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moosen34
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| Posted: January 14 2009 at 2:26pm | IP Logged
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I am entering into my second public accounting busy season as an auditor. I've had a good experience so far and have passed all of my exams but as of late, things have changed drastically at my firm and it is no longer an enjoyable place to work. Everywhere I look, people are trying to make the higher ups happy and this requires sacrifice from everyone else. Seniors are so pre-occupied with remaining billable that some of the jobs that I am scheduled on are basically done before the year end financials have even come in. This means that I am nothing to do on some of the jobs that I am scheduled on and I become unbillable. Management is so pre-occupied with budgets and being billable and utilization to look good for the partners that they are constantly hounding you to see if you are working on something. We are supposed to anticipate any unassigned time that we may have for the day by 10am and send an email for work to HR in our headquarters to keep us assigned but management has basically banned us from doing this because they don't want it to look like they aren't keeping us busy to headquarters. As a result, we began receiving calls from HR in headquarters asking us to explain why we haven't sent the emails.
On some of my clients I've been doing the work of a senior because of cuts that were made earlier this year and therefore I have to work longer hours to get things done (expected) but everyone is so concerned with budgets that I cannot charge hours to the client for working longer on stuff that I'm not even supposed to be doing at my level.
One major factor that is getting to me is that my firm pays time and a half overtime and my salary is calculated based on a certain amount of overtime which I should be putting in every year (~20 hours a week for the next four months of busy season). This means that my base is lower than what others get but with overtime I am supposed to get paid quite well... Well the climate in this economy is that every manager doesn't want overtime charged to their clients but yet they want their work done by their deadlines and they want it done first. There have been so many new auditing procedures implemented in the past year that there is more work to do, but yet we are supposed to charge less time. All of this while I am not getting any overtime and therefore I may make less this year than I did last year as a Staff 1 and I have my CPA license now. All of this pressure and there is NO job certainty. It is not a good feeling going to work in the morning not knowing whether you will leave with a job.
Sorry for the rant but it has gotten to the point where I'm seriously considering other options. I will have two busy seasons at a national firm and my CPA license under my belt by the end of April and may be on the market for something different. I'm looking to see the pathways others have taken in the past as guidance.
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Passed all the first time and I'm glad I only have to do this once in my life.
Becker lectures + Gleim MC CD = One killer combination
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espy
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| Posted: January 14 2009 at 2:38pm | IP Logged
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Ever think of being a teacher or professor while part timing as an individual tax planner/preparer?
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clips2007
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| Posted: January 15 2009 at 2:56am | IP Logged
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welcome to public accounting
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lelik
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| Posted: January 15 2009 at 2:52pm | IP Logged
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moosen34, internal auditing for any company, corporate accounting, government auditing (though, it might be too boring for you)...
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moosen34
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| Posted: January 15 2009 at 3:57pm | IP Logged
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clips2007 wrote:
| welcome to public accounting
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I know what public accounting is and this is just improper business management from the top down. This was not the way things were run in my first year but many things have changed in this economy. More power to you if this is the career you've grown accustomed to.
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CPA
Passed all the first time and I'm glad I only have to do this once in my life.
Becker lectures + Gleim MC CD = One killer combination
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moosen34
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| Posted: January 15 2009 at 4:06pm | IP Logged
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I don't think that internal auditing will be my thing. I don't think any auditing will be my thing actually. I don't feel like I'm doing anything that helps anybody or that I even make any progress. I'm just looking over work and documents from the past and making sure everything is correct. It provides no satisfaction at all to me. I feel like I'm just looking backwards all the time.
__________________
CPA
Passed all the first time and I'm glad I only have to do this once in my life.
Becker lectures + Gleim MC CD = One killer combination
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lelik
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| Posted: January 15 2009 at 11:02pm | IP Logged
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moosen34, work as a volunteer to help people. Job should help you (money, money, money...). There are not too many perfect jobs, and you have to decide for yourself what your priorities are. At work, I personally care who I work for (boss), who I work with (colleagues), and whether I can afford this job. I don't particularly care what I do as long as I have some nice people around and my stable income. To satisfy my desire to help (or feel good about myself), I do some volunteer work or just take random classes.
What do you like? What do you want to do?
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terpfan101
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| Posted: January 23 2009 at 10:09pm | IP Logged
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in this economy you gotta stick it out...I guess keep looking for jobs but certainly don't quit yet. Which firm are you at if you don't mind me asking? Big4 or other national firms (GT, BDO, RSM, etc)?
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chow4me
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| Posted: January 23 2009 at 10:31pm | IP Logged
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moosen34 wrote:
clips2007 wrote:
| welcome to public accounting |
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I know what public accounting is and this is just improper business management from the top down. This was not the way things were run in my first year but many things have changed in this economy. More power to you if this is the career you've grown accustomed to.
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Dang skippy, learn to work your contacts to stay billable because come May/Jun I bet 30% of Staff/Sr Staff getting blown out. Ya, this sux but it is a numbers game. If you want out, do so before May/June or you'll be in a very large group looking for work. FACT.
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CPAnet Forum : Career Questions, Advice & Job Search
Topic: Where to go after public accounting?
