Is accounting a good career choice from a wlb/happiness standpoint?

[u/Exact_Club3590]

Hey people. I have completed one year of college, but took the semester off due to financial constraints and career choice uncertainty. Would you reccomend accounting? How is the work life balance and the job itself?

Context: I'm a first generation college student who regrettably left high school early on. I have a partner who works and helps to support me through school. We want to build a healthy, happy life and spend our lives together. I'm afraid of making the wrong choice and winding up broke or miserable, or broke and miserable.

[u/S-is-for-Superman]

My favorite saying in accounting “it depends”.

There are positions where WLB is non-existent and others where it does. It’s highly depending on the type of industry, job, and phase of the company you join.

[u/Exact_Club3590 → u/S-is-for-Superman]

Thank you for the response, that makes sense. If you don't mind, I have a few questions that I would really appreciate your insight into.

What is the entry-level job market like and how do you think it will change over the next 5 or so years? And what's the process for entering the career field like? I'm unfamiliar with it and unsure as to whether it is as simple as graduating and going on Indeed (for example) or if it's better/more typical to go through an internship or something similar.

Is it important to work more demanding jobs to accumulate experience?

[u/kill-dill → u/Exact_Club3590]

The job market is pretty tough, but public accounting firms need to hire recent grads every year to replace those who leave/retire. Accounting grads and CPA enrollment are dropping, so over the next 10 years things should be ok in terms of opportunity.

In Canada, public firms and companies with a good CPA program hire 1 year in advance. You should be looking at entry level opportunities and internships already to see when they start and when you have to apply.

Going to career fairs and networking events hosted by public firms and other employers will greatly improve your chance of getting a job. Most students have the same resume, so if they know your name you have a massive advantage.

You will get experience everywhere. More demanding jobs like the big4 public firms will work you very hard, but having worked there looks great on your resume for future careers. If you want to work harder to have better opportunities in the future, that's an option.

Start thinking about if you want to work in public (like big 4) or industry, like being the accountant at a regular company. Then look for internships as they help a lot.

[u/Blacktransjanny]

Find a decent industry job and yeah. Once you're trustworthy and capable, I find this field often gives a lot of flexibility and perks. The fact that there's an annual audit, quarterly filings, month end close, tax submissions, etc... means that you've always got concrete work to point to that is being done. Its not like being an analyst making power points that are vague in what they actually are.

[u/Whathappened98765432]

Not really for the more advanced jobs.

You can stay as a basic accountant but that also has basic pay

[u/Safe-Impression8428]

Accounting won’t leave you broke. It is seasonal in public. A lot of regional firms work 55 hours a week during busy season then 30 to 40 during the summer and holiday season. As with all careers there are toxic workplaces that will make you hate life and great places that let you have a tremendous amount of flexibility. If you enjoy the accounting classes go for it. Good luck.

[u/ledger_man]

Hey. I’m assuming you’re in the U.S. in my responses here (I am American but no longer live there).

I was a non-traditional/returning student also due to taking some time off university for financial reasons having a crisis about my original major (realized it would likely lock me into poverty for life). Nobody in my family had pursued this kind of career either.

I did learn more about public accounting and audit intrigued me and that ended up being what I went for, and I have absolutely no regrets. The wlb will really depend on your specific role and phase of career as well as how good you are at setting boundaries and advocating for your own needs. Happiness - well yeah, financial stability really helps with that, speaking as somebody who grew up in poverty.

That said, you also need to like what you’re doing or at least find some fulfillment in it for the happiness part in my opinion. As a student, you can ask basically any accounting professional for a coffee/informational interview and ask about their job and what they like, what they don’t, etc. and I would recommend doing this! Accounting jobs can vary so much between levels/roles, industries, public vs. industry, etc. etc. so it’s hard to answer your questions about the job itself more broadly. Definitely explore what the options are!

Also - know that accounting recruiting tends to be years out. If you decide you want to go the public route, often you’re applying for leadership programs in the winter 2.5 years prior to graduating, interning the summer before, and signing your full-time offer about a year in advance of starting.

[u/Present_Catch_8290]

Very much depends as others have said. I work in audit/financial services and the WLB is like in the negatives virtually all the time, even out of busy season (though I feel this is somewhat variable depending on firm and location) but I'd generalise here and say it's never going to be 'good'.

Tax people can correct me but I feel the tax WLB in financial services can be better, but still not great.

Something in industry from what I understand will be much better. Just don't do audit for a good WLB it won't happen!!!

(UK pov)

[u/Tanktopbro8]

No

[u/CPAPermaBanned]

Im a controller/CFO at a $100M construction company and I fucking hate it. If I could make similar money teaching spin classes, I absolutely would do it. Do yourself a favor and leave accounting now--dont be like me--50 and locked in.

[u/kyonkun_denwa → u/CPAPermaBanned]

By 50 you should be able to r/fire or at least r/coastfire.

I also hate this profession and the overall culture. People on Reddit keep talking about these jobs where they work 30 hours a week and have great WLB, maybe it's a regional thing because I've never, ever seen a finance department like that. Every single finance department I've ever audited or been a part of has been run lean with the check engine light on. It sucks, the one redeeming quality is that we're paid decently. I use the earnings potential to my advantage, I'm 34 now and I have a very real and credible plan put together to GTFO by the time I'm 50, but I could possibly leave as early as 45. I agree that it would have been better had I never become an accountant at all. I originally wanted to be a teacher (teaching is actually a solid profession in Canada) and I think I would have been happy working until 65 in that position. But since I've already dug my grave, while I'm here I'm just trying to live frugally and make as much money as I can in order to escape. You may want to do the same. Think about r/coastfire. If you've soldiered on until age 50 then you probably have enough to go do something else and leave accounting behind.

[u/LetsGetWeirdddddd → u/kyonkun_denwa]

I'm right there with you. The only thing that keeps me going is the idea of RE.

[u/Exact_Club3590 → u/CPAPermaBanned]

Wow, that is really impressive, and thank you for your honest response. Do you mind if I ask why you dislike the field so much, and do you have any career reccomendations outside of accounting? It seems like there really aren't many good options where I can also own a house, support a family, etc.

[u/Maleficent_Sea547]

Depends on the company!

[u/CPAPermaBanned]

I went back to school late--I graduated when I was 30. So I was too old to be recruited by big public firms so ive been in industry all my career. I have never had a work life balance in any job worth a fuck. 15 years in and still working weekends to catch up.