Bachelor in accounting, 5 years passed with no accounting experience, what do I do now? (2015, insurance)
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There is allot of accounting work, but when I was in accounting, they dragged me into those jobs and they do mislead as to what the job is. In other words there is allot of accounting work, but given the hours and the pay, who would want those jobs ?
You can always $15/h doing accounts paybles, the CPAs I worked with made 45-55k a year (They did worked more then 40h work weeks), is it worth it for you? maybe after 10 years in accounting with a CPA you will make $35/h, is that something that interests you ?
Of course there is always work for low paying data entry that no-one wants.
My experience is more along the lines of what NYCresident2014 describes. If you are making $45-55k/year after 10 years with a CPA license then you are doing something very wrong. That's the MINIMUM you should be making the FIRST year after getting your MS in accounting with no CPA. I made $51k during my 2nd year out of college at a small firm in the suburbs. After I got my CPA license after 2 years of work experience I got a raise to $59k. This was at a small firm working about 2200-2300 hours per year. 50-55 hours per week during tax season and 40 hours per week the rest of the year. After 4-5 years I quit public accounting and got a job as an accountant at a large company in Boston earning $90k. 60 hours the first week of the year during year-end close and 40 hours per week after that. All my peers in my field followed a similar track as me. Some earn a little more, some earn a little less, but we were all earning between $75k - $100k per year after 5 years. During years 5 thru 10 is where you start to differentiate yourself from your peers. Most stay as senior accountants making good money and a few move up to the management track as an assistant controller, then controller. You won't get rich unless you make it to CFO or even a controller at a large company, but you will earn enough to live a comfortable upper middle class life in NJ assuming your husband also earns about $100k.
My experience is more along the lines of what NYCresident2014 describes. If you are making $45-55k/year after 10 years with a CPA license then you are doing something very wrong. That's the MINIMUM you should be making the FIRST year after getting your MS in accounting with no CPA. I made $51k during my 2nd year out of college at a small firm in the suburbs. After I got my CPA license after 2 years of work experience I got a raise to $59k. This was at a small firm working about 2200-2300 hours per year. 50-55 hours per week during tax season and 40 hours per week the rest of the year. After 4-5 years I quit public accounting and got a job as an accountant at a large company in Boston earning $90k. 60 hours the first week of the year during year-end close and 40 hours per week after that. All my peers in my field followed a similar track as me. Some earn a little more, some earn a little less, but we were all earning between $75k - $100k per year after 5 years. During years 5 thru 10 is where you start to differentiate yourself from your peers. Most stay as senior accountants making good money and a few move up to the management track as an assistant controller, then controller. You won't get rich unless you make it to CFO or even a controller at a large company, but you will earn enough to live a comfortable upper middle class life in NJ assuming your husband also earns about $100k.
Cool story bro.
I don't live in NJ. I don't have an accounting degree or accounting experience. I don't know accountants. I never met a CPA before. I don't know what accountants make ?
What are you talking about ?
I am a guy, I make in low 100k as a computer programmer, I work close to home and about 2k hours. I refuse to conduct business with an accountant, that's while having an accounting degree. There are no accountants working in companies I work in ?
An accountant, by definition half the IQ of a normal person !
What are you telling me, it's like we don't live on the same planet !
I don't know people with a couple years of experience that joined the Military so that they would not have to take the CPA exam, because that is simply a dead end (That was the ending of Bushes second term .
I have an MS from in Accounting and I refuse to conduct business with an accountant, meaning NO accounting software is to be developed by me. You would say this does not speak of the industry's reputation.
I don't live in NJ. I don't have an accounting degree or accounting experience. I don't know accountants. I never met a CPA before. I don't know what accountants make ?
What are you talking about ?
I am a guy, I make in low 100k as a computer programmer, I work close to home and about 2k hours. I refuse to conduct business with an accountant, that's while having an accounting degree. There are no accountants working in companies I work in ?
An accountant, by definition half the IQ of a normal person !
What are you telling me, it's like we don't live on the same planet !
What happened to this thread? It looks like DPolo made a bunch of strange posts and derailed the good conversation we were having. DPolo, are you feeling ok?
Anyway, hopefully the OP can ignore the basket of weird comments by DPolo and see that public accounting is a great place to start and sustain a career.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DPolo
1. I googled "Accountant Salary"
63,550 USD (2012)
Accountants and Auditors, Median pay (annual)
We are speaking from EXPERIENCE, not from googling for five minutes. Also, I don't believe anyone said that public accounting was a 9-5 job, unless you are a working mother and choose to go on a flexible work arrangement. It's a professional position and you do your work and get the job done.
That link includes all positions within the accounting department. From what I've seen, about 2/3 of these positions are staff accountant and AP/AR clerk jobs which greatly skews the median wage downwards. AP/AR clerk jobs are for non-accounting majors who have no career aspirations. Look at the 75th percentile of the White Plains-Wayne NY-NJ metro: $52.48/hr which is $109k/year for a 9-5 job. That's the type of salary you can expect mid-career after starting your career at a CPA firm.
BTW, I'm an accountant with an IQ of 136. Does the average person have an IQ of 272?
That link includes all positions within the accounting department. From what I've seen, about 2/3 of these positions are staff accountant and AP/AR clerk jobs which greatly skews the median wage downwards. AP/AR clerk jobs are for non-accounting majors who have no career aspirations. Look at the 75th percentile of the White Plains-Wayne NY-NJ metro: $52.48/hr which is $109k/year for a 9-5 job. That's the type of salary you can expect mid-career after starting your career at a CPA firm.
BTW, I'm an accountant with an IQ of 136. Does the average person have an IQ of 272?
I have a graduate degree in accounting and accountants have no credibility. You can tell people that your IQ is 136 if it makes you feel better. You can tell people what you think of yourself, but we know the truth
Now, IQ of 136 somehow disputes the link titled CPA salaries.
75k a year is a good salary for an accountant, with CPA, this 75k involves overtime (not 9-5). And not every CPA makes that much.
I know from experience accountants are on the slow side of things, but the rest of readers are equipped with google. google: Average accountant salary.$47,209 per year
The average salary for an Accountant is $47,209 per year. For the first five to ten years in this position, pay increases somewhat, but any additional experience does not have a big effect on pay. $34,696 - $65,539.
Google "Average CPA salary:"$59,623 per year
The average salary for a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is $59,623 per year. The highest paying skills associated with this job are Tax Consulting and Financial Analysis. Experience has a moderate effect on income for this job.
Now, a person with IQ of 163 should be able to comprehend basic statistics, means v medians, averages etc
We are speaking from EXPERIENCE, not from googling for five minutes. Also, I don't believe anyone said that public accounting was a 9-5 job, unless you are a working mother and choose to go on a flexible work arrangement. It's a professional position and you do your work and get the job done.
I already told you that CPA's I know or worked with made 45-55k a year. One CPA I know made 60k a year. These are 9-5 settings. As you say it from experience.
And I provided statistics as well.
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