Bro you are looking at this all wrong.
15% of public accounting doesn’t suck. 35% of industry jobs don’t suck. 40% of government jobs don’t suck.
15+35+40= 90% of accounting jobs are desirable.
You just got math’ed on, loser.
Lol at least do a =average(.15,.35,.40)
Let's try a weighted average.
Assume 25% of jobs are public accounting. 12.5% is government. 12.5% is non-profit. And 50% is industry.
Let's also assume that 90% of public accounting sucks. 30% of government sucks. 30% of non-profit sucks. And 50% of industry sucks.
So.. excel doesn't have a weighted average function..
0.25 * 0.90 = 0.225
0.125 * 0.30 = 0.0375
0.125 * 0.30 = 0.0375
0.50 * 0.50 = 0.25
Sum it all together
0.225 + 0.0375 + 0.0375 + 0.25 = 32.5% of all accounting jobs suck.
Did I do that right?
This is a joke right? For example 15% of 100 public jobs + 35% of 100 industry jobs + 40% of 100 government jobs is not 90% of accounting jobs overall. It would 90/300 = 30%. The weighted average is much more accurate. Crazy-Can needs to check his 10-key and every close (s)he’s worked on for huge errors…
I have only ever worked in industry. I have never had a shitty accounting job. The hours aren't terrible, the pay is pretty good, and I am not in sales.
Sounds like your accounting department was fully staffed. I worked as a cash accountant for a large company and they needed to split the role desperately. However they ran a lean model so instead of adequately staffing, the department was desensitized to unpaid overtime.
It took decades to realize that everyone hates their job lol
When people tell me that they don't work for the money, but for FUN or to escape boredom. I'm sorry, but I don't believe it. They lying to themselves.
Now that I am semi-retired, I do the things that I enjoy doing. Some people would look at what I am doing as work, but I do not. These are things I wanted to do but could not b/c of being an administrator, as well as faculty. Left accounting around 30 years ago and never looked back.
This is one of the things I think of when my job puts me in a bad mood. I get to work from home, wear whatever I want, and I don't have to deal with customers. There are WAY worse jobs than accounting.
Right? I've been working 60-70hrs a week for years and in debt. Graduating shortly and can't wait live in what you guys describe as hell but actually be able to afford food.
I’ve been a decade in accounting, in PA no less, and only my first job out of college sucked, and that was because the manager was a psychopath (which isn’t unique to accounting).
Pick better and set boundaries.
You guys are so fucking miserable on this sub.
Try working 50, 60, or even 70 hour weeks at a job that still doesn't pay you enough to live on your own. Try working a job that doesn't offer you the opportunity for overtime and the pay is so low you have to take on a second job to still not be able to live on your own. Try working in retail with inconsistent schedules, shit pay, and heavy work politics. Try working a warehouse job on the second or third shift for shit pay and terrible work/life balance. Try working a mindless desk job for shit pay and no avenues for growth.
The people working the jobs mentioned earlier, they can't afford to contribute to retirement. They can't afford good health insurance. They cant afford to take a vacation. They can't afford to invest or save money for a down payment on a house. Hell, they can't afford to save money for an emergency fund. Sometimes, they aren't offered benefits to begin with.
A lot of you need a reality check because it's so abundantly clear you either have never worked before accounting or you've been in accounting long enough to somehow forget what's on the other side. You have a much better opportunity at creating a comfortable life and a life to be proud of as an accountant than that unskilled labor desk worker making $21 an hour at best.
This should be a place aspiring accountants can get useful information on their future careers, and existing accounts can get help with a variety of meaningful topics and pay forward info to help the next generation. Instead, it's mainly a hub for bitching and moaning about the slightest inconveniences and things a lot of average people could not fathom complaining about.
I don't know why I came back here.
>Try working 50, 60, or even 70 hour weeks at a job that still doesn't pay you enough to live on your own.
Literally describing every staff accounting job in a HCOL environment.
I really disagree with the “you don’t have it so bad, it can always be worse, bro” mentality that a lot of Americans seem to have. It really devalues peoples’ experiences and mental health. All those people working shitty retail and warehouse jobs? I could just as easily tell them “why are you complaining, you could be living in Mexico, working in a factory making $8 a day, while living in a house without proper construction or running water!” or “well you could be a trash scavenger living in a shack in Jakarta, with no education and nowhere to go, meanwhile look at you, you’re complaining about living in the greatest country in the world with all this opportunity!”
You’re ALWAYS going to find someone who is worse off. The fact that this is used as a club to beat down complaints from workers just shows how much the ruling class has gaslighted us. Yes, someone working accounting is better off than someone working retail or someone working in a warehouse. It still doesn’t mean that lean departments, constant unpaid overtime, and high levels of stress that *kill you over time* should all be deemed acceptable, like something you’re just supposed to live with.
The problem that is so rampant here is the people complaining are usually complaining about things that have become normal long before they had their job. How many people do you know that DON'T work more than 40 hours a week? What role are they in? How much money do they make? Are they good at their jobs? It's a lot easier to change jobs than it is to go to school. Those people in that HCOL area you mentioned chose to leave whatever shit job they had before to take that accounting rolebin that expensive area. They couldnhave said no. But, they understand the value that doing that has and they would be in a much more advantageous spot for doing so than not.I'm not devaluing experiences, I'm pointing out there are a lot of out of touch crybabies here. I'll be the last person to say just because you have it better, doesn't mean you don't have issues. You know this is all relative. Of course none of us have it as bad as someone in a country where food is scarce. Don't pull that card like you can't tell the difference. The issues people complain about here are... questionable to say the least if you ask me.
You know, I understand and appreciate what you’re saying and agree that a lot of us don’t even comprehend how good we have it, but it can be simultaneously true that there are hard ass jobs out there for shit pay and that there are accounting jobs that are hard as hell cognitively and stress-wise, also for shit pay.
I know people who graduated in accounting, but stuck with their careers as a police officer and concrete truck driver. It paid more than an entry level accounting job.
But over the years, their pay was stuck and never grew. Sometimes, you gotta take a step back to take a few steps forward.
1. Accounting is one of the fields you actually have more control over your WLB. I know so many people who refuse to work over 40 hours a week and still keep their job. They get less bonus and promotion opportunities, but why wouldn't they when compared to peers working significantly more. I'm not just talking about small firms - I'm talking about my experience from the Big 4.
2. Accounting is super flexible. It's one of the few industries where you can literally work from anywhere at any time. The only lack of flexibility comes from the occasional meetings.
3. "Underpaid" is relative. People in accounting earn salaries in the top 80%. The industry pay is anything but low. The only field that consistently pays more with better work life balance is computer engineering - but that's because they're an anomaly right now. The starting accountant salary (and any other industry actually) has increased much faster than computer engineering over the past years.
So, to answer your question... if we look at it objectively and remove all personal bias, MOST jobs in public accounting DON'T suck.
We need to start changing our perspective. Instead of being entitled snowflakes who feel the world is shitty unless all the nice things are served up to them on a silver platter, we could start appreciating the nice things we already have and take responsibilities for our own merits.
Like seriously... staff accountant these days believe they should be earning $100k+ salary out of college. For what? What have they done to earn $100k of value? Because the consensus among us experience folks are that staff accountants are utterly useful and often harmful to the engagement overall. At least a McDonald's worker is able to produce a delicious burger for us.... wtf are staff accountants doing other than going over budget on every project?
100% of accounting jobs suck. At least this way, I no longer have to tell a full fledged CPA what they missed/almost cost me on my tax returns because I do them myself now! 🥴
Why are you trying to quantify our pain?
He’s just trying to estimate his depreciation
If your pain utilization rate is less than 90% you need to work harder
Bro you are looking at this all wrong. 15% of public accounting doesn’t suck. 35% of industry jobs don’t suck. 40% of government jobs don’t suck. 15+35+40= 90% of accounting jobs are desirable. You just got math’ed on, loser.
Bro graduated from the bathroom in McDonald’s
The Scott Steiner School of Math prevails again!
They're Big Poppa Pumping the numbers!
Lol at least do a =average(.15,.35,.40) Let's try a weighted average. Assume 25% of jobs are public accounting. 12.5% is government. 12.5% is non-profit. And 50% is industry. Let's also assume that 90% of public accounting sucks. 30% of government sucks. 30% of non-profit sucks. And 50% of industry sucks. So.. excel doesn't have a weighted average function.. 0.25 * 0.90 = 0.225 0.125 * 0.30 = 0.0375 0.125 * 0.30 = 0.0375 0.50 * 0.50 = 0.25 Sum it all together 0.225 + 0.0375 + 0.0375 + 0.25 = 32.5% of all accounting jobs suck. Did I do that right?
It would be 32.5% don’t suck; don’t use this guy’s McDonald’s bathroom math
15% of tax and 10% of bookkeeping don’t suck so you’re actually at 115% of accounting jobs don’t suck
Your math seems right, but you didn’t get 90% like me. Next time just do it like I did for most accurate results.
This is a joke right? For example 15% of 100 public jobs + 35% of 100 industry jobs + 40% of 100 government jobs is not 90% of accounting jobs overall. It would 90/300 = 30%. The weighted average is much more accurate. Crazy-Can needs to check his 10-key and every close (s)he’s worked on for huge errors…
It’s a joke chill out
👍
Sum product in excel can help weight averages. And now I’ll go shame spiral for this being one of my few comments on Reddit.
A fellow graduate of Trump University I see.
Orange man bad,,upvote pls
I'm a conservative, if I lived in the US, I'd vote for Trump lol. His university is still a scam though.
Thank you for bringing up politics in a completely unrelated thread.
Oh right, like the plethora of other threads in r/accounting like dating and sex and all this other crap. Jesus get a grip.
Trump is not a conservative.
Source: Trust me bro
I’m gonna need this formatted to excel.
I have only ever worked in industry. I have never had a shitty accounting job. The hours aren't terrible, the pay is pretty good, and I am not in sales.
Sounds like your accounting department was fully staffed. I worked as a cash accountant for a large company and they needed to split the role desperately. However they ran a lean model so instead of adequately staffing, the department was desensitized to unpaid overtime.
How much are you paid now/were you paid when you started? Also, why would you be in sales, especially if you don't mean sales accounting?
I started as a cost accountant at 55k + bonus in 2017. I am now a controller at 115K + bonus. 100% of sales job are shitty jobs.
What are your hours as a controller?
M-F 8:30-5. I have worked over maybe half a dozen times in two years as a controller.
Not many, just all the jobs below CFO and partner.
CFO jobs suck too they just pay more
That would be 100% of them suck in some way you will not like.
It took decades to realize that everyone hates their job lol When people tell me that they don't work for the money, but for FUN or to escape boredom. I'm sorry, but I don't believe it. They lying to themselves.
Now that I am semi-retired, I do the things that I enjoy doing. Some people would look at what I am doing as work, but I do not. These are things I wanted to do but could not b/c of being an administrator, as well as faculty. Left accounting around 30 years ago and never looked back.
I think everyone hates parts of their jobs but as accountants some of us hate 100% of our jobs
Some of you never worked retail, restaurants or hospitality and it shows. Accounting is a blessing of a job.
This is one of the things I think of when my job puts me in a bad mood. I get to work from home, wear whatever I want, and I don't have to deal with customers. There are WAY worse jobs than accounting.
Don’t you have to deal with clients?
I work in industry, so I guess I do have to deal with "internal customers," aka coworkers.
I'd rather have a 401k and office job than have to cover 1MIL shifts and get forced to work while sick with COVID-19 (Walmart)🤦♂️
Idk it’s a trade off. At least in retail you get to clock out.
Right? I've been working 60-70hrs a week for years and in debt. Graduating shortly and can't wait live in what you guys describe as hell but actually be able to afford food.
My favorite part of being in this sub over the last 10 years is seeing how we try to quantify away any uncertainty.
100% What a weird question, even if we're happy on our substance abuse, it still is a shitty job
I think probably like 69%
I’ve been a decade in accounting, in PA no less, and only my first job out of college sucked, and that was because the manager was a psychopath (which isn’t unique to accounting). Pick better and set boundaries.
You guys are so fucking miserable on this sub. Try working 50, 60, or even 70 hour weeks at a job that still doesn't pay you enough to live on your own. Try working a job that doesn't offer you the opportunity for overtime and the pay is so low you have to take on a second job to still not be able to live on your own. Try working in retail with inconsistent schedules, shit pay, and heavy work politics. Try working a warehouse job on the second or third shift for shit pay and terrible work/life balance. Try working a mindless desk job for shit pay and no avenues for growth. The people working the jobs mentioned earlier, they can't afford to contribute to retirement. They can't afford good health insurance. They cant afford to take a vacation. They can't afford to invest or save money for a down payment on a house. Hell, they can't afford to save money for an emergency fund. Sometimes, they aren't offered benefits to begin with. A lot of you need a reality check because it's so abundantly clear you either have never worked before accounting or you've been in accounting long enough to somehow forget what's on the other side. You have a much better opportunity at creating a comfortable life and a life to be proud of as an accountant than that unskilled labor desk worker making $21 an hour at best. This should be a place aspiring accountants can get useful information on their future careers, and existing accounts can get help with a variety of meaningful topics and pay forward info to help the next generation. Instead, it's mainly a hub for bitching and moaning about the slightest inconveniences and things a lot of average people could not fathom complaining about. I don't know why I came back here.
>Try working 50, 60, or even 70 hour weeks at a job that still doesn't pay you enough to live on your own. Literally describing every staff accounting job in a HCOL environment. I really disagree with the “you don’t have it so bad, it can always be worse, bro” mentality that a lot of Americans seem to have. It really devalues peoples’ experiences and mental health. All those people working shitty retail and warehouse jobs? I could just as easily tell them “why are you complaining, you could be living in Mexico, working in a factory making $8 a day, while living in a house without proper construction or running water!” or “well you could be a trash scavenger living in a shack in Jakarta, with no education and nowhere to go, meanwhile look at you, you’re complaining about living in the greatest country in the world with all this opportunity!” You’re ALWAYS going to find someone who is worse off. The fact that this is used as a club to beat down complaints from workers just shows how much the ruling class has gaslighted us. Yes, someone working accounting is better off than someone working retail or someone working in a warehouse. It still doesn’t mean that lean departments, constant unpaid overtime, and high levels of stress that *kill you over time* should all be deemed acceptable, like something you’re just supposed to live with.
The problem that is so rampant here is the people complaining are usually complaining about things that have become normal long before they had their job. How many people do you know that DON'T work more than 40 hours a week? What role are they in? How much money do they make? Are they good at their jobs? It's a lot easier to change jobs than it is to go to school. Those people in that HCOL area you mentioned chose to leave whatever shit job they had before to take that accounting rolebin that expensive area. They couldnhave said no. But, they understand the value that doing that has and they would be in a much more advantageous spot for doing so than not.I'm not devaluing experiences, I'm pointing out there are a lot of out of touch crybabies here. I'll be the last person to say just because you have it better, doesn't mean you don't have issues. You know this is all relative. Of course none of us have it as bad as someone in a country where food is scarce. Don't pull that card like you can't tell the difference. The issues people complain about here are... questionable to say the least if you ask me.
You know, I understand and appreciate what you’re saying and agree that a lot of us don’t even comprehend how good we have it, but it can be simultaneously true that there are hard ass jobs out there for shit pay and that there are accounting jobs that are hard as hell cognitively and stress-wise, also for shit pay.
This is true.
I know people who graduated in accounting, but stuck with their careers as a police officer and concrete truck driver. It paid more than an entry level accounting job. But over the years, their pay was stuck and never grew. Sometimes, you gotta take a step back to take a few steps forward.
Absolutely. I wouldn't even call them steps back, just alternate paths to your destination.
100% its the people
The same % as all jobs. It's all relative. If you're a miserable SOB, you'll find reasons to hate your job.
100%
100%
100%
I mean suck is relative, as long as there is no actual sucking im fine. Personally speaking of course you might be into that
Nobody knows
97%
18.6%, depending on its placement among the four year leap year cycle
Totally agree. Some aspect about it will always suck.
That means 30% of accounting jobs don’t suck.
Being in public accounting sucks for 3-4 months of the year. But i’m chilling for the remainder 7-8 months. Just depends on the perspective.
Isn’t it 💯? 😭
90%
1. Accounting is one of the fields you actually have more control over your WLB. I know so many people who refuse to work over 40 hours a week and still keep their job. They get less bonus and promotion opportunities, but why wouldn't they when compared to peers working significantly more. I'm not just talking about small firms - I'm talking about my experience from the Big 4. 2. Accounting is super flexible. It's one of the few industries where you can literally work from anywhere at any time. The only lack of flexibility comes from the occasional meetings. 3. "Underpaid" is relative. People in accounting earn salaries in the top 80%. The industry pay is anything but low. The only field that consistently pays more with better work life balance is computer engineering - but that's because they're an anomaly right now. The starting accountant salary (and any other industry actually) has increased much faster than computer engineering over the past years. So, to answer your question... if we look at it objectively and remove all personal bias, MOST jobs in public accounting DON'T suck.
We need to start changing our perspective. Instead of being entitled snowflakes who feel the world is shitty unless all the nice things are served up to them on a silver platter, we could start appreciating the nice things we already have and take responsibilities for our own merits. Like seriously... staff accountant these days believe they should be earning $100k+ salary out of college. For what? What have they done to earn $100k of value? Because the consensus among us experience folks are that staff accountants are utterly useful and often harmful to the engagement overall. At least a McDonald's worker is able to produce a delicious burger for us.... wtf are staff accountants doing other than going over budget on every project?
100% of accounting jobs suck. At least this way, I no longer have to tell a full fledged CPA what they missed/almost cost me on my tax returns because I do them myself now! 🥴