Accounting strength in San Deigo? (San Diego, Newport Beach: house, taxes, living in)

[looksrich]

Hello all,

Fell in love with your city last year and am thinking of signing up for a work project in your town for a year that may lead to permanent move..

A CPA from Big 4 experience in Accounting/Tax/Financial field, I never had a problem finding a job in NYC and surrounding CT/NJ as the area is heavy with financial and accounting firms..

just wanted to see if this I'd have a tough time getting a senior/starting manager position in SD.... it seems the big industry here is military, thanks.

[BacktoBlue]

my goodness

//www.city-data.com/forum/san-d...ring-move.html

[looksrich]

thanks but have looked at indeed/craigslist/careerbuilder/monster/the usual websites and 2 other recruiters, 1 soliciting me..

a) half the posts above are fake to get your resume and b) obviously the market wont be as strong as the financial capital of the world NYC..

..just wanted to see from people working in the field what kind of accounting/tax work they get into and if it's a large enough metro to move around if wanted..

ie back in NY you have different routes, public, private equity taxes, f500 in house, corp fin, gov't, IFRS, regulatory compliance, forensic, hedge fund valuation, the list goes on..

just wanted to see if the majority here in SD is either military in house accounting (if even large enough) or just your run of the mill public accounting (audit and tax) and that's it - which wouldn't be a deal-killer given the lower cost of living in SD, thanks.

[NYSD1995]

Zero Fortune 500 and very few corporate HQ's in San Diego. Very few large private sector employers here - Qualcomm is the largest with 10k global employees - compare that to Portland OR, similar size and economic profile with both Nike (28k employees) and Intel, or Denver or San Antonio each w. multiple F500 large employers. Private sector opps are just not strong here - San Diego is a resort / retirement city with a couple of niche tech R&D clusters and a large government sector - no heavy industry, no major port, and little manufacturing - limited at best for opportunity in private enterprise.

However accounting jobs certainly exist. Opportunity will be much lower than what you are used to in NYC. There is not a highly diversified service sector and most of what there is stays pretty entrepreneurial. Most people in your position will move to LA instead for the career flexibility, and COL is not much more than San Diego. Majority of accountants in San Diego are probably new grad / staff. Large public accountancy's have offices here but it is many new grads. Most leave SD to make 100K+ or else become entrepreneurial themselves.

[looksrich]

Originally Posted by Sassberto

or else become entrepreneurial themselves.

thanks sass great post.. cant believe the lack of large companies here given its arguably large-ish size.. i've yet to research the tax structure but given the great coastal setting youd think companies would want to be here, unless i really have just taken NY for granted all this time..

i know theres a growing pe/hf community in newport beach (OC) ala Greenwich, CT so im surprised there are nary any shops in san diego given the great offerings SD provides (beach, restaurants, etc)

im actually planning to go the entrepreneurial route, and have done pretty well having building my own clients on the side.. but im still in transition mode and have a primary accounting role atm and plan to keep it a couple more years (hopefully in SD soon) until i can jump ship fully to entrepreneurial route (hopefully by the beach )

[NYSD1995]

Originally Posted by looksrich

thanks sass great post.. cant believe the lack of large companies here given its arguably large-ish size.. i've yet to research the tax structure but given the great coastal setting youd think companies would want to be here, unless i really have just taken NY for granted all this time..

i know theres a growing pe/hf community in newport beach (OC) ala Greenwich, CT so im surprised there are nary any shops in san diego given the great offerings SD provides (beach, restaurants, etc)

LA is the historical economic vacuum that siphons capital investment out of San Diego. Newport Beach is the Greenwich to LA, not San Diego. It's easy to take the first-class service industries of a Chicago / LA / NYC / SF Bay / Seattle for granted... San Diego is not on par with those economies.... better to compare it to a tier-2 or 3 market like Denver / Portland / Phoenix etc. Even cities considered tier-2 on the east coast like Atlanta, Philadelphia, Boston, etc... have much larger private sectors than San Diego does.

[BRinSM]

as an accountant in LA who was looking for opportunities in SD, there just aren't many down there. positions do exist, but they are with smaller firms and competition is fierce so the pay is lower than you would expect. that's what blows me away about SD, pay is very low relative to cost of living. OC and LA pay much better and also have many more opportunities.

[shmoov_groovzsd]

All the posts here are great in reference to your post and from my experience, accurate.

The corporate climate here in SD is not conducive to the traditional ladder climber. Basically in NYC, the likelihood of landing another position at a larger or same sized firm are more favorable than here. Although there are many headquarters for some well known bio and tech companies from the mid-large scale, I would say most of them were started here and grew into their respective positions over time.
Being as you are looking to start your own client base, I dont have any tips for you except as with anywhere, connections are crucial. This may be difficult in areas with high net worth. I know many financial advisors that were great at what they did, but when it came to cracking the nut with high net clients, it was virtually impossible. Just something to keep in the back of your mind.

[loveautumn]

Accounting/finance is one of the few areas in SD where there are jobs, but not many high level/high paying ones. You will be coming from NY area, the arguably financial hub of the universe to an area, like everyone has stated here, that doesn't have many corporate hq's any more, thanks to the state's tax structure which is driving business out of state.

Also, SD is a "who you know" town, especially in the financial field. Jobs are found by who you know that will refer you to good openings. If you have public accounting with SEC and international experience, that always helps.