Accounting Careers?

Question

Good afternoon all. I was just wondering if there are any accountants out there that could give me insight into the world of accounting. I am currently a senior majoring in accounting with a minor in MIS. I'm working as a corporate tax intern for the summer with a fairly large corporation (NYSE listed).

How much of a leg up will I be if I can manage to get a job with one of the Big 4 firms, how do I go about putting myself in a position to land a Big 4 job, what kind of accounting interests you, what fields are most likely to pay well with experience?

I know it's a pretty broad question, but I'm just looking for insights and experiences from accountants outside of my office. Thanks

Answer 1

I was a bean counter for some, I guess 20, 25 years before I retired a couple of years ago, so I guess that I can give you some idea of the fun and disappointments that I had.

I have worked for major corporations, put in a 6 month stint with the NYSE, back office, worked for middle sized outfits and tiny 4 people places. But it takes time to find just what "your place" is, in the whole scheme of things.

When you first start out, it's sorta kinda like being a freshman in college again. You are on the low ring of the totem pole and no body knows or cares what you know or what you can do. You are just there to learn the procedures. This is the time to try to attach yourself to a mentor and get him to teach you the ropes. Also don't be unwilling to do the dog work. You would be amazed at what you can pick up knowledge wise.

I was once workng for the Chief Auditor of a Trucking outfit. He traveled a lot, so I began answering his mail, and having it ready for his signature when he got back. Within 3 months, he gave the whole job to me. A lot of it had to do with the purchase of replacement office equipment. Spent a couple of thou a month.

Another job found me as Assistant Controller with a stock brokerage house. In one incident, I was asked to find out what was going on in the payroll department. I went in with them on a Monday, on Friday three of the 4 people in the department walked off the job. I had replaced them and kept the whole department running without skipping a beat by the next Friday. When I got a chance to breathe, about 3 weeks later, I found that two of the three were paying themselves twice. In another incident with the same company, I was investigating the location of a certain stock certificate. To keep a long story short, it seemed that the person responsible for keeping it safe, stole it and sold it to keep his mistress and the horses happy. Yeah, he did some jail time.

Later as Chief Accountant for the same outfit, I was asked to prepare a 6 month expense budget. The impossible happened. After the 6 months, the actual bottom line was $1.00 off from the budget bottom line. When my manager asked me to explain the difference, I replied with a straight face, "rounding error"!

Another job, the two people responsible for doing corporate bank accounts were out sick. I was running the Payroll Department, and was asked to supervise a temp to do their work. Within two weeks, we found one field office manager had been running his own separate bank account for the past 6 months. Oh Oh, someone wasn't doing his job right. The controller couldn't believe me, until I sent in the Regional Manager in to confront the office manager. He confessed. Analysis showed that he got away with $50K. I split my 5K bonus with the temp. Two weeks later had a field office manger put 3K in his pocket on the 1st of the month, then deposit it on the 31st of the month, forged the bank deposit slip to make it look as if it was deposited on the 1st. White out works wonders. Yeah, we got another little bonus. A while after that, payroll related, caught a new secretary up in Canada who was paying herself twice. It was told to me that a police office was standing behind her when she cashed her checks at the bank. Bingo!

Final 12 years of working, I was with a very small manufacturing company. Ran the whole office, had a business card that said Treasurer, did everything. Computer Programming, (replaced 2 people doing that) Accounting, Financials, even made coffee, as I was the first one in, in the morning.

All in all accounting can be fun. You just have to find your niche

Answer 2

Big 4 experience might be good, if you like working long hours and lots of office politics as you move up the ranks. If you just want a couple years of experience then you should consider Big 4 or internationals such as GT or BDO. You should be able to land a job with an international accounting firm if your personality fits with the particular office you want to work in and your grades are strong. Public accounting is very very boring so don't let the fancy offices and fancy dinners fool you - it is no fun. Pay is not all that great but it is better than most entry-level jobs. Try an internship with an international firm first to see how you like it.

Answer 3

"Accounting" may be very typical. With an accounting measure you'll select to enter public accounting (paintings for an accounting organization doing audits and/or taxes - turn out to be a CPA). Another alternative could be to enter individual accounting (paintings for one enterprise) and do matters corresponding to monetary reporting or tax paintings to call only some (I advocate getting revel in at a organization first). A 3rd alternative is to paintings for the federal government (IRS or Franchise Tax Board). What I recounted above continues to be very typical. You'll uncover that there are lots of paths you'll take after getting that measure and a couple of years of revel in. There's plenty concerned with accounting....it is not simply debits and credit. As a ways as you having extra problem with Acct II, that is k...it intended to get more difficult. You do not ought to realize the whole thing, in view that you are no longer going to make use of the whole thing you be trained from the textual content guide. However, you'll have a typical expertise after which you can generally tend to specialize. If you're having fun with your accounting categories, that is a well signal. An accounting measure is an excessively reliable one to have and I can guarantee you that when you've got a well expertise of accounting, you can by no means have a obstacle discovering a well task. Keep the GPA up and companies can be recruiting you earlier than you get out of university. I totally advocate getting concerned with the Accounting Society or Beta Alpha Psi at your college (if you're at a four yr college proper now). It's a fine technique to be trained extra approximately careers in accounting, be trained to community, upgrade on verbal exchange and interviewing talents, and meet different bills who're watching to bigger well pupils with a wish to paintings rough and be effective.

Answer 4

The decision on whether to go into public accounting or not probably hinges on whether you want to get your CPA license. Depending on your state of residency, you may have to have public accounting experience in order to get your license. Having the license will open up more doors in the future.

If all you want is your license, you don't need Big 4 experience. If you're considering public accounting as a career, then of course you should consider the Big 4.

Again, it all depends on where you see yourself in 5, 10, 20 years. There are people out there that would view Big 4 experience as a real positive.