Indeed, you are quite right. As an accountant myself, I can confirm that some of my colleagues, who pursued a four-month IT training program such as AWS, are currently earning up to $140k. Meanwhile, most accountants in the market are still earning relatively low wages. Personally, I'm also considering transitioning into the IT industry.
How is there a shortage when every job rejects me this year. There’s a surplus. Maybe there’s a shortage with jobs of low unlivable wages. Maybe they should pay higher and people will be interested in a CPA career
I've had the opposite, lots of opportunities, remote as well with good work life balance, interesting work and a good salary. I was laid off and found a much better paying job 2 months later. Best of luck out there!
@@connieg7692 that’s good for you. I’m also a male. Females will always get hired over me. I just had an interview for a state staff auditor where 6 candidates were going for 1 position. That’s a surplus
You're exactly right! They want to pay 55-85k in most cases, when it's a six figure job at the minimum! It's better to be a nurse working 36 hours and making 15k more than a CPA. I am a CPA & I laugh at some of the offers I get at LinkedIn, I'm like, no body is going to do your job for 85k, not when you factor in the hours & your hourly rate is around 30/hr.
Most likely because you are a woman. No disrespect to you but the corporate world right now is not favorable to white men or men in general. There is a push to hire women and most female managers will hire a woman first over a man.
it's not just the low pay and overwork it's the legal and psychological risk along with the crazy accounting, auditing and tax rule changes. the whole industry is a mess with almost no political clout or respect
Exactly, the profession at the core is really just a bunch of silly man-made rules written in the most geeky convoluted way that just ends up complicating things rather than clarifying. I honestly think it's to weed out those who don't see a path in accounting or to make the profession look more prestigious than it really is. It's both annoying and laughable at the same time. And those who aren't drunk off the kool aid can see right through it.
I'm in California with an associates in accounting and I see many ads requiring a bachelor's and 2+ years experience for $18-20/hour. Going further for a CPA license isn't appealing.
an associates degree for an accounting major is basically a high school diploma. the farthest you will get is as a bookkeeper, accounts payable role or accounts receivable role. no cfo will let you near journal entries, financial statements, reconciliations, etc. the hours are too much and destroy lives.
I am from HCOL area and shocked by the the majority of the Staff Accountant starting salary! Highest I seen for a staff is 70k that is rare but ask for so much requirement! Then there a few lower paying senior accountant that starts at 85k but most are higher than that. It’s like the middle sections of 70k to 90k is hallowed out like the middle class. It is very discouraging to entry level to start so low for a couple of years and hoping someone will give you a chance at becoming a senior. Entry level especially needs to go up in salary and there needs to be training instead of the BS requirement of asking for 3-5 years experience. Entry is ENTRY!
Yes I agree with all of this, as someone who's been in the accounting industry for 15 years. The older generation is simply not willing to train nor pay well enough for the stress. The lack of training causes chaos in the workplace, creating a negative environment and preventing any real growth for the entry level associates. I'm lucky I got ahead due to my wild stubbornness, but it wasn't without its headaches. Now I work as a part time accountant and have zero desire to ever go back to full time accounting work. The money wasn't worth it.
@@secrets.295Yes, 70k is low when education, housing, food, health care, housing insurance, etc. costs as much as it does. If you go to college for four years because it's a requirement to get a job, and are about 40-80k in debt from that you expect higher wages.
The industry always talks a lot about the shortage and the many reasons for it. But what they never mention is the real problem. Look, there’s no shortage at all if you pay new staff what computer science majors get paid. It’s pretty simple. But form partners simply don’t want to give up the cash.
I got a finance and accounting degree at bach level. I have the education requirements for CPA. need to work 1 year under a cpa. I applied to big 4 accounting firms, mid-sized locally accounting firms, businesses, governmental agencies. I applied to a local accounting entry job in my city government. I went for the internet but didn't get the job. They allowed anyone with a high school diploma to work as an accountant. They didn't require experience but preferred 2 years working in an office setting and 1 year working in a office setting that deals with some accounting. The lady hired 2 years ago messed up the books. They had to hire a CPA to fix the books. Just last week.. the job opened up again and I applied to the same job. This time didn't get any interview and the department is 99% women.
@@bebdaumon3948 After 10 years of applying to accountant jobs and only getting seasonal low paying tax jobs. I had to leave to an unrelated blue collar profession with less females. I just do taxes part time during tax season.
The problem with public accounting is it’s a profession driven by greed. All the money goes to the partners who make 200 to 500k. Meanwhile they pay you peanuts and give you a pathetically low billing rate
companies are toxic AF! they treat accountants like peasants. there is never any respect for accountants. the long hours guarantee you are working for minimum wage. and the longer you work for a company the more work they dump on you so they wouldnt have to hire another accountant.i told my kids that i would not be paying their tuition if they ever choose accounting as a major.
I’m not a CPA and the work I was doing was so complicated the consultants that were evaluating us told me the only risk would be me hitting the lottery. I got a job offer the next day in a different department and took it because the accountants are severely underpaid in my office. I can’t wait to see who replaces me.
Run, run while you can 😢 tbh, i am working on the disabuse that the work ethic embedded in me that overtime work is normal, aside from the bosses who can't understand how there reports are generated, and just thought of us just crunching numbers ugh. No job is perfect, but this isn't it.
Accounting is bridge every good accountant gonna leave it after while to be a cfo or finance manager , there is no good accountant sticks to this under paid career
At the entry level i was overworked, long hours seated, shoulders slumped over, repetitive motion injuries, you end most weekends drinking or eating your stress away, i became fat, unathlethic, acne breakouts, insomniac and miserable with the measly pay, why would anyone in their right mind would want to join this field😅
Accountants are not paid well and they work a lot. If you do accounting then do accounting automation. Being a CPA also isn't worth it. They usually require a master's and a master's in analytics pays more and better work like balance.
i regret ever getting into accounting. seriously, it's not worth it. they pay is at the bottom of all professional jobs. dont expect to make more than $65k initially, basically the poverty line. the degree is worth less than soiled toilet paper. you get treated the worst in any company. they see you as a waste of money because you are just overhead. and because of that, they keep dumping work on you, constantly, the longer you stay. ultra mega long hours too. expect to work at least 12 hours a day without getting a dime in OT pay. that means you are basically working for minimum wage. also companies abuse their accountants more than any other field. accountants always feel like they are working for a toxic company. yes its easy to find another job, but who wants to continuously do that all the time? you literally have no life because of the long hours, and are not respected. everyone outside the field feels compelled that you can do their taxes for free. i should have become a real estate agent instead. what a horrible field accounting is. imagine being forced to sit in a chair for hours and hours day after day. guaranteed you will develop chronic illnesses.
Could it be less people are using CPA companies due to poor experiences, therefore decreasing the profession. Hiring a CPA is a major expense, and after hiring and interacting with a four, we found there was a lack of knowledge with critical IRS forms and the customer experience was quite bad. I am sure there are good CPAs out there but in our experience, it was a waste of time and i'm afraid money.
For taxes. It’s not worth it for a CPA to do a tax return under $15k. They have to have multi-million dollar businesses to earn $100k income after expenses. That’s why I stopped
I've been a CPA since the dinosaurs roamed the earth. It was drilled into our heads by our accounting professors that you HAD to go "Big 6" public accounting firms when you got out of school. So I did. And I was ground into dust for the 5 years I was with one. 80 hour weeks, low pay and pressure to get my CPA license asap so they could bill me out at an even higher rate. My nephew is off to college this fall and he asked me about majoring in accounting. I point blank told him to not even consider my profession.
This problem could have easily been dealt with if the US uses IFRS instead of the GAAP. The US can easily get expatriates with their high pay & english speaking language. Not using the IFRS is big disadvantage to the US economy and it is finally showing.
Big4 already does this, lots of their manager level and below workers are on H1B or other visas. They are somewhat tied to the visa and can't quit without having to leave the country. They also already have outsourcing centers in other countries where remote work can be sent and billed at lower rate. Worked with many people who were from other countries and it was never an issue.
I work at a Big 4, there are a ton of international staff at manager levels. We have tons of overseas workers helping remotely. I don’t really see what resource isn’t being tapped.
@@robreich6881 International are subjective. If you want to work in the finance field the US you have to study there and get a finance degree at a US university. Then only your qualification is highly sought after. But if you never studied in the US and you live in a country using the IFRS standard. Eventhough u have a CPA they are unlikely to hire you or you might have to start from the bottom. For example my brother from Malaysia has recently completed the CPA and he has more than 10 years work experience. He wants to work in the US but if he works in the US he has to start from the bottom and work as a junior executive. If he works in the UK and he has an ACCA his work experience will be highly sought after. In the US it means nothing. It also depends, in certain companies they might need to hire somebody who is well versed in IFRS to handle their overseas operations. This is perhaps where they might need some foreign talents, however jobs like this are limited.
@@myrrhicvictory By international managers, what exactly do you mean? Is it people who studied in the US and have a US universities Bachelor in Finance or somebody from another country who has never studied at US universities and have never worked in a GAAP system environment? If the latter is the case then there is no way that will happen. They are not gonna pay some expatriates big money who has never worked in a GAAP environment. Plus when u say "outsourcing" what do u mean by this? My brother used to work at IBM in Malaysia. It's a shared service center a.k.a outsourcing. They used the IFRS standard, they don't use GAAP. I don't know what exactly they outsourced, probably IBM from the US outsourced their international accounting operations which requires IFRS knowledge. Perhaps that's why they outsourced it at the first place.
@@secrets.295 Usually it's people who work for the same firm but in other countries. Then they transfer to the US as part of an exchange program. Some people on visas did go to US colleges, but don't have a green card so they still need sponsorship. They are not getting paid "big money", they are tolerating the work because they have more limited options than someone who doesn't need visa sponsorship. Also a great experience for someone from another country. Yes the shared service center is what Big 4, and lots of other companies use. They receive training on the specific tasks to perform. Outsourcing is done due to lower cost of labor in other countries. Anyone who knows IFRS can easily be retrained in GAAP, it's not a big deal. Just like how GAAP standards are constantly changing anyways.
this is why i jump from job to job. i never stay longer than 2 to 3 years. the longer you stay as an accountant, the more work gets dumped on you. raises are a cup of coffee or 3% increase. the only real raise is the one you give yourself by getting a better paid job.
Have you ever heard a shortage on U.S CMA profession? I'm planning to take it, just to become an immigrant to the U.S before taking any cert. related to accounting finance and/or cyber security (tech-related)
Seriously? You’re a CPA you should be able to figure this out if you were able to take the test and pass. Ever heard of Google where you can enter your question and it gives you a plethora of answers?
doing a masters degree in accounting control and audit and having done a 6 month internship in accounting i can understand why people are leaving or not interested anymore. you are litteraly overworked, underpaid, stressed by the deadlines and your supervisors, and litteraly noone gives you any credit for your hard work, this was really a bad experience for me.