4th year making 70k and big 4? You're brother is either a goof (no offense) or he is making horrible career choices. He could be making 80k-90k easy working less.


Edit: I see your brother paid for the cpa study material???? He is at a **** firm and killing his career and probably his mental health. 99% of firms not only pay for the study material but also give you a 3k-5k bonus for passing in x time.

Don't talk about things you have no idea about. Numerous people in big 4 audit, which is the least desirable stream though, have told me during busy times you work to 11pm or later.

Big4 is slave labour everyone knows that, you talk to any junior big4 they all say the same story, 'just going to do my 2-3 years then jump ship, it's resume gold!'

I mean he is a goof, I won't argue that, just in general. He got hired AFTER the cpa test. I'm not sure if he is big 4. He's at GT. I thought they were top 5. All I know is he was making 60ish last year. I doubt he got THAT big of a raise this year.

Fwiw he's trying to get out I think. But he likes the opportunity they offer to relocate.

First off its not a pipeline but it's one of the only few lines to CEO or CFO. Any publicly traded company is going to require b4 experience for their high end management.


You have 0 idea what you're talking about. 5 years public you're guaranteed 100k if you aren't a potato.


The partners at regional firms with 20 years experience are making 300k+ plus and most of their day is on the golf course or ****ing their side piece.


You clearly know nothing about accounting and/or you have a **** idea about what's a lot of money. There are a **** ton of lawyers making under 100k. Same with engineers and those guys cap out way way way quicker than an accountant.

But it actually is resume gold. I don't understand what you guys don't get about this. I work with billion dollar companies all day everyday. Those high up spots specifically spell out you need b4 experience.



They being said if you're a ****en idiot don't waste your time at b4 because you're still not going to make it.

I'm not denying you do need it, I'm just saying accounting is pretty shyt for the most part. After graduating uni, you have to spend like 3 years working for peasant 50k doing 10hr days, all hoping that you'll be able to land a job in commercial accounting and escape. That's the typical path, legit being miserable, waiting for it to pay off, for some it may never.

You are so phucking rustled and deluded kid. YOU have no idea what a lot of money is because you make 50k/yr, you have never made a considerable amount of money in your life. ANALYSTS at my firm are on track to make over 150k this year all in, first year out of undergrad. They worked hard, were the top of their class, and now are sitting in a seat to make real money. Big 4 is a joke, and everyone knows it. Stop making it out to be more than it is, an AVERAGE career with AVERAGE pay. You will never be in the c-suite of any company, guaranteed.

Also I don't know a single lawyer making under 100k...all of my friends left law school with $160k/yr offers first year out. I understand that you benchmark yourself against people who went to **** tier unis and people with mental disabilities to help yourself cope but that isn't doing you any favors.

Might be different in the states, but here law has gone to shyt like accounting. Many lawyers start at 50-60kish even at the good firms, most are unemployed lol completely saturated

Which bank are you at out of interest? PM me if you'd rather not post it online.

Most entry level jobs suck. Accountants have a strong base to go on and do better things just like engineers IF they are good with people.

I'd rather not divulge specifically, but I work at a highly regarded BB bank.

Nice neg btw P51.

I really never understood the point of these types of posts. Correct me if I'm wrong, but nobody has said that accounting makes more money than investment bankers/biglaw (btw, not all attorneys make $160k...you're using a convenience sample of people who probably graduated from T14 schools). The fact is, not everyone can work for MBB/BB IBs and accounting/engineering are the next best bet for making very good money without that kind of pedigree.

IB/MBB aren't some magic bullet to CEO 10k a day status either. Yeah, you make a lot while working at those places, but the burnout/politics are real in both fields (perhaps worse than accounting). You also DO work a lot more year-round in those fields. Yes, in public I worked close to IB hours for really bad year-ends, but outside of that, the latest I'd stay was til 6:30. My friends in consulting are always working from 8:30 to 10 and I don't want to think about how many hours my friend in BB IB puts in. Plus, even if you make it to the buyside, very few people actually end up being partners and a lot of funds end up failing. At the end of the day, the people who are most successful are the people who OWN businesses (i.e. the partners/MDs in IB/Consulting who own a lot of the business, the CFO of a small company that has a significant share in the company's equity, etc.). You'll never be truly happy working for someone else IMO. and IB/Consulting, engineering (assuming you are good with people and not just a technical genius), and accounting are the best ways to learn how to run/start a company.

I agree with all of this so I don't really see the purpose of your post either. Additionally, I never said IB/MBB was a bullet to CEO 10k/day status.

I hate threads like this, they turn into argument, name calling, comparison to other professions, etc.. A lot by people still in college without real world experience. If you're making 150k a year, are you going to be posting on an internet forum getting into arguments ? No... You are more mature than that, or you're busy getting a salmon bagel for brunch with your other rich friends.

I worked in a niche form of audit for three years, I had a little less than 2 years of expedience before that as a normal staff account. When I left audit my base was 80k with a 10% bonus at a large regional firm - Now I clear 100k doing consulting work, I'm 28, about 5 years post grad.. It took me a while to get to where I'm at but I feel like I'm at one of the best possible account jobs, of everyone I went to school with, I believe I have the most interesting job. (Besides lawyers)

My current job has me go into companies that have just gone through a large corporate changing event (Merger, carveouts, purchases, etc.) and my group improves their accounting structure, or creates the accounting structure for newly formed companies. Our clients are PE funds, and we are sent into the company they are doing business with, these can be any company in any industry, we may even work as short term staff while setting up the company. I do other cool projects, my current project is working with a PE fund who bought 6 subsidiaries of a large Energy company in South America, the purchase of these subsidiaries also included the cash the subsidiaries currently has on hand, I am transferring the cash (About 170Million) from the subsidiaries up to the PE Fund, we do this through a dividend or loan, which gets increasingly complicated.

I have interacted with thousands of accounting professionals throughout my career so far.

Some things of value I can add to this thread -

1)SALARIES stated here are retarded and are just guesses 99% of the time.
http://goingconcern.com/post/heres-y...scussions-2016

On going concern (an accounting forum) there are active threads of people in different companies, both big 4 and large regionala, stating their bonus and salaries bumps for the year. If you are curious on what you can expect to make at a certain level, this is the best reference for it on the internet. The misc is awful.

2) A lot, a lot, a lot of people in accounting are inept at what they do. Including auditors, At my prior position there were a bunch of people just out of college, or a few years out of college that just plan out sucked at their job. They couldnt follow simple directions, I seen people pick samples from the wrong years, from the wrong companies, not proof read their work. I've had an old MD at my firm write the worst engagement letters I have ever seen, he was using engagement letters for prior exams and not customizing them, what I'm doing for a leasing company shouldnt be what I do for a manufacturing company. I've caught manager's just straight up making up results of testing. A lot of people suck. Don't suck and youll have a decent career path. Don't make up results. For pretty much everything I do, I create a list that contains step by step what I need to do, and follow it, checking off each item.

3) Audit sucks at times, other times it was fun, but the bad out weighed the good for me the majority of the time. I've been to Nissan, Verizon, Sprint, and auditted them, which is cool. But I've also been in Rural Minnesota, Rural Iowa, Flint Michigan, St. Louis right after Ferguson, and a bunch of other mind numbingly boring places. I once asked coworker what he does for fun, he responded "Have you ever seen the movie the matrix?". At that point I realized I needed to GTFO.

4) Normal staff accounting work is easy, any real monkey can do it. I've increasingly seen basic accounting process outsourced to India, which I kind of don't understand as dealing with an outsourced accounting staff is awful, language barrier, different hours, they dont know GAAP that well. But the normal accounting functions for most companies are easy.

Stopped reading your post after you said this. Beyond stupid.

A VP at my gig regularly posts **** on reddit and is probably in the $450k ballpark. I will make more than 150k this year and I am here. People don't stop using the internet just because they earn over a certain income, the only difference is they probably have less time to kill and are more picky on what they'll engage on.

LOL @ anyone spitballs numbers for a living

Firstly, I apologize. I should have prefaced by saying this is from my personal experience and everyone who went to my school and works in my tax group.Doesnt this statistic include a variety of different degree paths? It seems like most of those people would be the liberal arts degrees. I'd venture to say the average amount is lower for business majors.

Any decent program has a one years masters program. Check out any of top program. And a lot of people from my school had the 150 credits after four years due to high school credits. Again, this is just based off my experience and the people I work with.I already knew the pass rates, but if you have an accounting degree + use Becker there is no reason you shouldn't be passing these exams.No, Im saying they work 50-55 hours a week and spend one month pass the exam. Im tax, so it gets real busy late July - September 15th (Corporate compliance). After September 15th, you can knock out at least one exam by October and potentially two by the end of November. One of my friends passed BEC within one week of studying (just reading the books and not watching the lectures). She is clearly an outlier though.



Hm, maybe its different for people who interned before starting. Once I received my full-time offer at the end of my internship, the firm payed for all my Becker items. This gave me the opportunity to knock off some exam sections during school.

Non-CPA scrub checking in.

Can confirm.

Feels bad man...

First the misc went after non-STEM majors, then it ripped apart tradies, now accounting is on the chopping block as well? The list of permissible careers is dwindling, fast.This is a common tactic on Microsoft outlook. I use the delayed response feature to make it look like I'm working long hours all the time lol.

Maybe in a few cases. But there have been more times in the past month alone than I could count on my hands where i've fired off emails past 6:30pm and got a response the same night. They also have 0 reason to pretend to me that they are working late, I don't work at their firm and I have precisely 0 say in their performance review.

LOL @ anyone whose career isn't at the intersection of technology and healthcare

brb entire industry literally safeguarded by federal law aka job security for life

brb developing leading propriety software aka endless capital aka endless opportunity for growth aka salaries on par with you while working half your hours

brb serving a greater purpose than counting Donald Trump's money for him aka happier overall than you 70+ hr burnout wannabe VC's

op is a *******

and my point about maturity is proven true.thats my point, not about the income threshold to stop posting on the internet, its about what conversations theyll engage in. I doubt your VP is on reddit talking about what makes him alpha and what he can do to pick up more chicks.

It's a pretty easy way to make six figures.

accounting is an easy degree.

CPA exam isn't hard if you put in the time

The actual work isn't bad either once you get past staff level (I'm in tax though).

I'll agree it's nothing special and anyone bragging about big4 is a massive *******. Literally anyone can do it, it's not particularly competitive.

Location: Mexico City

Repped. This is a reasonable response about the field.

Accounting > any other business degree.

No offense bro but I'm not sure you're providing accurate info. You will not be making 100k in 5 years. I worked at EY NYC in auditing for 3.5 years and was making about 70k when I left. Was rated a 4/5 in each year that I was there so my raises each year were as high as they could have been. Now maybe if you're in tax/financial services/or IT, you may be touching six figures.

Also, the number of hours you will be working will be highly dependent on team, client, time of year, etc. generally speaking though you will likely be averaging at least 50 hours a week. During busy season, it is definitely possible to be working from 9-11 or midnight.