Any accountants on here? (credit, 2013, consulting, degree)

[belle woods]

Hey I'm interested in talking to someone who studied accounting an now does it for a job. I just have a few questions: What you do in a day, what school was like for you (is it super hard or doable), do you like your job? How did you get started etc? Any advice for someone like me who is just interested?

I graduated high school only but Im looking to maybe go back to school if I can swing it. I'm just looking at possible careers but I don't know if accounting would be too hard for me or not.

Thanks

[Liar_Liar]

I am an accountant. Graduated back in 2013. Got my first job in feb 2017 where 100% of my job duties are accounting related.

My days mostly consist of making journal entries, doing reconciliations, preparing financial statements and consolidation.

School wasn't that difficult. That might be because i took accounting 101 back in high school. Once I understood when to debit and credit, the rest just fell into place.

I like my job. It's very repetitive so I get a little better at it aftef each period. What used to take me the whole day now takes a few hours.

I got started through temping. The company hired me permanently because the controller noticed i had really good logical reasoning skills.

My advice is to have an open mind. Accounting is define as the language of business. Just because you are majoring in Accounting doesn't mean you HAVE to restrict yourself by looking for accounting-only jobs/internships. Think outside the box and you'll realized that your accounting skills is very flexible.

[kodiakbearcountry]

I'm an auditor, graduated last December with my BS in accounting. I got a job with a top 10 public accounting firm in the location I wanted to relocate. I had wanted to go into public accounting first, get my CPA, and enjoy the life. It's great but do your research. There are many paths a person can take with an accounting degree but only a few will result in higher earnings. I'm in the middle of finishing my CPA exams which is pretty grueling while working.

During busy season, the hours are long. The work load can get pretty intense and a lot of people burn out. Public accounting has a high turnover but obviously some thrive in the environment and stay long term.

I enjoyed college. I actually really enjoy my job. My day as a staff auditor consists of examining client information and ensuring that the information I'm looking at is materially stated so that the Financial Statements are reliable, etc. Public accounting has two main paths, Tax and Audit, but there are some other paths in public that are pretty popular, such as advisory. I don't have much insight on Tax or Advisory since I really wanted the auditor path.

My job is a lot of working with clients, with my team, so it's very helpful if you are good with people. There's a fair amount of travelling as well.

We're actually just starting to slide out of our fall busy season and it'll be slow for the holidays and then pick back up again after.

This is just the public accounting side of a big picture. There are a lot of directions you can go, including industry, straight out of college. But I will say if you have aims for controller or CFO positions, public accounting experience is a massive leg up above your peers. You learn a tremendous amount in those first few years as an auditor.

[The Illusive Man]

I'm an accountant. Been doing it nearly 6 years now.

If you decide to study accounting, I'd suggest you do some research on all the different accounting software's and get familiar with them. In school, I was only taught from the book, but I wish I would have had more hands-on experience with the actual software. The most common seems to be QuickBooks, but there are so many out there that I'd never even heard of. The one I'm using now is Microsoft Navision. Studying all of these will give you an advantage above your peers.

I work for a trading company and I mostly handle the accounts payable side but I've also worked on the AR side as well. Day to day I receive customer invoices, process them and pay. I do account reconciliations, take care of month end close, do some light auditing, claims, and keep in contact with vendors. So it's mostly repetitive, not much difference day to day.

In my case, I mostly work alone, which if you are introverted, can be a great thing for you. I like a good mix of team and alone time.

It's a very solid and respectable career, but nothing spectacular. If you're fine with repetition, then this is for you. If you like variety, you may get more out of another career.

[bell235]

I'm an accountant and have my CPA License.

Graduated from college 2008 - college was pretty easy.

I studied and passed the CPA exam after I graduated and before starting work in public accounting. I started public as an auditor in December of 2009. I traveled to clients to perform financial statement audits and did the "busy season" thing for 3 years - i HATED it. I hated traveling all over the place, I hated the work I was doing, I hated working 60+ hours per week. But I had to pay my dues in order to get my license.

Then I switched over to private as an assistant controller. Much better work/life balance. I do the monthly close, financial statement prep for 10-Q's and 10-K's and also misc projects as my company does a lot of acquisitions. I'm currently looking to change jobs as I have been in the same position for 5 years now. Time to move on and learn new things.

Public was awful but you gotta do it to get the experience and the work requirement for the CPA license. Then you can move to private or maybe even consulting which IMO is much better. Some people like the traveling and the late hours of public, and i will say I think there's a bit more flexibility as you move up in public accounting, but I prefer routine and being in the same office everyday, so private was a better fit for me.

Good luck in your journey!

[belle woods]

Sorry I'm late, but thanks to all of you for replying! I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do and this helped a lot.