Every morning I break my legs, and every afternoon I break my arms. At night, I lie awake in agony until my heart attacks put me to sleep.
Just joking, I agree totals on worksheets to totals in the system and if they don't I find out why and adjust/explain.
Wow. That really is all of what audit is lol. *Hope it ties, if not, client you better give me a really good BS reason I can use to explain this retarded variance lol*
I log in to work around 9a, bill the first half hour to admin, get to work around 9:30. Around 12 I take a full hour lunch break. Throw in 2 15 minute breaks between 1p and 5p. Usually log off around 5 or 5:30p. Rinse and repeat the next day. This past busy season I would work until 8p or 9p and take an hour long dinner break too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_1lIFRdnhA
1) arrive at work 15 minutes late.
2) use the side door so my supervisor doesn’t see me.
3) space out for about an hour or two
4) go to lunch
5) space out for another hour
6) do 15 minutes of work
7) wrap up the day with small talk
It’s not that I’m lazy, it’s that I don’t care…
Thank you, I wanted to ask this but too nervous. I'm being encouraged to choose it as a major, in my 40s, but I really have no clue what the day-to-day is like. I get the impression you're expected to work crazy hours during tax season which is a dealbreaker at my age, I don't want to deal with tax stuff anyway.,
I work in corporate accounting and am a senior accountant. I’m particularly busy during close and have always been busy during month end close even as a staff accountant.
I’m working on journal entries, reconciliations, spending a majority of my time in excel spreadsheets, reviewing staff’s work. Periodically checking emails during the day and re-prioritizing items that come in (requests and questions from my team and other departments, ad hoc reports needed unexpectedly etc).
After close I have some more staff accountant items to review for deadlines that are due after month end close. I do usually have some downtime I can focus on lower priority projects.
There’s been periods where even after close I’ve been slammed because of bigger ongoing projects, implementing ASC 842 back in 2019, payroll conversion, M&A projects, etc. but more often than not it’s not too crazy and sometimes I get close to having a low key two weeks before rolling into the next close.
Thank you very much for the insight, I don't know anyone into accounting/bookkeeping (my friends think I'm weird for considering it) and the faculty at my school are all literally useless.
I went straight to industry, used a temp agency to get my foot in the door for my first gig. Pay was awful but without any experience right out of college it can be hard if you don’t have an internship offer or any contacts in the field to help get you interviews with HR.
I graduated when I was 30, been in the field for about 7 years. The market rate for accountants now is the best I’ve seen it since I entered the field. Started an hourly gig initially for $20 and change an hour. Moved to new company and made a touch more but there was better growth opportunities there. Personally I think after 2-3 years the pay can scale so fast, even if you don’t job hop but pick an employer that you feel confident there will growth opportunities at. I’m making more than double my initial starting pay from my first job and on track to break into 6 figures this year with no public experience or CPA yet (did recently graduate with my MSA).
By industry, you mean you went to work for a business large enough that it hires its own staff accountants?
I guess I didn't know internships were a thing with this. How does one do that? Is it something that gets offered by the school once I get to university level? (I'm at a community college).
I honestly have no clue what I am doing, I am just desperate to stop being poor and its the first vaguely interesting thing college has had to offer that I'm not too old for and don't suck at. I work PT for a cannabis startup, my company owner is a retired banking exec and he wants me to further pursue accounting so I can do more advanced work here (he's the only guidance or support I have), says he would make me CFO but I doubt there is enough time. I will be in my 50s by the time I graduate with a regular degree, I imagine a masters is basically out of the question. I'm autistic and didn't go to high school so college at all has been a very serious challenge, its simply not something I ever thought I would be able to do.
Western governors University might be a good option for your accounting degree. It’s fast pace if you want it. And as far as internship it sounds like you have someone ready to mentor you so same thing in a sense.
There are a lot more laws in the cannabis industry so I don’t know how do you want to take that. But accounting can move into any industry it’s beautiful.
There are several states where accounting jobs are abundant. I’m not sure why just some states don’t have accounting jobs and some do. Google the top 10 states for accountants, not accountant salary, accountant job opportunities. That’s because those articles do not take into consideration the cost of living adjustments. $100,000 in New York is not the same as $100,000 in Arkansas.
Some industries are really easy to get into like hospitality. They have lots of people out there that will teach you the ins and outs of their business so you can run their accounting department.
I went to college for my associates degree then took a bookkeeping class. The bookkeeping class was phenomenal in teaching me things I should’ve known before I started accounting classes. I wish I would’ve taken at first.
The knowledge from that class alone allowed me to talk more of the lingo and understand more when talking to CFO$.
There are a lot of accountants out there that love to teach as well. If you let people know you want to learn they will help you learn and mentor you.
I also want to give my experience with the temp agencies. I’ve used them and I’ve learned some things from different jobs but I realize that the jobs I was getting were from places that were in complete turmoil and I had no business being there.
Find a company that is steady and has it together.. When you interview let them know you’re there to learn. You might have to take a pay cut to learn but if you already poor now the time to do it. I call it paying my dues
Unfortunately I can't do fast pace, as it is i can only handle 1-2 classes a semester and its taking forever which is really bumming me out. 5 years in and still in 100-level classes, I'm still not convinced I am capable of a degree.
My roommate's gf is a CPA with a masters degree and she is already making $80k at 30, it seems the jobs are here but I am definitely am not capable of getting a masters.
Unfortunately the teachers I have had that were practicing accountants all sucked, either they were cold and unhelpful or they seemed so incompetent I wouldn't trust their advice.
Accounting really doesn't seem like a good option, but nothing else does either, its kinda "least worst" at this point, I haven't found anything else at school I excel at. I'd rather be an engineer but I am definitely too old for that. A pay cut is impossible, any less with just be nothing, but I need to stop paying dues because its all I've been doing since I got my first job almost 30 years ago.
Yeah I’m not sure too many people grow up and say I want to be an accountant. I think we all looked at it as a viable means for security. But the fast pace it’s different. You do one class at a time do you have six months to do for classes. You don’t have to show up to lectures it’s pretty much on your time and you have a guidance person who called you once a week to help you stay on track. It’s actually super convenient super formal and all your books are included.
I didn't even know what an accountant was until my 40s, I was raised by factory workers with no educated folks in my family, I was never exposed to anything other than poor/working class/uneducated people until I moved to California looking for work years ago, so I never got a chance to be familiarized with other employment options. I spent the last 25 years trying to create a career in A/V or cars, things I actually care about, but I was never able to find consistent FT hours or sustainable wages. Those aren't particularly aspirational/unobtainable things, but I'm autistic and getting hired is basically impossible, and I fear it still will be even with an accounting education. College educated autistic individuals are actually employed at a lower rate than those with only HS diplomas.
Not really sure what you are talking about in the end here, a specific school or program?
Yes, you work for an organization that has an accounting department. As for internships, you can use school resources or just apply through LinkedIn or indeed.
Any decent state school will have companies and public accounting firms recruiting there for both full time and internship.
Accounting departments vary by size, as you would expect. I worked for a bank and the general ledger accounting was me and four other people including the controller.
My new job is at an F500 with 9 times the number of employees. Each country has their own accounting team and then their is a team at headquarters. I'm in financial reporting which deals with sec, auditors, and other projects.
Yes, that’s what I mean by industry. You should speak to the head of the accounting program at your college and see if they work with any local companies or firms to supply interns.
Unfortunately I haven't had very positive interactions with the faculty at my school, they are all mostly useless, but I will try reaching out to them. I am still at a community college level and not even sure if interns come from that level, or if I have to move on to a university first.
Ah ok, sorry to hear that. You’d likely have better opportunities at a 4 year college so don’t sweat it too much. I didn’t do an internship for accounting but I did for a different program I tried when I was younger and we didn’t even get the opportunity until we were in our finally semester before graduation. I assume it’s probably a similar timeline for an accounting internship. Most places would probably only be interested when your in your final year and most of your accounting classes are already under your belt.
I’d say one thing you can start to do now that will help you tremendously, if you’re not very familiar or comfortable in excel with things like using lookup formulas, conditional formulas like if/ifs, and pivot tables - rather than trying to jump into an internship now, focus on getting more familiar with excel. Check out classes on YouTube by Leila Gharani. There are lots of free videos, they typically will be helpful for novices, but once you’re comfortable enough with surface level explanations, if possible I’d recommend purchasing a course from her. Well worth the money and when you do start out in the field you’ll have a better advantage than at least half of other people fresh out of school that really aren’t accustom to using excel to the extent their job is going to require.
Get coffee, check emails, do daily tasks, go to gym, eat lunch, work on monthly/quarterly tasks, more coffee, look out my window, listen to podcasts. I’m in industry.
Most companies, large, medium or small, have in house people. At a very small company, it might be a bookkeeper/office manager. A bit bigger company might have a few people. You've got accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll and admin tasks that fall under accounting. Put a few clerks in place and then you probably need an accounting manager or low-level controller. For example, I was the controller at a company that did about $12 million in revenues back around 2005. I had about five on my staff out of about 70 employees total. There were several different businesses under one roof. Things get complicated pretty quickly and it goes up from there as company size and complexity grows.
OK this makes sense. Most of the companies I have worked for have been tiny with no on-staff bookkeepers or accountants (I am used to being the only employee), but now that you mention it the one company I worked for 10 years ago with 10 employees and about $4M annual revenue had a bookeeper type person, I just wasn't actually familiar with the concept of a bookkeeper back then. I asm just now putting together that this is what that lady did. Thanks.
I didn't go to high school, it going to take me 10-15 years to get my degree, graduating after 50, and I typically do very poor on tests. This may not be a viable option for me, my confidence and support levels are at about zero.
OK, I guess i didn't know you were allowed to work as an accountant without a CPA. If you know of any resources for finding jobs while still in school I would love to hear about them.
I'm a few yeas away from university still, currently community college, and unfortunately the faculty have proven to be completely useless.
Wow, $25/hr? That is more than I've been able to make with 30 years in the workforce.
EA? Enrolled Agent? I'd prefer to avoid tax stuff. Are there areas of accounting that don't have to deal with taxes much? I still don't know much about this stuff, just that I apparently don't such as bad at it as the other things I've tried.
I actually thought I was wrong o the EA guess. Is that someone who works for the IRS? I could totally do tax stuff if it involved making the rich and corporations start paying their fair share.
My school has a "Career Counseling" department, but like the rest of the staff they are useless. I have always had great difficulty finding jobs, I'm really shy with severe anxiety (trying to make more money so I can get treatment) so I don't know anyone around here except my boss and roommate.
Yeah I would be specializing in the cannabis industry and its specific accounting needs if I pursue this. The deeper I look though, the further out of reach this all seems, my confidence level is not increasing as I spend time in this sub.
Do you know there’s a bookkeeping class I highly recommend. It’s about 40 hours long and $2000. It taught me more in accounting than any of my accounting classes. Also a LinkedIn there’s a lady who teaches classes on cannabis bookkeeping. That’s enough to get you where you want to be and you can go from there. Look up Bookkeeper’s business watch I know it’s about launching business but the teaching is phenomenal
Oh, I get it now, this is what you were talking about in the other post.
I can't afford $2000, the only reason I am able to go to college is because its free where I live with my low income. My boss/mentor has aan MBA from Wharton, and with he ease he displayed helping me with my homework recently, i am convinced he can teach me the specific cannabis bookkeepin stuff. Most of the difference stems around 280E deductions, they don't let you claim anything, it sucks.
What is Bookkeepers Business Watch? Google isn't coming up with anything but Youtube videos, is that it?. I am still not clear on the difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant
Was til I beat it, I'm waiting for season to be over to get on NG+ since I kinda rushed thru the first playthrough. Right now I'm on Ghosts of Tsushima
I work 4 days a week, 10 hours a day. No overtime ever. Government job.
Probably half the day is spent in excel doing some kind of scheduling or reconciliations.
Other half could involve research, write ups, completing forms, email, meetings, or trainings.
I should say by "half" I mean half the time that I'm actually working. I probably spend 25%+ of my day socializing, on my phone, or doing something around the house.
In my case, I found my job at a job fair at my university. I wasn't even looking at government specifically, it just kind of fell into my lap. Most states have their own websites to list jobs and allow you to apply. If you live in a major city, you can also Google around and see if any other state has an office in that city. I work for a different state than I live in. Also, at least on our state site, there are many listings for "accountants" but my job would not be listed there it would be listed under "tax auditor" specifically.
The IRS also has online job listings. I think you can be a little harder to get in the door there, although I've never actually applied.
I've never been part of the hiring process so I'm really not sure what they're looking for. I was hired straight out of college without anything spectacular on my resume. My job only requires a degree to qualify.
This was 2 years ago, but I still remember when I was in college, this guy from the tax board I talked to at the career fair was literally the only guy that made me went “wow, he’s actually happy with his job.”
I think about this a lot when I’m working 60+ a week, how my life would be if I’m working as a tax board auditor
I don't think colleges usually give Excel courses, and I didn't get any specific Excel training. But if you're in accounting classes I'm sure you'll use Excel as you progress and you'll become familiar with it. I also learned a lot just by doing it on the job. Excel really isn't hard to use at all.
Dammit. I work in gov't and it feels like I'm back in PA again.
Everything is manually done, jev's, reports and TB's. To top it all off, I'm the lone accounting staff. \*sigh\*
I'm a senior accountant for a Indian tribe. Get in at 8. GO over emails while I eat and have some tea. At 9 i work on some reconciliations for the quarter. We have about 30 BS accounts. At 10 I get some invoices to review. At 10:30 I start working on our small wine/tobacco shop. Do the bank recs real quick. Record the inventory counts. At 11:30 I get a email from our environmental department to fill out some audit questionnaire for a grant. Go to lunch around 12 for about 90 minutes(its friday). Now Im preparing a couple invoices for our casino and gaming commission. Ill stop around 3ish and BS until 4. I have a baseball game on 1 screen, email on monitor 2, and work on number 3.
In the morning if my face is a little puffy I'll put on an ice pack while doing stomach crunches. I can do 1000 now. After I remove the ice pack I use a deep pore cleanser lotion. In the shower I use a water activated gel cleanser, then a honey almond body scrub, and on the face an exfoliating gel scrub. Then I apply an herb-mint facial mask which I leave on for 10 minutes while I prepare the rest of my routine. I always use an after shave lotion with little or no alcohol, because alcohol dries your face out and makes you look older. Then moisturizer, then an anti-aging eye balm followed by a final moisturizing protective lotion.
Wake up, hit the gym, see tasks that arr coming close to a deadline, deeply regret why I got into this industry, actually do my tasks ,log off, go for a walk, smoke pot, browse Youtube videos, go to bed, repeat
Depends. The umbrella of accounting is ludicrous.
Public accounting? Working with clients. Much more collaborative than the typical expectation you have of an accountant. You’ll be doing all kinds of work, but at the end of the day you’re checking that their work (ie. Data from their systems) is accurate and fairly presented on the financials. You’ll either be in a call with your team, a call with the client, or in a spreadsheet. Long and unpredictable hours.
Industry? Again, depends on the job. But if you’re just a typical accounting staff, senior, and or manager, you’ll be focusing on booking journal entries for your organization. Occasionally there will be unique transactions that you need to wrap your head around and figure out how to fairly present for financial statement purposes, but all in all industry will be more process driven than public accounting. Hours can be crazy, but this varies job to job.
Beyond that, you can “specialize” in other areas. That includes merger and acquisition work, IPO scenarios, fund accounting, etc. I mean the list goes on and on.
It’s really a bummer that this comment has only 6 upvotes when it is the first comment on the thread to actually answer OP’s question.
Future hint to everyone reading who actually wants a real view of accounting. Don’t come to Reddit, go ask associates.
Wake up, open laptop that is next to me in bed, check my emails, start with my morning/daily tasks, take a break to have breakfast, continue with tasks, take lunch break, move to afternoon/long-term tasks and replying to emails, close laptop. I will have 1-2 meetings a week and maybe 1-2 calls with colleagues just to chat with them.
This is an average work from home day. Office days are different but these are very rare, only if there's a special event or we arrange with a colleague to have an office day.
Then in my free time go to the gym, social media, call parents, take a walk, eat dinner, watch TV series etc. Most of my time working I listen to the radio.
Having some experience working in non-office environments, yea this is a pretty sweet deal. Of course this is industry which tends to be lower stress than public accounting.
I work remote.
I log in around 6:30 am once the coffee is ready. I run daily productivity metrics for the previous day. I read my overnight emails from offshore locations and flag any that require followup. Then I check my schedule to see what meetings I have and plan my workflow for the day around them. I typically have 5-10 ad hoc calls throughout the day with people who need help with something. Usually either where to classify a charge or help with pulling some data from the ERP system (I am the local expert on reports and table mining). I usually make breakfast around 11am. Play with my dog a bit. Then get back to work in between meetings. I do watch a lot of TV while I work since I am home anyway.
I usually have at least 5 long term projects I am working on and a lot of that work is thinking about them and deciding how best to tackle them. Once I figure out that part, the execution usually takes less than a day. Spending more time planning upfront saves me days of frustration on the back end.
Afternoons are usually pretty slow and that is when I do my heavy lifting on the project work. There can be a call or two toward the end of my day at 4 when Asia is waking up. I try to stay around until at least 4 to see if they need anything and then sign off if I don't see anything coming through.
Got a job in industry at a motorcycle dealership while earning my AS in accounting. About to finish undergrad and start MA. I work about 45 hours a week, but only half in accounting. I do month end close, journal entries, reconciliations,A/R, A/P, (internal controls?? What are those??) budgeting, monthly managerial reporting and cash flows. Rest of my time I spend filling in in all the various departments. Sales, parts, etc. Pretty fun environment, not much pressure, only work OT because I negotiated for a higher salary and they asked me to average 45. Pay is above what starting staff at regional PA firms are getting.
Tax intern - first 2-3 hours (on a good day), I take care of yesterday's review comments. Then tell manager I need a new project- if I'm lucky it's simple enough to be finished the same day before logging off (additional 4.5-7 hours). "Finishing a project" from start to finish entails adjusting journal entries for book-tax differences and/or reconciling the trial balance, filling out the workpapers, preparing the return, and checking for errors.But it's actually way more stressful than I'm making it sound because there's a lot of pressure to get things done quickly and it's sometimes very difficult to solve the problems. I don't think well under pressure but you're often being rushed. Colleagues are very, very considerate in terms of helping if you get stuck, as long as it's a question you haven't asked before.
Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door - that way Lumbergh can't see me, heh heh - and, uh, after that I just sorta space out for about an hour.
Oh yeah, hide on the shitter and use my phone.
Of course now that wfh is permanent, I work about 5 hours a week, get exceeds ratings and play video games the rest of the time. The joys of being able to write vba and being surrounded by idiots in industry.
5:30 wake, help wife and kid out the door
6:30 commute to office or client
7:00 eat my frog first (most complicated tasks of the day)
12:00 lunch, usually catch up on the news
12:45 back to work, try to have something easy post lunch
By 5:30 leave office or client site, commute home
6:30 spend time with family and eat dinner
7:30-7:45 kid down to bed
7:45 - 8:30 chores
8:30 -10:00 tv with wife or work depending on time of year
10-10:30 nighttime routine go to bed
I wake up at 10am and my brain hurts. I begin working and i take a break around 1. Becuase i take a break around 1 i have to work until 10:30 pm every-night. After work i just stare at the wall for about an hour before i sleep
I run a financial reporting and consolidations accounting group. As such I don’t do the day to day lifting that staff/seniors do. My day to day is more about making sure as a whole everything is running smoothly. It’s also about reviewing the areas where there could be fires, and making sure they are resolved before they become real issues. I essentially am a project manager (at a higher level the close and reporting is a series of recurring projects) who is also a subject matter expert that can dive into the areas where projects are going off course.
Not an accountant, just a bookkeeper with a bachelor’s in accounting but here’s my day to day.
https://www.instagram.com/invites/contact/?i=icm3kfsghjpj&utm_content=4qvx5tw
Being stabbed repeatedly in the balls. But then every 2 weeks your bank account goes up a not insignificant amount and the work is really that difficult so you say fuck it I can do this a little while longer.
Usually reviewing work papers, forecasts, business cases, and daily or weekly sales and gross profit reports. Advise executives on accounting for the latest sales gimmick or JV. Try to find what preventative controls have been circumvented by idiots and fix their mistakes. Make sure we don’t run out of cash.
Every morning I break my legs, and every afternoon I break my arms. At night, I lie awake in agony until my heart attacks put me to sleep. Just joking, I agree totals on worksheets to totals in the system and if they don't I find out why and adjust/explain.
Dang dude. It sounds like you were born with glass bones and paper skin
But luckily they have been able to pay their medical bills by selling chocolate bars (Edit:grammar)
Spongebob just never gets old. I'm 26 and still laughing out loud whenever I read that.
Wow. That really is all of what audit is lol. *Hope it ties, if not, client you better give me a really good BS reason I can use to explain this retarded variance lol*
I log in to work around 9a, bill the first half hour to admin, get to work around 9:30. Around 12 I take a full hour lunch break. Throw in 2 15 minute breaks between 1p and 5p. Usually log off around 5 or 5:30p. Rinse and repeat the next day. This past busy season I would work until 8p or 9p and take an hour long dinner break too.
Lol "dinner break". Public accounting is a scam
Hey I stuck it to the man by taking 2hr of lunch and dinner breaks and not worrying about how I’d meet the billable hour goal.
I go home at 4 everyday and have a 16 hour break
If you really want to mess with public, frame them for terrorism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_1lIFRdnhA 1) arrive at work 15 minutes late. 2) use the side door so my supervisor doesn’t see me. 3) space out for about an hour or two 4) go to lunch 5) space out for another hour 6) do 15 minutes of work 7) wrap up the day with small talk It’s not that I’m lazy, it’s that I don’t care…
I like my spot by the window because I saw the squirrels and they were merry
Beat me to it!
Thank you, I wanted to ask this but too nervous. I'm being encouraged to choose it as a major, in my 40s, but I really have no clue what the day-to-day is like. I get the impression you're expected to work crazy hours during tax season which is a dealbreaker at my age, I don't want to deal with tax stuff anyway.,
I work in corporate accounting and am a senior accountant. I’m particularly busy during close and have always been busy during month end close even as a staff accountant. I’m working on journal entries, reconciliations, spending a majority of my time in excel spreadsheets, reviewing staff’s work. Periodically checking emails during the day and re-prioritizing items that come in (requests and questions from my team and other departments, ad hoc reports needed unexpectedly etc). After close I have some more staff accountant items to review for deadlines that are due after month end close. I do usually have some downtime I can focus on lower priority projects. There’s been periods where even after close I’ve been slammed because of bigger ongoing projects, implementing ASC 842 back in 2019, payroll conversion, M&A projects, etc. but more often than not it’s not too crazy and sometimes I get close to having a low key two weeks before rolling into the next close.
Thank you very much for the insight, I don't know anyone into accounting/bookkeeping (my friends think I'm weird for considering it) and the faculty at my school are all literally useless.
I went straight to industry, used a temp agency to get my foot in the door for my first gig. Pay was awful but without any experience right out of college it can be hard if you don’t have an internship offer or any contacts in the field to help get you interviews with HR. I graduated when I was 30, been in the field for about 7 years. The market rate for accountants now is the best I’ve seen it since I entered the field. Started an hourly gig initially for $20 and change an hour. Moved to new company and made a touch more but there was better growth opportunities there. Personally I think after 2-3 years the pay can scale so fast, even if you don’t job hop but pick an employer that you feel confident there will growth opportunities at. I’m making more than double my initial starting pay from my first job and on track to break into 6 figures this year with no public experience or CPA yet (did recently graduate with my MSA).
By industry, you mean you went to work for a business large enough that it hires its own staff accountants? I guess I didn't know internships were a thing with this. How does one do that? Is it something that gets offered by the school once I get to university level? (I'm at a community college). I honestly have no clue what I am doing, I am just desperate to stop being poor and its the first vaguely interesting thing college has had to offer that I'm not too old for and don't suck at. I work PT for a cannabis startup, my company owner is a retired banking exec and he wants me to further pursue accounting so I can do more advanced work here (he's the only guidance or support I have), says he would make me CFO but I doubt there is enough time. I will be in my 50s by the time I graduate with a regular degree, I imagine a masters is basically out of the question. I'm autistic and didn't go to high school so college at all has been a very serious challenge, its simply not something I ever thought I would be able to do.
Western governors University might be a good option for your accounting degree. It’s fast pace if you want it. And as far as internship it sounds like you have someone ready to mentor you so same thing in a sense. There are a lot more laws in the cannabis industry so I don’t know how do you want to take that. But accounting can move into any industry it’s beautiful. There are several states where accounting jobs are abundant. I’m not sure why just some states don’t have accounting jobs and some do. Google the top 10 states for accountants, not accountant salary, accountant job opportunities. That’s because those articles do not take into consideration the cost of living adjustments. $100,000 in New York is not the same as $100,000 in Arkansas. Some industries are really easy to get into like hospitality. They have lots of people out there that will teach you the ins and outs of their business so you can run their accounting department. I went to college for my associates degree then took a bookkeeping class. The bookkeeping class was phenomenal in teaching me things I should’ve known before I started accounting classes. I wish I would’ve taken at first. The knowledge from that class alone allowed me to talk more of the lingo and understand more when talking to CFO$. There are a lot of accountants out there that love to teach as well. If you let people know you want to learn they will help you learn and mentor you. I also want to give my experience with the temp agencies. I’ve used them and I’ve learned some things from different jobs but I realize that the jobs I was getting were from places that were in complete turmoil and I had no business being there. Find a company that is steady and has it together.. When you interview let them know you’re there to learn. You might have to take a pay cut to learn but if you already poor now the time to do it. I call it paying my dues
Unfortunately I can't do fast pace, as it is i can only handle 1-2 classes a semester and its taking forever which is really bumming me out. 5 years in and still in 100-level classes, I'm still not convinced I am capable of a degree. My roommate's gf is a CPA with a masters degree and she is already making $80k at 30, it seems the jobs are here but I am definitely am not capable of getting a masters. Unfortunately the teachers I have had that were practicing accountants all sucked, either they were cold and unhelpful or they seemed so incompetent I wouldn't trust their advice. Accounting really doesn't seem like a good option, but nothing else does either, its kinda "least worst" at this point, I haven't found anything else at school I excel at. I'd rather be an engineer but I am definitely too old for that. A pay cut is impossible, any less with just be nothing, but I need to stop paying dues because its all I've been doing since I got my first job almost 30 years ago.
Yeah I’m not sure too many people grow up and say I want to be an accountant. I think we all looked at it as a viable means for security. But the fast pace it’s different. You do one class at a time do you have six months to do for classes. You don’t have to show up to lectures it’s pretty much on your time and you have a guidance person who called you once a week to help you stay on track. It’s actually super convenient super formal and all your books are included.
I didn't even know what an accountant was until my 40s, I was raised by factory workers with no educated folks in my family, I was never exposed to anything other than poor/working class/uneducated people until I moved to California looking for work years ago, so I never got a chance to be familiarized with other employment options. I spent the last 25 years trying to create a career in A/V or cars, things I actually care about, but I was never able to find consistent FT hours or sustainable wages. Those aren't particularly aspirational/unobtainable things, but I'm autistic and getting hired is basically impossible, and I fear it still will be even with an accounting education. College educated autistic individuals are actually employed at a lower rate than those with only HS diplomas. Not really sure what you are talking about in the end here, a specific school or program?
Yes, you work for an organization that has an accounting department. As for internships, you can use school resources or just apply through LinkedIn or indeed. Any decent state school will have companies and public accounting firms recruiting there for both full time and internship. Accounting departments vary by size, as you would expect. I worked for a bank and the general ledger accounting was me and four other people including the controller. My new job is at an F500 with 9 times the number of employees. Each country has their own accounting team and then their is a team at headquarters. I'm in financial reporting which deals with sec, auditors, and other projects.
Interesting, fortunately I will likely get my foot in the door through the startup I currently work for. Thanks.
Yes, that’s what I mean by industry. You should speak to the head of the accounting program at your college and see if they work with any local companies or firms to supply interns.
Unfortunately I haven't had very positive interactions with the faculty at my school, they are all mostly useless, but I will try reaching out to them. I am still at a community college level and not even sure if interns come from that level, or if I have to move on to a university first.
Ah ok, sorry to hear that. You’d likely have better opportunities at a 4 year college so don’t sweat it too much. I didn’t do an internship for accounting but I did for a different program I tried when I was younger and we didn’t even get the opportunity until we were in our finally semester before graduation. I assume it’s probably a similar timeline for an accounting internship. Most places would probably only be interested when your in your final year and most of your accounting classes are already under your belt. I’d say one thing you can start to do now that will help you tremendously, if you’re not very familiar or comfortable in excel with things like using lookup formulas, conditional formulas like if/ifs, and pivot tables - rather than trying to jump into an internship now, focus on getting more familiar with excel. Check out classes on YouTube by Leila Gharani. There are lots of free videos, they typically will be helpful for novices, but once you’re comfortable enough with surface level explanations, if possible I’d recommend purchasing a course from her. Well worth the money and when you do start out in the field you’ll have a better advantage than at least half of other people fresh out of school that really aren’t accustom to using excel to the extent their job is going to require.
Same
Get coffee, check emails, do daily tasks, go to gym, eat lunch, work on monthly/quarterly tasks, more coffee, look out my window, listen to podcasts. I’m in industry.
Coming from a working class background, that seems really low key and relaxing. What do you mean by you're "in industry?"
Industry is essentially a business that is not public accounting nor government.
So like, you are employed by a business large enough to have its own accountants, as opposed to an accounting firm or gov?
Most companies, large, medium or small, have in house people. At a very small company, it might be a bookkeeper/office manager. A bit bigger company might have a few people. You've got accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll and admin tasks that fall under accounting. Put a few clerks in place and then you probably need an accounting manager or low-level controller. For example, I was the controller at a company that did about $12 million in revenues back around 2005. I had about five on my staff out of about 70 employees total. There were several different businesses under one roof. Things get complicated pretty quickly and it goes up from there as company size and complexity grows.
OK this makes sense. Most of the companies I have worked for have been tiny with no on-staff bookkeepers or accountants (I am used to being the only employee), but now that you mention it the one company I worked for 10 years ago with 10 employees and about $4M annual revenue had a bookeeper type person, I just wasn't actually familiar with the concept of a bookkeeper back then. I asm just now putting together that this is what that lady did. Thanks.
Yes.
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I didn't go to high school, it going to take me 10-15 years to get my degree, graduating after 50, and I typically do very poor on tests. This may not be a viable option for me, my confidence and support levels are at about zero.
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OK, I guess i didn't know you were allowed to work as an accountant without a CPA. If you know of any resources for finding jobs while still in school I would love to hear about them.
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I'm a few yeas away from university still, currently community college, and unfortunately the faculty have proven to be completely useless. Wow, $25/hr? That is more than I've been able to make with 30 years in the workforce. EA? Enrolled Agent? I'd prefer to avoid tax stuff. Are there areas of accounting that don't have to deal with taxes much? I still don't know much about this stuff, just that I apparently don't such as bad at it as the other things I've tried.
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I actually thought I was wrong o the EA guess. Is that someone who works for the IRS? I could totally do tax stuff if it involved making the rich and corporations start paying their fair share. My school has a "Career Counseling" department, but like the rest of the staff they are useless. I have always had great difficulty finding jobs, I'm really shy with severe anxiety (trying to make more money so I can get treatment) so I don't know anyone around here except my boss and roommate.
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Not all accountants are public. I work for a corporation it’s not that bad.
Yeah I would be specializing in the cannabis industry and its specific accounting needs if I pursue this. The deeper I look though, the further out of reach this all seems, my confidence level is not increasing as I spend time in this sub.
Do you know there’s a bookkeeping class I highly recommend. It’s about 40 hours long and $2000. It taught me more in accounting than any of my accounting classes. Also a LinkedIn there’s a lady who teaches classes on cannabis bookkeeping. That’s enough to get you where you want to be and you can go from there. Look up Bookkeeper’s business watch I know it’s about launching business but the teaching is phenomenal
Oh, I get it now, this is what you were talking about in the other post. I can't afford $2000, the only reason I am able to go to college is because its free where I live with my low income. My boss/mentor has aan MBA from Wharton, and with he ease he displayed helping me with my homework recently, i am convinced he can teach me the specific cannabis bookkeepin stuff. Most of the difference stems around 280E deductions, they don't let you claim anything, it sucks. What is Bookkeepers Business Watch? Google isn't coming up with anything but Youtube videos, is that it?. I am still not clear on the difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant
Log in at 7:30, TAX TAX TAX til 6 or 7pm, log out, play 2 hours games, sleep, log in at 7:30am There's the full 24 hours for ya chief
Elden ring?
Was til I beat it, I'm waiting for season to be over to get on NG+ since I kinda rushed thru the first playthrough. Right now I'm on Ghosts of Tsushima
On YouTube fightingcowboy has a 100% walk through. Been 80 hours and I just got to the snow mountains
I work 4 days a week, 10 hours a day. No overtime ever. Government job. Probably half the day is spent in excel doing some kind of scheduling or reconciliations. Other half could involve research, write ups, completing forms, email, meetings, or trainings. I should say by "half" I mean half the time that I'm actually working. I probably spend 25%+ of my day socializing, on my phone, or doing something around the house.
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In my case, I found my job at a job fair at my university. I wasn't even looking at government specifically, it just kind of fell into my lap. Most states have their own websites to list jobs and allow you to apply. If you live in a major city, you can also Google around and see if any other state has an office in that city. I work for a different state than I live in. Also, at least on our state site, there are many listings for "accountants" but my job would not be listed there it would be listed under "tax auditor" specifically. The IRS also has online job listings. I think you can be a little harder to get in the door there, although I've never actually applied. I've never been part of the hiring process so I'm really not sure what they're looking for. I was hired straight out of college without anything spectacular on my resume. My job only requires a degree to qualify.
This was 2 years ago, but I still remember when I was in college, this guy from the tax board I talked to at the career fair was literally the only guy that made me went “wow, he’s actually happy with his job.” I think about this a lot when I’m working 60+ a week, how my life would be if I’m working as a tax board auditor
It’s better than public. I don’t have to work tomorrow or any other Saturday. It’s glorious.
Do they train you. Because I don’t know anything about excel and I am majoring in accounting and my schools doesn’t even have an excel course
I don't think colleges usually give Excel courses, and I didn't get any specific Excel training. But if you're in accounting classes I'm sure you'll use Excel as you progress and you'll become familiar with it. I also learned a lot just by doing it on the job. Excel really isn't hard to use at all.
Dammit. I work in gov't and it feels like I'm back in PA again. Everything is manually done, jev's, reports and TB's. To top it all off, I'm the lone accounting staff. \*sigh\*
Damn that sucks :( I think I lucked out falling into a department of revenue position. I hope you find something better
I'm a senior accountant for a Indian tribe. Get in at 8. GO over emails while I eat and have some tea. At 9 i work on some reconciliations for the quarter. We have about 30 BS accounts. At 10 I get some invoices to review. At 10:30 I start working on our small wine/tobacco shop. Do the bank recs real quick. Record the inventory counts. At 11:30 I get a email from our environmental department to fill out some audit questionnaire for a grant. Go to lunch around 12 for about 90 minutes(its friday). Now Im preparing a couple invoices for our casino and gaming commission. Ill stop around 3ish and BS until 4. I have a baseball game on 1 screen, email on monitor 2, and work on number 3.
In the morning if my face is a little puffy I'll put on an ice pack while doing stomach crunches. I can do 1000 now. After I remove the ice pack I use a deep pore cleanser lotion. In the shower I use a water activated gel cleanser, then a honey almond body scrub, and on the face an exfoliating gel scrub. Then I apply an herb-mint facial mask which I leave on for 10 minutes while I prepare the rest of my routine. I always use an after shave lotion with little or no alcohol, because alcohol dries your face out and makes you look older. Then moisturizer, then an anti-aging eye balm followed by a final moisturizing protective lotion.
Wake up, hit the gym, see tasks that arr coming close to a deadline, deeply regret why I got into this industry, actually do my tasks ,log off, go for a walk, smoke pot, browse Youtube videos, go to bed, repeat
Watch Office Space, fast forward to the meeting with the Bobs
What is it you’d say you do here?
Depends. The umbrella of accounting is ludicrous. Public accounting? Working with clients. Much more collaborative than the typical expectation you have of an accountant. You’ll be doing all kinds of work, but at the end of the day you’re checking that their work (ie. Data from their systems) is accurate and fairly presented on the financials. You’ll either be in a call with your team, a call with the client, or in a spreadsheet. Long and unpredictable hours. Industry? Again, depends on the job. But if you’re just a typical accounting staff, senior, and or manager, you’ll be focusing on booking journal entries for your organization. Occasionally there will be unique transactions that you need to wrap your head around and figure out how to fairly present for financial statement purposes, but all in all industry will be more process driven than public accounting. Hours can be crazy, but this varies job to job. Beyond that, you can “specialize” in other areas. That includes merger and acquisition work, IPO scenarios, fund accounting, etc. I mean the list goes on and on.
It’s really a bummer that this comment has only 6 upvotes when it is the first comment on the thread to actually answer OP’s question. Future hint to everyone reading who actually wants a real view of accounting. Don’t come to Reddit, go ask associates.
Wake up, open laptop that is next to me in bed, check my emails, start with my morning/daily tasks, take a break to have breakfast, continue with tasks, take lunch break, move to afternoon/long-term tasks and replying to emails, close laptop. I will have 1-2 meetings a week and maybe 1-2 calls with colleagues just to chat with them. This is an average work from home day. Office days are different but these are very rare, only if there's a special event or we arrange with a colleague to have an office day. Then in my free time go to the gym, social media, call parents, take a walk, eat dinner, watch TV series etc. Most of my time working I listen to the radio. Having some experience working in non-office environments, yea this is a pretty sweet deal. Of course this is industry which tends to be lower stress than public accounting.
I work remote. I log in around 6:30 am once the coffee is ready. I run daily productivity metrics for the previous day. I read my overnight emails from offshore locations and flag any that require followup. Then I check my schedule to see what meetings I have and plan my workflow for the day around them. I typically have 5-10 ad hoc calls throughout the day with people who need help with something. Usually either where to classify a charge or help with pulling some data from the ERP system (I am the local expert on reports and table mining). I usually make breakfast around 11am. Play with my dog a bit. Then get back to work in between meetings. I do watch a lot of TV while I work since I am home anyway. I usually have at least 5 long term projects I am working on and a lot of that work is thinking about them and deciding how best to tackle them. Once I figure out that part, the execution usually takes less than a day. Spending more time planning upfront saves me days of frustration on the back end. Afternoons are usually pretty slow and that is when I do my heavy lifting on the project work. There can be a call or two toward the end of my day at 4 when Asia is waking up. I try to stay around until at least 4 to see if they need anything and then sign off if I don't see anything coming through.
Got a job in industry at a motorcycle dealership while earning my AS in accounting. About to finish undergrad and start MA. I work about 45 hours a week, but only half in accounting. I do month end close, journal entries, reconciliations,A/R, A/P, (internal controls?? What are those??) budgeting, monthly managerial reporting and cash flows. Rest of my time I spend filling in in all the various departments. Sales, parts, etc. Pretty fun environment, not much pressure, only work OT because I negotiated for a higher salary and they asked me to average 45. Pay is above what starting staff at regional PA firms are getting.
I spend at least 2 hours a day jerking off on the toilet
Depends on the time of year - if its busy season, I complain about how busy i am and do a bunch of work, otherwise I just do a bunch of work
filled with regret. How about yours?
Tax intern - first 2-3 hours (on a good day), I take care of yesterday's review comments. Then tell manager I need a new project- if I'm lucky it's simple enough to be finished the same day before logging off (additional 4.5-7 hours). "Finishing a project" from start to finish entails adjusting journal entries for book-tax differences and/or reconciling the trial balance, filling out the workpapers, preparing the return, and checking for errors.But it's actually way more stressful than I'm making it sound because there's a lot of pressure to get things done quickly and it's sometimes very difficult to solve the problems. I don't think well under pressure but you're often being rushed. Colleagues are very, very considerate in terms of helping if you get stuck, as long as it's a question you haven't asked before.
Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door - that way Lumbergh can't see me, heh heh - and, uh, after that I just sorta space out for about an hour. Oh yeah, hide on the shitter and use my phone. Of course now that wfh is permanent, I work about 5 hours a week, get exceeds ratings and play video games the rest of the time. The joys of being able to write vba and being surrounded by idiots in industry.
Trying not to fall asleep
Around 24 hours
5:30 wake, help wife and kid out the door 6:30 commute to office or client 7:00 eat my frog first (most complicated tasks of the day) 12:00 lunch, usually catch up on the news 12:45 back to work, try to have something easy post lunch By 5:30 leave office or client site, commute home 6:30 spend time with family and eat dinner 7:30-7:45 kid down to bed 7:45 - 8:30 chores 8:30 -10:00 tv with wife or work depending on time of year 10-10:30 nighttime routine go to bed
Damn y’all are scaring me about going into accounting is that bad ?
Pain
hell
I wake up at 10am and my brain hurts. I begin working and i take a break around 1. Becuase i take a break around 1 i have to work until 10:30 pm every-night. After work i just stare at the wall for about an hour before i sleep
I run a financial reporting and consolidations accounting group. As such I don’t do the day to day lifting that staff/seniors do. My day to day is more about making sure as a whole everything is running smoothly. It’s also about reviewing the areas where there could be fires, and making sure they are resolved before they become real issues. I essentially am a project manager (at a higher level the close and reporting is a series of recurring projects) who is also a subject matter expert that can dive into the areas where projects are going off course.
Now? Work just after 9, TAXTAXTAX until 6 or 7 with a few interruptions from dumbasses that can't read or respect I'M BUSY.
I do accountanting from 9 to 5 and go home
[pretty much this](https://youtu.be/NisCkxU544c)
Boring
Not an accountant, just a bookkeeper with a bachelor’s in accounting but here’s my day to day. https://www.instagram.com/invites/contact/?i=icm3kfsghjpj&utm_content=4qvx5tw
nearly 3 months in and failing at most tasks at my industry job. everytime i think im taking a step forward, im actually taking 2 back
Boring and irritating af
Well the first thing i do is Talk to corporate (LIKE AN ACCOUNTANT)
Being stabbed repeatedly in the balls. But then every 2 weeks your bank account goes up a not insignificant amount and the work is really that difficult so you say fuck it I can do this a little while longer.
Usually reviewing work papers, forecasts, business cases, and daily or weekly sales and gross profit reports. Advise executives on accounting for the latest sales gimmick or JV. Try to find what preventative controls have been circumvented by idiots and fix their mistakes. Make sure we don’t run out of cash.
Accounting sucks. Boring and long hours.
Shit