They say there’s a shortage of accountants/CPAs. I’m not seeing that at all. Every job on LinkedIn has at least 100 applications in less than a day.

I have a CPA, MBA, and 7 YoE in industry and struggled to even get an interview for a senior role in industry. With all of my education and my CPA, I have put so much time into this career and it feels like I’m running in place. The CFO at our company makes over $250k, meanwhile the next person in line (Accounting Manager) makes only $90k. I make $70k. I just heard about a friend who passed her test for a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA). She just signed a contract for $60 per supervised hour with a guaranteed 25 hours. That’s just shy of what I make now working over 40 hours a week.

It just feels like these companies expect the best of the best with countless requirements for education and experience — yet the pay is just not there. It’s getting frustrating and I am too the point that I steer people AWAY from accounting rather than encourage them to start this career.

EDIT: I live in a LCOL to MCOL area and these salaries are pretty on par for the area. My main point is that the effort it requires to obtain a bachelors, masters, and a CPA is not really worth what you get out of it IMO. There are other career paths that take less effort to break into and you don’t have to put up with the BS that comes with most dysfunctional accounting departments.

I’m in Interm Accounting II. When I go and cold read my new chapters in McGraw hill, it’s almost as if they’re intentionally making it indigestible and non transparent.

Far too many times I’ve been lead to believe I cannot understand something accounting related, then turn to other sources to grasp it almost immediately and experience that “Aha” moment. I never have to go far either, because it’s as if almost every other resource understands what teaching and introducing new topics is, but NOT McGraw Hill. This seems to be a pretty wildly experience phenomenon too.

Why is this most universities go to teaching software now?

Hi, I'm an accounting student and earlier I made a post asking for tips and people said that learning excel was pretty important. Wanted to ask how much do you use it, how long it took you to learn excel, and any important functions or anything I should learn, any tutorials, etc.

If anyone can answer I'd really appreciate it! :D

For those of you who have been working in accounting for a few years, if you could go back to your junior year and had two offers, would you rather intern at a Big 4 firm or a large company like Amazon?

Which do you think would open more doors after graduation in terms of career growth and full-time opportunities?

Curious what you'd choose knowing what you know now.

No interviews, no emails, just auto-rejected. Applied for Tax associate positions at all of them. My current job is just a temp job until April 15th need a full time offer BAD for after graduation!

Started a new job this week and want to make sure I'm doing this right. Need to make sure I take enough notes and prep for the next client call.

Starting November 3, Express Entry will give 50 CRS points for a job offer in a “high-wage occupation,” and employers no longer need an LMIA for it.

“High-wage” has nothing to do with the job being offered. It’s based on the occupation’s national median. If the median for that occupation is at least 1.3x the overall median, it’s on the list. IRCC says outright that it’s not based on the person’s specific job or salary.

Financial and investment analysts (NOC 11101) and accountants (NOC 11100) are both on the 1.3x list. That means a job offer in either occupation is worth 50 points, and nothing in the announcement says the offer has to pay anywhere near the median. The LMIA used to make employers prove they were paying the prevailing wage and that no Canadian could fill the role. That check is gone.

In theory, then, a company can hand someone a below-market financial analyst offer, skip the labour market test entirely, and give them a major boost toward PR. Engineers get 70 points on the same terms.

The worst part is, last year a major energy company in Canada announced about 900 job cuts, roughly 20% of its workforce, mostly in Calgary. A lot of that work is going to global centres in India and Argentina.

So let me get this straight:

• Calgary Accounting and financial analyst jobs are being shipped overseas.
• The government’s response is nothing.
• Its immigration policy is to make it easier to fill the financial analyst jobs that are left, with no test of whether Canadians are available and no check on what the job pays.

Fewer jobs. More competition. No wage floor. What do you think happens to salaries?

Sources:

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/express-entry/changes.html

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/imperial-oil-downsizing-1.7646918

Does anyone know if it’s significantly more challenging to get an accounting job (compared to other jobs) after declaring personal bankruptcy?

I’m looking at my options for handling debt and may end up having to declare bankruptcy. I’ve been dealing with medical issues that have kept me out of work for the past 3 years and I’ve racked up about $25k in credit card debt. I’m hoping that my health will soon be good enough to allow me to pursue a full time accounting job again, but I don’t know the timeline yet. Bankruptcy would be a last resort, and if that were the case, how much would it hurt my chances of getting my next accounting job and continuing to build my accounting career? Could it help to explain to a potential employer that it was due to medical issues? Would that even make a difference?

Additional context: Prior to this my credit was always good to great, 20 years credit history, no bankruptcies or other issues. I have a bachelor’s in accounting, 2-3 years combined accounting experience (AP role, plus 2 roles at small to medium companies doing combined admin and accounting, all private). Late 30s but could pass for 5 years younger.

Next role seeking probably something like Staff Accountant or Accounting Tech in private, non-profit, or government role. Hoping to continue advancing my career, but no super-ambitious goals like CFO.

Edit: typo.

I just LOVE it when the recruiter tells me I am a great applicant and the manager's interview went well. I LOVE it when they tell me 3/4 cpa exams passed while in my masters makes me stand out. I LOVE how they drag on the interview stage for months. I LOVE it when they tell me they actually aren't looking to hire any new associates across 4 locations next year and tell me to apply again for 2028 openings!!!

Edit: Also, why do they always put a weird ass smiley face on their emails after they ruin your life

I'm a junior acct major and it seems like my classmates/fellow accounting club officers are preparing for their public accounting intern interviews/posting on LinkedIn about accepting an offer.

I've submitted 40+ applications on LinkedIn, Indeed, and Handshake over the past 2 months. I've networked in depth and gone to numerous events, and I'm officer in 2 orgs this semester to bulk up my resume and differentiate myself. I have a 3.2 overall GPA but 4.0 for my accounting classes.

Is recruiting season for 2028 almost over? It's causing me some worry atp since I have to have a paid internship for my degree before I graduate with my masters in 2029. This post is part rant, part looking for y'all's current experiences or advice. Thanks in advance :(

Why AICPA doesn't make as much a strong moat for CPAs as ABA for attorneys?

If they don't create a moat, why don't we dethrone them and create a new one?

CPAs are a pushover??

I have an in-person interview for a Spring 2027 Tax & Accounting Internship at a local CPA firm. The role involves tax returns, workpapers, QuickBooks reconciliations, bookkeeping, payroll, and client service.

What should I bring besides copies of my resume, a notebook, and a pen? Should I bring my transcript or references too?

Also, what should I expect from a tax internship interview at a smaller/mid-sized CPA firm?

Just my personal opinion. Not only having to wait for your application result, but also dealing with classes, networking events, and/or extracurricular clubs. Like I just wanna secure something already, I really don’t want to graduate with nothing lined up. I know recruiters have go through a standardized process for hiring or whatever, but man sometimes nothing for a month is just tiring.

I just did a HireVue interview for a job I REALLY want, and I genuinely feel so demotivated about how it went. I feel like I didn’t get to show who I actually am as a candidate, and my answers were literally all over the place. I keep replaying my responses in my head and cringing at things I said or things I could’ve explained so much better.

I genuinely believe I would do 100% better in an actual interview whether in person or virtual. I’m so much better at expressing myself when I’m talking to someone face-to-face. I can read their reactions, have an actual conversation, explain my thought process, and let my personality come through.

LIKE WHY ARE YOU GIVING ME 10 SECONDS TO PREPARE AN ANSWER???? 😭😭 Even in a normal virtual or in-person interview, sometimes I need 15–20 seconds to gather my thoughts before answering. But with HireVue, there’s a timer counting down, a camera staring at you, and the pressure of knowing you only get one shot. It feels so unnatural.

And now I’m stuck in this awful cycle of wondering if I completely messed up my chances. I WANT THIS JOB SO BADLY, and I hate feeling like I potentially ruined an opportunity because I couldn’t perform well in this weird interview format. I know I shouldn’t assume the worst, but it’s hard not to when you walk away feeling like you didn’t represent yourself properly.

I’m just so frustrated because I KNOW I have more to offer than what I showed in that interview. I wish employers would give candidates a chance to have an actual conversation instead of making us record ourselves answering questions under a time limit. 😭

Has anyone else felt like they completely bombed a HireVue but still ended up getting an interview or an offer? I could really use some reassurance right now because I’m genuinely feeling so discouraged about the whole thing.

I changed jobs a few months ago admittedly because the job was remote and I was very burnt out on my long commute. My new role is senior accountant with a small accounting firm that specializes in not for profit accounting. I took a step back for this job- I previously worked as a finance manager/director with a not for profit with a staff of 3.

While interviewing for my current role, I was assured staff accountants would take care of most of the monthly close for each of my 12 assigned clients and my focus would be mentoring the staff accountants, reviewing their work, making the payroll JEs and fixed asset JEs, etc. But I was told the number one priority in this job would be maintaining and enhancing client relationships.

Since I began the job, two staff accountants have quit and we were told they will not be replaced. The seniors including myself are just supposed to pick up the slack here. Out of my 12 assigned clients, 3 have tight closings every month; each of these clients sends me their support on the 5th or 6th of each month. They need to be closed by the 10th of the month. The other 9 need to be closed by the 20th of each month and their support trickles in whenever they have time, which is sometimes last minute, and I am spending a lot of time chasing them for it. To add to this, I'm expected to work with the clients' auditors to complete annual audits and 990s.

I have had little to no time to actually work on client relationships, which actually doesn't seem to be a priority nearly as much as they told me it would be. I am very stressed with the short closings for these clients and also now getting blamed for other clients not submitting support on time- even when I chase the client for it. For example, I let my boss know I was having trouble with a certain client who keeps forgetting to send several reports needed to close and even though I email her repeatedly in advance, she ends up sending her support the night before her close. My boss emailed me the day of their close asking if I was finished yet. Well no I haven't because I just received her support the night before.

I feel like this job is not going well and isn't sustainable. The person who had the role prior to me I found out was only there for 10 months, and the person prior to her for just over a year.

I find myself extremely stressed over things I cannot control such as the timing of these short close windows, getting the support I need from the client, and doing more with less staff accountant support. Is anyone in a similar situation? I would like to try to make it to one year and then apply for other jobs (trying to make it to a year so that it doesn't look weird that I am wanting to change jobs after only 4 months), but I am not sure I can do it without going crazy.

Help I’m a 28F about to start a Masters in Accounting program in January. My undergrad degree was in industrial engineer and I have a MBA. No accounting experience but my previous jobs were as a product manager but I have always wanted to work as an accountant because of its repetitive nature. Is getting the Masters worth it if im not trying to working in public accounting and possibly eventually work in corporate treasury or fp&a or budget analyst role?

I’m in my early 20s and I just recently graduated earlier this year with a bachelor’s in accounting. I recently landed my first accounting-related job (a controlling position) making around $60k, despite having no previous accounting experience.

I’ve been here for about a month and honestly, it’s been pretty rough. The training hasn’t been great, and I’ve felt pretty overwhelmed at times. I’m slowly starting to learn and get more comfortable with the work, but the environment has made me pretty miserable. On top of that, my commute is about an hour each way, five days a week.

So honestly, this job has already taken a pretty serious toll on my mental health, and I’ve only been here about a month. I find myself dreading going to work, and even when I’m home, it’s hard to fully relax knowing I have to go back the next day. With my master’s and CPA studies coming up, I’m worried that staying in this environment will only make things worse. I want to prioritize my education and career without sacrificing my mental well-being in the process.

I’m planning to start my master’s in accounting this January and hopefully finish it within a year. I also want to study for the CPA exams at the same time, with the goal of passing at least 2 sections while finishing my master’s.

With my current job and commute, I genuinely don’t see how I’d manage all of that.

I’ve started looking at other opportunities, but I’m not sure what I should be targeting. Should I apply to accounting internships, entry-level staff accountant roles, AP/AR positions, financial analyst jobs, or something else? Would taking a lower-paying or part-time position while
studying be a smart move?

Also, how would you guys approach my resume? I’ve only been at my current job for about a month, but I’m planning to stay until at least January, which would give me around 4 months of experience. Would leaving after that short of a time raise red flags with future employers? Should I include this position on my resume while applying right now, or wait until I’ve gained more experience? I also have several years of unrelated work experience, including some leadership experience.

I’m not against working hard. I just want to build a solid accounting career while giving myself enough time to focus on school and the CPA exams. I’m trying to figure out what my best move would be, both now and once I start my master’s.

Can someone explain to me the process? I see MDs at Big 4 go to smaller firms to become Partners. What is the process like?

Hi, I got an English degree a few years ago and worked at an accounting firm for a year just as an EA to MDS. I did a lot of invoice preparation and make sure monthly totals balanced.

I am currently getting a CPA track certificate from a community college and I’m working on it at the moment but I was wondering how much the English degree would affect how the CPA track certificate would go hand-in-hand after I pass the CPA exam. Realistically, can I expect to get a decent job earning 70-80k a year in LA?

I am going back to school and I am wondering...

Who here has :

A) University Certificate in Accounting

B) University Certificate in Finance

C) Bacholor of Commerce - Accounting Major

D) Bachelor of Commerce - Finance Major

Can you tell me what career you have with it? How you like it? What does your day look like?

Im looking for a remote job due to my disabilities, but I also would like a salary or hourly position, benefits and pension.

Is that possible with these credentials?

Im leaning towards getting both certificates on my way to a bachelor's, but I am undecided on which Major...

In a few weeks I am going to finish community college and get my associate's in accounting among other associates degrees. Currently I am unsure if I am going to be able to pay for university and I do not want to take out student loans. I am wondering if I can get a full-time accounting job with just an associate's degree? Also I am wondering if it feels normal to feel like I didn't learn much either at the associate's level? Basically I did accounting 101 and 202 which is intro to accounting and managerial accounting, and while I can give you a general idea on what stuff means, and I defintely know a decent bit more than someone who did not take those classes I am still unsure if I have enough knowledge for the workforce. I got a B+ and an A- in both classes but I still feel uncertain. I would appreciate any advice.​

just got approved for my license and went to go print it out... why is it so ugly