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Chief
Any Telus EA’s want to provide salary bands?
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Anyone has the midtown uniform?
Thoughts on EB-3? Reliable direction? How long?
Visual Storyteller
Additional Posts in Accounting
Looking for a referral to KPMG
Chief
Chief
Any Telus EA’s want to provide salary bands?
Anyone has the midtown uniform?
Thoughts on EB-3? Reliable direction? How long?
Visual Storyteller
Looking for a referral to KPMG
Chief
Pro
It’s a good way for average people to make good money.
Good way of putting it
Nothing ever looks good when comparing to other successful people. Start comparing to people you know who are addicted to hard drugs. Then accounting looks real good.
Not any hard drugs either, if it’s coke, they’re still making more than you 💀
Pro
Same. I’d do CS if I could start over.
Currently finishing CS degree. Can say that accounting students can definitely learn this material.
Rising Star
Depends on what you define as good. A lot of people will never touch 100k.
Agree with sm1. Most cpas easily reach $100k it’s a matter of when. After that, it’s a crap shoot. I know controllers who don’t pass $120K, and I know controllers who shoot pass $200K.
VP and CAO, well over $250K, inclusive of equity and bonus. I can confirm some during good years (vesting options) clear $500K.
I've been working for 12 years and grew up in a small town. I make more than my parents and brother combined annually. There are higher paying fields but this has worked out great for me. My wife is able to stay at home and take care of kids and if I can convince her to go back to teaching (for health insurance) once youngest is in school I could probably retire at 45. I kid, sort of, but more realistically we will both work into 50s and be able to spoil our children and eventually grandchildren.
Chief
Only if you make partner. And then you are already really old
Pro
Still, 500k at 38 ain’t bad
Director here. HCOL. Base is over $200k and pre-covid bonus was $50k. That’s good money to me.
KPMG 5. New director is probably around 30.
We are paid well compared to the rest of the population. Though it does suck to be the poor sibling in the family.
Good point. While some in our profession work the 100 hours a week that medical interns do, at least we make more than minimum wage. Doctors work for years for low pay before making good money.
Pro
Depends on what you mean by “good.” In mid or higher COL locations, it’s easy to eventually break $100k in annual income and relatively easy to break $150k. However, it’s difficult to break $250k.
I agree that $150k is not hard, $200k including bonus isn’t super difficult; however $250k and above is elusive.
Reliable path but with a very high price. I’d highly recommend working for well funded startups (those with excellent VC backing) who are at least 3 years out from expected IPO. They have tons of cash to throw around on benefits and salary and much fewer metrics and expectations. Get equity too and hit payoff space when they IPO. Then hop to a new spot at same point in life cycle and rinse and repeat.
I know someone that has been doing this in pharma for over a decade. One company goes under and the key people go on to start another. She has been working with the same CEO, etc for years and is on company 4 or 5 now. Definitely a good deal financially but with lots of stress and risk.
Honestly the way I see it is that the money to pressure ratio isn't bad so I'm just fine with what I may make down the line. In other words, if I mess up, chances are, ain't no one dying and ain't no one losing everything. Never rely on your job for wealth, it's the decisions you make with your paycheck that determines your wealth.
I would also like to add we work a lot of OT compared to our compensation levels
This analysis is taking this way too literally. The OT to pay ratio is very high in comparison to similar white collar professions. Law, medicine, finance all have high OT but the pay is generally higher, although there is a lot of nuance to that statement. Comparing B4 accounting to a retail clerk is foolish and not really germane to the question.
The people saying you can’t hit 100k after working at big 4 are full of it lmao. Hitting 100k is easy in accounting. 150k is pretty doable with certifications. 200 k plus is probably pretty hard. Additionally, from accounting you can do quite a bit. If you don’t want to follow the traditional accounting path go into consulting, marketing, IT, becomes an entrepreneur, investment banking, etc .. The issue with accounting isn’t the major it’s that the people within the field can be narrow minded. Very few careers offer the breadth of opportunities that a CPA + Big 4 experience or just audit experience can offer.
Chief
I think there are more lucrative careers out there for well-educated, highly motivated people. This is a good job where you can make decent money, but if you are comparing to your peers who are in other professions (doctors, lawyers, bankers, engineers, some salespeople), it’s not great money.
I think accounting has a higher ceiling than some of the professions that initially make good money out of school. I know there are exceptions (the people that work CS at Google make a shit ton and can continue making a shit ton there), but accounting will tend to have your salary continue to grow over time and not plateau as early as some other professions. I know that accounting starts out lower compared to some other options, but I think, generally, it will surpass these other professions in the long run.
I agree with pretty much what everyone has said. I will add that the public accounting field is basically requirements no input for advancement. What I mean by that is as long as you are in the firm for a certain number of years and hit basic requirements, you will receive advancement all the way up to around 200k (SM/director level). Other jobs don’t always have these streamline roles and raise levels. That’s why I like it. Low risk with little independent thought needed to make a decent life.
And you don’t need to be a technical guru to get promoted so the knowledge thresholds are not that high.
Pro
I’m brilliant, but terrible at this job. Pull 850k a year.
Chief
Haha
I think it CAN, but it also depends on your definition of “good money”, my definition is to make at least $100k after 5 years in a MCOL city. I am 6 years in and have not made $100k yet, but I could if I went into industry, but I switched to tax in 2018 and kind of started my public accounting journey again. Fishbowl, Glassdoor, LinkedIn are all great places to look at salaries and positions to get an idea of what people make. Actually some people are pretty transparent if you talk with them on LinkedIn or even asking your peers. After you get about 3 years of experience at a big 4 firm or national firm is when you have the opportunity to make 20-30% more by going to another smaller public accounting firm or industry. Another option moving forward is to work for a firm based out of a HCOL city and live in a LCOL city to make your dollars go farther.
Yes. Accountants and auditors will always have gainful employment and make decent money.
Managers/directors/MDs/Partners in public accounting make good money. Industry accounting managers, controllers, CFOs make good money.
you're generally going to lose to engineers, lawyers, bankers and doctors. But in the grand scheme you're doing just fine. You can earn more than the average american family at like 23.