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I’m seriously leaning towards a career in accounting. I took a few classes and I enjoy them (or at least I enjoy them as much as anyone can enjoy accounting) and it makes a good parnassa especially in Eretz Yisroel (where I eventually want to live one day). Can you guys share with me some pros, cons, and/or advice for someone considering accounting especially with regard to the following issues- hours (do accounting positions exist with hours that allow someone to have a 2ish hour night seder) and contribution to society (how is being an accountant a positive contribution to society/Klal Yisroel)?
It all depends what career path you are looking for,public firm,gov’t,heimishe.
Well you need 150 credits and 1 year of work under a cpa working in various areas.
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.
As far as contributions to society/yourself:
– The more income you have, the more you can give to tzeddakah
– You can help others set up their businesses properly, and do all their business stuff correctly
– You can work for yourself after awhile, make your own hours, and learn more than 2 hours a night
As someone who passed the exam but never did the work experience in order to get the CPA and I also am here in EY now, I would say you should definitely get the work experience doing taxes. There are CPAs here who help Americans fill out their American tax returns. It makes pretty good money, but know your tax business well.
can anyone tell me what jobs u cn do with cpa?
thanx i just wnt to get the idea!
From my earlier post…
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.
You could also join the FBI. FBI Special Agents need to have either a law degree or an accounting degree.
I worked as an administrator for an accounting firm. I found it very boring and time consuming, but if you like organising and basic math it is a great career.
There are great 9-5 accounting jobs in corporate America. I don’t about E”Y but I would imagine the situation is similar.
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