Accounting Profession CRISIS?

[mecanuktutorials]

This guy doesn’t look like a CPA.
Looks like a Calvin Klein model.

[brandonallger]

Here’s my theory. I’m 38. Worked in tax accounting for 15 years. Every year our firm would hire 4 staffers for tax season out of college, and fire the least productive 2. I worked at 2 other firms, same thing. The 35-40 year old CPAs largely don’t exist because firms have FIRED OFF half the potential workforce.

Best part, they fire them exactly 89 days after their start date, so they wouldn’t be eligible to file unemployment. So you graduate, put in 60 hours a week for 3 months straight, and on the day the crazy hours end you get fired. Decades of greed on the part of the partners, and now it’s come back to bite them.

[ens]

Pay - it’s literally just pay. Public accounting is a pyramid scheme that’s been abused to this point by firm owners. The AICPA isn’t quite innocent here, in my experience over my career, they haven’t done much to help all of us (their members). I know I’m not renewing my AICPA membership when it comes up. It’s on this next generation of firm owners to make a better offer for talent to join our industry.

[joshv]

I graduated with a Bachelors at a small state school, completed my 150 hours by taking mostly online classes at my local community college while working in public accounting in my first job out of school. I only had to take 2 or 3 in person as required by my state. It was not too difficult. My college tried to push the Masters program on me but I am glad I did not do it. I passed my CPA exam without any failures using a CPA study guide like Becker (I can't remember which) that my firm paid for. I never cracked open one book, all test questions, every day before work.

Overall it was not too difficult. I would not want to do it again, but if I could go back, I wouldn't change the path I took and I am glad I did it.

[richard]

I worked as a federal accountant for ten years while on active duty, where we don’t have the same stringent requirements as the public sector does. Despite ten years of experience as an accountant, none of my work history counted towards transitioning to the public sector as a CPA. Many companies I spoke to about lateral moves seemed to expect me to already have a CPA given the duties and responsibilities we undertake in our field, but that’s a whole lot of education that doesn’t necessarily benefit us in a significant way while we’re active duty.

There are likely thousands of other transitioning service members who could be more than happy to move to public sector accounting if it weren’t for having to start at zero again. Many of us move to other fields as a result of the lack of support for federal accountants.

[jikan-tabi-]

The young generation of aspiring accountants/CPAs do not see the value of 60-84 hour weeks, lower salary per hour worked, increasing workloads and stress, lack of relatable mentors and more complex compliance standards in public accounting. Unfortunately the accounting profession has a stigma and image problem that is universally viewed by a lot of people outside the profession. I am planning to leave the profession after 20 years+ (Big 4, active cpa, corp tax compliance, sec reporting, fin reporting at tech firms). I never had any passion for accounting during my career. It helped pay my bills. Good luck to you!

[Billiam]

I'm a senior about to graduate with my undergraduate in accounting. In the past my school had many easy paths to reach 150 hours for accounting students, but last year they took those opportunities away to try and increase their enrollment in the MAcc program which screwed us upperclassmen who were expecting to graduate with 150 this upcoming May. Seems like some universities are trying to exploit the few of us who actually want to become CPA's...

[jrlingerfelt]

Here's the change: You start your own tax filing business on the side and build from there over a course of a few years until your income can replace the income from your job. Just file people's taxes for them, your average mom and pop. (Context: I work in wealth management as a career outside Atlanta and I know a guy who did what I just described. He makes $100k a year and only works 4 months out of the year.)

[bareaahammami]

What drives people out of the Profesional is the low pay compared to the regulations and high mental work requirements put on CPAs

[golfprogress]

When I was in college in 1993-1997, it was just understood that CPA was a path to a “stable” career. Tech barely existed as a road for finance/econ/accounting majors. The internet changed everything.

[DerekFoote]

Before our modern information era (I graduated in 2008 when social media was just getting started), college students were much more in the dark about the profession and what to expect on the other side of graduation. But there was still the same turnover issues. The expected practice was 3-5 years and bounce. Industry turnover of 20%+ was an acceptable "standard." The cohort I started with mostly left for private as soon as the economy recovered from 2010-2011.

The problem goes back decades. This isn't a new problem the industry is suffering from because of a narrative on social media. The industry is suffering the consequences of it's own practices that it can't hide anymore. They're trying to blame the messenger.

[leeb.]

Working as an IRS Revenue Agent is a high pressure job for very modest pay. But over the years, the IRS has created a multitude of “Analyst” and “Policy” jobs which pay significantly more, with vague requirements and little pressure. Not surprisingly, many R.A.s have shifted to these cushy jobs, and the agency is having difficulty backfilling the accounting positions.

[christiancoronado]

CPA with 15 years of experience here. Public accounting isn't worth the trouble. Private accounting is more money and better work-life balance. Big 4s should be begging people to work for them. The focus should be on first work-life balance and then compensation. A CPA shouldn't give a damn about staying relevant, I won't get fired because they need me, and it's nonsense that they'll hire someone in India to do my work, that doesn't happen in private acctg for many reasons

[AnonymousTry]

I studied for CPA, couldn't pass the exams. Mainly because: 1. no work experience to understand what accounting is at the time. 2. Language barrier, my English wasn't sufficient to understand some questions, even now, I still have difficulties time to time. 3. I'm not good at taking exams in general. After over two years full cycle accounting working experiences, I still don't have the confidence to take the exam (with studying of course). But I appreciate accounting experiences deeply. Now I work in corp Finance, I have to say that accounting is under-appreciated by the corporations, outsourcing accounting functions doesn't always work. There's no technical barrier for any accountant to perform Financial analysis, however, most financial analysts don't understand the basic principles for accounting.

[adeyemiolaogun]

I work for the State as an auditor. The previous generation screwed up the accounting profession big time. Our agency has major retention issues. They want 150 hrs (MBA candidate more than likely) and a CPA license to make 52k a year 😮.

[ES-nyvk]

I see a lot of the big public US companies in private industry hire accountants from India and Mexico and force them to work "North American" hours just because they can pay them less because of the COL adjustments. The few US accountants/ CPAs that do get hired are called upon to be project managers to "babysit" their overseas counterparts and micromanage them by asking "where this report is" or " where are the deliverables?". Today's US accountants in private industry are more like PMs and not doing any of the "accounting" technical work.

[shawnsnow]

It's literally just the toxic work environment in public and pay. That's it. Making it easier to get your CPA license is the worst possible solution.

[michaelkelly]

I hope people continue to leave the accounting field so I (a new CPA) can capitalize

[kausalkraken]

This is why I just got my EA (Enrolled Agent). Own my own Tax firm and make my own hours.

[HUMAN-VERSION]

What drives people out of accounting is that everyone in accounting is passive.Aggressive mean repressed sexually and take out their anger on staff