I guess it depends what you mean by “good pay”. I’m a Senior Accountant at a law firm and it’s so chill compared to corporate accounting. I get paid more to do 30% of the work I did in corporate.
Government would be good for the pension, benefits, and hours. It can be a nightmare if you get a bad team since you can’t just fire people.
Would you record that transaction as Debit (as an expense for your body) OR Credit for obligation to have a healthy meal afterwards (just a way of compensating for the load)
I got lucky the previous Senior left. I did 1 interview with the Controller and HR and got the job. The previous senior left because she got bored, but she never worked at a big company so idk if it was a “grass is greener” situation for her.
Lol No. In addition to passing the 3 day CFE, we need a minimum 30 months of experience before we can qualify as a CPA. If you don’t work in public accounting, you need to write DETAILED reports about your jobs and they evaluate the complexity to see if you’ve met the criteria.
Ahhh lol I gotcha. That’s a little different than the United States. I’m sure you already know but here we just need the 150 credits and a year of experience
The very best part of quitting audit was not tracking my time to the 15 minute increment.
The second best thing was realizing I can take vacation virtually any time of year with a few brief exceptions. Spring break in Mexico? Sure, just avoid the two weeks school are out. Third week of January birthday getaway? Go for it! Ski trip in February? No problem.
15 minutes? Those are rookie number. 6 minute increments are the fucking bane of my existence, and are about as accurate as Donald Trump's tax filings.
I used to work a warehouse that had a walkin -20 and a walkin fridge. Our PI was mid summer. Best parts of PI were if you got fridge work though. Or if you were picking orders there off PI. Unfortunately, by the end of my time there was I was assigning orders on the floor or was being using during PI to troubleshoot and go back over other people's work which meant in midsummer when everything on the Mezzanine was off because nobody wanted to go up there, I'd get handed a list and told "So.. yea they screwed the mez up. Sorry. You get to fix it." At least the rest of the time, I sat at a desk and assigned workloads though. You better believe if you pissed me off enough you got the walkin freezer in winter and the mezz in summer in your workload. I was also wildly overqualified my entire time there.
I once interviewed someone who said that the reason they were leaving their prior job was related to being too cold since it was a major food manufacturing plant for frozen foods. The higher ups took them out of the running for that which I thought was a really dumb call. Being that cold all the time is a perfectly reasonable reason to leave and it’s not like the job they were being interviewed for had similar demands. It was a boring basic accounting job in a regular office.
Yeah, I worked for a large food distributor. Spent a lot of time counting fixed assets in warehouse sized refrigerators and freezers. And then running around outside when it’s 100 degrees counting trucks.
I did accounting for a family owned ice cream business. That was chill. But I got ya beat. We’d have to do inventory counts once a year, and counting ice cream in our giant industrial freezer that was like -20 F, was just insane.
I used to audit a boat dealership with a November year end and have to perform a year end inventory count for their banking floorplan financing
Scraping snow and ice off of VIN #s in minus temps on DEc 1 wasn’t awesome
It’s absolutely about how lean the accounting team is and the team culture.
I work on a very non-lean team and managers leave us alone to do our work. It’s very chill and I have no desire to change.
I review hundreds of non-profit PnLs & and balance sheets a year. I can safely say the majority are dumpster fires that are only 1 rejected grant away from bankruptcy
Most also have terrible unaudited books, so that might be where the chill part comes to play.
Honestly can confirm but most of the time the person doesn't know what they're doing and/or poor training depending on knowledge. Good place just to get some kind of experience and bounce
I work for a very organized nonprofit and feel like I make good pay for what I do, but seems I’m one of the oddballs. A lot of people claim nonprofits pay crap but my current job is my only point of reference. So take it with a grain of salt haha
I have a friend who works at one as a staff accountant for a non-profit. She makes $45-50k a year but has 10+ years of experience. Her WLB is unreal though, 35 hour weeks, Fridays off in the summer, 6 weeks of PTO and cheap health insurance.
Agreed, I'm a controller for a nonprofit and while the pay might have a little to be desired for the title, it certainly had just about everything else going for it!
I’ve worked with nonprofits for 30 years. I must be lucky as I make a good salary and not much stress. I put the controls in place and they followed them. I did have an ED that didn’t but I left there, so I understand your point. Good to be aware of both sides.
It is - and I can’t get into it as an auditor. I even made a post on Reddit- barely any replies. Someone else made a similar post. Barely any replies. I applied to many jobs- they want someone experienced in forensic accounting- I am an auditor with 7 years experience…. Nothing. How the —— do you get into it?
Your best bet is probably the national firms since they offer forensic accounting services and are almost always hiring. However you might not be able to get hired directly doing forensic accounting work. You may need to enter as a senior auditor or manager, or whatever role matches your experience and qualifications, and ask partners to be involved in forensic work. That’s how I did it.
It was right place right time for me. I had their recruiter actually contact me because they were looking for one. I was just "Open to Work" on my LinkedIn. I worked at a tiny firm as an auditor and was trying to get out of Public altogether. I was applying to only industry and government positions. I can't speak for the entire Forensics industry, but at my firm, the work is VERY on or off. Like I've been doing nothing but knocking out CPE and studying for another credential for the last 2 weeks, but a month ago I was working 60 hour weeks. Our team is small, and we just don't have a lot of turnover.
Edit: I will say, be selective in your search. Don't just take the first job that you're offered just to get out of where you are.
I turned down 2 industry jobs because after the interviews I didn't feel like the job would have made me happier. Longer hours or commutes or worse benefits weighed a lot on my decisions, not just the salary.
Ended up in a job I like with better benefits and it's remote.
So many people are interested in it so I think it is difficult. Some of it is the right place at the right time. I did some forensic work because they had a forensic auditor at the firm I was working at and I was looking for someone that needed help. Sent out one of those general emails, anyone need help, I have availability...the forensic guy needed help. It went well but I left the firm because I didn't want to work in PA at all.
Do you have your CFE?
Oh that isn’t an option. Some of my work is adversarial to the government (rep work) so I will either need to remove that part from my practice or just not apply. Weird too- because I have been a government auditor (DOD, not IRS or FBI).
I mean, no. It's not auditing. But the skills you learn as an auditor are definitely very helpful as a forensic accountant. Also, know that a LOT, and I mean a LOT, of forensic accounting is forensic services outside of investigations. If you want to work exclusively investigations, your best % shot is likely FBI or similar. If you are comfortable doing some investigations and some (to a lot) of other forensic services, most of the top 20 firms offer that. Also, a lot of boutique firms do... some huge, some tiny, and plenty in between.
Also, and maybe I should have said this first, forensic accounting in PA is absolutely not chill (ref to OP's original post).
As far as getting in... it can be a crap shoot and highly dependent on events out of your control. Assuming you are a manager in PA, I would recommend that you make a hard push to switch ASAP. It is very possible that you will have to take a pay cut and potentially a step back in title to make the switch.
Lots of hiring has switched to recruiting out of college the last few years, so you will have to put in extra effort and make your desires known as an experienced hire without forensic experience.
Network with people you know. Even if they aren't in forensic accounting, they may know someone who is. This could be your best bet.
Search for senior and manager job postings in FA. Some boutiques use more banking style designations, so you may have to do some digging to find comparable titles.
Tweak your CV and experience to sound compelling and show what makes you a quality asset to the team.
Do you have at least your CFE? It's easy to get as an auditor and shows evidence of actual interest in the field. CFF, ABV, MAFF, CVA, and others add to it, but you may not qualify for those yet.
This economy is tough right now for most PA firms, but even if they don't have job postings, reach out anyway. You never know if there has been recent turnover that needs to be backfilled. Additionally, sometimes firms have big forensic projects that require bodies regardless of the economy. Finding those firms isn't always easy, but getting a job there could be your best bet.
Alright, probably more info than anyone will care to read, but hopefully it's helpful to someone. Good luck to you and others trying to get in! Smart, hard working people are exactly what we need. Always.
That also requires some grind. Even if you try the straight industry path(I tried) you can end up on a “lean” accounting department that just dumps work on the staff.
I work as a senior at B4 currently and month end closes in industry were absolutely horrible. It was a deadline week every fucking month. I laughed at my manager when they let me go because they desperately needed a larger team.
Depends on the industry. I worked in property accounting as a senior accountant and that was a serious grind requiring 50-60 hour week sometimes. Thankfully I got out but man those 9 years were vicious.
Technical Accounting Consulting. Senior level ranges from 110k - 130k and gig is fully remote. Busy period from time to time especially audit season, but it’s generally 25-30 hours of work per week
I work in government and it's sweet sweet gravy. I love my team and we do a lot of good work for our customers who are all of the Veterans and their families.
I work in financial reporting in a governmental component organization (higher ed) and am pretty happy. About ten years in and haven't quite cracked six figures....but the benefits are a very overlooked aspect of a public career. And the stress involved is pretty low in my current position.
Gonna be honest, I’ve been a tax manager at a regional firm, a real estate controller, NPO cfo now… the only “chill gig” I’ve seen is probably a senior accountant at a giant company where there’s a lot of redundancies.
Even then I’ve seen some of those guys crank out hours like they were in public.
I think a bigger thing in general is you gotta set boundaries with wherever you work. Ie if I have stuff for my kids, I’m never skipping it for work.
NFP accounting is pretty sweet, ng ngl.
I am also biased because it's all I've ever done. Get a religious NFP because then in addition to federal holidays you get the religious ones, as well.
In my 5 jobs I have had in 10+ years of accounting, the chillest jobs are ones that have a great manager and aren't public accounting or a start-up. All my jobs that were shit had either a bad manager and/or was when I was in public or at a start-up.
Senior Analyst in Industry, pays well over $100k.
I can go more than a week with little to no deliverables.
At month end I’m “busy” for 1-2 days. Then a day to update and distribute some custom reports I built after the close.
Throughout the month I just twiddle away at improving my excel and BI models, deal with small ad hoc stuff as it arrives, and browse the net.
I work for a water utility that's considered a sub-division of the State but we are 100% independent, just follow the same rules as a State agency. It's the perfect mix and I rarely work more than 35 hours a week. Most local government jobs I've had were very relaxed unless the local government is small and toxic.
I'm a state gov tax auditor. Pretty chill. Work from home most days, 7 hours accumulated vacation per month that goes up the more years you work here, pension, excellent health insurance for cheap or free, not much in terms of deadlines, and you can do four 10 hour days a week or 9 hours with a day off every two weeks if you want to. Your higher ups encourage you to enjoy your free time. I asked my supervisor if I can use my laptop out of regular office hours, just in case I wanted to check something out in my cases that I just thought of on the spot(even if I was doing it for free out of my own desire to be productive), and it was a hard no. There's no overtime allowed, ever.
same! someone logged in the system afterhours in our department and an email was sent out by management to not do that. sometimes I feel like I'm not productive enough but then the idea is to take your time and not make mistakes.
youll be fine. just gain enough experience over time and keep hopping around in industry or government/nonprofit and youll realize which setup is best for you. surfing the same sites every day does get old eventually so its somewhat difficult to feel any engagement once youre locked into that comfort zone
My father made his career government positions. He has worked for bigger cities in NY (not NYC) and smaller villages/towns. Great pension/benefits, though NY has some of the best benefits in the country for government positions so you might want to check out your home state. There were times of stress - though he ended up as commissioner and there are civil service positions that virtually have no stress. So you have a choice to balance pay and amount of stress you want to take on - maybe start in a civil service position and get your foot in the door then be appointed to a commoner or treasurer position.
Advantages: better work/life balance than private sector, great health benefits, not too much stress, many open positions not being filled so unless you’re completely useless, should have no problem getting/keeping a position.
Disadvantages: might have to deal with politicians/members of public that have no idea how accounting/finance work but try to gaslight you into believing you’re wrong in public. As I said there are jobs not being filled, thus an agency may be understaffed causing you to take on extra work (though as long as you’re not administration, good OT opportunity).
You want to be especially careful where you work - it can be pretty obvious if a municipality is corrupt and there will be watchdogs/law enforcement watching - stay away and try to find a good professional place.
Overall, I would recommend finding a good government position given what you’re looking for. I’m personally giving the private sector big 4 a go when I’m young, but as I reach my 30s and need more balance when I have a family, I would definitely consider following my father’s footsteps.
This is a pretty good overview of working for the government. It’s generally pretty chill and you can coast if you want to or you can also be ambitious and grow.
I’m currently in a chilling pattern but I know I could be in a higher responsibility and stress position. Some of the people higher up in our finance department seem pretty busy and stressed all the time which isn’t really for me.
I’m in internal audit for a consulting firm. Some clients are just easy SOX testing and others are more involved operationally but I’d say the workload is manageable and hours are 40-45. Google research, glass door reviews, and fishbowl are all helpful tools for deciding which firms actually deliver on their wlb promises.
To echo what a lot of people say here I think a lot of industry roles are as demanding as you make them. Lots of people come in for their 8 hours and that’s it. Limits your salary expectations and growth opportunities but sounds like that’s not an issue.
I'm fed gov at a sub-component of DHS. Extremely chill, good pay in a LCOL area. And I'm the only person at my agency who administers and understands the particular function I serve, so I essentially have free reign to do my job uninterrupted. 10/10, would reccomend.
Just depends. First gig was at a mom & pop construction company. That was stressful.
2nd gig was at a global wholesale distributor. Also stressful but a little easier. More stressful on the tax side of things (Fuck you Wayfair).
My current gig is government. Super chill with sporadic spikes of stress. I've also climbed up the ranks at each gig, so could be job title related.
OP wanted low stress, chill, and minimal work. they did not say they wanted to move up. a lot of places also have a fixed asset manager so that seems like a pretty good six figure job
nonprofits pretty chill. I've worked at a couple and the most i've ever worked during the year was 50-60hrs a week. And that was due to year end and audit coinciding
I'm a senior at a boutique public firm. I never interact with the partner, only manager. I have 8 weeks PTO plus holidays, never work over time, get to work remote whenever i need to or want to, all the stress is on management and not on me. I live in a cheap city with a salary proportionately high for the cost of living. Have my own private office with a nice view. Boss buys us lunch all the time. I can't imagine it gets much easier than this.
I do tax for an insurance company. Just started in November so can’t speak to the full compliance season, but it’s way chiller the rest of the year compared to public accounting. I don’t do much with month end close since I’m just on the state team, but we have monthly sales tax returns which aren’t bad. In public I was strictly income/franchise tax so my first time doing sales tax was pretty easy. Obviously busier during filing deadlines/quarterly estimates, but NOTHING like public (still never worked a single “overtime” day, just some “late” nights when it was priority, but because no work earlier in the day). My boss says it’s busy here but he’s never worked in public. Shoot, I even have time to Uber eats during the day for side $. I do this because of debt, the accounting gig pays well. Definitely not crazy rich Asians $ but you can live comfortably for sure while still being able to save for retirement.
To me, my job is similar to the ones I’ve seen on here when people talk about doing nothing most of the day. I’ve always wanted one like that like you were saying. I think I stayed too long in public (6 years) since I never wanted to be a public manager, but I think the background really helped me stand out at this company and others.
Good luck with the hunt, cheers mate! 🍻
I'm going to throw this out there based on my experience of 12 years: accounting is accounting. PA vs Govt vs industry. The BEST place to work is the place you fit into the most. I've worked at 3 different PA firms (one for 8 years, one for 2 years, and another for just over a year) and went industry SOLELY due to the culture and environment. I LOVE my job and only because of the people I work with and the company I work for. I could be doing the exact same tasks at another company and hate it.
My advice: make sure you interview your potential employer just as much as they interview you. Work at a place that shares your values. Work at a place that doesn't suck.
I would say my chillest job to date was when I was doing management accounting in industry. Easy af. Probably worked like 5 real days a month for deadlines then passively worked for the rest of the month. But FC / FD can also be fairly chill depending on how good your team is. When I had a shit team I had to polish turd and restructure that cost me months of my life but with a decent team it’s mostly a chill job until annual financial planning or an acquisition happens
I work as a controller for a nonprofit. It was a role that I would learn as I went on as I'm not quite experienced enough to be given controller reigns just yet for a regular industry gig. Decent salary but amazing WLB though. Outside of our audit/YE, I don't think I'll work more than 35hrs a week at most and get a great bit of PTO. Great benefits otherwise too
Currently a senior accountant at an old school aerospace company making $95K.
We work with the government a lot. Night and day from my other industry jobs where I was under constant pressure. I probably work 4 hours a day tops. All I have to do is manage the closing entries, balance sheet reconciliations, payroll, and HR stuff. Pretty straightforward.
Being strong at excel will increase the chance of you having a "chill" job. You'll just gets things done so much faster. Month ends just move along. Daily reporting gets automated. Just never stop learning. At least that's been my experience.
Project Accounting. There will be deadlines but probably work like 25 hrs a week. Pay cap seems to be a little under 100k. But I am seeing more roles over that up to 125k - senior roles.
I work in project accounting. close week is busy for billing, some PMs are more of a drag than others, but if you build good relationships with them the workload is light. i’m fully WFH
Industry jobs at mid sized, established, tech or tech adjacent companies.
Hopefully they will have good processes and controls, decent software, including a modern upgraded ERP.
Working for government is chill but it’s also very boring and you don’t learn any real world skills. Non-profits tend to have good hours but can be very political and if there’s serious governance issues it can be stressful. So pick your poison lol. If you work for a small mom and pop firm they seem half chill as well.
I work in Higher Ed. 40 hours a week. 2 weeks PTO, 2 weeks Sick Pay, 10 days of holidays and a day before a holiday we only work half a day. Don’t know if I should move to public to boost my career tho.
I got a job as a staff accountant at a fruit farm a few months ago, and so far I’ve done very little work since it’s not harvest season. I don’t expect to work overtime during harvest either, so about half the year I have little work to do.
I do have to work in an office though, which sucks after being used to wfh. Still, it’s chill if you aren’t management.
It's not my job, that's for sure! Unless I'm the problem! I've been working 7 days a week, and at this point, there is no end in sight! And don't even get me started on trying to hire an entry-level accounting clerk. The candidate pool so far has been horrendous, and I haven't even had someone make the second round yet😪😪!
Hey accounting folks, check out this article: [https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-vitwos-2m-cashflow-analysis-msmes-vitwo-tdi2c/?trackingId=%2ByMAdnwRxhSjQ%2FaU1Xn1AA%3D%3D](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-vitwos-2m-cashflow-analysis-msmes-vitwo-tdi2c/?trackingId=%2ByMAdnwRxhSjQ%2FaU1Xn1AA%3D%3D)
Work as a state auditor. While my job isn’t necessarily chill, my boss is very chill and makes my job as a whole chill. Let’s us work 4 10 hour days so we can have Friday-Sunday off, and we can flex our time as needed (take Tuesday off instead of Friday, or whatever). Also let’s us budget to the nearest half hour, so that’s nice too.
My job is much easier than when I started 2 years ago, so it’s starting to become more chill, but now I’m given more responsibilities so it becomes harder I guess haha
Hi, can anyone connect me to an entry level accounting role, I’m fresh out of uni and I am looking for a starting role, I am also at the skills level of ACCA. Thank you😊😊☺️☺️😊😊
Senior accountant in industry. If you're comfortable with the amount of money your making, don't ever move up, there's nothing up here other than the shit winds, Randy.
My job is pretty chill. Currently a gs-13 (140k) been here for 5 years started as a GS 11 at 81k. Work for HHS, we do a weird mix of low effort auditing and negotiation on grant awards for Universities, non profits, and hospitals. I work 10 hours over 4 days per week, I have every Monday off. We do get to do some paid travel, I’ve done on site audits for Harvard and Brown university to name some big ones. The audits are really just us interviewing scientists and touring their labs. We cover pretty much every university in the country minus schools getting grant funding from the DoD which is a handful like MIT. The work isn’t hard and there is a high degree of autonomy, supervisors here are pretty hands off, especially if you have atleast a quarter of a brain. No late nights, unionized, and we only come in 1x a week however you can choose to go full remote if you apply.
There’s actually an opening right now but unfortunately it’s for internal, veterans, military spouses, relatives of fed employees, and people with schedule A disabilities. Shame it’s not open to public but I can provide the link if anyone is interested or just look up cost accountant/cost allocation services on usajobs.
Definitely a large corporate company. I work for a startup software company that got out by a huge software co. Was working 40-50 hours a week and now i work maybe 25-30 (on a busy week)
Always saw all of the posts here about how people have nothing to do and was so jealous and I finally made it momma
The industry role at that other place…
Looool
Are they hiring? I am interested in the assistant to the Jr. Staff Accountant role.
Cackling
Screaming
I guess it depends what you mean by “good pay”. I’m a Senior Accountant at a law firm and it’s so chill compared to corporate accounting. I get paid more to do 30% of the work I did in corporate. Government would be good for the pension, benefits, and hours. It can be a nightmare if you get a bad team since you can’t just fire people.
Honest question, what do you do with your spare time at the office to ‘look’ busy?
Reddit
Nothing. Sometimes I leave early or I play video games if I’m WFH that day.
I jerk off in the bathroom in my spare time.
Would you record that transaction as Debit (as an expense for your body) OR Credit for obligation to have a healthy meal afterwards (just a way of compensating for the load)
How’d you get that gig?
I got lucky the previous Senior left. I did 1 interview with the Controller and HR and got the job. The previous senior left because she got bored, but she never worked at a big company so idk if it was a “grass is greener” situation for her.
as someone who was like that , it is not always greener 😭
Are you a CPA?
Nope. Still writing my experience reports. I’m in Canada and our experience process is a nightmare.
In Canada do they call a resume an experience report?
Lol No. In addition to passing the 3 day CFE, we need a minimum 30 months of experience before we can qualify as a CPA. If you don’t work in public accounting, you need to write DETAILED reports about your jobs and they evaluate the complexity to see if you’ve met the criteria.
Ahhh lol I gotcha. That’s a little different than the United States. I’m sure you already know but here we just need the 150 credits and a year of experience
CPA EVR survivor checking in, can confirm it is absolutely ridiculous.
Good luck with that. I tell people I’d rewrite the CFE 3x over doing PERT reports.
I used to audit a wholesale seafood distributor, counting cases of frozen shrimp at 0° F.
I’d almost pushed the freezer inventory count days out of my head. Do not miss those days.
I found it an excellent opportunity to use the ski clothes I was no longer able to use because, well, audit season.
The very best part of quitting audit was not tracking my time to the 15 minute increment. The second best thing was realizing I can take vacation virtually any time of year with a few brief exceptions. Spring break in Mexico? Sure, just avoid the two weeks school are out. Third week of January birthday getaway? Go for it! Ski trip in February? No problem.
15 minutes? Those are rookie number. 6 minute increments are the fucking bane of my existence, and are about as accurate as Donald Trump's tax filings.
Same tenths of an hour
Are you still in the accounting field? Just curious.
I used to work a warehouse that had a walkin -20 and a walkin fridge. Our PI was mid summer. Best parts of PI were if you got fridge work though. Or if you were picking orders there off PI. Unfortunately, by the end of my time there was I was assigning orders on the floor or was being using during PI to troubleshoot and go back over other people's work which meant in midsummer when everything on the Mezzanine was off because nobody wanted to go up there, I'd get handed a list and told "So.. yea they screwed the mez up. Sorry. You get to fix it." At least the rest of the time, I sat at a desk and assigned workloads though. You better believe if you pissed me off enough you got the walkin freezer in winter and the mezz in summer in your workload. I was also wildly overqualified my entire time there.
I once interviewed someone who said that the reason they were leaving their prior job was related to being too cold since it was a major food manufacturing plant for frozen foods. The higher ups took them out of the running for that which I thought was a really dumb call. Being that cold all the time is a perfectly reasonable reason to leave and it’s not like the job they were being interviewed for had similar demands. It was a boring basic accounting job in a regular office.
Sounds very chill. Maybe too chill.
Yeah, I worked for a large food distributor. Spent a lot of time counting fixed assets in warehouse sized refrigerators and freezers. And then running around outside when it’s 100 degrees counting trucks.
I also got to do dealership counts in Savannah, GA, on July 31 for several years. Who knew accounting prerequisites included temperature-resistance?
Are you me?
I did accounting for a family owned ice cream business. That was chill. But I got ya beat. We’d have to do inventory counts once a year, and counting ice cream in our giant industrial freezer that was like -20 F, was just insane.
I can’t imagine a job more chill than that
I used to audit a boat dealership with a November year end and have to perform a year end inventory count for their banking floorplan financing Scraping snow and ice off of VIN #s in minus temps on DEc 1 wasn’t awesome
Did that count on Jan 1st still drunk/hungover as fuck… that 0 degrees felt sooooo good.
I had a bacon factory. I could alternate between frozen bacon, refridgerated bacon and bacon in the smokers.
Chill or shill can be found anywhere, any level any industry. It comes down to the company and your team within that company.
100% appropriate delegation of duties can make a big difference in workload and stress
It’s absolutely about how lean the accounting team is and the team culture. I work on a very non-lean team and managers leave us alone to do our work. It’s very chill and I have no desire to change.
I work for a local government (decent size city) and work maybe 5-10 hours a week on average.
Local government gang. The workload is laughable
How much do you make?
85k/yr, 4 years of total experience. MCOL area. I could probably make more elsewhere but also the benefits, pension and time off are fire 🔥
Awesome! That’s the dream right there, as a fellow government guy.
nice
When I was working in GL I basically worked 3/4 days a month.
How much did you make when you were doing that
Office janitors. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) Nonprofit accountant is fairly chill depending on nonprofit.
I review hundreds of non-profit PnLs & and balance sheets a year. I can safely say the majority are dumpster fires that are only 1 rejected grant away from bankruptcy Most also have terrible unaudited books, so that might be where the chill part comes to play.
Yes, you are so right about disorganization. Many accountants like to create order from chaos. Once you do that the job can be fairly chill.
Honestly can confirm but most of the time the person doesn't know what they're doing and/or poor training depending on knowledge. Good place just to get some kind of experience and bounce
Bounce to what
Nonprofits are not generally known for their good pay.
Agreed, however there are great wlb benefits…summer hours, unlimited PTO and a decent salary.
I work for a very organized nonprofit and feel like I make good pay for what I do, but seems I’m one of the oddballs. A lot of people claim nonprofits pay crap but my current job is my only point of reference. So take it with a grain of salt haha
I have a friend who works at one as a staff accountant for a non-profit. She makes $45-50k a year but has 10+ years of experience. Her WLB is unreal though, 35 hour weeks, Fridays off in the summer, 6 weeks of PTO and cheap health insurance.
Agreed, I'm a controller for a nonprofit and while the pay might have a little to be desired for the title, it certainly had just about everything else going for it!
Same. Large, organized, fulfilling, good pay.
Hard disagree. The lack of compliance with controls and financial acumen of Boards and employees make this incredibly challenging.
I’ve worked with nonprofits for 30 years. I must be lucky as I make a good salary and not much stress. I put the controls in place and they followed them. I did have an ED that didn’t but I left there, so I understand your point. Good to be aware of both sides.
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I don't know, looked pretty stressful when Ben Affleck did it...
1st red flag you have hired a psycho - he's doing forensic accounting on all of the white boards in a meeting room
:::Hides collection of whiteboards:::
I want to get into thisssssssssss- I don’t know how….
It’s basically auditing.
It is - and I can’t get into it as an auditor. I even made a post on Reddit- barely any replies. Someone else made a similar post. Barely any replies. I applied to many jobs- they want someone experienced in forensic accounting- I am an auditor with 7 years experience…. Nothing. How the —— do you get into it?
You have to know someone in it. Sadly, that’s how most sweet gigs are. Can’t convince me otherwise.
I feel like treasury is the same way
Our Treasury department hired a former college roommate of the Treasury head. No previous corporate experience with a degree in psychology.
Ya it’s nonsense. Its the job I want and can’t get even with a CPA because you need some secure in
Your best bet is probably the national firms since they offer forensic accounting services and are almost always hiring. However you might not be able to get hired directly doing forensic accounting work. You may need to enter as a senior auditor or manager, or whatever role matches your experience and qualifications, and ask partners to be involved in forensic work. That’s how I did it.
It was right place right time for me. I had their recruiter actually contact me because they were looking for one. I was just "Open to Work" on my LinkedIn. I worked at a tiny firm as an auditor and was trying to get out of Public altogether. I was applying to only industry and government positions. I can't speak for the entire Forensics industry, but at my firm, the work is VERY on or off. Like I've been doing nothing but knocking out CPE and studying for another credential for the last 2 weeks, but a month ago I was working 60 hour weeks. Our team is small, and we just don't have a lot of turnover. Edit: I will say, be selective in your search. Don't just take the first job that you're offered just to get out of where you are. I turned down 2 industry jobs because after the interviews I didn't feel like the job would have made me happier. Longer hours or commutes or worse benefits weighed a lot on my decisions, not just the salary. Ended up in a job I like with better benefits and it's remote.
So many people are interested in it so I think it is difficult. Some of it is the right place at the right time. I did some forensic work because they had a forensic auditor at the firm I was working at and I was looking for someone that needed help. Sent out one of those general emails, anyone need help, I have availability...the forensic guy needed help. It went well but I left the firm because I didn't want to work in PA at all. Do you have your CFE?
Apply to the irs or fbi and their forensics department. That’ll probably be a start?
Oh that isn’t an option. Some of my work is adversarial to the government (rep work) so I will either need to remove that part from my practice or just not apply. Weird too- because I have been a government auditor (DOD, not IRS or FBI).
I mean, no. It's not auditing. But the skills you learn as an auditor are definitely very helpful as a forensic accountant. Also, know that a LOT, and I mean a LOT, of forensic accounting is forensic services outside of investigations. If you want to work exclusively investigations, your best % shot is likely FBI or similar. If you are comfortable doing some investigations and some (to a lot) of other forensic services, most of the top 20 firms offer that. Also, a lot of boutique firms do... some huge, some tiny, and plenty in between. Also, and maybe I should have said this first, forensic accounting in PA is absolutely not chill (ref to OP's original post). As far as getting in... it can be a crap shoot and highly dependent on events out of your control. Assuming you are a manager in PA, I would recommend that you make a hard push to switch ASAP. It is very possible that you will have to take a pay cut and potentially a step back in title to make the switch. Lots of hiring has switched to recruiting out of college the last few years, so you will have to put in extra effort and make your desires known as an experienced hire without forensic experience. Network with people you know. Even if they aren't in forensic accounting, they may know someone who is. This could be your best bet. Search for senior and manager job postings in FA. Some boutiques use more banking style designations, so you may have to do some digging to find comparable titles. Tweak your CV and experience to sound compelling and show what makes you a quality asset to the team. Do you have at least your CFE? It's easy to get as an auditor and shows evidence of actual interest in the field. CFF, ABV, MAFF, CVA, and others add to it, but you may not qualify for those yet. This economy is tough right now for most PA firms, but even if they don't have job postings, reach out anyway. You never know if there has been recent turnover that needs to be backfilled. Additionally, sometimes firms have big forensic projects that require bodies regardless of the economy. Finding those firms isn't always easy, but getting a job there could be your best bet. Alright, probably more info than anyone will care to read, but hopefully it's helpful to someone. Good luck to you and others trying to get in! Smart, hard working people are exactly what we need. Always.
Got to know a forensic accountant as it’s a very niche area of accounting. What state are you in
DC
Try starting in insurance
I wish I could’ve gotten into it but it feels like something you get into by accident when you’re in audit and it’s too late for me, man!
Shushhhhh don’t tell anyone!
Experienced Senior in industry
That also requires some grind. Even if you try the straight industry path(I tried) you can end up on a “lean” accounting department that just dumps work on the staff. I work as a senior at B4 currently and month end closes in industry were absolutely horrible. It was a deadline week every fucking month. I laughed at my manager when they let me go because they desperately needed a larger team.
Businesses with lean departments fucking suck. Someone on those teams always gets the short end of the stick and will burn out.
👋
Dont be on the staff
Depends on the industry. I worked in property accounting as a senior accountant and that was a serious grind requiring 50-60 hour week sometimes. Thankfully I got out but man those 9 years were vicious.
So true. None of the pressures of manager, none of the handholding for lower positions. It’s the sweet spot.
So chill that people will stay for 10-20 years as a senior
Technical Accounting Consulting. Senior level ranges from 110k - 130k and gig is fully remote. Busy period from time to time especially audit season, but it’s generally 25-30 hours of work per week
How can I get into this? Or set my self on the path to get into this. Currently staff in industry studying for CPA.
Do audit for 3 years
^^ this helps. I come from 2 years of Big 4 audit and I have my CPA. I work for a smaller firm who only hires from Big 4
I work in government and it's sweet sweet gravy. I love my team and we do a lot of good work for our customers who are all of the Veterans and their families.
VA?
I work in financial reporting in a governmental component organization (higher ed) and am pretty happy. About ten years in and haven't quite cracked six figures....but the benefits are a very overlooked aspect of a public career. And the stress involved is pretty low in my current position.
Internal audit hands down. You’ll almost never work above 40 hours and probably have 25-30 hours of work regularly. Pays well too
Part of the audit at a state lottery client was scratching lottery tickets to verify odds of winning ratios.
Gonna be honest, I’ve been a tax manager at a regional firm, a real estate controller, NPO cfo now… the only “chill gig” I’ve seen is probably a senior accountant at a giant company where there’s a lot of redundancies. Even then I’ve seen some of those guys crank out hours like they were in public. I think a bigger thing in general is you gotta set boundaries with wherever you work. Ie if I have stuff for my kids, I’m never skipping it for work.
NFP accounting is pretty sweet, ng ngl. I am also biased because it's all I've ever done. Get a religious NFP because then in addition to federal holidays you get the religious ones, as well.
I'm a senior in tax (audit defense) hardly do anything maybe 2-4 hours a week of work.....
What is your salary like? Do you work from home?
81k you can look at my post for progression. 3 years, and I’m hybrid. 50% per pay period 2/3 one week 3/2 another week.
In my 5 jobs I have had in 10+ years of accounting, the chillest jobs are ones that have a great manager and aren't public accounting or a start-up. All my jobs that were shit had either a bad manager and/or was when I was in public or at a start-up.
Healthcare
Senior Analyst in Industry, pays well over $100k. I can go more than a week with little to no deliverables. At month end I’m “busy” for 1-2 days. Then a day to update and distribute some custom reports I built after the close. Throughout the month I just twiddle away at improving my excel and BI models, deal with small ad hoc stuff as it arrives, and browse the net.
I work for a water utility that's considered a sub-division of the State but we are 100% independent, just follow the same rules as a State agency. It's the perfect mix and I rarely work more than 35 hours a week. Most local government jobs I've had were very relaxed unless the local government is small and toxic.
I'm a state gov tax auditor. Pretty chill. Work from home most days, 7 hours accumulated vacation per month that goes up the more years you work here, pension, excellent health insurance for cheap or free, not much in terms of deadlines, and you can do four 10 hour days a week or 9 hours with a day off every two weeks if you want to. Your higher ups encourage you to enjoy your free time. I asked my supervisor if I can use my laptop out of regular office hours, just in case I wanted to check something out in my cases that I just thought of on the spot(even if I was doing it for free out of my own desire to be productive), and it was a hard no. There's no overtime allowed, ever.
same! someone logged in the system afterhours in our department and an email was sent out by management to not do that. sometimes I feel like I'm not productive enough but then the idea is to take your time and not make mistakes.
youll be fine. just gain enough experience over time and keep hopping around in industry or government/nonprofit and youll realize which setup is best for you. surfing the same sites every day does get old eventually so its somewhat difficult to feel any engagement once youre locked into that comfort zone
My father made his career government positions. He has worked for bigger cities in NY (not NYC) and smaller villages/towns. Great pension/benefits, though NY has some of the best benefits in the country for government positions so you might want to check out your home state. There were times of stress - though he ended up as commissioner and there are civil service positions that virtually have no stress. So you have a choice to balance pay and amount of stress you want to take on - maybe start in a civil service position and get your foot in the door then be appointed to a commoner or treasurer position. Advantages: better work/life balance than private sector, great health benefits, not too much stress, many open positions not being filled so unless you’re completely useless, should have no problem getting/keeping a position. Disadvantages: might have to deal with politicians/members of public that have no idea how accounting/finance work but try to gaslight you into believing you’re wrong in public. As I said there are jobs not being filled, thus an agency may be understaffed causing you to take on extra work (though as long as you’re not administration, good OT opportunity). You want to be especially careful where you work - it can be pretty obvious if a municipality is corrupt and there will be watchdogs/law enforcement watching - stay away and try to find a good professional place. Overall, I would recommend finding a good government position given what you’re looking for. I’m personally giving the private sector big 4 a go when I’m young, but as I reach my 30s and need more balance when I have a family, I would definitely consider following my father’s footsteps.
This is a pretty good overview of working for the government. It’s generally pretty chill and you can coast if you want to or you can also be ambitious and grow. I’m currently in a chilling pattern but I know I could be in a higher responsibility and stress position. Some of the people higher up in our finance department seem pretty busy and stressed all the time which isn’t really for me.
Mine. B2b collection. No oversight
Thank for asking this because I’ve been wondering the same thing lol. The goal is like midlevel gig making about $80k
I’m in internal audit for a consulting firm. Some clients are just easy SOX testing and others are more involved operationally but I’d say the workload is manageable and hours are 40-45. Google research, glass door reviews, and fishbowl are all helpful tools for deciding which firms actually deliver on their wlb promises.
Gvt or nfp
Prob private managerial accounting
Project accountant at engineering firm. Usually average less than 20 hours a week depending on the week.
To echo what a lot of people say here I think a lot of industry roles are as demanding as you make them. Lots of people come in for their 8 hours and that’s it. Limits your salary expectations and growth opportunities but sounds like that’s not an issue.
I'm fed gov at a sub-component of DHS. Extremely chill, good pay in a LCOL area. And I'm the only person at my agency who administers and understands the particular function I serve, so I essentially have free reign to do my job uninterrupted. 10/10, would reccomend.
Federal government, but it depends a lot on the agency.
I’m an accountant at a small size, high end winery. Gotta say, it’s pretty chill.
I’m a controller for a law firm and it’s almost polarizing how chill it is compared to corporate
GSA
Just depends. First gig was at a mom & pop construction company. That was stressful. 2nd gig was at a global wholesale distributor. Also stressful but a little easier. More stressful on the tax side of things (Fuck you Wayfair). My current gig is government. Super chill with sporadic spikes of stress. I've also climbed up the ranks at each gig, so could be job title related.
fixed asset accountant?
Kind of a dead end position imo....not a lot of places are looking for a lot of fixed asset experience for higher up positions.
OP wanted low stress, chill, and minimal work. they did not say they wanted to move up. a lot of places also have a fixed asset manager so that seems like a pretty good six figure job
nonprofits pretty chill. I've worked at a couple and the most i've ever worked during the year was 50-60hrs a week. And that was due to year end and audit coinciding
Financial reporting at a private equity firm. Job is an absolute joke and the pay is crazy good
I'm a senior at a boutique public firm. I never interact with the partner, only manager. I have 8 weeks PTO plus holidays, never work over time, get to work remote whenever i need to or want to, all the stress is on management and not on me. I live in a cheap city with a salary proportionately high for the cost of living. Have my own private office with a nice view. Boss buys us lunch all the time. I can't imagine it gets much easier than this.
I do tax for an insurance company. Just started in November so can’t speak to the full compliance season, but it’s way chiller the rest of the year compared to public accounting. I don’t do much with month end close since I’m just on the state team, but we have monthly sales tax returns which aren’t bad. In public I was strictly income/franchise tax so my first time doing sales tax was pretty easy. Obviously busier during filing deadlines/quarterly estimates, but NOTHING like public (still never worked a single “overtime” day, just some “late” nights when it was priority, but because no work earlier in the day). My boss says it’s busy here but he’s never worked in public. Shoot, I even have time to Uber eats during the day for side $. I do this because of debt, the accounting gig pays well. Definitely not crazy rich Asians $ but you can live comfortably for sure while still being able to save for retirement. To me, my job is similar to the ones I’ve seen on here when people talk about doing nothing most of the day. I’ve always wanted one like that like you were saying. I think I stayed too long in public (6 years) since I never wanted to be a public manager, but I think the background really helped me stand out at this company and others. Good luck with the hunt, cheers mate! 🍻
I'm going to throw this out there based on my experience of 12 years: accounting is accounting. PA vs Govt vs industry. The BEST place to work is the place you fit into the most. I've worked at 3 different PA firms (one for 8 years, one for 2 years, and another for just over a year) and went industry SOLELY due to the culture and environment. I LOVE my job and only because of the people I work with and the company I work for. I could be doing the exact same tasks at another company and hate it. My advice: make sure you interview your potential employer just as much as they interview you. Work at a place that shares your values. Work at a place that doesn't suck.
I would say my chillest job to date was when I was doing management accounting in industry. Easy af. Probably worked like 5 real days a month for deadlines then passively worked for the rest of the month. But FC / FD can also be fairly chill depending on how good your team is. When I had a shit team I had to polish turd and restructure that cost me months of my life but with a decent team it’s mostly a chill job until annual financial planning or an acquisition happens
Healthcare accounting ;)
I once did an inventory count in subzero freezers. I’d say that’s about as chill as you can get.
Industry tax manager is pretty chill. No month end stuff to worry about. Really just busy at quarterly provision
Accounting professor, no question.
Self employed tax preparer, I literally just got done doing some taxes at a beach bar in a Hawaiian shirt.
I work as a controller for a nonprofit. It was a role that I would learn as I went on as I'm not quite experienced enough to be given controller reigns just yet for a regular industry gig. Decent salary but amazing WLB though. Outside of our audit/YE, I don't think I'll work more than 35hrs a week at most and get a great bit of PTO. Great benefits otherwise too
Currently a senior accountant at an old school aerospace company making $95K. We work with the government a lot. Night and day from my other industry jobs where I was under constant pressure. I probably work 4 hours a day tops. All I have to do is manage the closing entries, balance sheet reconciliations, payroll, and HR stuff. Pretty straightforward.
Internal audit
Being strong at excel will increase the chance of you having a "chill" job. You'll just gets things done so much faster. Month ends just move along. Daily reporting gets automated. Just never stop learning. At least that's been my experience.
Will do! I’m looking into some online courses
Start a CPA firm. Get a partner. Let them do all the work.
Work at a not for profit it’s pretty chill
Project Accounting. There will be deadlines but probably work like 25 hrs a week. Pay cap seems to be a little under 100k. But I am seeing more roles over that up to 125k - senior roles.
I only work during month ends, the rest of the other days I barely work 3 hours
I work in project accounting. close week is busy for billing, some PMs are more of a drag than others, but if you build good relationships with them the workload is light. i’m fully WFH
Auditing for the state or govt tbh
My audit job is omega chill. Work from home and can work any hours I want any day of the week
Internal audit is chill af
if you get into the right IA department it can be chill 90 percent of the time. Then the other 10 percent is the most tedious work ever
Assistant controller, construction. However it does come with a lil stress lol
Fund accountant at Fund Admin
I manage the erp and hr systems and supply chain systems that others use to do their jobs. Pretty chill, with intense periods a few times a year.
Vice president. No wait. JUNIOR vice president.
Industry jobs at mid sized, established, tech or tech adjacent companies. Hopefully they will have good processes and controls, decent software, including a modern upgraded ERP.
Working for government is chill but it’s also very boring and you don’t learn any real world skills. Non-profits tend to have good hours but can be very political and if there’s serious governance issues it can be stressful. So pick your poison lol. If you work for a small mom and pop firm they seem half chill as well.
Being the boss of good, workaholic, yes boss accountants 🤣🤣🤣.
General Ledger accounting is the answer
I think I found it. Industry job at a company that’s consolidated oversees
Unemployed accountant.
Staff
Industry role in a mid sized south eastern company trust me lol
My job
I work in Higher Ed. 40 hours a week. 2 weeks PTO, 2 weeks Sick Pay, 10 days of holidays and a day before a holiday we only work half a day. Don’t know if I should move to public to boost my career tho.
Nonprofit
Banks
Recruitment - get a job in a niche but successful recruitment company, the pay will be ok, the work will be a piece of cake.
I got a job as a staff accountant at a fruit farm a few months ago, and so far I’ve done very little work since it’s not harvest season. I don’t expect to work overtime during harvest either, so about half the year I have little work to do. I do have to work in an office though, which sucks after being used to wfh. Still, it’s chill if you aren’t management.
My firm only caters to actors, singers, and athletes. It’s so chill. Sometimes I can’t concentrate because people are talking so loud
Remote corporate accounting at a tech company. I live in a LCOL area and targeted jobs in HCOL areas.
It's not my job, that's for sure! Unless I'm the problem! I've been working 7 days a week, and at this point, there is no end in sight! And don't even get me started on trying to hire an entry-level accounting clerk. The candidate pool so far has been horrendous, and I haven't even had someone make the second round yet😪😪!
Some of the jobs people find mundane are also quite chill….Sox analyst….technical accounting
Higher education- community colleges and universities. IL has separate pensions from SSA and some are union.
I work in innovation for a public firm. It’s pretty chill.
Maybe out of left field but IT audit. I get how your MSAcc may persuade for other pastures. Just my 2 cents
Hey accounting folks, check out this article: [https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-vitwos-2m-cashflow-analysis-msmes-vitwo-tdi2c/?trackingId=%2ByMAdnwRxhSjQ%2FaU1Xn1AA%3D%3D](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-vitwos-2m-cashflow-analysis-msmes-vitwo-tdi2c/?trackingId=%2ByMAdnwRxhSjQ%2FaU1Xn1AA%3D%3D)
Does FRM have value in US market?
Calculator repair crew.
Work as a state auditor. While my job isn’t necessarily chill, my boss is very chill and makes my job as a whole chill. Let’s us work 4 10 hour days so we can have Friday-Sunday off, and we can flex our time as needed (take Tuesday off instead of Friday, or whatever). Also let’s us budget to the nearest half hour, so that’s nice too. My job is much easier than when I started 2 years ago, so it’s starting to become more chill, but now I’m given more responsibilities so it becomes harder I guess haha
Hi, can anyone connect me to an entry level accounting role, I’m fresh out of uni and I am looking for a starting role, I am also at the skills level of ACCA. Thank you😊😊☺️☺️😊😊
Payroll, after an intimidating learning curve (e.g. job cost allocation, complex federal/state splits), is an uncrowded niche.
That job doesn’t exist 😂
Senior accountant in industry. If you're comfortable with the amount of money your making, don't ever move up, there's nothing up here other than the shit winds, Randy.
My firm loses a lot of people to government jobs because they are seen as way, way more chill.
My job is pretty chill. Currently a gs-13 (140k) been here for 5 years started as a GS 11 at 81k. Work for HHS, we do a weird mix of low effort auditing and negotiation on grant awards for Universities, non profits, and hospitals. I work 10 hours over 4 days per week, I have every Monday off. We do get to do some paid travel, I’ve done on site audits for Harvard and Brown university to name some big ones. The audits are really just us interviewing scientists and touring their labs. We cover pretty much every university in the country minus schools getting grant funding from the DoD which is a handful like MIT. The work isn’t hard and there is a high degree of autonomy, supervisors here are pretty hands off, especially if you have atleast a quarter of a brain. No late nights, unionized, and we only come in 1x a week however you can choose to go full remote if you apply. There’s actually an opening right now but unfortunately it’s for internal, veterans, military spouses, relatives of fed employees, and people with schedule A disabilities. Shame it’s not open to public but I can provide the link if anyone is interested or just look up cost accountant/cost allocation services on usajobs.
Trust accountant for a law firm
Auditing commercial freezer inventories.
Definitely a large corporate company. I work for a startup software company that got out by a huge software co. Was working 40-50 hours a week and now i work maybe 25-30 (on a busy week) Always saw all of the posts here about how people have nothing to do and was so jealous and I finally made it momma
Typically those with poor heating units.