November 5, 2022
There are many career paths for technical accountants. To everyone thinking of a change, I thought it might be helpful to share my experience, having worked in industry and public accounting/consulting. Each has its pros and cons. This is my experience with each.
Auditor Days
Like many of you, I started out in public accounting. I started right out of grad school at PwC as an auditor. I would describe my 3 years at PwC as fast-paced, lots of long hours, intimidating, exciting and fun. Like all new associates, I worked long hours during busy season and the work was not always glamorous. However, I didn’t mind as much as everyone was working hard and I didn’t have family obligations. There was a sense of unity and camaraderie and a sense of accomplishment when the audit was over. I liked the team structure, and I liked working on multiple clients. Most of my clients were local, so I didn’t have to travel too much. Trainings and firm events were fun. It was exciting to be part of a large firm with so many young professionals. Some of my longest lasting friendships have been with my friends at PwC and I still keep in touch with them today. I am more of an introvert and working in public accounting forced me out of my comfort zone in many ways for the better.
However, I learned that you really have to manage your own schedule and speak up for yourself. If you don’t like your clients or team, you’ll be miserable. It was also not fun having a stigma attached to being an auditor. Sometimes the client could get defensive or argumentative.
I knew at a certain point that I wasn’t going to stay in public accounting long-term. The work life balance was not sustainable for me. After getting my hours for my CPA license, I started looking at other job opportunities.
Industry
After 3 years at PwC, I received an offer too good to refuse, so I left public accounting to jump into industry. The pay was 30% higher than what I was making in public accounting. My first role in industry was as an analyst in the external reporting group at a large public tech company. For the next 10 plus years, I did SEC reporting and technical accounting at various companies, mostly public tech companies.
In general, the work/life balance and compensation in industry were much better compared to public accounting (at least at the lower levels). I dealt with a lot of complex transactions and the depth of my accounting knowledge really grew while I was in industry. While industry may not have been as exciting as public accounting from a culture perspective, it was rewarding to make an impact at my companies and to get promoted. One of the highlights of my career was directly helping my company go IPO, from drafting the S-1 and working late at the printer, to establishing an external reporting function. There is also flexibility in industry to move around within a company and try different roles if you so choose. I was lucky to have some really good managers while I was working in industry. These managers encouraged my professional development, gave me the opportunity to work on a lot of interesting transactions, taught me a lot about SEC reporting and technical accounting, supported me and rewarded my hard work. This was one of the main reasons I stayed in industry.
On the flip side, it is very different being the preparer vs. the auditor. Having been an auditor before, I understood the nature of the questions being asked. However, I will admit that going through an audit on the other side is no fun. I also did not like getting sucked into monthly close. I was never strong at operational accounting. I much preferred trying to figure out the high-level accounting for complex transactions. Your world also feels smaller- you tend to work with the same people and just focus on your responsibilities.
Consulting
In late 2018, public companies were scrambling to implement the new lease standard. During this time, I was a Director of Technical Accounting at a large public environmental services company and had already implemented the new revenue standard. It was quite an exciting time in the world of accounting. I decided to take a leap of faith and leave industry to join a large public accounting firm in their technical accounting consulting group. It was quite the change from industry being back in public accounting. As with PwC, the people are what make the firm. The technical accounting consulting group was filled with driven, sharp and hardworking individuals. I was one of the older consultants and became the mentor to a couple of consultants. The work was challenging, and I worked on clients from a wide range of industries. The depth of my knowledge, especially around the new revenue and lease standard, increased exponentially. One of the exciting things about joining at that time was that they were still building out their service lines, and they would involve us in the decisions. The less glamorous part in my opinion was the scoping, proposals, project management, revenue targets, utilization targets, and time tracking. It was a great experience, but ultimately it was not sustainable for me due to personal reasons. Even though I only commuted twice a week, it was still a struggle to drive into and out of Boston. After a year, I decided to take some time off to figure out what I wanted to do, and then the pandemic hit.
The pandemic changed everything. I ended up taking a couple of months off to help my kids get through remote learning. I knew that I didn’t want to go back to commuting and I also needed flexibility as my kids were still young. That’s how I started looking into consulting through a smaller consulting firm. Currently, all the work I do is remote, and I have the flexibility to choose my hours and which projects I want to work on. This flexibility is key for me. I get to work on a variety of clients and projects and work on teams. I get paid hourly, so the more I work, the more I get paid, and if I don’t work, I don’t get paid. This is ok with me because we typically take a long summer vacation to visit my family and travel, so I get to take 6 weeks off. I do miss the interaction and relationships from working onsite, but for now this model works for me. I am lucky that my husband works, and we can afford for me to work part-time.
Everyone’s experience is unique and depends on the company you are at, how your manager is, what you value most, and how well you are compensated. The nice thing is that there will always be demand for technical accounting and there are options out there.
