Life’s Greener Over Here
July 22, 2015 2:54 pm Leave your thoughts
As an accounting student the number one question I’m asked is: “What firm are you hoping to work for when you graduate?” This has always puzzled me because I’ve never planned on working for an accounting firm. Even before I planned on becoming an accountant, I only planned on working in the resource industry. I was born and raised in Northern BC, with parents who were born and raised there as well. My mom was an accountant in the forest industry for 20 years and my father worked in mining and construction running heavy machinery. You could say it’s in my blood. So when I went into business school, I thought it was normal to pursue a job in industry over public practice. That was until I entered university and I watched all my peers accept jobs with the big 4 accounting firms and go the way of tax seasons and auditing. When I started asking around as to why not industry, I was honestly surprised by the answers I got.
“Can’t you only get a designation by working for a firm?”
“They were the only ones that offered me a summer position.”
“They’ll pay for my designation. I can’t afford not to go public.”
Let me address these three myths.
- “Can’t you only get a designation by working for a firm?”
You can get your designation anywhere. Your only requirements when it comes to a job while completing your designation are:
- Having a paid position that exposes you to diverse and challenging accounting topics to help develop your professional judgement.
- Having a supervisor who assigns you accounting experience and can verify that the experience you report is correct.
This means you’re not limited to a public accounting firm to become a designated accountant. If you’re like me and the thought of doing public taxes and auditing makes your skin crawl, you won’t need to complete these modules in the CPA program. The public and industry CPA process is 75% identical, meaning 6 out of the 8 modules I’ll complete will be the same as my best friend who works for Deloitte. While she completes her tax and assurance modules, I’ll be doing finance and project management, which is beneficial for me and my employer as they won’t need to find me tax and auditing work to make sure I’m getting relevant CPA experience.
- “Accounting firm(s) were the only employer that offered me a summer position.”
As a university student who has always had my heart set on industry, going to accounting student recruitment events always seemed like a giant waste of time. Universities only ever bring in accounting firms. Now, I’m not sure if the universities are not approaching industry, or if industry doesn’t realize they should be getting in on these kinds of events. The large majority of the accountants I’m working with this summer got their start in the profession at a public firm before moving to the forest industry. Their reasoning was that the options for what they wanted to do as a career didn’t seem possible in industry. If students knew that industry offered the same opportunities as public, companies wouldn’t need to recruit from firms – they could train future employees from the beginning.
- “Accounting Firms will pay for my designation. I can’t afford not to work for them.”
If a company is willing to employ you during your designation process, chances are good they’ll pay for it as well. They’ll also usually pay for your professional dues. On top of that, your salary is on average higher than it would be in the same position at a firm. When I talk to accountants who have “jumped ship”, their main reasons are higher pay and better hours. Yes, month ends can be killer. Yes, there are still deadlines – but when your hours aren’t billable, there’s a lot less stress. We’re a pretty happy group of accountants here at West Fraser.