/biz/ - Business & Finance

until you get your CPA you will be a slave if you go to big 4. I mean this in the most literal sense. If you get big 4 to hold your hand through the CPA process you are going to be working minimum 60-80 hours a week and doing 10 hours minimum of CPA work a week.

You will not be paid well during this time. My roommate works for Deloitte and I've calculated his hourly pay before. He makes about $3 an hour based off salary divided by the time he puts in.

>>9965330

well fuck that sounds terrible. i was thinking more along the lines of getting in with a local business because everyone business needs bookkeeping/pay roll etc.

>>9965368
Businesses get their accounts done through firms with chartered accountants. Any entry-level role you get will be customer service based over the phone, speaking to clients all day long. If you aren't prepared to do that then accounting might not be for you.

Just a heads up, bigger firms are downsizing and more qualified and experienced accountants will soon be taking these roles. Accounting is dying.

>>9965538
i feared as much. someone the other day told me a lot of bookkeeping is being automated... any idea what field i might be able to gainfully focus my obsessive nature?

>>9965610
If you're a numbers person you should get into some form of engineering, though i'm not sure how realistic that is for you now. Problem is everything can be automated in some capacity. Financial advisors thought they were safe, then suddenly robo-advisors came along.

Hard to say what will even be around in 20 years. Big data is all I can think of and that's going to the math grads. Jobs are being condensed into algorithms.

>>9965610
Buy REQ

>>9965298
B4 here, yea you will need your CPA. Public accounting is a boot camp though, and they will usually pay for your CPA.

Yea we work 60-80 hrs from time to time. But we only do that to show face. It just how it is.

>>9965298
Do a small course in advanced mathematics then physics. Should take a year in total. Join the airforce and apply as air traffic controller. Earn 80k a year tax free until service is finished. Join civil workforce on 140k a year as you will outclass any civilian experience. Enjoy military pension and also huge 401k.
My plan, you are welcome.

>>9965814
>air traffic control
enjoy your suicide

>>9965298
Yes, you can get into accounting (or rather bookkeeping) quite easily. It’s not glamorous but it can be comfy and is definitely better than retail. Learn basic concepts then learn how to use popular programs such as quickbooks or sage. Practice on your own and eventually go into freelancing and try to get some basic jobs. Then you can contact local accounting firms and ask for a job or continue freelancing if you get good work. There are specializations and paths of advanacement in the field that don’t necessarily involve a degree. That being said the work is boring.

>>9966149
Limp wristed civilians suicide when they cancel a tv show or break up with a roastie. Not fazed

Literally the next business to get automated.

t. codemonkey

>>9965298
I did exactly that but at 26. Got my cpa and all. Dont do it. I worked an insane amount of hours, insane stress and travel. Thats time i coulda put into something rlse

>>9965298
Accounting has no future. Get better at math and switch into finance (CFA) or actuary (SOA) where your background in accounting can still be somewhat useful. Failing that, learn how to code.

>>9965298
>Trying to go into a dying field at 30
Kek Accounting is a lost cause. More and more people are using online tax sites like TurboTax now. And being a CPA really isn't worth it anymore. Even if you can manage to pass the test that is now impossibly hard, you need to have a perfect 4.0 or Ive League degree to be considered anywhere. By the way, the Wiley CPA Prep kit is 3000 pages long so good luck with that chief. Better off learning how to code or go to trade school.

>>9965298
REQ will completely replace all accountants by 2020. sorry bud.

>>9966936
>>9966950
Both wrong, accounting may phase out like it alresdy has, but the audit aspect will always be around. The thing is that audit is stupidly boring and fucking soul sucking

Why is everyone in the thread assuming accounting is only book keeping? Good luck getting midwest joe to buy into letting a computer audit his business.

>go into finance
Also no, unless you're able to go into a top tier program, finance is just going to give you a watered down understanding of what accounting can teach you. I would obviously look at the programs at where you want to attend class but in my experience, accounting programs will give you a much better understanding of financials. Also try and ignore the allure of the big 4. The time you spend there will probably just burn you out and in the end you can probably reach similar pay at a local firm if you're located in the right area.

>>9966884
breh you can literally get a CFA with an accounting degree

>>9967089
OP said he didn't want to get a degree though. pretty sure you can get a CFA without one, whereas you'd need credit hours for the CPA

>>9967089
you literally don't need any particular degree to get a CFA. For the exams, you can just study and pass them.
To get CFA designation tho you need work experience (I believe 18 months)

>>9967064
Finance is much broader than accounting. Understanding financial statements is part of it of course and very important on its own, but you are also exposed to bonds, stocks, derivatives, private equity, statistics etc.

>>9965610
Fraud prevention

>>9966936

Most people are math-averse so the work will always be there. You'd be surprise even programmers would rather pay someone than to do their own tax returns.

The thing with accounting is that you can specialize into various other fields: investing, financial advisor, actuary, internal controls, HR, NetSuite consultant, the list goes on and on and on.

If you don't mind learning and working a lot, then this profession may be for him.

>>9967913

Programmer here, and yes

it's just tedious.

>>9967913
This.

Finance does giving you a water-shade version of accounting and accounting, by default, to be done 'inside' of a business rather from 'outside' for investment.

If you really grim-jawed to become a good investor, a solid understanding of accounting (beside economics / time-series / psychology - all these can be learnt slowly or part of CFA) will take you far. Accounting, as a profession, may be automated. But as a tool to invest will always be there.

For example look at this book - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071463992/.. It goes deep in accounting methods to discover companies/stocks with "earning quality" (a tool for identifying companies with a wide gap between their accrual performance and earnings)