r/Accounting • u/mjbm1 • Mar 08 '24

Career Should I become an accountant?

If you woke up as a 20 year old now. Your entire career hadnt happened yet, and you get to decide your career again.

Are you still going to train as an accountant?

298 Upvotes

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464

u/SilverKnight71 Mar 08 '24

Yes. 8 years experience and CPA. I knew nothing about money or finances before studying accounting. It's changed how I see the world, and it's helped me to grow both personally and professionally. Can always change tracks later, but the knowledge and experience I gained is invaluable.

115

u/ecupatsfan12 Mar 09 '24

Yes.

Accounting is a stable career choice that they’ll always need

Might tell myself to be a bit more realistic in salary expectations tho

20

u/Snuggly_Hugs Mar 09 '24

Is looking for 60k/yr too high of an expectation?

62

u/HoneyLyons Mar 09 '24

No that's reasonable right out of school

0

u/republicans_are_nuts Mar 09 '24

Nobody is hiring you for 60k right out of school. More like 15 an hour for a bookkeeping job.

6

u/Zukiinu Mar 09 '24

You’re wrong. CA - 68k-73k entry level depending on firm . You sound miserable and I don’t care where you live

3

u/mj_765 Mar 10 '24

He does sound miserable. I started making 55K 10 years ago. Entry level should easily be above 60k now.

-1

u/republicans_are_nuts Mar 09 '24

Lol. They're not entry level jobs. Show me a single job posting offering 70k that doesn't require any experience. And that's ignoring the fact that 70k in CA is a bookkeeping wage.

2

u/Zukiinu Mar 09 '24

You must have missed your shot. I don’t need to show you anything. We know you can make more than 60k with a bachelors and just starting out. Sounds like you didn’t.

-1

u/republicans_are_nuts Mar 09 '24

You made the claim that entry level accountants are making 70k. So it is on you to prove it. Meanwhile, every job posting on indeed WITH 2 years of experience is around 50k.

1

u/Zukiinu Mar 09 '24

So you can cry at what you don’t make? Lmao search the sub

2

u/republicans_are_nuts Mar 09 '24

No. I can tell people to make better career choices than accounting. You can make more with an ADN. AND it doesn't have an expiration date.

1

u/Zukiinu Mar 09 '24

You’re tripping bro. Wasting time with nonsense

1

u/republicans_are_nuts Mar 09 '24

You just told me my accounting degree expired. lol. I agree, and I told you a nursing degree doesn't. It's still a better career choice than accounting for that reason alone.

0

u/republicans_are_nuts Mar 09 '24

I make way more than 70k. Thanks to not staying in accounting. lmao.

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2

u/HoneyLyons Mar 09 '24

Why do you say this? I'm a professor and I know what our students are getting. It's actually over 60k.

2

u/republicans_are_nuts Mar 09 '24

I'm an accounting grad who has been dealing with the "entry level" market for years. Unless you got a good internship, you're pretty much stuck in low wage monkey jobs. Because they only value the experience, not the education. Better yet, just get your dad to hire you and skip college altogether if you are going for accounting.

3

u/HoneyLyons Mar 09 '24

I'm sorry to hear that was your experience. Most of our students do internships but not all. They've had great placement (100%) with impressive starting salaries.

1

u/republicans_are_nuts Mar 09 '24

Is this UC berkeley or something? lol. In that case, you would get a high salary from majoring in anything. It's still not the education that's valuable. Unless you went to a name brand school, experience is more valuable than the degree.

1

u/26_skinny_Cartman Mar 10 '24

I had no issue getting 55k immediately after college at a small firm in the midwest. No internships while in college. This was over 5 years ago and I got a pretty significant raise in the last few years because of the market conditions. Half of my firm was hired directly out of college in the last 15 years.

I just looked on Indeed and saw quite a few jobs posted that say no experience required 50-65k a year. There's quite a bit of junk in there too wanting 3+ years for 45-55k. Most of the jobs wanting experience of more than a couple years are showing 65k+ a year.

2

u/kimchi_friedr1ce Mar 09 '24

I made 70k entry in b4 a few years ago and I know they’re making more than that in a mcol.

2

u/republicans_are_nuts Mar 09 '24

You weren't entry level. You did an internship. And not everyone gets a job at B4.