that works 40 hours a week and get's promoted to leadership positions.

[Ron.]

I think this is a accurate post.

Originally Posted by e_cuyler

About the only accounting jobs that allow you to work a regular 40 hour schedule are jobs in government. Smaller public accounting firms sometimes have a schedule where they try to limit overtime even during tax season, but that generally means working maybe 50-55 hours a week instead of working 60+ hours the way you would at a larger firm during busy season. One thing about the government jobs, though, since you can't work overtime, you have to develop excellent time management skills. You're dealing with the same type of deadlines and multiple projects as people do outside of government, but you aren't able to stay late or work on weekends.

The lower level bookkeeping/accounting clerk jobs might have a more stable schedule, but you would probably have to work a lot of overtime when you're doing a monthly close. Private company accounting generally has fairly stable hours, other than at the closing period each month.

I know each person manifests AS differently, and what could be a good job for one person might not for others, but from what I've seen, public accounting is not nearly a good fit for individuals with AS as some might think. It is essentially a service oriented job, and even if you aren't dealing with clients much, your career depends on your ability to network. In a larger firm, it is easy to get lost in the shuffle unless you are good at "marketing yourself." Accounting is a really social line of work in most cases. It also requires a ton of flexibility and ability to adapt to change, two qualities that people with AS generally are not known for.

[Dd714]

Finance is really a broad field. You mention investements but most financial analysts are not directly involved in investment decisions as you probably invision. So you can be an accountant (and break that up into tax accounting, cost accounting, public accounting, etc), financial analyst (with all its various components - fixed assets, mergers and aquisitions, comptroller, controller, etc), or some subset such as internal auditor.

So it's hard to classify. Common things associated with the above however - You work long hours, particularlly as you are paying your dues, you have to have spreadsheet PC skills, you have to have attention to detail, you will have to be process and policy oriented, you will have to have a college degree and an advanced degree or set of letters beside your name is better than not.

As I said in the first paragraph however, I think you invision financial analysts as these suited guys at a desk staring at computer screens of the wall street results making investment decisions. That's not it at all, or a very small piece of it. A common analyst in our company is busy processing data to make proper journal entries, reviewing balance sheets, making project spreadsheets for OTHERS to make investment decisions (usually for the purchase of assets, machines, plants, etc). And the steriotypical stock broker image shown on TV? - they don't exist. Most stockbrokers in reality have the background, experience, and ability of used car salesmen...literally.

[Hudlander]

2 questions


1) You brought up the CFA. In order to take this exam, do you have to have a finance/accounting/business degree?

If you don't officially have to get those degrees, in reality, don't you really need it in any event since it requires four years of practice in business, which you'd be unlikely to have without a formal degree in finance or related?


2) A career in finance v accounting. Is there much difference in terms of
-Hours
-Predictability

The main thing again, it's important for me to have an idea as to what I am going to do each day as opposed to the hectic nature of putting out fires.

Accounting I have been told is fairly predictable, you know what each day is going to have in store.
Is Finance similar?