re: CPA's Exiting Public Accounting

Tax compliance for many taxpayers is a commodity. They are looking for an acceptably low cost, and they are content unless you screw things up. Not much of a challenge other than dealing with the volume of work most busy seasons. This year is much more complicated due to the Obamacare issues and the implementation of the new capitalization regs. Those complications cause serious problems with clients who view tax compliance as a commodity. There is just no way they are going to get a complete and accurate return without additional time investment by the return preparers.

Just wait until you try and get paid to find out how bad this busy season really was. You will find you have more clients who are less appreciative of your services despite the additional effort you were required to invest to get their returns done right.

I blame the AICPA. No other profession waters down its members like them. They want as many people as possible to be a CPA. Who cares if they really are smart enough or willing to do the work. It is quantity over quality. People always think they can just go to some other CPA who is willing to write off everything. Heck when things get too hard create a simpler dumbed down small business accounting so anyone can do it. Voila a commodity is born.

Poodle it seems to me like you have developed a strong client base. The problems I experience as a preparer are terrible client records and their inability to produce decent records. When you can't get a bank reconciliation to tie then you might as well punt. But how dare you bill them for fixing problems that you shouldn't be fixing in the first place?!

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I always said that. Now I do all kinds of different unboring things in my personal life. I love knocking out my boring work so I can hurry home to live. The funny thing is I don't make less money in industry contrary to what everyone told me in public and in college.

ETA: Plus if you go to a large enough company then you won't get bored. If you are that good there is no project they won't give you. No matter what department you are in...Tax or GL or Corporate Accounting.

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I really appreciate your perspective. Part of it may be fear of the unknown... I know what I have right now. If I was still working in Houston... I might be more willing to make the jump. Working in NOLA there are just aren't that many big companies.

There are a lot of public firm kool aid drinkers and some of the worst are college professors.

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I blame the AICPA. No other profession waters down its members like them. They want as many people as possible to be a CPA.

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I don't blame the AICPA for the problems expressed in this thread, which if anything, come from a lack of sophisticated clients and a lack of qualified CPAs to do the work, which has been made unnecessarily complex by the fools in government.

I do think that AICPA has moved away from the original premise of protecting the member, to a new premise to become as large and powerful an organization as it can be. The creation of the "affiliation" member class and the obscenity that is the CGMA show to me that it's all about building their member base.

The AICPA does a lot of good things for us CPAs, but no doubt they have made some curious decisions lately, and some of the luster is lost.

I guess you're right. I still get aggravated when things come across my desk that don't tie or make any sense at all. I guess it's just best to expect that and move on to the next thing. Just wondering if that's how I want to spend my life or not.

Interesting topic, have loved reading responses so far.

One question for all you CPAs- how long would you recommend staying in public before making the switch?

I have been a staff accountant at a mid sized firm for almost a year now. I'm working on passing the CPA exam. I like where I work- I sort of get the best of both worlds, as I do a lot of different work but our busy season isn't like the Big 4. I work about 55 hours a week right now which is manageable.

I'm not specialized- I work on audits and prepare returns, and at this sized firm I always will. I don't like busy season and working Saturdays but my friends who have gone to work for F500 companies out of college seem to be doing monkey work. I enjoy doing a lot of diversified tasks like audits and tax prep and I'm learning a lot- so I like that.

But how much experience does one usually need to have a nice resume?

I guess I struggle with understanding how applicable my experience even is. Our clients who aren't individuals are either small C and S corps for tax, and 95% governmental units for audit. So applying for a corporate accounting job- would my experience even be relevant?

Fin, holla when yall need some fat salaried accountants.

The theory I have heard from multiple parties is that senior accountants with a CPA designation are the most valuable to industry (for the most part). For one, you are perceived to know far more than you actually do because of your designation. There is also typically a moderate salary bump. You can leave once you become a manager, but the salary bump will likely be less of a percentage than if you were a senior. And once you've made it to manager, the idea and reality (you can see becoming one in 5-10 years) of becoming a partner makes it difficult to leave. If you plan on leaving I would do so within 5 busy seasons (which is what I am quickly approaching)

Audit experience but not governmental....actual for profit companies