The Future of the Accounting Profession...
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- Опубликовано: 27 сен 2024
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Bryan Carreto, CPA
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-Bryan Carreto, CPA
Accounting jobs needs to pay more. Students are realizing is not worth it to go get a 4 years degree plus a master’s degree and a CPA for just 60-70k starting salary. If I could go back I would do computer sciences instead of accounting. I work in big 4 and do recruiting at the university I went and we are lucky if we get 20 students to show up and all want to do consulting. 3 years ago when I graduated you had to make a 1 hour line to speak with the recruiter.
Well said. Too many barriers to entry and not enough pay to compensate for it. Big 4 stating salaries need to be $80k + for all that is required.
Agreed. Wish I never majored in accounting. I’m a recent graduate and making a decent salary but I noticed people are starting to realize how much BS accountants go through for the salary they make. It’s not fun, it’s a sit down desk job that honestly no one enjoys. The hours are stupid insane and I’m happy this upcoming generation is beginning to wake up. Personally I’ve been doing my own side hustle to quietly quit and so far it’s doing quiet well. I have a friend who quit Deloitte as a supervisor who used to work his ass off now making 2x the money making videos on Tik tok lol. The work force is changing, and i can guarantee that majority of accounting students only major in accounting because it marketed as a safe/stable job, not because it’s interesting or fun. As long as your working under an employer you will never reach true wealth.
Yes, the more I work in accounting the more I wish I didn’t major in accounting. 4 years of accounting major, 1 year of master, and my credential, and good work experience. I can’t even pass that 6 figure mark with my accounting job alone. It is bad bang for your bucks. All my accounting friend pivot away from accounting, they went into finance and computer science. They either have great pay or great pay and good work life balance. Me…. Low pay and no work life balance. LOL. I strongly discourage young people go into accounting.
Big 4 is not worth the stress and for the low pay. Anyone smart enough to get into Big 4 can get a great job anywhere else for much better pay and work life balance
@@shyamsaturn it’s more of just going for 1-3 years to get the name on the resume.
Passing the CPA exams is when you study hard,if you can't study or you don't have time for your studies I'd advise you get yourself a help like Mr Dylan
People keep talking about Dylan all over
RUclips,he must be a very awesome help
Yes you're correct but remember heaven helps those who help themselves, try studying if you can't study then get yourself a good help
I studied for months and couldn't pass, I guess passing is a blessing
CPA exam might seem so tough to pass but studying very hard is a very vital skill to win trust me.
Everyone has their own way, Dylan worked for me and studying didn't .
That’s good news to recent accounting grads and future CPAs! Supply and Demand baby!
Yes, and make sure you add a premium onto your asking salary and bonus structure.
Definitely do not lower the standards for accountants. Lack of workforce will increase wages. Increased wages will bring in more workforce. Its cyclical.
I wouldn't say lower the standards but the additional 30 credits after a Bachelor's degree is just stupid.
I think the industry will have to start paying hourly as many dumb college students don't realize that the $10k they're getting more over the private or govt job they could've gotten vanishes as soon as they start working busy season hours. Students have started to realize that and I for one do not feel bad at all for these firms. It was a scam at the beginning and it's a scam now.
The wages are and have been stagnant for the last 25 years!
@@DougieG7130exactly!!!
Public accounting should pay 40-60% more. The wages are a joke. The worst part is often times the firms are in cities with high cost of living.
I hate that many employers don't want to train new workers. How are we supposed to know? I took a new Accountant job and was promised training. The CPA was always in meetings. She never helped as she promised. Mind you, it was hard transitioning from bookkeeping to Accountant with totally different accounting software. Take 2 -3 weeks to get workers on board.
Managers are lazy today. They don’t want to train.
Exactly the problem I’ve faced throughout my accounting career and I completely agree with the other commentor here. Managers are super lazy and don’t want to train.
its cause public accounting firms pay shit while working you like a slave. That goes for your own firm as well. I was talking with a deloitte recruiter a few weeks prior and the conversation ended when it came to the compensation. They didnt want to pay a experienced CPA with 5 years of experience even 100K. Unbelieavable. Go convincfe the partners to stop being cheapasses.
Not even $100k??? They must be crazy. But from their side of things, if they can't get you to work 90 billable hours per week for less than $100k then how are they going to buy another McLaren?
@@AngieConfidential it’s insane man. I’m getting a better deal here in government. At least I’m not working like a salve and have job security
@@SaltyCaptainwhat do you do in government?
@@Js-ht2ug i have a very fun job, not something you may think of when u think of accounting. I cant say more cause I dont want to dox myself.
One factor I think also gets conveniently overlooked is just the overall idea of taking a daunting exam, where there are so many challenging topics tested that a young 20 something with little or no real world accounting experience will be turned off by. Combine that with the failed guidance of senior leaders, faculty, and old accounting fogeys on how students can truly successfully pass the exam than just relying on general half a** advice, yet still promote the "great benefits" of the CPA and how it "opens doors". Which is probably why the exam traditionally has a low pass rate. What's further discouraging is the fact they disingenuously weed out a large swath of otherwise smart students at the college level who otherwise would've made good accounting professionals. And yet these same unintentionally funny and unique humans scratch their heads and wonder amongst themselves why there's a talent shortage. I think the answer to reform lies within their generational mindset. They need to see the cracks in their own mirror first before lamenting over a shortage they caused themselves.
I completely agree. I am in this position now. I feel like I was duped.
As an industry accountant who has a CPA and has never been in public the drop is coming from the shitty starting salary, horrible working hours of public. Inflation and house costs are up a lot now and there is a lack of new accountants, Salary in the accounting industry will HAVE to go up as companies can’t find accounting employees for peanuts and more people are looking for remote jobs now. They will have to pay more for a shrinking talent class.
I wish I became a engineer! Accounting underpaid, dull to most college grads, overworked, and might be outsourced soon!
I was in Public Accounting… I left for project management… working with systems and processes.
I am a senior at a University and I am part of a student business organization. At the moment there is many students who are looking for internships and full-time offers. Ever since everything went virtual there was a decline with students taking accounting classes, a decline in students attending networking events, and some even took a break from school. The new abnormal seems to have made things more difficult for students to networking & interact with others though a computer screen. As everything goes back to normal I predict that many looking for career opportunities in Accounting will eventually adapt to in person again and come out to these networking events. The average starting salary for someone with 150 units and a bachelors is more than 70k. I don’t think salary is an issue here.
No it IS!!! Especially if tech, finance, and IT, IS or cybersecurity pays more for less work
@@ciello___8307 Finance: requires going to a target school + luck + networking to get anywhere in it.
Tech: Entry level tech workers have to self study a bunch of different things to even be hirable especially in today's job market. I think it just about evens out. While tech might start out with higher salaries, assuming they can even get hired as quickly as a CPA, CPA has a high income ceiling compared to tech (unless you managed to get hired by FANG).
As a student finishing her BS in accounting... seeing these videos are discouraging. What am I going to school for exactly? Whats the point of breaking my back to make 60-70k a year? Im going to finish the degree because im almost done, but Im thinking of other avenues now... I have a family I need to support, bills, and then I just want some money I can travel with or just buy things i want. I dont want to make just enough, I want to make more than enough. I need generational wealth, thats the goal. Turns out i have to work for 40 years in accounting to even reach that amount. Whats the point?
Go to school they say... and this is the outcome.
Terrible. Life is hard. Idk wtf to do either. Only reason why im looking into accounting is because CS seems like a dead end. A job in tech seems impossible to get with the amount of competition + employers not hiring as much currently due to the mass layoffs and high interest rates + its difficult and not that interesting but it does pay well.. Im leaning towards accounting but it seems boring af, has ridiculous hours with this whole “busy season” and doesnt pay that much. Accounting degree + maybe a masters to be eligible for the cpa exam and then the immense effort to pass it all for what? Boring ass lame ass mediocre paying work.
After ten years, I made 200K in the Bay Area. Not really that much, and SOX404 has got to an insane level. It’s honest not worth all the headache
@@inSyncedcs is still a good choice. Sure maybe the big companies wont hire as many cs people but there will be jobs and with decent wlb
Accountants are underpaid starting out. Thus, less students would choose accounting over other fields such as computer science or engineering.
I am also annoyed that I have friends making more than me in other business fieldsand they didn’t have to do masters and cpa
If you work enough to own a practice, you can make more than 500k a year.
The reason why im looking into pursuing accounting is because of the current difficulty in landing a job for CS grads, but these comments are making me think twice about accounting. It seems boring af anyway but what i need is job security and a nice salary, so idk wtf to do.
@@inSynced do what you like to do and are good at. Trust your gut. No one says you have to do one job your whole life.
Underpaid, overworked with no overtime. My family always give me a look of confusion when they ask if I'm making hella money since I'm working so much during busy season but nope, 60+ weeks on salary with no overtime for 4 months out of the year. CPA firms are in for a rude awakening.
You are focusing in the academics, instead you should focus on the money and the lifestyle. And it's out, working in public accounting is soul crushing and doesn't pay well on an hourly basis
“The Big 4 hire 70% of the accounting majors when they graduate college…In three years, 90% of those people leave the profession. They don’t leave the Big 4 firm to go on another Big 4 firm or they go to a firm like us…But they basically leave the profession [of public accounting].”
- Ed Mendlowitz, CPA, Partner Emeritus at Withum
I think for the vast majority of people public accounting is a stepping stone where you gain lots of experience in a short amount of time as well as the CPA credentials and once your ready you leave to a good job in industry. Most people aren't mentally strong enough to handle working 75 hours a week like that it doesn't matter how much you pay them even if it is only for a few months out of the year. I want to get a job as a state auditor within government Ive heard that is more like a 40 hour per week type job and they get a pension and good benefits.
@@GnarshredProductions very good points
@@GnarshredProductions more people realizing work 75 hours a week is not worth it for the pay. I still remember that one senior sit one cubicle in front me just dropped dead one busy season at work. From that one, I have the goal of never becoming that person who drop dead at work; long hours, high stress, desk job, no family time; do I wish that I have worked more the moment I drop dead?
@@yufeivicky Dropped dead? Wow
@@yufeivicky Wow like literally? You saw someone alive at one moment then gone the next?
I graduated 14 years ago with a degree in accounting. I'm an accounting manager at a Commercial Real Estate company making $115k a year. During a busy season I work 55 h/w and not busy season I work around 40 h/w just like any other professions. Do I think accounting profession going away? Big NO. All businesses will always need accountants and the salary always competitive compare to other professions. It might not make a lot compare to tech professions but its good enough to make a decent living.
Completely agree and have seen similar observations since graduating from grad school for accounting in 2015. Less and less interest in joining accounting profession and believe the key way to overcome this lack of people is through technology (automation, blockchain, etc.) to have less “processing work” and more that requires critical thinking and judgement.
Good day Sir I'm just a curious young man from South Africa
Would you say as an accounting graduate I made a wise decision by starting a tech company with partners who are great software engineers that focus on the blockchain scene ? In a form of NFT etc ?
That's what having an team in India is for. It's already a thing.
I’m an accounting major and recently went to a speed interviewing event with over 30 firms. Only 16 students showed up
I'm an instructor and I'm having trouble finding accounting firms in my local area that are willing to pay a decent going rate for interns (or even take on interns at all). Nowadays students can't afford to intern for free or for wages they could make doing work study at their college. I think accounting firms need to make their wages, benefit packages, and working conditions more competitive if they want people to go into accounting. You can work just as hard somewhere else for more money and that is the root of much of the problem in attracting folks to the profession.
YES! how am I supposed to get experience if no one will give it to me? How am I supposed to get experience and be able to pay my bills while taking care of my family? they want more accountants, but they dont want to pay better wages. Thats the issue.
Tell me why people would want to go to school, pay thousands of dollars in materials and tests just to get overworked in a public accounting firm for 60k with no work life balance at times…. Pay them more!
People are leaving accounting profession due to poor wage rates and they are moving to software profession
That's because accountants are getting pimped out and under appreciated. Between the recruiters who use you to get paid, the terrible contracts, foreign i-9 applicants, American accountant are not appreciated. Then the cpe required for your CPA is 40 hours a year, terrible controllers, and the day to day bs accountants are tired so know they gotta start paying until the department of labor gets involved. Most smart accountants are independent now and do private accounting because the industry is so warped. What needs to happen is the DOL needs to remove recruiters and firms from blocking accountants from holding long term jobs
There is a lack of people in almost all industries its across the board there are help wanted signs all over the place when I drive around my city. My mom works as an elementary school teacher and they are desperate for people apparently there used to be 200 applicants for one job but now they are lucky to get 3 applicants for a teaching position and half don't show up for the interview.
Yup! I was in the Accounting Organization Leadership Board in my College back in 2014-2016 and back then, our membership was around the 150-200 strong. I went back to a recruiting event last year in 2023 and there was like 10 people at the meeting.
I had recently just came back into Public accounting as well and I realized that some of the new hires were 22 years old which impressed me but then I found out that they didn't have their 150 units, which was the requirement back when I was looking for a job.
So yeah, 100% the Accounting industry is in for a rude awakening.
Good video Bryan! Appreciate the content. Just got through my first Audit busy season good thoughts on the profession as a whole!
My personal opinion regarding the decrease in accounting students is attributable to several factors.
1. Younger generation wants instant gratification or as close as they can get. Having to work 5-7 years before they get to a desired earning level is not in line with that instant gratification mindset
2. Becoming a CPA is the gold standard in accounting, but that requires a Master's in most states, which is costly compared to other degrees with similar earning potential that only require a Bachelor's.
3. Maybe an unpopular opinion, but people seem lazier to me. I've been training for my org for the last 3 years, full time, and we are hiring people in at solid salaries ($85-$90k to start - govt, not public...CPA not reqd but Bachelor's in Accounting is reqd) and they are astonished at what they're expected to do. It's as if they believed this was a data entry position or that the software would do everything for them, which makes me wonder what they were doing before. The hires with public accounting backgrounds have been mostly good though. The others, not so much.
A culture of whining and victimhood at universities is not conducive to a society of people who value hard work.
Hey, very curious, what government job with that kind of salary, thanks!
@@jasyl999 Internal Revenue Service, Revenue Agent, Grade 12 in a large metropolitan area (SBSE)
@@robreich6881Whining and victimhood doesn’t exactly sound like any university’s accounting program. They’re more like…how to put this nicely?…bootlickers? It’s like the first thing they learn right out of their program it’s that they can either bend over for public accounting and it’s “opportunities” (busy seasons) or…I don’t know, Industry? As a recent graduate? Lol. Worse yet, government? HA. I’m sure the PA firms will be fine, nothing a little offshoring and automation can’t fix in the long run.
I agree with 80% of what you're saying; however, there's a false equivalency that I'm seeing with the instant gratification argument you bring up. You can't justify the crunch accountants go through (in the public sector) with the pay they get while looking at other industries and their pay structures, mainly because experts in the industry have acknowledged that more people are leaving the accounting industry in North America than accountants are joining the industry. There's a disconnect that has to be recognized by everyone within the accounting industry. You might just be one of the luckier ones out of the bunch that had it made with your hard work.
Starting wages for PA are absolutely pitiful for the soul crushing experience that a job in that brings. The way you "change the paradigm" is raising salaries and retention bonuses to justify the 70+ hour week grind that busy season brings. I understand and respect that you are in the business and won't outright say this in a video because of that. But that's what it comes down to
All i can say right now is that i recently graduated college with an accounting degree, and i I've had the hardest time looking for an entry level position in the field.
Why and it does depend on the town you live in? I feel like or at least it sems in my area, places want to only hire experience people and don't want to hire young people.
Just graduated after too many years in Duluth for accounting. I wasn’t the best student at the start and had a wake up call when i found out I was behind the expected graduation date. My reasoning for not showing up to accounting networking events was my own belief in that I wouldn’t be wanted by a big 4.
From what I’ve seen from my peers there are some who you can tell are actually picking up on the material and those that are getting by with cheating.
I remember cost accounting being such a pain in the ass with all the hw. Overall I think my generation is more fixated on instant gratification and the 150 credit requirement builds on that. Plenty of my peers graduated with jobs outside of public accounting and I was tempted myself because who wants all that work but I decided to apply and I made it into RSM.
My 2 cents (typed on phone)
or maybe not require 5 years experience for a entry position. I have been looking for work for over 5 years. Got a dual degree in accounting and finance. i have been thru many interviews but never got the job. Mostly either students from ivory league schools got the job or they hire people from India. I am not the only one. I talked to my fellow classmates and the ones in the same boat as me are the ones that have no connections in the industry. The ones that had a job waiting for them knew people working for firms that gave them a recommendations that got their either entry job or internships. There's a ton of people like me that are either not working and still doing a job search over more than 5 years. Others working labor jobs and still trying to get a job in Accounting. I have my educational requirements to get a CPA but the CPA exam requires me to have 1 year experience working under a CPA. The big 4 firms and local mid-sized firms are hiring ivory league students and Indian students, and Korean students.
If you are willing/able to speak on the topic, I'd be interested to hear your perspective and experience with firms outsourcing work to foreign countries and how you think it may affect the profession both short and long term. I am in govt audit and my position will never be outsourced, but I was hearing about outsourcing certain work at Big 4 way back in 2006/2007.
Quality goes to hell, and those offshore firms have crazy turnover.
Good work Bryan.
You literally need like 6 months to a year of classes. And then just start working. I barely learned anything in school that was useful for my career. The money is there. The industry does need a change. The hours suck. Still suck.
Now I have a few clients of my own and I’m a contractor for a firm. I can’t do the accounting job thing anymore.
The work is great. I love accounting. I’m such a nerd I do both audit and tax AND general ledger accounting/bookkeeping. The people suck lol.
If I could go back, I would have done Computer Science instead of accounting, as others have said.
only for the money men?
@@armaniigio Absolutely for the money. Why work 70 hours a week (during busy season) when software engineers don’t have to do that much work for the pay the Public accountants have to do?
crazy because I had to change fields because I wasn't getting hired for accounting. *sigh*
Why is that?
Wtf? I was under the impression that accounting = job security. I initially wanted to pursue CS but stopped when i saw examples of people unable to find jobs due to mass layoffs from big companies. Now idk wtf to do. Do i do this boring ass accounting sht or fkin CS? Smh man
have you made a decision?@@inSynced
Can you make a video on what to expect as a first year audit associate?
Thanks for the suggestion! Definitely making this
@@BryanCarretoCPA thanks man! love your content btw, looking forward to that video
Starting pay out of college is pitiful.
I don’t agree with the pay within five years. It’s pretty low.
I just started big 4 and they are really pushing us the use the India global team as much as possible. maybe that is the plan. also did you go back to public accounting again? just curious keep up the videose
Yes. Companies would rather outsource it all than pay more
Sf Bay Area recruiter. I haven’t had a single person sign on even with a 5k bonus for big 4. 3 months and counting😂
Don't worry AI and offshoring will fill the gap
Accounting = long hours, poor pay...
I’m starting my college to become a CPA, is there any information you can give me to help put me ahead in the game?
Pal, if I were you. Know the true nature of your school's curriculum inside and out. Know that without business, there is no accounting. Make sure you get deep into learning economics and business management and decision making and operations and finance FIRST before even touching the accounting basics. ACE those classes. If your program doesn't go in depth with that, then learn that knowledge elsewhere. Because that is the REAL foundation and language of accounting. Then try to get experience working in business early on, any kind of business experience. Because school and classes is just a summarized theory version of the real world. Then WATCH OUT for Intermediate Accounting courses. They're designed to weed out students and discourage folks from continuing with accounting. Prepare in advance for that. And, probably more important, feel out your professors. Find out which professors truly provide guidance and which ones don't. Those that don't won't be transparent upfront about expectations, will provide empty surface level guidance, and just want to see students "sink or swim". If you run into one of those, seek good guidance elsewhere. Also, learning and acing accounting is not only a matter of just studying and doing your homework like your other classes. It's also a game of mental endurance (but most professors will never tell you that upfront, but I will ;-)). Getting your mind primed to absorb reams of technical information will serve you well when studying and while taking exams. And of course there's the whole joining school organizations, extracurriculars, networking, etc. All that's important no doubt but also try to do case competitions or real world company presentations in front of real business leaders. Recruiters like that, and it gives you a good boost at the college level when it comes to resume and experience. Ok, that's it. Take this as you will. Good luck.
The work is boring and badly paid.
Most corporate accounting jobs have been offshored to Manila, Guatemala. Bulgaria/Romania etc. Cos. have laid off thousands of accountants in the US. Harder to do that in EU because of laws. The pay has dropped significantly. Why waste your time doing accounting when Ups truck drivers make 150k with no college loans. An accountant i know became a truck driver as he makes more money with job security
truck drivers are not job secured. They have now ev trucks that can drive itself.
I think the tech industry has a lot to do with it. IT is a much faster path to six figures without the requirement of a 4 year degree and 150 hours and then the CPA. My younger did a 3.5 years program for computer science and just got an offer from Amazon paying 6 figures as soon as he graduates in December. Accounting needs to pay more and reduce the requirements to make it more accessible.
It's a issue across the board. It doesn't matter if accounting, IT or computer science. All companies want 5 years of work experience right out of college. IT mostly went over seas to india.
@@bebdaumon3948yeah since this post the op wrote, tech is in shambles. It's almost as if it's not really a career choice. Accounting, at least you can actually have a chance to get hired. Even help desk in IT is like winning a lottery, then you might only be getting 20 something an hour. Software dev is just as bad right now. Tons of layoffs etc.
This is so true. I have been in IT for 20 years, and I am burning out because to stay in the field, you have to keep up with all of your certificates, and they are not cheap. Also, employers want to play stupid when it comes to paying correctly because they know in the worst case they can send the job over seas.
@@bebdaumon3948 not always true in IT. My brother had no experience, except for 2 summers of internships. I also have other cousins who got into IT pretty easily without experience.
There are no labor shortages, just wage shortages. Don't get it twisted, the current shortage of accountants will cause small raises in wages, but not enough compared with most other STEM careers.
A lot of what I’ve been seeing and hearing is the starting pay. So you go to school get you bachelors and after you need 150 credits to get the cpa. Then you have to actually go take the cpa. After all you still start off at 50-60k a year. Yes you have the potential to make over six figures but with time and a lot of that requires you to be in public accounting if you want to move up fast. That is a shit ton of work just to make 50-60k at a stressful job. When a lot of tech jobs all you need is a bachelors to make good money. I personally like accounting and work in AP. Once I’m done with my bachelors ima try to move up little by little and get my cpa.
"When a lot of tech jobs all you need is a bachelors to make good money." Entry level tech workers have to self study a bunch of different things to even be hirable especially in today's job market. I think it just about evens out. While tech might start out with higher salaries, assuming they can even get hired as quickly as a CPA, CPA has a high income ceiling compared to tech (unless you managed to get hired by FANG).
What would you recommend for someone who is making a career change into accounting after being burned out of 20 years in IT?
Do you believe most students going into college think that A.I will make accountants absolute? Maybe that’s why they are looking at other careers?
Yeah, lowering the standards isn’t going to solve this problem at all. The problem is the profession itself. It is. I have done public accounting and industry accounting with a focus on manufacturing. You have to be a subject matter expert in many aspects of your job, and you will never ever be compensated for the level that you have to perform. Period. You have a profession that seasoned accountants can’t wait to leave. How do you expect newer accountants to come in to the profession. Much of our profession on the public and industry side involves having to work with outdated principles and outdated resources. You are also not treated well at all. You can be 100% correct in forecasting hard times ahead, and when it happens, you’ll be on the layoff list. You’d be surprised how many people would switch careers out of accounting if they were given the opportunity. Without hesitation. That’s the problem.
Several issues to unpack with the accounting profession.
1. The 5th year or master's degree coupled with the educational cost does not seem appealing when the starting salary as a 1st year associate is the same as when I started over 20 years ago.
2. Although there are outlined paths for advancement, the requirements to get promoted were muddy. If you did not align yourself with the right decision-makers within a firm to get the best clients (where you could shine and really show your talent) and if you were not given "good staff", advancement became out of reach. You could pack in 80 - 100 hours per week consistently, provide excellent client service, but when it came time for the firm to promote, they did not keep their promise or moved the goal post altogether.
3. One point you brought up was that there used to be a long line of folks wanting to talk to EY, Deloitte, RSM etc. The idea of exclusivity and short supply of opportunity fueled this seemingly unending supply of accounting graduates. Firms would never show up at non-predominantly white schools to recruit, they turned their noses up to people who didn't come from elite universities, wouldn't even look at those that didn't have a 4.0 GPA or some type of previous accounting internship, 37 extra curricular activities and some sort of Greek letter designation. Once these graduates started working in these firms, they soon realized the cons outweighed the pros.
4. This probably should have been #1. For industry, most hiring managers and business owners have no idea what accountants do, how much support and technology is needed to stay efficient or the skill it takes to keep it all together. Because no one knows what we do, we are constantly undervalued and the salary and bonus structures reflect that. I am at the point now where I no longer need to work and I have been trying to quit my job for 6 months now because they cannot find an adequate replacement. This is the only reason I am now being paid what I'm worth. It's sad because no one has a problem paying attorneys $750 an hour to write a letter, but they have an issue with paying a proven, qualified CPA to keep their employees paid and to keep them compliant with regulators.
5. My last point relates to the mindset of the younger generation. Most are considering entrepreneurship, desire "passive income" and their needs/wants are completely different. People these days think that 20 years of accounting experience is equivalent to Googling "accounting for beginners". In my opinion, it degrades the value of obtaining an accounting degree when people think they can start a bookkeeping business, hire a Fiverr freelancer and Google everything they need to know to complete an 1120 or keep GAAP based books.
You could place some of the blame of 4 and 5 on professors, who are not transparent with students on the true expectations once they sign up for this strange career. The college curriculum starts out with intro level classes then moves into intermediate which then throws a curve at students, disingenuously weeding out half the students who signed up for this field. Then you have your single classes in audit and tax and now all of a sudden you're ready for a career in audit or tax?? And those have it's own unique, unspoken expectations. Yet there's not much guidance provided on how to navigate these difficult classes let alone the CPA exam prep which the professors also fail on...but that's a whole nother conversation lol. All this takes a hit on the students confidence about a career in accounting, yet the professors tout this being the best profession since mankind and how it "opens doors" for anyone who chooses to be in accounting. But they don't tell you upfront their system won't let just anybody in. Oh, and how is it the general public has a clearer idea of what doctors, engineers, scientists, and lawyers do but only think about accounting as math and doing taxes?? How come they don't know about GAAP and IFRS and leases and audit and internal controls lol? Who's fault is that? I think the answer to this shortage the profession is crying about lies with the people who gatekeep the profession themselves. That includes professors, partners, recruiters and everyone else who knows the true ins and outs of this field.
@@Dakid015 You have lots of valid points here. There is certainly a HUGE disconnect among college curriculum, real world working practices and office politics. And don't even get me started on the CPA exam. So much wasted time studying the wrong way and with inferior prep courses. By far, Becker was the best I used. All of those silly management organization classes, statistics, calculus, intermediate accounting and info systems courses are useless. They should all be replaced with advanced Excel courses. Accounting is 70% Excel in my opinion.
They should also teach efficient reconciliation techniques and problem solving techniques.
@@AngieConfidential I'm glad someone agrees with me on these points. Or at least sees where I'm coming from. 100% agree on the disconnect and truly believe the accounting curriculum is need of reform, a total overhaul even in my opinion. The only thing I disagree with though is I don't think management, statistics, and calculus classes are particularly useless (data analytics and the like comes to mind). In fact, with management classes I believe accounting majors need to get deep in this first before even touching debits and credits and GAAP. Maybe require each student to do some job or work study to get exposed to corporate management and decision making..Before they take their first accounting class. Then have an orientation exclusively for freshman accounting majors so they know what they're getting into. But that's just me. I'm with you on the CPA prep. Becker was my go to also and undoubtedly the best, only after realizing Wiley, used by my school at the time, was garbage (typos, unnecessary questions, dry inconcise text). So many flaws I could point out that would save future students a lot of confusion and stress and maybe even fix this so called talent shortage. And once again it all starts with the powers that be.
I got my degree at 35 during the pandemic in spring of 2020. if I had known what I know now I would have doubled majors in history and accounting and probably did it online.
I agree.
Just graduated 4 yr degree at an ok school in december. Got a job in tax but only paying 72k in HCOL. Big4 is currently at 82k entry level rn.
It would be awesome if they could make accounting like a trade class and bypass all the bullshit general classes. I am a sophomore accounting major and most of my classes are general even when I entered college with a year's worth of college credits. I'm gonna stick it out and get my bachelor's and C.P.A. Still, it's just super annoying and a waste of time to do classes that don't pertain to accounting.
After seeing how bad the pay is and how much work needs to be put in, this doesn’t surprise me
Perhaps the accounting profession needs to stop using the words "young" and "fresh" and start thinking that people in their 50's to 70 year olds (and up) want to keep working and learn a new field. A lot of us want to work at least part time through retirement. Older people can still learn and pass tests as well....plus.....a lot of us have excellent work ethic and don't shrink back from challenges. Our children are grown and those of us who grasp health and wellness can keep working as long as we "want" to. In my opinion, this is a HUGE oversite. Bringing freshness into a field can also include people who have a ton of life experience in other fields and want a change of career later in life. Inclusion does not have to just deal with various races and various genders, but also those of us that are over 50. Thinking outside of the box creates solutions!
Maybe people are choosing different majors because of technology, so people a choosing safer jobs. Also accounting isn’t that glamorous.
This is so true. I got my bachelors in a nothing university (UNLV) and got a job at corporate accounting in Amazon, and our VP just talked about how bad it is
it might be more of an hours thing than pay. the pay seems good and fair but the forced overtime may also be putting people off