The big pro of going into accounting is that there is always work, and you have many options. That being said, the con would be that there is always a LOT of work and it’s got to get done!
As far as options:
– You can work for a public firm that prepares financial statements and does audits (for companies to get bank loans, investors, etc., not related to tax audits)or you work for a firm that does taxes for individuals, partnerships, s-corps, c-corps, estates, trusts, foundations…
– You can work for a private company as their internal accountant. You’d take care of things like payroll, balancing budgets, etc.
There are a lot more options, but these are a few.
If you go into a public firm, the amount of hours you work can be a lot. Depending on the size of the firm you work for (larger firms usually require more hours), you can work 60+ hours each week during busy season. Both audit and tax have busy seasons that happen almost simultaneously, so both of them have long hours during that time. Purim, Pesach, and Sukkos are right after/during the busy seasons so it could be an issue… the rest of the year is usually pretty standard as far as hours.
In a private firm, the hours are usually regular business hours the whole year ’round, but of course every firm is different.
As a side perk, you learn a lot about how different types of businesses run, which is pretty interesting.