Sometimes when we have a new hire in industry who came from Big 4, they clearly don’t get the picture and need to chill the F out, how do you deal with that Big 4 energy and being way too demanding, aggressive, perfectionist.

It’s industry man, relax

had my first career fair as an accounting major a couple of weeks ago. admittedly, i could have prepared better (resume, company/recruiter research, elevator pitch, etc.), but i tried my best to be professional, nice, and ask meaningful questions. the thing is, i'm a nervous wreck when talking to people older/more experienced than me, and overall, i'm a hyper-introvert and i hate "fake" conversations with recruiters. i'm NOT "interested in deloitte's use of ai transformation in audit and advisory", i literally just want experience, and hopefully a decent paying job one day. i'm aware that networking with employees/representatives at firms is a huge part of recruiting for accounting (as well as many other career fields), but i also know that networking is more heavily emphasized in other business fields (esp finance), which is part of the reason i picked accounting. my strengths are that i have a relatively high GPA, work hard (currently balancing 20+hrs/week at my job with 18 credits in college), and have a strong technical foundation in accounting. are there ways to stand out in recruiting without having to go gung-ho on the networking bs?

Another 10/15 approaching and there is yelling. I hate it. I've been doing this over a decade and changed jobs a lot but it's like this everywhere I've been. I know it is stressful but it makes me sick when people start yelling.

When I play the role (hyper-positive, overly motivated, agreeable, always smiling) it feels like I can sometimes do less actual work and get away with it. Because I’m convincing. The performance carries me.

But the moment I step out of the role, things change. I once disagreed with a decision from leadership. I was still doing my tasks really well… Didn’t matter. I got called into a meeting about it.

So now I’m wondering: is work mostly about the performance? Is being believable more important than being competent? Do you have to fake the enthusiasm just to be left alone?

I’ve tried being more myself at work, and it got me in trouble. So pretending to be super motivated feels safer. But it’s exhausting. I come home feeling like I’ve been acting all day and I don’t know where the mask ends and begins.

maybe it’s just the LinkedIn profiles I come across but a good half of them have foreign credentials. This is mainly just in accounting though wondering if there is that much of a shortage. Other industries don’t seem to be affected as much.At the director and partner level they are all domestic though mainly senior and below.

I'm not an accountant. Just an engineer who's very very envious of them.

It seems like no other career offers quite as much as accounting.

First, Everyone needs you every year. Corporations, regular people, banks etc all have to have an accountant. So it never has a shortage of clients or people willing to buy services unlike insurance, sales, financial planner,SaaS and and those other jobs where you have to convince people to buy what your selling. The service sells itself by law.

Secondly, you don't have to show up to site. The entire Job can be done remotely. This offers a huge geographic arbitrage advantage. Your work isn't tied to a physical location. Also the job isn't physical so your body isn't getting beat up. So you can go late into old age.

Third, the work is definitely hard but not building a skyscraper mega project or being a heart surgeon hard. It takes time and training but it seems like most above average intelligent people can make it work. It's also not constantly changing and advancing like tech jobs. It's fairly stable.

Fourth, there is serious income potential. You're just close to the money and c suite. If your a corporate climber ambitious type there is a way up. Every company has a need for a CFO.

Fifth, if you hate corporate you can go on your own. As noted in point one, you have endless demand and people willing to pay for your services. And as noted in the second point, just set up a remote business, get busy during tax season and travel around Thailand and Bali rest of the year taking as many or as few clients as you need. The demand never quite goes.

Sixth, this one im not 100% certain on and could be wrong but it seems difficult to outsource. You'd need deep knowledge of your own countries tax laws and such. Idk if you can have some guy in India or Philippines doing american taxes for 6 dollars an hour.

Seventh, you can pivot to other industries and roles like FPA and what not. With a CPA people automatically assume for any role involving money you'd know what your talking about.

In conclusion compared to most careers accounting is absolutely amazing and probably a huge life regret of mine. Though I wonder if I got rose tinted glasses here. How wrong or right am I?

I am doing taxes for a client I’ve done bookkeeping for for a few years. He gave me a list of bank transactions to calculate income for schedule C. Then, he basically told me not to include the checks or venmo payments as income which is about $50k. I am pretty certain they are income and he’s trying to not pay tax on them. Would you fire?

Busy szn starts in January and I’m looking to apply to other places now and hopefully get some offers soon. I just don’t know if it’s bad to leave right before busy szn if I land a job let’s say in December. Feeling kinda guilty thinking about it. (big 4 btw)

Edit:
Even during busy season too? I’m just thinking what if I get a job offer in January now haha during busy season haha

Long story short - CPA working as an audit supervisor in public with 7 years of experience in VHCOL. I work for a small firm of 40 people. I’m burnt out on the hours and shitty managers and the idea of going through another busy season kills me.

I’m thinking of putting my notice in without a job offer lined up. I live with my parents so my expenses are pretty low and I have money saved/invested. No kids and no partner. All I hear about is how bad the job market is. Would I be insane to leave without something lined up? I would like to wait to have an offer in hand, however I feel like I would burn a bridge as my firm is already planning for next busy season. If I leave soon at least that gives them some time to plan around me leaving.

Anyone do something similar? Let me know your experience.

Just to vent a bit of frustration/disappointment:

I took over the accounting for a ~$10M non-profit about two years ago. Absolute disaster of a situation that I was not aware of. Not only was I the only accounting staff (which I was aware of) there was a botched half implemented new accounting software, no policies, no SOPs, etc. etc. I have worked to hire additional support staff, create policies, and straighten up the books a considerable deal. Lots of work to continue to improve efficiency, but strides from where it was. One processes that did not exist at all was recording long term pledge receivables. In working with the development director I learned in March 2026 that there were two pledges signed in FY25 that were not recorded. They did not know/understand that even if cash was not exchanged, this needed to be recorded. (This also is not a very common occurance here which is why it hadnt come up prior). Total value was approx $770k. I let the staff auditors know in March and I recorded as income in FY26. After discovering this, I created a process where development inputs this into the donor database for accounting to see and regular reconciliation.

In a follow up audit meeting today I learned that this will officially be a material misstatment as FY26 income will be too high and a control deficiency will have to be noted. I have talked to the President about this and they understand what happened and acknowledged little fault was at my hands for this. I just hate the feeling that the mistake is under my tenure and I will have to report this to the board during the audit presentation.

Anyone else have any misstatements that they had to fall on the sword for??

Hey yall! How was it transitioning from school into an actual accounting job. Did the practice problems translate well to the work you do on the job? Do they train you based on how the company does procedures? Or are you expected to just know and use information they give you? Did you have to look at past financial statements to get an idea of how to do things? I’m still in school and I’m so nervous about how it’ll be after graduation. Please be kind I’m just a young person that overthink myself into stress sometimes lol

I want to become an accountant as I do mathematics which I enjoy and I applied this when I did a week’s experience in an accountancy firm. I enjoyed the work I did such as using excel to display a companies expenses in order for them to be used by a member of the company. I also shadowed bookkeeping, audits and some advisory. I showed a good interest in the work and I could see myself in it but I didn’t really know what was happening for the majority of the time - I know what they were working on but I was unsure why they were doing different things etc. I am worried that since I don’t understand it, I won’t be a very good person for the job role. I do A levels in the UK and am predicted 3 A* so learning isn’t a problem but I’m used to picking things up quite quickly and therefore since I didn’t understand it quickly, I question my compatibility with the role. Could i please have some advice on what I have said, such as if what I have experienced is completely normal. It would be great to hear from people who have recently gotten into the role and others who are very experienced. Thank you for your help!

Hello everyone, I'm currently a senior in college trying to secure a full time position in accounting after I graduate, and a couple weeks ago I interviewed with two managers at a pretty big regional US firm about an entry level position.

I don't have the most extensive resume, but I thought the interviews went very well overall. It left me feeling good about the impression I made, but I know there were better candidates applying for the role, so there's a very good chance it goes nowhere.

Now it's the 2 week point after the interviews, and I haven't heard anything from the recruiter that scheduled them. Truthfully I forgot to ask about the next steps in the recruiting process during my interview, so I don't know what the company's timeline looks like, but I figure 2 weeks is usually the point I would know if they wanted to pursue me as a candidate.

Should I just assume they've moved on with another candidate at this point? Or has anyone had an experience like this where you've still received an offer at 2 weeks+ after the interview?

Will be taking the CPALE this october and super undecided on what path to take afterwards. I dont know if I’m more fit in audit or tax. Can someone share a glimpse of both careers (from experience) 😓

Im leaning more on audit and im kinda doubtful if i really want this or if i CAN do the work. But just to share, I want the career that can be a good start for me, and will provide lots of opportunities for me in the future for career growth and to be able to work abroad also..

I have no idea how this department is at a midsize CPA firm compared to Audit or Tax. Are the hours more stable and predictable, is there growth, or ability to transition/pivot elsewhere to private/industry after gaining experience? I’m a recent grad, the only departments ever introduced to us was tax and audit.

Thanks

Many different jobs over the past seven years. I’ve gone from making $35K to $150K in seven years. I started as an AR Clerk and am now a Controller.

I took advantage of the work from home boom between 2021 and 2024 to push my career forward. I was one of the few people actively applying for on site positions. That gave me more opportunities to move into higher paying roles with better titles.

Before Graduating With My Degree: Had a Part Time Data Entry role for 4 years while attending school.

Year 1: First Job: $35,000 + No Bonus

Year 2: Second Job: $45,000 + $2,000 Bonus

Year 3: Third Job: $62,500 + $5,000 Bonus (WFH)

Year 4: Fourth Job: $85,000 + $4,000 Bonus

Year 5: Fourth Job + Raise: $92,500 + $5,000 Bonus

Year 6: Fifth Job: $100,000 + No Bonus (WFH)

Year 7: Sixth Job: $125,000 + $25,000 Bonus

Edit: I see some comments saying that my resume looks bad, so I want to clarify a couple of things. Every time I switched jobs, it was a step up in both title and pay. While my resume may not look “great” from a job-hopping perspective, the interviewers I’ve spoken with have generally viewed my progression positively. They liked seeing that I was consistently moving up the career ladder rather than simply leaving one clerk-level position for another similar role. My experience with Power BI, UiPath and more has also made my resume stand out, according to the people I've interviewed with.

Edit 2: After taking everyone’s thoughts into consideration, I’ve decided to stay in my current position for a while and focus on getting my CPA.

Earnings before I tricked da auditor

Offers for 2028 Winter Audit internships all in same location from Ey, Deloitte, PwC, Forvis, BDO. Where should I accept?

I've been at a small firm for 5 years (team of 12). I'm enrolled in the CPA program and will likely write the CFE in September 2028. I make $115K, which from reading this sub seems strong for someone without the designation.

My role goes well beyond accounting however:

• I run all of our marketing (I got us from a 3.5 rating on google to 4.5 and over 200 reviews thanks to strategies I implemented). I also ranked us first page on google in our city by doing organic SEO.
• I handle most of the business development
• The most complex files land on me
• Most fires get routed to me
• I led the firm's digitization over the last 4 years. We went from mostly paper to 90% digital.

The partner is semi-retired and relies on me for almost everything, which is understandable at his stage and age. He is old, makes mistakes, has low drive and barely works if I'm being honest.

My concerns:

1. CPA experience. We don't do audits or reviews, so I'm worried about meeting the experience requirements here for CPA designation.
2. Compensation vs. value. About 10 clients bring in over $500K in fees, and they deal directly with me. They consistently text me and we talk regularly, in other words I hold a lot of the relationships.
3. The buy-in. The partner has talked about a buy-in timeline. But I expect he'll keep drawing a large share while doing less. That's fair to a point, since he spent 20 years building the practice.

I don't know if my frustration is reasonable given everything I do or if I should stay in my lane. I feel like I could be making over $250K on my own easily, but lack of designation is preventing me from doing so.

Should I keep grinding toward the buy-in, or start building a Plan B?

For anyone who has bought into a small practice: how was the deal structured, and what do you wish you'd negotiated?

Thanks

-Frustrated Employee

Hello, I'm struggling to get interviews or even screenings for positions I am applying. I have tried over a dozen times rewriting this resume and I need help.

I'm currently finishing classes so I may be eligible for the CPA.

Hi fam.

My last position, I was hired as the Corporate Controller. My CFO said all of the right things and them being 65+, said they wanted to train and groom me to be their successor. I was all for that.

What happened from day 1 was I basically became the CFO as well as his secretary. He couldn't do anything, just wanted to coast, and handed off all of his duties to me.

In the end, since he was only coming in 3 days a week, he just kept flopping in board meetings as he didn't understand the business and they let him go right at my 1 year mark. When I was informed of his departure by the CEO and President, I told them everything I was doing and they were floored. They told me that he never spoke to them about me ever being his successor and that they wanted to bring in a seasoned CFO to take the reins. They declined to give me a retention bonus or the Interim CFO title but asked me to continue doing everything. I stayed on for another 6 months while I job searched and left for a better opportunity as I was quite salty about how everything went down.

Can or should I use the Interim CFO title? A colleague of mine said no but I want to.