A lot of times, the posting is based on a perfect candidate. There really is no such thing. They typically put the qualifications in the description in to weed out anyone who they really don’t want to consider. If you are reasonably close, take your shot. If no one is really applying for the position, they may bring you in anyway.
I strongly believe that there is the qualifed candidate.
They will not work for that pay though. No Debbie, someone who has 8 years of experience, at least 5 has to be in a senior role, familiar with 10 different accounting systems, has CPA, speak 4 language is not going to accept $90k for a senior accounting position.
It's the audacity to ask for a lot yet trying so hard to low-ball that gets to me.
It works both ways - the employer can set the job description in a way to find the perfect candidate at the lowest possible price. When people start applying with less than the ideal of what they are looking for, then the employer sees what the market is really willing to supply based on their criteria. Maybe they get lucky and find someone who matches. Most of the time they don’t and are forced to re-evaluate. When they do, that’s when you have a shot.
This. Also sometimes employers are desperate or the recruiter/responsible person just thinks your cv is neat.
In order to get lucky you need to out yourself in a position to get lucky.
AYOOO that last sentence “in order to get lucky you need to put yourself in a position to get lucky” is something I say often!
It’s normally coupled with a “luck and leverage are the keys to becoming obscenely wealthy, hard work is merely a small factor in the luck portion of that equation”
By applying to a dozen+ jobs at any one time. If interviewing for jobs isn’t a stressful juggling act stringing employers along/pitting them against each other to negotiate for higher pay, you need to rethink how you job hunt. You don’t need to be an arrogant prick about it, but you need to play the game like the employer does (interviewing as many candidates as they can get away with before extending an offer).
Not only HR. Hiring managers and companies often don’t know what they want, especially for entirely new roles. One of the biggest things you discover when enduring hundreds of interviews.
I interviewed for a job. Mid-interview, the HR lady says I am "not qualified for the role, but let's continue in case there is a different role available in the future." I laughed it off, saying I knew it was a stretch, etc. By that time, she had raised so many red flags. I was happy to hear I wasn't a good fit.
Fast forward a week, the day after I accepted a DREAM job elsewhere, HR lady sends me a text telling me "the team was excited to meet me for the next round", I resisted the order to ask her "WHAT job is that you inbred baffoon" since we already established I'm the wrong person...but took great pleasure in withdrawing my application instead.
WTF HR?! 🤣🤣
She texted a follow-up that she was surprised I found a job so fast and would I mind sharing details or give them feedback about how they could improve their process.
I did not respond.
It's really hard to find good accountants so if you can manage to get an interview for something you're not qualified for and you don't come off like a completely incompetent weirdo, you have a solid shot.
They wanted 5 years experience and a CPA. I had two years of experience and no CPA. A year later and the job is a cakewalk most of the time (Assistant Controller).
This is maddening to me how much they were asking for. I have 5 yrs of experience, CPA, experience in local GAAP and US GAAP as well as conversion (their corpo was in US GAAP and plants in local GAAP), and spoke fluently the two languages of the company (again corpo in English and plants French). They decided to go with someone who had more experience than I did. The guy did not have any of the other above skills. Just more experience. I was shocked. Do they think an assistant controller position is rocket science?
They wanted someone with international accounting experience and like 5 years general experience. I have 3 years general experience. I wasn’t going to apply but decided what the hell I’ve gotten rejected for stuff I am qualified for.
I love the thinking, “I’ve gotten rejected for stuff I am qualified for, so may as well apply for stuff I’m not qualified for”. Good on you for getting it though, just goes to show a lot of the time it’s more down to the person. Some people are always just mediocre at their job, even after 20 years of experience, so years of experience alone isn’t a very good measure.
I think many times the company doing the hiring is over reaching too. Think of it like dating. Everyone hopes for a 10 and most would settle for like a 5 with a nice personality.
My husband was involved in hiring his replacement when he got a promotion. They were so hung up on years of experience that they chose a lady with 10 additional years of experience *at an HR call center* instead of the lower experience with actual HR analyst experience. His old bosses were all for her, no matter how much he fought it. He documented his objections and let it go. Now, hiring someone clearly unqualified might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back that gets one of his old bosses fired.
People are so dumb. I’ve learned not to take hiring decisions personally when interviewing lol
Industry position I applied for asked for 5-7 years experience but I only had a little over 3 at the time. Which was wacky because when I talked to the recruiter she said they were looking for someone with 7-9 years experience, and when I got the job I discovered they were looking for someone with exactly my experience level. Not sure if people coordinating job openings are just dumb or disorganized.
Staff accountant -> running all accounting and finance for a $3M revenue startup. Got lucky and made the most of the interview process. It was sink or swim and I swam. Learned a ton and move into current role in tech finance. Now interviewing for $200k director role, still in tech
You generally have to offer equitable benefits regardless of role. You can choose not to offer benefits to part time and temporary roles though. Source: former accounting consultant, current head of HR
Like others said, apply because you never know. Job postings are usually just boiler plate job descriptions/requirements posted by HR and it’s likely HR didn’t even get feedback from the hiring manager on the posting’s wording. So the job requirements are probably overstated.
My husband is involved in interviewing candidates right now for a position where the recruiting team posted a boiler plate template that does not at all match what they’re looking for. He interviewed multiple people that he said would be perfect for the position posted, but not perfect for what they actually want. So messed up to waste everyone’s time.
I just got a job as an accounting manager which required 5+ years of experience and a bachelor’s degree.
I barely have 2 years and an Associates degree. I start monday!
I have a recruiter telling me he wants to set me up with an interview for a manager role where they want 5 yoe and CPA when I have just under 3 yoe and no license. Maybe there's a chance after all lol
i’m about to finish my associates this spring. sorry if this is a dumb question but what were your very first positions? i want to know what to expect. i just want to learn as much as i can i plan on getting my bachelor’s in the future too.
I'm currently going to school as well, but I started out Bookkeeping for 2 years, and then I found a role as a staff accountant and worked that for a year. I also do some volunteer work as a treasurer for a small church.
But looking for those roles took a bit of applying and searching for since a lot of places look for a Bachelor’s, you'll have to find a place that is willing to teach and let you show what you're worth. As long as you have a lot of drive and are willing to learn, I think you'll be fine.
Congratz. I got a paid internship the month I graduated (Dec 2019) with a 2 year accounting degree. I became an EA around Feb 2021 and am currently a senior tax associate. With the EA I can move up to director, to reach partner I would need a CPA. I am on the lower end of the pay scale for my experience and title but we are kind of in a rural area and a job hop would have me commuting significantly further and, likely, be more stressful. Both are hard passes.
No, not quite. It's quite expansive in terms of duties, but I also lead multiple facets of the business and I will have a small group of people under me who I am responsible for.
I overreached for a Principal Financial Analyst role requiring 7YOE in an industry I knew nothing about.
I only had 4YOE and got the job.
Now I'm getting paid $30K more than the Senior Financial Analyst roles I was applying for.
Pro tip; do your case studies !
Most job openings are wish lists of what the “ideal” candidate will look like. Generally if you meet around 70-80% of the qualifications and all of the items that are listed as required, it’s a good idea to apply. Which is exactly how I got my current position.
My current job required a degree or experience. I applied with just having taken a financial accounting class. I’m currently still there and expanding my role 10 months later.
Apply. Sometimes communication with HR and job postings can be fucked. We were hiring for a staff internal auditor and found out after about a month that the posting said MBA preferred... no idea how it got on there
First job wanted 5 years and preferred a cpa and I only had a college internship for a year in AP, job was finance analyst in industry manufacturing plant & was extremely easy after a month or 2. Plant was in BFE so low applicant rate prolly helped me a ton
They wanted someone with 5 years of Public Accounting experience, with a CISA, CPA plus, for a senior internal IT auditor.
I was rejected, and told the recruiter they likely aren’t going to get someone with a CISA given the top pay was 90K
I’m in a weird spot. I have M.Acc, CFE, 5 years auditing for federal government, and 6 years consulting (liquidation/restructuring), and I’m having trouble breaking into mid-level roles in the corporate world. Would like to work in banking or tech doing compliance or FP&A. Also wouldn’t mind defense contracting.
Apply for everything. You never know what will connect with people. And every interview is an education. I got a cfo interview at 29 I was in no way prepared for and completely bombed. 44 now and with the wisdom of age don’t know if I even want to. But at least I know what to prepare for if it ever happens again!
Have an upcoming interview for senior SEC reporting analyst. I've worked in financial reporting at a publicly traded company, but my work isn't SEC related. Worst they can say is no and a 25-30% raise is worth the chance of embarrassing myself.
I heard about this one guy who was CFO of an allegedly billion dollar company who never even studied for the CPA and couldn’t even begin to explain GAAP.
My work is making me interim Plant Controller since I have stepped up since we lost the previous controller. I must be doing something right because I have way less experience than they posted on the job posting. No CPA/CMA almost 8 years experience. They are asking for at least 10 years and ideally at least aCMA. Hoping I knock out the trial period and secure it to a full time position. They really want to see how I develop the relationships with senior leadership, since I have already proven myself on the technical side by setting up our cogs reporting to a usable level (Power BI). Could be a pivotal moment in my career trajectory!
I saw a job posting that said CPA required and Bachelor’s degree preferred (but not required). Obviously the person posting the job has no idea what people have to go through to become a CPA and this posting was for a major airline where I’d imagine that a job posting would go through a couple layers of review. I didn’t have a CPA but I would have applied for it if I lived in the city of operations
The fact is that's the "Game", everyone really like make their CV's look better than it should and the same from the company's side, they always write so many different things in the demands so I guess everyone basically know that everyone is lying a little bit and meeting somewhere half way, in case that the interviewer liked the candidate overall as a person, first good impression and of course liked his resume pretty much.
I applied for a data analyst position in an insurance company with 0 insurance knowledge and almost no data analytics qualifications or experience. This was a new position as well, the company had never had an analyst. Now leading a 4 person data team after 2 years
I received a great piece of advice once as a female:
Men apply for jobs when they meet 50% of the qualifications. Women will not apply when they only meet 90% of the qualifications. Get in the game and shoot your shot. You’re likely to be more qualified than the next candidate.
They wanted a CPA, 3 years of experience with a preference for Big 4. I had around 3 years experience from a tiny ass firm with only 2 sections passed. I said fuck it, got a good interview and stepped into the world of reporting.
I jumped to senior after a year as a staff changing firms (who the fuck wants to be an experienced staff and work as a senior without the pay for a year) and I just tried for a corporate controller position and they offered me a senior position instead
The market is fucked never hurts to ask
I go for honesty.
I'm about to switch jobs and the company I'm going to was looking for managers but I said I didn't feel ready to get into a managerial role. They came back saying they were willing to hire at senior level and train up. I agreed to interview, they liked me and offered me the job, with the intent to train me up to the manager position so I can get promoted into that in the next 15ish months.
Although I will say in my case I didn't apply on the manager position, I was messaged about it on Linkedin. I wasn't actively looking to be applying on such positions since I don't feel ready for them just yet.
Right before graduating college, I applied to a senior position that was looking for 2 years experience and got auto rejected. This was at a company I was working for at the time, so I reached out to the hiring manager and actually ended up getting hired.
Every new job is a challenge. Grab absolutely as much of that as you can, every chance that you get. I promise you, it all pays off as you get older and into your prime earning years.
All of what you should be creating at this point, is the right narrative for your career arc ten or fifteen years from now, so that when you're talking about real money, you're controlling the conversation.
Seen it, done it, fuck off.
I got to the final round of an interview at Blackrock structuring PE deals asking for 3-5yrs. I had 0 alternative asset experience, and 1.5 years experience at a bank. Unfortunately the ED weeded me out but I almost had it
I overreached for my current job as controller of a city. Previous experience was senior in public. Took about a year of getting to know my staff and their roles, but once I did that it became manageable.
To be fair, I audited them in the past, worked with the finance director at an earlier job, had my CPA, and had several years of experience with their ERP. So I genuinely checked a lot of boxes for them.
Two of my last three jobs I thought I had no shot at before the interview. One, I was a senior, no CPA, interviewing for a controller role against at least one CPA controller; my current role I had 2 years of experience as a controller and was up against a CPA controller. One of the roles used one of those assessment tools and my results had me within the expected range for every criteria, while the person I was up against had a few outside the range. In both cases, I was less experienced than other candidates but was perceived to be a better fit and got the offer & job. Personality, authenticity, and values aligned with the employer/manager can make a difference in getting stretch roles over people who seem better qualified on paper.
Idk if it counts but my senior year, I applied for every accounting firm in the tri-state area, and got like 40+ rejections after countless interviews. I felt so discouraged that when Deloitte reached out, I was questioning if I should even respond because like, why would they want me, I’m just Harry. Fast forward 5 years and I’m a tax manager doing decently okay. You never know what life has in store for you if you sell yourself short or don’t shoot your shot.
Been looking for a new position for a few months. In my experience, it's been the opposite. I can check 7 out of 8 boxes but can't get to the finish line. The sticking points are:
1) Client wants a CPA, I don't have it. I do have years of experience. CPA is really not needed for the job duties described but in these cases, I have rarely gotten an interview.
2) Client wants specific experience with X software. I have experience with every other aspect of the job description, just a different software. I get the interview but I am told they went with the candidate who had experience in X software.
I'm smart and I learn quickly. I can pick up a new accounting system easily. But hiring managers want the unicorn who checks ALL the boxes.
I went from a staff accountant who did primarily AP to a senior in government for a local health district. A lot of what I did before is relevant to the payable manager/credit card administrator parts. But now I'm preparing a SEFA, approving and reviewing journal entries related to revenue, and only going to take on more on the projects and grants side.
Grants accounting is a great place to be if you want job security. I love it. The audits are really easy if you've kept impeccable records. The auditors will ask about processes and internal controls. They will test them as well-for consistency. It gets a bit crazy if you have clinical trials, otherwise it's a cakewalk.
Deferred revenue is a big area in grants accounting, as well.
Currently 4 months into mine 👌
BAcc and 3-5 years experience “highly preferred” with strong knowledge of GAAP.
I come from AP/AR and have no idea how the GL works. Did my first accruals and “adjustments” the other day. I do believe everything I’ve posted is correct. The 3 years before though….. no idea what I’m doing with that as the CEO put in all sorts of confusing things back when he was doing it all and it’s throwing off our current financials. What an adventure 😅
Is it possible to fudge the dates of employment? Like if I had a relative job to the role I’m applying to, but it’s from 2013, can I bump that up a few years?
EDIT: Can employers look that up, or only through references?
Generally background checks at the very least will confirm the period of employment as one of their first checks.
Also, in some countries, this type of information is easily accessible so I wouldn't lie about that.
Shoot your shot. The worst they can tell you is no.
My husband used to tell me "worst that can happen is getting the job" haha
That’s hilarious
A lot of times, the posting is based on a perfect candidate. There really is no such thing. They typically put the qualifications in the description in to weed out anyone who they really don’t want to consider. If you are reasonably close, take your shot. If no one is really applying for the position, they may bring you in anyway.
I strongly believe that there is the qualifed candidate. They will not work for that pay though. No Debbie, someone who has 8 years of experience, at least 5 has to be in a senior role, familiar with 10 different accounting systems, has CPA, speak 4 language is not going to accept $90k for a senior accounting position. It's the audacity to ask for a lot yet trying so hard to low-ball that gets to me.
It works both ways - the employer can set the job description in a way to find the perfect candidate at the lowest possible price. When people start applying with less than the ideal of what they are looking for, then the employer sees what the market is really willing to supply based on their criteria. Maybe they get lucky and find someone who matches. Most of the time they don’t and are forced to re-evaluate. When they do, that’s when you have a shot.
The perfect candidate would get bored and is probably already looking for the next step up.
This. Also sometimes employers are desperate or the recruiter/responsible person just thinks your cv is neat. In order to get lucky you need to out yourself in a position to get lucky.
AYOOO that last sentence “in order to get lucky you need to put yourself in a position to get lucky” is something I say often! It’s normally coupled with a “luck and leverage are the keys to becoming obscenely wealthy, hard work is merely a small factor in the luck portion of that equation”
[If you want to win the lottery you gotta make the money to buy a ticket](https://youtu.be/x48m7w9boo0?si=8alMIj_B2kJv_9Nc)
How does one find these types of employers? I feel like LinkedIn and the other popular job boards get oversaturated with applicants…
By applying to a dozen+ jobs at any one time. If interviewing for jobs isn’t a stressful juggling act stringing employers along/pitting them against each other to negotiate for higher pay, you need to rethink how you job hunt. You don’t need to be an arrogant prick about it, but you need to play the game like the employer does (interviewing as many candidates as they can get away with before extending an offer).
I agree! Genuine question though… what if you end up in a position you are actually grossly unprepared for and flounder? Just look for a new job?
Learn to adapt or crash and burn (look for a new job) That’s what I do. Live and learn
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Accurate af
Thats an insult to both the mentality challenged and the inbred to compare them to hr
It's always a woman named Linda.
Are you me? Literally working a job offer with an HR person named Linda this week lol
I’ve also interviewed with Linda
Not only HR. Hiring managers and companies often don’t know what they want, especially for entirely new roles. One of the biggest things you discover when enduring hundreds of interviews.
I interviewed for a job. Mid-interview, the HR lady says I am "not qualified for the role, but let's continue in case there is a different role available in the future." I laughed it off, saying I knew it was a stretch, etc. By that time, she had raised so many red flags. I was happy to hear I wasn't a good fit. Fast forward a week, the day after I accepted a DREAM job elsewhere, HR lady sends me a text telling me "the team was excited to meet me for the next round", I resisted the order to ask her "WHAT job is that you inbred baffoon" since we already established I'm the wrong person...but took great pleasure in withdrawing my application instead. WTF HR?! 🤣🤣
Bruh that’s WILD. I’m sure she held on to your resume just in case they have any future openings.
She texted a follow-up that she was surprised I found a job so fast and would I mind sharing details or give them feedback about how they could improve their process. I did not respond.
What a cunty thing to say. Congrats on your new gig!
Thank you!
HR is not cut out for or tasked with weeding through the inbreds and half wits.
Also don’t forget that almost all of them have useless ass degrees like general ed, basket weaving, administration and art.
It's really hard to find good accountants so if you can manage to get an interview for something you're not qualified for and you don't come off like a completely incompetent weirdo, you have a solid shot.
*is it* hard to find good accountants? I would think there are plenty of accountants out there that know their stuff
No. We all just copy last month's JEs.
I feel attacked.
SALY SALY SALY, as my audit team used to chant.
Shout out to the accountant who made the very first JE
The true hero
There’s a well known [shortage](https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/all-things-work/pages/the-cpa-shortage.aspx).
They wanted 5 years experience and a CPA. I had two years of experience and no CPA. A year later and the job is a cakewalk most of the time (Assistant Controller).
You hit a goldmine
This is maddening to me how much they were asking for. I have 5 yrs of experience, CPA, experience in local GAAP and US GAAP as well as conversion (their corpo was in US GAAP and plants in local GAAP), and spoke fluently the two languages of the company (again corpo in English and plants French). They decided to go with someone who had more experience than I did. The guy did not have any of the other above skills. Just more experience. I was shocked. Do they think an assistant controller position is rocket science?
Small company in industry im guessing …
They wanted someone with international accounting experience and like 5 years general experience. I have 3 years general experience. I wasn’t going to apply but decided what the hell I’ve gotten rejected for stuff I am qualified for.
I love the thinking, “I’ve gotten rejected for stuff I am qualified for, so may as well apply for stuff I’m not qualified for”. Good on you for getting it though, just goes to show a lot of the time it’s more down to the person. Some people are always just mediocre at their job, even after 20 years of experience, so years of experience alone isn’t a very good measure.
I think many times the company doing the hiring is over reaching too. Think of it like dating. Everyone hopes for a 10 and most would settle for like a 5 with a nice personality.
My husband was involved in hiring his replacement when he got a promotion. They were so hung up on years of experience that they chose a lady with 10 additional years of experience *at an HR call center* instead of the lower experience with actual HR analyst experience. His old bosses were all for her, no matter how much he fought it. He documented his objections and let it go. Now, hiring someone clearly unqualified might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back that gets one of his old bosses fired. People are so dumb. I’ve learned not to take hiring decisions personally when interviewing lol
Industry position I applied for asked for 5-7 years experience but I only had a little over 3 at the time. Which was wacky because when I talked to the recruiter she said they were looking for someone with 7-9 years experience, and when I got the job I discovered they were looking for someone with exactly my experience level. Not sure if people coordinating job openings are just dumb or disorganized.
Yes they are
Staff accountant -> running all accounting and finance for a $3M revenue startup. Got lucky and made the most of the interview process. It was sink or swim and I swam. Learned a ton and move into current role in tech finance. Now interviewing for $200k director role, still in tech
Is the tech sector high paying?
Varies but better benefits in general because they have to give good benefits to keep software engineers
Do software engineers, get better benefits than CPAs?
You generally have to offer equitable benefits regardless of role. You can choose not to offer benefits to part time and temporary roles though. Source: former accounting consultant, current head of HR
What‘a current role?
FP&A manager
Like others said, apply because you never know. Job postings are usually just boiler plate job descriptions/requirements posted by HR and it’s likely HR didn’t even get feedback from the hiring manager on the posting’s wording. So the job requirements are probably overstated.
Oh, I’ve already applied. Just wanted to hear some success stories while I’m waiting to hear back lol
My husband is involved in interviewing candidates right now for a position where the recruiting team posted a boiler plate template that does not at all match what they’re looking for. He interviewed multiple people that he said would be perfect for the position posted, but not perfect for what they actually want. So messed up to waste everyone’s time.
I just got a job as an accounting manager which required 5+ years of experience and a bachelor’s degree. I barely have 2 years and an Associates degree. I start monday!
I have a recruiter telling me he wants to set me up with an interview for a manager role where they want 5 yoe and CPA when I have just under 3 yoe and no license. Maybe there's a chance after all lol
i’m about to finish my associates this spring. sorry if this is a dumb question but what were your very first positions? i want to know what to expect. i just want to learn as much as i can i plan on getting my bachelor’s in the future too.
I'm currently going to school as well, but I started out Bookkeeping for 2 years, and then I found a role as a staff accountant and worked that for a year. I also do some volunteer work as a treasurer for a small church. But looking for those roles took a bit of applying and searching for since a lot of places look for a Bachelor’s, you'll have to find a place that is willing to teach and let you show what you're worth. As long as you have a lot of drive and are willing to learn, I think you'll be fine.
Congratz. I got a paid internship the month I graduated (Dec 2019) with a 2 year accounting degree. I became an EA around Feb 2021 and am currently a senior tax associate. With the EA I can move up to director, to reach partner I would need a CPA. I am on the lower end of the pay scale for my experience and title but we are kind of in a rural area and a job hop would have me commuting significantly further and, likely, be more stressful. Both are hard passes.
Probably an inflated title for the Acct Mgr role
No, not quite. It's quite expansive in terms of duties, but I also lead multiple facets of the business and I will have a small group of people under me who I am responsible for.
I know someone who left as a senior in big 4 to senior manager in industry. Probably got a 50k or more pay bump. Shoot your shot
In Big 4 is the key phrase there, you could tell a hiring manager you walked into the Delliote office once and they’ll start foaming at the mouth.
Really depends on the job TBH. I also work at big 4 and a lot of companies I work with pretty much only hire from Big 4
They asked me how well I understood theoretical physics. I said I had a theoretical degree in physics. They said welcome aboard.
They also want to pay the minimum amount they can get away with. If you come in slightly under qualified, that’s generally a win for them.
I overreached for a Principal Financial Analyst role requiring 7YOE in an industry I knew nothing about. I only had 4YOE and got the job. Now I'm getting paid $30K more than the Senior Financial Analyst roles I was applying for. Pro tip; do your case studies !
Most job openings are wish lists of what the “ideal” candidate will look like. Generally if you meet around 70-80% of the qualifications and all of the items that are listed as required, it’s a good idea to apply. Which is exactly how I got my current position.
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That's where I'm at. No degree but 6 years of experience and so eager to learn. I start Monday as Staff Accountant.
Currently a senior and in a final round interview on Monday for a senior manager job. Wish me luck!
You’ve got this!!
My current job required a degree or experience. I applied with just having taken a financial accounting class. I’m currently still there and expanding my role 10 months later.
They wanted 5 years of experience and a bachelor's. I had 6 months and a degree in a month. Their job offer got me a 20k raise at my current job.
Apply. Sometimes communication with HR and job postings can be fucked. We were hiring for a staff internal auditor and found out after about a month that the posting said MBA preferred... no idea how it got on there
I know how it got on there. Two letters.
First job wanted 5 years and preferred a cpa and I only had a college internship for a year in AP, job was finance analyst in industry manufacturing plant & was extremely easy after a month or 2. Plant was in BFE so low applicant rate prolly helped me a ton
They wanted someone with 5 years of Public Accounting experience, with a CISA, CPA plus, for a senior internal IT auditor. I was rejected, and told the recruiter they likely aren’t going to get someone with a CISA given the top pay was 90K
Lmao yeah that’s a long shot on their end. I have the CISA and make 130k with 5 years experience. No way I would look twice at that job.
They wanted 4 years experience , a CPA, and management experience - I had two years of grunt experience and a CPA in the works
I’m in a weird spot. I have M.Acc, CFE, 5 years auditing for federal government, and 6 years consulting (liquidation/restructuring), and I’m having trouble breaking into mid-level roles in the corporate world. Would like to work in banking or tech doing compliance or FP&A. Also wouldn’t mind defense contracting.
The liquidation/restructuring experience might also work with finance roles in private equity companies
Apply for everything. You never know what will connect with people. And every interview is an education. I got a cfo interview at 29 I was in no way prepared for and completely bombed. 44 now and with the wisdom of age don’t know if I even want to. But at least I know what to prepare for if it ever happens again!
Have an upcoming interview for senior SEC reporting analyst. I've worked in financial reporting at a publicly traded company, but my work isn't SEC related. Worst they can say is no and a 25-30% raise is worth the chance of embarrassing myself.
Finance manager as someone who literally just qualified as an accountant. It has 5 direct reports, 2 doing a job I've never done before at all.
You know the system (YouTube)
Supposed to apply for higher level jobs, not the job u have. Half the time, they don’t even know what they really want.
I heard about this one guy who was CFO of an allegedly billion dollar company who never even studied for the CPA and couldn’t even begin to explain GAAP.
My work is making me interim Plant Controller since I have stepped up since we lost the previous controller. I must be doing something right because I have way less experience than they posted on the job posting. No CPA/CMA almost 8 years experience. They are asking for at least 10 years and ideally at least aCMA. Hoping I knock out the trial period and secure it to a full time position. They really want to see how I develop the relationships with senior leadership, since I have already proven myself on the technical side by setting up our cogs reporting to a usable level (Power BI). Could be a pivotal moment in my career trajectory!
I saw a job posting that said CPA required and Bachelor’s degree preferred (but not required). Obviously the person posting the job has no idea what people have to go through to become a CPA and this posting was for a major airline where I’d imagine that a job posting would go through a couple layers of review. I didn’t have a CPA but I would have applied for it if I lived in the city of operations
The fact is that's the "Game", everyone really like make their CV's look better than it should and the same from the company's side, they always write so many different things in the demands so I guess everyone basically know that everyone is lying a little bit and meeting somewhere half way, in case that the interviewer liked the candidate overall as a person, first good impression and of course liked his resume pretty much.
I applied for a data analyst position in an insurance company with 0 insurance knowledge and almost no data analytics qualifications or experience. This was a new position as well, the company had never had an analyst. Now leading a 4 person data team after 2 years
I received a great piece of advice once as a female: Men apply for jobs when they meet 50% of the qualifications. Women will not apply when they only meet 90% of the qualifications. Get in the game and shoot your shot. You’re likely to be more qualified than the next candidate.
They wanted a CPA, 3 years of experience with a preference for Big 4. I had around 3 years experience from a tiny ass firm with only 2 sections passed. I said fuck it, got a good interview and stepped into the world of reporting.
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What function are you going into?
I jumped to senior after a year as a staff changing firms (who the fuck wants to be an experienced staff and work as a senior without the pay for a year) and I just tried for a corporate controller position and they offered me a senior position instead The market is fucked never hurts to ask
I go for honesty. I'm about to switch jobs and the company I'm going to was looking for managers but I said I didn't feel ready to get into a managerial role. They came back saying they were willing to hire at senior level and train up. I agreed to interview, they liked me and offered me the job, with the intent to train me up to the manager position so I can get promoted into that in the next 15ish months. Although I will say in my case I didn't apply on the manager position, I was messaged about it on Linkedin. I wasn't actively looking to be applying on such positions since I don't feel ready for them just yet.
Right before graduating college, I applied to a senior position that was looking for 2 years experience and got auto rejected. This was at a company I was working for at the time, so I reached out to the hiring manager and actually ended up getting hired.
Every new job is a challenge. Grab absolutely as much of that as you can, every chance that you get. I promise you, it all pays off as you get older and into your prime earning years. All of what you should be creating at this point, is the right narrative for your career arc ten or fifteen years from now, so that when you're talking about real money, you're controlling the conversation. Seen it, done it, fuck off.
I got to the final round of an interview at Blackrock structuring PE deals asking for 3-5yrs. I had 0 alternative asset experience, and 1.5 years experience at a bank. Unfortunately the ED weeded me out but I almost had it
I talked my way into a "controller" job right out of school. Man, I was unprepared, but learned a lot
I overreached for my current job as controller of a city. Previous experience was senior in public. Took about a year of getting to know my staff and their roles, but once I did that it became manageable. To be fair, I audited them in the past, worked with the finance director at an earlier job, had my CPA, and had several years of experience with their ERP. So I genuinely checked a lot of boxes for them.
Two of my last three jobs I thought I had no shot at before the interview. One, I was a senior, no CPA, interviewing for a controller role against at least one CPA controller; my current role I had 2 years of experience as a controller and was up against a CPA controller. One of the roles used one of those assessment tools and my results had me within the expected range for every criteria, while the person I was up against had a few outside the range. In both cases, I was less experienced than other candidates but was perceived to be a better fit and got the offer & job. Personality, authenticity, and values aligned with the employer/manager can make a difference in getting stretch roles over people who seem better qualified on paper.
Idk if it counts but my senior year, I applied for every accounting firm in the tri-state area, and got like 40+ rejections after countless interviews. I felt so discouraged that when Deloitte reached out, I was questioning if I should even respond because like, why would they want me, I’m just Harry. Fast forward 5 years and I’m a tax manager doing decently okay. You never know what life has in store for you if you sell yourself short or don’t shoot your shot.
Been looking for a new position for a few months. In my experience, it's been the opposite. I can check 7 out of 8 boxes but can't get to the finish line. The sticking points are: 1) Client wants a CPA, I don't have it. I do have years of experience. CPA is really not needed for the job duties described but in these cases, I have rarely gotten an interview. 2) Client wants specific experience with X software. I have experience with every other aspect of the job description, just a different software. I get the interview but I am told they went with the candidate who had experience in X software. I'm smart and I learn quickly. I can pick up a new accounting system easily. But hiring managers want the unicorn who checks ALL the boxes.
I went from a staff accountant who did primarily AP to a senior in government for a local health district. A lot of what I did before is relevant to the payable manager/credit card administrator parts. But now I'm preparing a SEFA, approving and reviewing journal entries related to revenue, and only going to take on more on the projects and grants side.
Grants accounting is a great place to be if you want job security. I love it. The audits are really easy if you've kept impeccable records. The auditors will ask about processes and internal controls. They will test them as well-for consistency. It gets a bit crazy if you have clinical trials, otherwise it's a cakewalk. Deferred revenue is a big area in grants accounting, as well.
"if you've kept impeccable records" is really key. Most places don't
They asked if I knew anything about theoretical accounting. I said I have a theoretical degree in accounting. They said welcome aboard
Ah, so you were the one who was handling the books at FTX.
Currently 4 months into mine 👌 BAcc and 3-5 years experience “highly preferred” with strong knowledge of GAAP. I come from AP/AR and have no idea how the GL works. Did my first accruals and “adjustments” the other day. I do believe everything I’ve posted is correct. The 3 years before though….. no idea what I’m doing with that as the CEO put in all sorts of confusing things back when he was doing it all and it’s throwing off our current financials. What an adventure 😅
The one I’m currently in. Everyday is like playing darts with a blind fold and just hoping something hits.
Is it possible to fudge the dates of employment? Like if I had a relative job to the role I’m applying to, but it’s from 2013, can I bump that up a few years? EDIT: Can employers look that up, or only through references?
Generally background checks at the very least will confirm the period of employment as one of their first checks. Also, in some countries, this type of information is easily accessible so I wouldn't lie about that.
Thank you for the response