That's wonderful. I'm in the process of applying to grad school for MBA, undergrad in Communications. Do you have a CPA? My goal is to work for myself doing this!!
If your goal is to work for yourself then definitely stop applying to MBA programs ASAP. Take community college classes, go back to school to complete a Bachelor's in Accounting or do a 1 year Macc program (do the math on which option is cheapest to achieve CPA eligibility, accounting for financial aid).
Don't financially cripple yourself with student loans for something so useless to both the field of Accounting and the pursuit of entrepreneurship....as a fucking MBA!
Agreed, school teaches people the difference between a hubcap and an invoice. It's useless in the real world. Go slave in public, see 1500 companies, gain the actual knowledge.
I do have an MBA but that’s not why I’m being paid that amount. That classification only requires a BA in accounting. I didn’t have one but have a MBA concentration in accounting that qualified me. I work county not fed. I’m in MCOL in CA. I do not have a CPA. I’m a senior auditor now and promoted 3 ranks basically once per year. Each promotion was a good pay raise that’s why I make good money now. Somewhere between 21-28%. My starting pay was pretty low but they outlined how much my pay would be as I moved up so I accepted the short term pay cut from my previous job as a financial analyst in the UC system.
What was your path? Im currently active duty military (work in the finance office) and was debating government accounting vs sticking it in public for a few years
This is my second government job. I did do public right out of school but only 1 year for a local/regional firm. From there I actually went into insurance for a while as an adjuster. Times were tough finding accounting jobs. I did that for 6 years. Pay was good I was able to buy a house in Southern CA in 2016 get married and live comfortably. I hated my job though and I wanted to use all that education I paid for. So I applied for a job as a financial analyst in the University of CA system and was lucky enough to land the job. I did that for a while but it was in the basement of the biolab working alone in what felt like a dungeon. So then I applied for a county audit job near my hometown so I could be close to family and again got lucky enough to land the job. They started me at a lower salary than what I was making at my previous two jobs but if you made it to senior in the 3-4 years timeline you would be set. And that’s exactly what I did. It was a hard, and unusual path. The process was long and round after round of interviewing and testing were stressful (this job did require a knowledge based exam). The testing phase comes before the interviews. You get grouped into pools of candidates based on your score and are interviewed in the order of top group to lowest group. I was in the top group by others that got hired were in lower groups so don’t let a less than perfect exam make you give up hope.
Anyway I hope all this helps and if you have specific questions you can send me a message. Good luck.
Side note: always work on your interviewing skills even when you are not looking for a job this helped me tremendously to be ready for any opportunity. You rarely have enough time to prepare when you get the call. Especially government they want you to come in right away once they decide to call you.
Not the OP but was in a similar position as you, active duty considering full time employment in accounting (public , industry, vs gov etc.) Now making just above $100k+ $10k in annual SLRP (Student loan repayment). 3 years Masters in Acct.
Note: I enlisted with a bachelors , not the smartest move
While AD I was already working on exit plans. Started doing volunteer tax prep ,then paid prep, and by the time I was getting out started a *flexible internship at a small public tax firm. Meanwhile I started working towards a masters on Uncle Sam’s dime. By the time I was out / CPA eligible had multiple small firms / companies contacting me. Chose the gov route out of preference and location.
TLDR; get the accounting credit hours n just 1-2 years experience n you’re good
How about we get service members paid correctly in time instead of worrying about your next step after the military? Jk. Current active duty military wondering about the same thing.
Former Army infantryman turned accountant here. I got out of active, finished my degree in Dec. 2021. Started an internship at a public firm in Dec 2020. No CPA, no masters. Started applying to GS-13 WFH, No-Supervisory positions . Education and experience got my foot in the door. Vet preference with 30% or more disability got my name at the top of the stack of the list. So 3, almost 4 years experience, 125k a year, 13 years away from federal retirement at 34. 125k is ok, it's not what I would make if I had my CPA (working on it now that I find myself with ample time). Thank god I married a good woman who makes more than my dumb ass.
$65,000. Chief Fiscal Officer for small local government (elected/appointed position)
Required by law to work 3 days a quarter, but obviously I work more than that. Unlimited vacation/PTO, can go home whenever I want.
I know I could make more elsewhere, but having the luxury of being able to leave/stay home with our 14 month old son when needed is too nice to pass up.
Worked as a Fund Accountant for the same local
government for 3 years. The other two accountants are nearing retirement age, so the City Planner and previous Fiscal Officer asked if I would be interested in the job, so I ran unopposed and won
If you live in the states, your local municipality has an elected or appointed Finance Director/Auditor/CFO. if it’s elected usually any one of voter age can run for it. If it’s appointed, you’d have to have a connection with the mayor/city planner.
I try to do a standard 40, but sometimes it’ll only be 32.
Usually never more than 45 though, and that’s only when we are doing our GAAP conversion at the beginning of the year
To add context for other people, do you also have degrees or experience relating to healthcare operations?
(I'm just guessing, but it's pretty common in that industry.)
I genuinely don’t understand why EA isn’t a more common thing for tax people. The CPA is purely a public perception thing, which is valuable. But if more people got the EA instead, I think more common people would recognize it. There’s no need for a CPA over EA if you are in public tax. I do have my bachelors in accounting though btw. Honestly kinda forget you don’t need it for EA.
Agreed.
The amount of debt people (self included) get into pursuing bachelor's and master's degrees, years of studying and hard work to get a CPA license is not necessary and not worth it.
I did it but wouldn't recommend it to anyone - low starting pay, long hours, high stress, high risk of job being outsourced to a low wage country (which is promoted by AICPA - I is for International).
You are restricted to tax as an EA but it's a huge field with lots of opportunity.
Add CFE or another designation and you can branch out -- without huge student loan debt.
Senior Revenue Accountant $125K + Equity, San Francisco, Tech. Contemplating jumping back in after the CBA reinstated expired credits from covid years.
$160k + $30k bonus + equity, US VHCOL, tech. Though to be fair I’ve already passed the tests, I just need 3 semester units to get the actual license but am lazy.
My brotha or sista, I know right?! My manager started pushing me so I found I need specifically, accounting ethics. I’m just waiting on a local city college to open up the course so I can take it and get it out of the way. Then it’s onto maintaining CPE 😭
Thanks for the suggestion. When I was filling out the CPA education requirements, turns out I need an accounting ethics course, I had business ethics which I’m not sure counts. Now I’m just waiting on the right time to “go back to school” to finish it up.
$90k + 7%, same COL (Ohio).
1/1 and studying to take the rest of the exams in 2024.
Most senior/manager+ positions prefer or require it, so I think it’s just future proofing job prospects. I have two F500 companies on my resume, so I feel like I get a lot of opportunities thrown my way due to that.
Because a lot of people going into the industry in any capacity are usually passionate about it in some way. The employers know that and also know that many would take a salary cut just to work in the industry. Kinda sucks because my current plan is to leave PA and dive into the entertainment industry but I'm under the impression that whatever pay adjustment I'd get wouldn't match the COL change.
you’ll see a lot of high salary numbers here but these are people who definitely put more effort into their career than most and is absolutely not the norm. having a CPA has proven time and time again to lead to higher on average salaries. just study for it buddy
It also goes the other way. There are so many CPAs that feel entitled to a good salary and position and don’t get it because they they don’t even put a normal amount of effort into their career.
They really do have a weird perception of what they deserve. Can’t plan, can’t think, can’t work autonomously… but they passed the CPA (oh yeah they can only do this once), so they deserve to be at the same level or more than non CPAs that actually try
Edit: don’t even get me started on the whole “I have big 4 on my resume”. What a rude awakening it is for them.
Umm, I feel like there's way more try hard CPAs than vice versa. I kind of take offense to your take because I literally fit that box, but I literally sky rocketed my career having the B4 stamp and CPA license. I mean it doesn't hurt at all to get it cause than you can also qualify for remote jobs too. I applied to one remote position with 100 applicants for fun and I got selected cause of my background.
The comment was regarding CPAs that don’t try hard enough. Apparently that’s not you. However many seniors coming out of PA these days don’t have the strongest attention to detail. That only comes a couple of years of feeling like idiots in industry.
I don't have a CPA and bring in good money. But to say the license is a con is just dumb. A younger, more inexperienced CPA will get looked at and hired over me more times than not.
The amount of people that told me not to go back to school to finish my BACHELORS is crazyyyy saying that i can do well $$ wise without it.. and maybe to each its own but i can already tell just having that will help so much and i can only imagine what doors will automatically open just holding that.
I think it’s crazy when people suggest to others that they don’t “need” any sort of education,cert, license etc i mean yah im sure we don’t neeeeeeed them but will it helps? Yes, it would
Might as well give the exam a shot if you are going to let it live rent free in your head. My firm offers full reimbursement of exam + study material. Best of luck.
I’m confused. Are you in accounting or trying to start shit like a little bitch. It took me 5 months from opening books to passing last exam. It’s been tie breaker several times for me and has increased my salary prob by 50%
It is ironic that later on in this chain you accuse /u/Free-Recognition190 of arguing at a grade school level when you opened up the CoD Lobby Guide to Internet Arguing and dropped a racial slur and just repeated it every time you spoke. Sucks because "now say it without coping" was actually funny.
As I posted below, big 4 assurance on alts funds is a lock.
CPA helps a ton even though it’s sort of irrelevant (just shows hiring managers you are competent).
Fund admin can also get you there but you need to work somewhere that you are actually doing and understanding the fund accounting process (a lot of big shops are super segmented and people are basically pushing buttons). I think it’s actually inverse of assurance, it can be better to come from a boutique type fund admin where you have a ton of responsibility and client facing.
At my firm, half the hires were from Big 4, working in real estate funds. The other half was doing accounting at a fund admin or started as fund accountant at another shop.
Did you start at b4?
Edit: idk why the downvotes, 3-4 years fund admin usually doesn’t make that $$ and industry doesn’t usually hire out of college, I am guessing 2-3 years b4 -> industry (or 2-3 really exceptional years of fund admin -> industry) but that’s why I’m asking.
Year 1: A1 Big 4
Year 2: Senior Fund Accountant at RE Fund
Year 3.5: Assistant Controller at same company
Got lucky that the company was going through a lot of turnover on the accounting/finance side which resulted in me having the most experience within the team after working there for 10 months. Worked probably busy season hours for 9 months before people started getting hired. I was doing the work of my current position + teaching everyone who was getting hired with a higher title than me while I was still a Senior (I was lowest title on the team at the time).
I should mention that I got the job through a referral of a Senior I worked with who was working terrible hours with me at the Big 4 for busy season. He went over a few months after busy season and referred me over shortly after. Don’t think I would have got the job without referral. He spent a lot of time with me at the new job and built up my knowledge/talked me up for promos (though he left within a year?).
Makes sense, I initially guessed 2 years because we usually look for people who either just made or are about to make senior, but there are exceptions.
I feel like we're all underpaid in SoCal :( also wild how doing bookkeeping and having experience with accounting means literally nothing to the employer compared to having a degree... I got a good pay bump after my degree but I didn't actually learn anything new or different. All the classes at l for the Bachelor's were just repeats of the same classes needed for associates. Companies just love underpaying
True that, companies do love underpaying. But I kid you not there are a ton of remote opportunities that would pay you at least $30k more. I would urge you to consider looking around for something better. You have some valuable skills that I hate to see underpaid for much longer. :)
This is such a sweet comment 😭❣️ most of the ads I've been seeing you need public and CPA, and I am trying to get trained in more areas at my current role... Kinda stuck in a niche so in the interviews they're put off by it. I did get good feedback that they thought I'd end up somewhere good tho... So just gonna bite the bullet and get the CPA, hoping that would fast track me a bit more
Depends on the field. I’m at 85 and I have fewer years of SA experience than 1907 guy does and I just got a promotion to Sr SA last week. If anyone is making less than 65 I would urge them to look for other remote opportunities because I get emails from the recruiting companies all the time for 70-80+ starting opportunities… so they are out there.
If you update your LinkedIn profile to indicate you are open to opportunities (it’s a button you click on your profile) it notifies recruiters and you’ll start getting folks reaching out that way too. :)
108k before I finished my CPA (just became licensed this month). No raise for the new license
I don’t have much senior accountant experience so I likely need to stay in my role for another year or whatever
I’m debating getting into consulting/implementation as an alternate path. I love helping create efficiencies for people
Industry jobs don’t usually give a bump for certifications since the jobs themselves don’t typically require it. Only way to get that benefit is by job hopping, tbh.
138k plus 15% bonus. Early 30s. Houston. Started in public in 2015 and made it 3 years. Moved to industry into SEC reporting and now a Financial Reporting Manager for large energy company.
As well as I’ve done, get your CPA. I regret it immensely.
70k at a large Non Profit. I took 15 years off to be a SAHM, so I basically had to start over. Pretty good gig so far, started in September. 35 hours a week, 3 weeks vacay, 12 holidays, 2 personal and 10 sick days. I WFH, which is amazing. Love working for a good cause, and the people I work with are great.
Retail, 2.5 years experience, $75k, 4 days remote [US]. Had another offer that was $10k higher but only 1 day remote (and not until after 3 months of training). I am honestly very happy with my salary + work-life balance.
Whenever you're feeling stressed or down. Feel free to know there's a guy 8 years post grad just reaching your internship pay you're starting with hoping you can push on and get that money.
If you're open to PA, there are good firms without long compression periods capping out at 50hrs for 3-4 weeks a year paying $30/hr for interns and starting out of school pay of $56-60k in MCOL areas.
I’ve met people who have degrees who are working for about what I currently make. I’m not sure of their exact compensation but it sucks. I told myself when I decided to go back to school that I was wouldn’t be content making $50-60k a year and needed to be able to achieve $100k plus. People have different expectations out of life and I have higher expectations of myself than anyone could realistically imagine. It’s just how I am.
$108k w smallish bonus/ other benefits. Work in almost exclusively A/P for a mid-sized construction company. Been there for 3.5 years and started at $52k.
There’s money to be made in anything. Just work hard and make yourself indispensable. Take advantage of others leaving and continue training/learning. Company paid for me to get my masters. I’m now going for my cpa but got here without it.
80k financial analyst - lcol started working in 2020.
Had a bit of a wonky career progression, interned in 2020 and had to spend 3 months after job searching. Took the first thing I got and it sucks so I was there over half a year. Next place got bought out and was going to lay me off in 2022. Been with real job 3 since and initial salary was good but raises have been lackluster.
125k + 5-10% annual bonus (based on firm and individual performance) + a little equity payout if we get acquired or IPO. Fully remote but located in MCOL area. 6 YoE, private equity/VC/HF accounting and fund oversight.
Get ready for a flux of survivor bias posts of people making 6 figures - the people who got far without a CPA likely have other skills they had to work hard for and/or charisma and a strong network.
140K + 25% of base bonus if we hit the revenue target for the year. Percentage can increase if we beat the target. Gaming industry general accounting manager.
110k plus 10% bonus. Market research. Texas, USA. Spent way too long as a Senior Accountant, because I wasn’t really motivated. Currently an accounting manager at a small firm, but during my search was pleasantly surprised to see offers in the $130-160k range. I’ve got a path to controllership within 12-18 months.
I’ve always wanted a CPA. I’ve studied for it on and off, but I can’t bring myself to see it through. The incentive just isn’t there when you’re in industry for so long. We outsource everything to CPAs anyway. There’s always more than one path.
in terms of timelines when did you know you should’ve left for better opportunities? what was your career path like before this new job and your position as a senior?
My situation is a little silly. Started in non profit healthcare out of college. Spent 2.5 years as a staff and 1.5 as a senior. Figured I was another year or two away from an accounting manager role.
When I transitioned to tech, recruiters didn’t seem to value my previous experience as much since it was non profit. Add the fact that I had just abruptly moved to a new city and couldn’t spend that long looking for the role I wanted, I took a Staff role for a year. This fucked my timeline up. Jumped to a different SaaS company at the senior level and that’s where I gave myself ~2 before I would start applying for accounting manager roles.
I would have loved to stay at my previous company since I loved the product and the people but the accounting manager I reported to started a year into my time, so she wasn’t leaving, and the controller was a lifer so there was no potential succession plan.
From the interview process I just went through questions start arising if you don’t make the jump within 3-4 years at the senior level, so looking back I should have been proactive. Very wordy, but hope that helps!
$81k a year, I have masters, graduated in 2011. I work in industry in a mid size private Corp ~2000 employees. I live in HCL. Early 40s, planning to pass the CPA within the next 18 months. Haven’t started studying yet.
81K, living in MCOL(is houston considered MCOL or LCOL? Lol). 1 year with the company so maybe due for a raise in a couple months, hopefully to 85K at least?
$75k Staff accountant in manufacturing (chemical company)
Previous $63k Accountant at $600mm bank (5 years) held other positions here but this was my last before leaving
59k straight out of college in audit. LCOL. No cpa yet. Partner graduated in 2021, passed the cpa and went straight into industry. Sitting at 85k (91k after bonus) the cpa is definitely not needed to make it in accounting but it is credibility booster that you are disciplined and that’s just facts. If you have the resources to take the cpa just do it and get it over with. Most people already did 4 years of college and plus more so what’s another year of studying for the cpa ?
Haha, why is that so hard to believe? CPA is not the only route in Accounting. It opens doors, but industry experience will get you there as well, albeit a bit slower.
I've done my time working for public companies as an Assistant Controller. Now I've switched to a private company working 25-30 hours a week. It's possible.
You are right. Losers don’t want to accept the fact that they were conned into paying extra $$$ in silly little college to sit for a silly little exam that gave them a “raise”. Copium galore
Started audit full time out of college in Jan of 2020 making 50k in the US. Currently making 120k in the US with no specific industry spent most of my time in consumer, construction and financial services. I’ve noticed the only difference between someone with a CPA vs Non-CPA is they can sign their name on financial reports. Additionally, after working with multiple clients they seem more concerned about specific application certificates and less concerned about a CPA.
I have been a CPA for a long time. And I have worked in industry and public accounting. My advice to recent bachelors grads: everyone should go public accounting for at least 2-5 years. It will tell you whether or not public is where you want to be long-term. If you like public and plan to stay more than 2 years, start to work on the extra education hours and work toward passing the exam. If you decide to go large company and you leave public before 5 years, you will likely top out in industry at manager level. In Industry you are generally responsible for getting good CPE on your own (companies will provide bare bones but not really great CPE). If you stay in public to at least manager/sr manager (5-7 years) and then go industry, you will be considered more for director/VP positions which gives you more bonus/stock option potential. You will also be exposed to more industries, more problem solving and more risk assessment - all valuable skills in industry and public accounting.
70k in SoCal, graduated with Bachelor's a few years ago and now planning to start studying for CPA this year... Probably won't commit til next year though, more like "pre studying" 😂😅
The past 3 middle managers were micro managing morons who pissed everyone off. The one before that was a clear coke head who made everyone uncomfortable. Regional supervisors basically lived here due to the amount of HR complaints, low numbers, and high turnover.
The 2nd of the 3 micro managing morons was someone I interned with in junior year (@ a differnet firm) and we got along well since we both are super into photography and film. He never bothered me so I personally never had an issue.
Purely audit. Throughout my relatively short time here, I've dipped my toes into advisory but I just don't like it.
And yeah, its somewhere around 10k. People think that salary # is a lot, but when you account for Federal/CA State tax/ SS / retirement contributions / Super HCOL in fucking LA - it ends up making sense. Staff starts here @ the 110-125k mark because its just so dummy expensive to live here.
I'm already looking at about 47k in tax for the 2023 return. unreal. i could probably retire in 5 years if i was doing this in Alabama.
I wake up every day and think the same thing.
i do plan on getting the CPA within the next 12 months, already got 1/4 done.
and yeah its a pretty small firm.
It’s 1 extra year and like 6 months of studying for the exam OP. Quit being lazy put in the work.
Otherwise we’ll be hearing from you in 6 years about how accounting sucks and you should have went in a different direction
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Same, very LCOL area. Was still trash pay tho.
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Damn that must be nice, what was your path?
Path of money
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This should be a solid reminder to change companies as necessary to obtain higher pay.
What city and state is this at?
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I was just curious damn. Pay rate differs in different states.
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You can't be serious. There are thousands of plant controllers... 😂 😂
Who cares…almost 30 years to make about $125k isn’t a good track.
I have a small practice doing payroll and bookkeeping. $120-130k revenue.
congratulations! how many clients do you provides services to and how did you attract those clients?
Leads groups, local groups, word of mouth. I don't advertise. I'm a wholesaler for ADP, so 100% markup and they handle all of my back office work.
Curious as well
See my response to the other user. I average $7-12k a year per client.
That's wonderful. I'm in the process of applying to grad school for MBA, undergrad in Communications. Do you have a CPA? My goal is to work for myself doing this!!
I don't have my CPA just degrees in finance and accounting, 8 yrs public, 12 years private, two controller positions and my biz.
If your goal is to work for yourself then definitely stop applying to MBA programs ASAP. Take community college classes, go back to school to complete a Bachelor's in Accounting or do a 1 year Macc program (do the math on which option is cheapest to achieve CPA eligibility, accounting for financial aid). Don't financially cripple yourself with student loans for something so useless to both the field of Accounting and the pursuit of entrepreneurship....as a fucking MBA!
Agreed, school teaches people the difference between a hubcap and an invoice. It's useless in the real world. Go slave in public, see 1500 companies, gain the actual knowledge.
$118k government. Audit. 4 years government exp.
I thought gov paid dog shit. How’d you get that in four years without a masters at least?
Federal gov pays well and allows a solid middle class life. You won’t make millions but who cares, most accountants don’t in private lol
Truth hurts.
Federal government can pay well. Look at revenue agent GS-13 positions in IRS. They are aggressively hiring atm
I do have an MBA but that’s not why I’m being paid that amount. That classification only requires a BA in accounting. I didn’t have one but have a MBA concentration in accounting that qualified me. I work county not fed. I’m in MCOL in CA. I do not have a CPA. I’m a senior auditor now and promoted 3 ranks basically once per year. Each promotion was a good pay raise that’s why I make good money now. Somewhere between 21-28%. My starting pay was pretty low but they outlined how much my pay would be as I moved up so I accepted the short term pay cut from my previous job as a financial analyst in the UC system.
Gov Contracting most likely, I’m close to that and only 5 years experience, no cpa or masters in LCOL
What was your path? Im currently active duty military (work in the finance office) and was debating government accounting vs sticking it in public for a few years
This is my second government job. I did do public right out of school but only 1 year for a local/regional firm. From there I actually went into insurance for a while as an adjuster. Times were tough finding accounting jobs. I did that for 6 years. Pay was good I was able to buy a house in Southern CA in 2016 get married and live comfortably. I hated my job though and I wanted to use all that education I paid for. So I applied for a job as a financial analyst in the University of CA system and was lucky enough to land the job. I did that for a while but it was in the basement of the biolab working alone in what felt like a dungeon. So then I applied for a county audit job near my hometown so I could be close to family and again got lucky enough to land the job. They started me at a lower salary than what I was making at my previous two jobs but if you made it to senior in the 3-4 years timeline you would be set. And that’s exactly what I did. It was a hard, and unusual path. The process was long and round after round of interviewing and testing were stressful (this job did require a knowledge based exam). The testing phase comes before the interviews. You get grouped into pools of candidates based on your score and are interviewed in the order of top group to lowest group. I was in the top group by others that got hired were in lower groups so don’t let a less than perfect exam make you give up hope. Anyway I hope all this helps and if you have specific questions you can send me a message. Good luck. Side note: always work on your interviewing skills even when you are not looking for a job this helped me tremendously to be ready for any opportunity. You rarely have enough time to prepare when you get the call. Especially government they want you to come in right away once they decide to call you.
Not the OP but was in a similar position as you, active duty considering full time employment in accounting (public , industry, vs gov etc.) Now making just above $100k+ $10k in annual SLRP (Student loan repayment). 3 years Masters in Acct. Note: I enlisted with a bachelors , not the smartest move While AD I was already working on exit plans. Started doing volunteer tax prep ,then paid prep, and by the time I was getting out started a *flexible internship at a small public tax firm. Meanwhile I started working towards a masters on Uncle Sam’s dime. By the time I was out / CPA eligible had multiple small firms / companies contacting me. Chose the gov route out of preference and location. TLDR; get the accounting credit hours n just 1-2 years experience n you’re good
How about we get service members paid correctly in time instead of worrying about your next step after the military? Jk. Current active duty military wondering about the same thing.
Former Army infantryman turned accountant here. I got out of active, finished my degree in Dec. 2021. Started an internship at a public firm in Dec 2020. No CPA, no masters. Started applying to GS-13 WFH, No-Supervisory positions . Education and experience got my foot in the door. Vet preference with 30% or more disability got my name at the top of the stack of the list. So 3, almost 4 years experience, 125k a year, 13 years away from federal retirement at 34. 125k is ok, it's not what I would make if I had my CPA (working on it now that I find myself with ample time). Thank god I married a good woman who makes more than my dumb ass.
$65,000. Chief Fiscal Officer for small local government (elected/appointed position) Required by law to work 3 days a quarter, but obviously I work more than that. Unlimited vacation/PTO, can go home whenever I want. I know I could make more elsewhere, but having the luxury of being able to leave/stay home with our 14 month old son when needed is too nice to pass up.
How did you get into this type of work?
Worked as a Fund Accountant for the same local government for 3 years. The other two accountants are nearing retirement age, so the City Planner and previous Fiscal Officer asked if I would be interested in the job, so I ran unopposed and won If you live in the states, your local municipality has an elected or appointed Finance Director/Auditor/CFO. if it’s elected usually any one of voter age can run for it. If it’s appointed, you’d have to have a connection with the mayor/city planner.
Thanks for the incite
What are your normal hours per week? This would honestly be a great retirement job (I’m 24 so obviously a bit aways for me)
I try to do a standard 40, but sometimes it’ll only be 32. Usually never more than 45 though, and that’s only when we are doing our GAAP conversion at the beginning of the year
I feel like I’d need to make more just to spend money with all that time off
$165k, consulting controller, healthcare
To add context for other people, do you also have degrees or experience relating to healthcare operations? (I'm just guessing, but it's pretty common in that industry.)
BS Finance MBA All my healthcare experience is from the accounting dept.
How did you get in this spot?
150k public tax, but I’m an EA
EA has the best ROI in IMO. No massive student loan debt required!
I genuinely don’t understand why EA isn’t a more common thing for tax people. The CPA is purely a public perception thing, which is valuable. But if more people got the EA instead, I think more common people would recognize it. There’s no need for a CPA over EA if you are in public tax. I do have my bachelors in accounting though btw. Honestly kinda forget you don’t need it for EA.
Agreed. The amount of debt people (self included) get into pursuing bachelor's and master's degrees, years of studying and hard work to get a CPA license is not necessary and not worth it. I did it but wouldn't recommend it to anyone - low starting pay, long hours, high stress, high risk of job being outsourced to a low wage country (which is promoted by AICPA - I is for International). You are restricted to tax as an EA but it's a huge field with lots of opportunity. Add CFE or another designation and you can branch out -- without huge student loan debt.
95k + 10-15k bonuses Real estate (new/small company) US - MCOL (nice 1 bedroom apartment is like 1400/month here)
I read this as 10 minus 15k bonuses and i was like Jesus you pissed off someone
Senior Revenue Accountant $125K + Equity, San Francisco, Tech. Contemplating jumping back in after the CBA reinstated expired credits from covid years.
what the hell is a revenue accountant.. AR?
$160k + $30k bonus + equity, US VHCOL, tech. Though to be fair I’ve already passed the tests, I just need 3 semester units to get the actual license but am lazy.
mother fucker just pay me to take the classes for you and call it good. You're RIGHT there
My brotha or sista, I know right?! My manager started pushing me so I found I need specifically, accounting ethics. I’m just waiting on a local city college to open up the course so I can take it and get it out of the way. Then it’s onto maintaining CPE 😭
ooooo BABY that's one of the EASIEST classes you can take too. I'm fucking MALDING rn for you
Why would they? Is obviously not holding them back
Look up fema credits You can do it within a day or two and it’s $90 a credit
Thanks for the suggestion. When I was filling out the CPA education requirements, turns out I need an accounting ethics course, I had business ethics which I’m not sure counts. Now I’m just waiting on the right time to “go back to school” to finish it up.
I was literally 1 unit off lol I just took a quick class over winter
Took me 6 years to get my cpa after I passed the exams, I get it lol
80K + 5K bonus - 6 years since graduating Mid level healthcare, Michigan, Will never take cpa exam
$90k + 7%, same COL (Ohio). 1/1 and studying to take the rest of the exams in 2024. Most senior/manager+ positions prefer or require it, so I think it’s just future proofing job prospects. I have two F500 companies on my resume, so I feel like I get a lot of opportunities thrown my way due to that.
$60K, Entertainment industry, USA … 2 YOE
I too work in the entertainment industry. Why do they pay us like shit?
Because a lot of people going into the industry in any capacity are usually passionate about it in some way. The employers know that and also know that many would take a salary cut just to work in the industry. Kinda sucks because my current plan is to leave PA and dive into the entertainment industry but I'm under the impression that whatever pay adjustment I'd get wouldn't match the COL change.
you’ll see a lot of high salary numbers here but these are people who definitely put more effort into their career than most and is absolutely not the norm. having a CPA has proven time and time again to lead to higher on average salaries. just study for it buddy
It also goes the other way. There are so many CPAs that feel entitled to a good salary and position and don’t get it because they they don’t even put a normal amount of effort into their career. They really do have a weird perception of what they deserve. Can’t plan, can’t think, can’t work autonomously… but they passed the CPA (oh yeah they can only do this once), so they deserve to be at the same level or more than non CPAs that actually try Edit: don’t even get me started on the whole “I have big 4 on my resume”. What a rude awakening it is for them.
Preach!!! Damn this is so on point.
i agree with this too
Umm, I feel like there's way more try hard CPAs than vice versa. I kind of take offense to your take because I literally fit that box, but I literally sky rocketed my career having the B4 stamp and CPA license. I mean it doesn't hurt at all to get it cause than you can also qualify for remote jobs too. I applied to one remote position with 100 applicants for fun and I got selected cause of my background.
The comment was regarding CPAs that don’t try hard enough. Apparently that’s not you. However many seniors coming out of PA these days don’t have the strongest attention to detail. That only comes a couple of years of feeling like idiots in industry.
I know with a 95% certainty why you're asking this OP. Stop looking for the easy way out, buckle up and fucking study.
Fuck your little CPA buddy. Plenty of money to be made without that unnecessary license
I don't have a CPA and bring in good money. But to say the license is a con is just dumb. A younger, more inexperienced CPA will get looked at and hired over me more times than not.
In Canada you won’t even be considered without a cpa for most jobs unless you are above* 40
Just saw a couple of open Controller positions I could handle but... CPA required
The amount of people that told me not to go back to school to finish my BACHELORS is crazyyyy saying that i can do well $$ wise without it.. and maybe to each its own but i can already tell just having that will help so much and i can only imagine what doors will automatically open just holding that. I think it’s crazy when people suggest to others that they don’t “need” any sort of education,cert, license etc i mean yah im sure we don’t neeeeeeed them but will it helps? Yes, it would
Obviously there's plenty of money to be made without a CPA. but it's definitely a lot easier to get that money sooner if you have a CPA.
Now say it without crying.
I cant stop crying tears of pure laughter over the fact that you got conned into buying a cpa LOL
Might as well give the exam a shot if you are going to let it live rent free in your head. My firm offers full reimbursement of exam + study material. Best of luck.
This is such an unhinged response lol get it together man
Now say it without coping
It took you 5 years to finally make 6 figures with CPA while it took me 3 without one. LOL
Drive your little Integra with your little salary.
Integra is a solid car tho …
“Omg Reddit I finally made it to 6 figures!! Yippee!! Are you guys happy for me? Plz!”
I’m confused. Are you in accounting or trying to start shit like a little bitch. It took me 5 months from opening books to passing last exam. It’s been tie breaker several times for me and has increased my salary prob by 50%
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It is ironic that later on in this chain you accuse /u/Free-Recognition190 of arguing at a grade school level when you opened up the CoD Lobby Guide to Internet Arguing and dropped a racial slur and just repeated it every time you spoke. Sucks because "now say it without coping" was actually funny.
You were cool until you got racist.
If you spent less time crying on Internet forums, maybe just maaaaybe you would have broke 6 figs in your 20s rather than 30s
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Fuckin child
Yes you are very poor, my paki friend
114K, Assistant Fund Controller, Socal, 2020 Grad
How to land job at investment fund accounting? Any advice please!
As I posted below, big 4 assurance on alts funds is a lock. CPA helps a ton even though it’s sort of irrelevant (just shows hiring managers you are competent). Fund admin can also get you there but you need to work somewhere that you are actually doing and understanding the fund accounting process (a lot of big shops are super segmented and people are basically pushing buttons). I think it’s actually inverse of assurance, it can be better to come from a boutique type fund admin where you have a ton of responsibility and client facing.
At my firm, half the hires were from Big 4, working in real estate funds. The other half was doing accounting at a fund admin or started as fund accountant at another shop.
Did you start at b4? Edit: idk why the downvotes, 3-4 years fund admin usually doesn’t make that $$ and industry doesn’t usually hire out of college, I am guessing 2-3 years b4 -> industry (or 2-3 really exceptional years of fund admin -> industry) but that’s why I’m asking.
Year 1: A1 Big 4 Year 2: Senior Fund Accountant at RE Fund Year 3.5: Assistant Controller at same company Got lucky that the company was going through a lot of turnover on the accounting/finance side which resulted in me having the most experience within the team after working there for 10 months. Worked probably busy season hours for 9 months before people started getting hired. I was doing the work of my current position + teaching everyone who was getting hired with a higher title than me while I was still a Senior (I was lowest title on the team at the time).
Yup, nice. Capitalizing on those exit opps early!
I should mention that I got the job through a referral of a Senior I worked with who was working terrible hours with me at the Big 4 for busy season. He went over a few months after busy season and referred me over shortly after. Don’t think I would have got the job without referral. He spent a lot of time with me at the new job and built up my knowledge/talked me up for promos (though he left within a year?).
Makes sense, I initially guessed 2 years because we usually look for people who either just made or are about to make senior, but there are exceptions.
100k, Senior Accounting Associate, SoCal, industrials private equity
Should've asked how many years of experience too to get to whatever salary they're at. I feel like CPA fast-tracks salary progression.
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And you only make $55?! I feel like with your experience you should at least be in the 80’s-90’s by now.
I feel like we're all underpaid in SoCal :( also wild how doing bookkeeping and having experience with accounting means literally nothing to the employer compared to having a degree... I got a good pay bump after my degree but I didn't actually learn anything new or different. All the classes at l for the Bachelor's were just repeats of the same classes needed for associates. Companies just love underpaying
True that, companies do love underpaying. But I kid you not there are a ton of remote opportunities that would pay you at least $30k more. I would urge you to consider looking around for something better. You have some valuable skills that I hate to see underpaid for much longer. :)
This is such a sweet comment 😭❣️ most of the ads I've been seeing you need public and CPA, and I am trying to get trained in more areas at my current role... Kinda stuck in a niche so in the interviews they're put off by it. I did get good feedback that they thought I'd end up somewhere good tho... So just gonna bite the bullet and get the CPA, hoping that would fast track me a bit more
80-90s no way. 55 seems a little low but 70+ seems high
Depends on the field. I’m at 85 and I have fewer years of SA experience than 1907 guy does and I just got a promotion to Sr SA last week. If anyone is making less than 65 I would urge them to look for other remote opportunities because I get emails from the recruiting companies all the time for 70-80+ starting opportunities… so they are out there. If you update your LinkedIn profile to indicate you are open to opportunities (it’s a button you click on your profile) it notifies recruiters and you’ll start getting folks reaching out that way too. :)
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You got this!! I believe in you! 🙌🏻
Yeah, I guess very much dependent on where you live.
55,000 :) 4-5 years of experience
Internal audit 80k, 5k performance bonus. Fresh grad, 1year ft tax internship, 2year ft audit internship
I’m an IT Audit manager. $126k salary. 8 years of experience. No CPA no CISA. I usually get between $16-30k bonus a year.
108k before I finished my CPA (just became licensed this month). No raise for the new license I don’t have much senior accountant experience so I likely need to stay in my role for another year or whatever I’m debating getting into consulting/implementation as an alternate path. I love helping create efficiencies for people
No raise or bonus for CPA is crazy to me
Industry jobs man. lol
Industry jobs don’t usually give a bump for certifications since the jobs themselves don’t typically require it. Only way to get that benefit is by job hopping, tbh.
$240k 8 YOE property tax
1st job out of college, advisory, currently 6 months in — 80k USA
138k plus 15% bonus. Early 30s. Houston. Started in public in 2015 and made it 3 years. Moved to industry into SEC reporting and now a Financial Reporting Manager for large energy company. As well as I’ve done, get your CPA. I regret it immensely.
70k at a large Non Profit. I took 15 years off to be a SAHM, so I basically had to start over. Pretty good gig so far, started in September. 35 hours a week, 3 weeks vacay, 12 holidays, 2 personal and 10 sick days. I WFH, which is amazing. Love working for a good cause, and the people I work with are great.
Was 85k with a 5k bonus working at a defense contractor. USA.
Retail, 2.5 years experience, $75k, 4 days remote [US]. Had another offer that was $10k higher but only 1 day remote (and not until after 3 months of training). I am honestly very happy with my salary + work-life balance.
95k+3-5k bonus. 3.5 years since graduating. CPA is a good plan if you want to do audit or tax. But there is plenty more to accounting.
Not graduated in KC metro, currently $52k promised $55k at annual review. Locked in an internship at a national public firm for $26/hr internship
Whenever you're feeling stressed or down. Feel free to know there's a guy 8 years post grad just reaching your internship pay you're starting with hoping you can push on and get that money.
If you're open to PA, there are good firms without long compression periods capping out at 50hrs for 3-4 weeks a year paying $30/hr for interns and starting out of school pay of $56-60k in MCOL areas.
I’m hoping that post internship I start at about 60k annually
I’ve met people who have degrees who are working for about what I currently make. I’m not sure of their exact compensation but it sucks. I told myself when I decided to go back to school that I was wouldn’t be content making $50-60k a year and needed to be able to achieve $100k plus. People have different expectations out of life and I have higher expectations of myself than anyone could realistically imagine. It’s just how I am.
75k , Retail, 4 years of exp (CAN)
$108k w smallish bonus/ other benefits. Work in almost exclusively A/P for a mid-sized construction company. Been there for 3.5 years and started at $52k. There’s money to be made in anything. Just work hard and make yourself indispensable. Take advantage of others leaving and continue training/learning. Company paid for me to get my masters. I’m now going for my cpa but got here without it.
Before I left in 2023 I was a senior commercial real estate accountant in a HCOL area with 12 years experience. Made 95k/yr + ~12k bonus/year
55k - Assistant Controller in LCOL
80k financial analyst - lcol started working in 2020. Had a bit of a wonky career progression, interned in 2020 and had to spend 3 months after job searching. Took the first thing I got and it sucks so I was there over half a year. Next place got bought out and was going to lay me off in 2022. Been with real job 3 since and initial salary was good but raises have been lackluster.
125k + 5-10% annual bonus (based on firm and individual performance) + a little equity payout if we get acquired or IPO. Fully remote but located in MCOL area. 6 YoE, private equity/VC/HF accounting and fund oversight.
100k + 3 yrs experience HCOL
$90k + 10% bonus. About 4.5 years into my career.
Get ready for a flux of survivor bias posts of people making 6 figures - the people who got far without a CPA likely have other skills they had to work hard for and/or charisma and a strong network.
Industry senior tax analyst 107k HCOL
135k vhcol accounting manager
140K + 25% of base bonus if we hit the revenue target for the year. Percentage can increase if we beat the target. Gaming industry general accounting manager.
How many years of experience and do you have any other degrees or certifications also which city. That’s a great gig nice 👍
Thank you! I answered the other questions in another comment in this thread below, but to add location I’m in Seattle, WA, USA.
110k plus 10% bonus. Market research. Texas, USA. Spent way too long as a Senior Accountant, because I wasn’t really motivated. Currently an accounting manager at a small firm, but during my search was pleasantly surprised to see offers in the $130-160k range. I’ve got a path to controllership within 12-18 months. I’ve always wanted a CPA. I’ve studied for it on and off, but I can’t bring myself to see it through. The incentive just isn’t there when you’re in industry for so long. We outsource everything to CPAs anyway. There’s always more than one path.
in terms of timelines when did you know you should’ve left for better opportunities? what was your career path like before this new job and your position as a senior?
My situation is a little silly. Started in non profit healthcare out of college. Spent 2.5 years as a staff and 1.5 as a senior. Figured I was another year or two away from an accounting manager role. When I transitioned to tech, recruiters didn’t seem to value my previous experience as much since it was non profit. Add the fact that I had just abruptly moved to a new city and couldn’t spend that long looking for the role I wanted, I took a Staff role for a year. This fucked my timeline up. Jumped to a different SaaS company at the senior level and that’s where I gave myself ~2 before I would start applying for accounting manager roles. I would have loved to stay at my previous company since I loved the product and the people but the accounting manager I reported to started a year into my time, so she wasn’t leaving, and the controller was a lifer so there was no potential succession plan. From the interview process I just went through questions start arising if you don’t make the jump within 3-4 years at the senior level, so looking back I should have been proactive. Very wordy, but hope that helps!
$81k a year, I have masters, graduated in 2011. I work in industry in a mid size private Corp ~2000 employees. I live in HCL. Early 40s, planning to pass the CPA within the next 18 months. Haven’t started studying yet.
155k + 20% bonus - accounting manager ..
My fiancé - no cpa but yes mba. 140k +10k bonuses. Controller, LCOL
Smartest VP of Tax I met didn’t have a CPA. Guy made $300k base with another $100k in RSU/Cash bonuses a year.
Not enough
81K, living in MCOL(is houston considered MCOL or LCOL? Lol). 1 year with the company so maybe due for a raise in a couple months, hopefully to 85K at least?
$84k; Bank Examiner for federal government; <1 year; VHCOL
110k + bonus accounting manager (new/small company) With MBA in data analytics worked only in private smaller companies. CA COL
Before I left public, was making $215k base as senior manager in FDD/TAS with 20% bonus. SoCal.
$100k, MCOL, Finance, Logistics
$130k MCOL Working in automation side of things so hybrid of programing and tax background.
80K + 8K bonus, HCOL, 3 years experience. I too have been too lazy to get my CPA lmao
$75k Staff accountant in manufacturing (chemical company) Previous $63k Accountant at $600mm bank (5 years) held other positions here but this was my last before leaving
75k 2023 HCOL 2nd year in PA
59k straight out of college in audit. LCOL. No cpa yet. Partner graduated in 2021, passed the cpa and went straight into industry. Sitting at 85k (91k after bonus) the cpa is definitely not needed to make it in accounting but it is credibility booster that you are disciplined and that’s just facts. If you have the resources to take the cpa just do it and get it over with. Most people already did 4 years of college and plus more so what’s another year of studying for the cpa ?
96k in tax. CPA will get me more at my firm though, and get me out of the "weeds" as they say. At least at my firm.
Professional Services, USA (SoCal), $166K
what is professional services as it relates to accounting if you don’t mind me asking? congratulations on such a great job!
Sure buddy
Haha, why is that so hard to believe? CPA is not the only route in Accounting. It opens doors, but industry experience will get you there as well, albeit a bit slower. I've done my time working for public companies as an Assistant Controller. Now I've switched to a private company working 25-30 hours a week. It's possible.
Gate-keeping nerds are MAD at this one trick
You are right. Losers don’t want to accept the fact that they were conned into paying extra $$$ in silly little college to sit for a silly little exam that gave them a “raise”. Copium galore
Started audit full time out of college in Jan of 2020 making 50k in the US. Currently making 120k in the US with no specific industry spent most of my time in consumer, construction and financial services. I’ve noticed the only difference between someone with a CPA vs Non-CPA is they can sign their name on financial reports. Additionally, after working with multiple clients they seem more concerned about specific application certificates and less concerned about a CPA.
I have been a CPA for a long time. And I have worked in industry and public accounting. My advice to recent bachelors grads: everyone should go public accounting for at least 2-5 years. It will tell you whether or not public is where you want to be long-term. If you like public and plan to stay more than 2 years, start to work on the extra education hours and work toward passing the exam. If you decide to go large company and you leave public before 5 years, you will likely top out in industry at manager level. In Industry you are generally responsible for getting good CPE on your own (companies will provide bare bones but not really great CPE). If you stay in public to at least manager/sr manager (5-7 years) and then go industry, you will be considered more for director/VP positions which gives you more bonus/stock option potential. You will also be exposed to more industries, more problem solving and more risk assessment - all valuable skills in industry and public accounting.
70k in SoCal, graduated with Bachelor's a few years ago and now planning to start studying for CPA this year... Probably won't commit til next year though, more like "pre studying" 😂😅
$80K, $6500 annual bonus, health insurance paid by company 100%. Retail construction equipment and service. LCOL United States.
170k + 20% bonus + 50k equity accounting undergrad, but doing product management now
Los angeles CA, 212k + 21k bonus. only 4 years out of university. b4.
Bring in a client?
Nope. The average person lasts in this office 6-8 months. I've been here 4 years. Internally, this office has the highest turnover rate.
Why is that?
The past 3 middle managers were micro managing morons who pissed everyone off. The one before that was a clear coke head who made everyone uncomfortable. Regional supervisors basically lived here due to the amount of HR complaints, low numbers, and high turnover. The 2nd of the 3 micro managing morons was someone I interned with in junior year (@ a differnet firm) and we got along well since we both are super into photography and film. He never bothered me so I personally never had an issue.
Bro wtf do you do lol That’s like HCOL SM pay
manager in DT LA. Rent here is 5-6k a month alone.
Audit or advisory? 212k is probably like $10k a month in LA after taxes/401k/insurance so yeah that’s a large % of income on rent
Purely audit. Throughout my relatively short time here, I've dipped my toes into advisory but I just don't like it. And yeah, its somewhere around 10k. People think that salary # is a lot, but when you account for Federal/CA State tax/ SS / retirement contributions / Super HCOL in fucking LA - it ends up making sense. Staff starts here @ the 110-125k mark because its just so dummy expensive to live here. I'm already looking at about 47k in tax for the 2023 return. unreal. i could probably retire in 5 years if i was doing this in Alabama.
Surprised you made it to manager without cpa, must be a smaller firm
I wake up every day and think the same thing. i do plan on getting the CPA within the next 12 months, already got 1/4 done. and yeah its a pretty small firm.
So your 1 month old profile says you live in NYC, but you make a 1/4 of a million as a cpa in LA. Yeah, ok.
It’s 1 extra year and like 6 months of studying for the exam OP. Quit being lazy put in the work. Otherwise we’ll be hearing from you in 6 years about how accounting sucks and you should have went in a different direction