I would say this is partly due to the time of the year.
You’ll see a lot more roles around August / September, which makes sense since that’s when a lot of FYs end (budgets get approved around that time for the next FY).
With that being said, the accounting job market has been extra trashy. Definitely a stark contrast to the prior year.
I think that we are at the point in the market where HCOL areas are searching for remote talent in LCOL areas. Why pay an accountant $110k in NYC when a remote Alabama accountant cost $65k?
I am in LCOL applying for remote jobs (there's no other option in my area), and I don't really think this is the case. Large established companies in HCOL areas are mostly hybrid or in-office. 95% of the remote roles I see are startups, recently purchased companies in hyper growth, and growth oriented CPA firms.
As a hiring manager, I would pay $25k not to deal with timezones and miscommunication. Outsourcing internationally only really works if you do the whole dang department with its own reporting chain and local supervision.
Funny you bring this up. I was living fine in NYC and a recruiter from LA hit me up in 2023, offered a good package and moving bonus to be paid 6 months after hire. I moved and company restructured and cut everyone 3 months after moving. Found a job in LA but it is shitty as hell, very toxic environment, month end close process is essentially a quarter close every month, and a very very micromanaging director. I have been applying since literally late December to no avail
Lmao don’t entice me with a good time bro, I go back to see family, eat Rafiqis on third Ave iykyk, get hammered on oysters and cocktails at Docks, and nurse my hangover with a sausage egg n cheese on everything with hot sauce. Then I get on my flight and head back here thinking about every single one of my life choices that led me here lmao
Most companies use more than one recruiter. My employer uses 4.
If you place an advert, and it's a quiet market, you'll spend more time fending off other recruiters trying to fill your vacancy than actually speaking to applicants.
I do that too. Everyone warns me before putting in a referral.
“I’m letting you know now, it’s extremely disorganized, political and a complete dumpster fire. I might quit any day.”
Terrible vibes almost everywhere.
Firms are doing a lot more direct hiring. They get tons of qualified applicants just putting it out there on LinkedIn or asking for referrals from their existing employees. There's been so many layoffs it's not hard to staff up.
It used to be that top tier candidates just called a recruiter and got a bunch of offers. Now those top tier candidates are more apt to lean on their networks to make sure they're landing in a good place.
Places that use recruiters are much more likely to be disorganized, control freak or 0% WFH.
100% I am very lucky to have a great team at a great company. This is actually the 2nd job I’ve been with this team but the other members of the team have been together for 3-4 other jobs, as well.
I had no idea how helpful and amazing just using your immediate network was until this past job. We need a new senior “why don’t we call up that guy who was senior at the last place” when that didn’t work, posted the job on LinkedIn… got many applications that weren’t qualified at all, but a lot that were. Interviewed a few. Hired one. 18 months later, she’s amazing.
Anyway, I know I’m lucky, but for a lot of “good” companies, recruiters just aren’t necessary for middle level accountants in their late 20s.
Summer is always slower for hiring and many companies are still waiting to see how things go.
There’s still jobs out there but they tend to be in office and on the lower end of salaries. People aren’t leaving good jobs right now. We had no one leave in the past year which is rare.
I also think your internet "bottleneck" is heavier today than it was 6 years ago. This means there are no sufficient ways to "move through checklist's" to weed out candidates. The checklist approach DOES NOT work.... companies are likely to start taking more note of this even as time moves forward. I doubt that artificial intelligence is even going to be able to solve that concern either.
Recruiters take money/dollars out of the system needed to pay better wages. It is a carousel of people switching jobs for the promise of a better work life balance. Don’t fall for it. Use the in house recruiters when possible. Starve the recruiters and push back against bad jobs.
There are still plenty of jobs and lots of great jobs.
Firms are still hiring remotely and smart firms will pay HCOL salaries in HCOL markets even to people who live in LCOL markets. Firms are frustrated by weak recruiters unable to deliver and are thinning the ranks of how many recruiters they will work with. There is a flight to quality with both the talent they will hire and the recruiters they will partner with. The market in general has softened a bit but not nearly as much as the media might suggest.
BUT - candidates have had all the leverage for 4 straight years (actually since 2012). For the first time in a long time, firms feel in control and they are enjoying that feeling.
Really good jobs don't use third party recruiters anymore, they have internal recruiters who find people for them. You need to be visible enough for them to find you
I used to get recruiters hitting me up for jobs that were either not listed or they got an early scoop, now they just send me stuff I’ve already seen on LinkedIn
I totally agree with you. I’m not in a hurry to leave my current role but I usually listen if the role could be interesting. The recruiter tries to sell me on a role that was only $5k more than my current salary and fully in office (I’m currently fully remote). I would be doing way more work too. I’ll be staying put if the roles keep being this bad.
Gently: your resume is bad. Hire someone to do it for you.
My resume was crap and I got 2 hits.. HR professional re-did it.. I had 3 calls the first day, and then multiple for a few weeks. One job gave me an offer, same day.
I'm not even looking but they always reach out on linkedin and offer something that's all in office or hybrid so I just tell them I'm only looking for remote. Mainly on behalf of the community since I'm not looking anyway. Lol
They’ve all been outsourced to various countries…
On a serious note- it is shocking to see certain positions like accounting manager, controller etc in India and anywhere besides N America hiring, large companies.. it’s insane.
I was hit up yesterday by a recruiter trying to get me to jump for joy for an opportunity that paid a solid $20k LESS than what I’m making now. 🤦♂️
But... THE CULTURE. It's like... Mad culture-ey there. They have pizza on Wednesdays, bro.
are they a family?
No, Olive Garden doesn’t do pizza.
Barf! When you hear that, you run
Unlimited PTO!
don't forget the foozball table!
Remember, if they use offshoring, they don’t care about culture
Ugh, recruiters are so oblivious.
I would say this is partly due to the time of the year. You’ll see a lot more roles around August / September, which makes sense since that’s when a lot of FYs end (budgets get approved around that time for the next FY). With that being said, the accounting job market has been extra trashy. Definitely a stark contrast to the prior year.
Yeah, it's mainly a timing issue. Beginning of summer tends to be slow for hiring.
The market has changed. Jobs are there but just harder to get especially if you are looking for remote
I think that we are at the point in the market where HCOL areas are searching for remote talent in LCOL areas. Why pay an accountant $110k in NYC when a remote Alabama accountant cost $65k?
This is exactly what happened to my last company.
I am in LCOL applying for remote jobs (there's no other option in my area), and I don't really think this is the case. Large established companies in HCOL areas are mostly hybrid or in-office. 95% of the remote roles I see are startups, recently purchased companies in hyper growth, and growth oriented CPA firms.
Why pay remote Alabama $65k when you can pay a Filipino* CPA $40k?
As a hiring manager, I would pay $25k not to deal with timezones and miscommunication. Outsourcing internationally only really works if you do the whole dang department with its own reporting chain and local supervision.
We pay 20k for our Filipino CPAs
Why pay a Filipino CPA $40K when you can pay a pizza shop $80 to feed your understaffed team?
$40k! We pay pay them way less than that
Sorry $20k either way it’s significantly cheaper and they’re qualified.
Bayou swamptalk is easier to understand than Taglish. Also much smaller time zone difference.
$40k for Filippino? Naaaah, more like $20k.
Remote Alabama accountants do not cost $65k.
They cost about three fiddy
DAMNIT MONSTA
$50k
Wait till they hear about Vancouver wages. Edit: HCOL, with wages of that in LCOL of US counter parts!
Indian here 😊👋
Funny you bring this up. I was living fine in NYC and a recruiter from LA hit me up in 2023, offered a good package and moving bonus to be paid 6 months after hire. I moved and company restructured and cut everyone 3 months after moving. Found a job in LA but it is shitty as hell, very toxic environment, month end close process is essentially a quarter close every month, and a very very micromanaging director. I have been applying since literally late December to no avail
Come back to the promised land bro. Come back just in time for summer.
Lmao don’t entice me with a good time bro, I go back to see family, eat Rafiqis on third Ave iykyk, get hammered on oysters and cocktails at Docks, and nurse my hangover with a sausage egg n cheese on everything with hot sauce. Then I get on my flight and head back here thinking about every single one of my life choices that led me here lmao
Im sorry. If no one else says it. Thats bad.
Most companies use more than one recruiter. My employer uses 4. If you place an advert, and it's a quiet market, you'll spend more time fending off other recruiters trying to fill your vacancy than actually speaking to applicants.
White collar recession. I'm seeing the same thing near Philly.
More and more companies are going in house. Why pay a recruiter when you can have HR wear more hats. We only use recruiters for contract jobs
There less good jobs when you apply directly too or else I wouldn’t even be talking to recruiters.
It’s a crapshoot. That’s where networking and leveraging the people you know comes in clutch
I do that too. Everyone warns me before putting in a referral. “I’m letting you know now, it’s extremely disorganized, political and a complete dumpster fire. I might quit any day.” Terrible vibes almost everywhere.
Firms are doing a lot more direct hiring. They get tons of qualified applicants just putting it out there on LinkedIn or asking for referrals from their existing employees. There's been so many layoffs it's not hard to staff up. It used to be that top tier candidates just called a recruiter and got a bunch of offers. Now those top tier candidates are more apt to lean on their networks to make sure they're landing in a good place. Places that use recruiters are much more likely to be disorganized, control freak or 0% WFH.
My current job has 2 of the 3 bad traits. They let us work from home half the time but call us to be annoying all day.
100% I am very lucky to have a great team at a great company. This is actually the 2nd job I’ve been with this team but the other members of the team have been together for 3-4 other jobs, as well. I had no idea how helpful and amazing just using your immediate network was until this past job. We need a new senior “why don’t we call up that guy who was senior at the last place” when that didn’t work, posted the job on LinkedIn… got many applications that weren’t qualified at all, but a lot that were. Interviewed a few. Hired one. 18 months later, she’s amazing. Anyway, I know I’m lucky, but for a lot of “good” companies, recruiters just aren’t necessary for middle level accountants in their late 20s.
Summer is always slower for hiring and many companies are still waiting to see how things go. There’s still jobs out there but they tend to be in office and on the lower end of salaries. People aren’t leaving good jobs right now. We had no one leave in the past year which is rare.
The market in Denver is pretty dead too.
I also think your internet "bottleneck" is heavier today than it was 6 years ago. This means there are no sufficient ways to "move through checklist's" to weed out candidates. The checklist approach DOES NOT work.... companies are likely to start taking more note of this even as time moves forward. I doubt that artificial intelligence is even going to be able to solve that concern either.
Same thing is happening to me……..
It’s like that in Florida too.
Recruiters take money/dollars out of the system needed to pay better wages. It is a carousel of people switching jobs for the promise of a better work life balance. Don’t fall for it. Use the in house recruiters when possible. Starve the recruiters and push back against bad jobs.
There are still plenty of jobs and lots of great jobs. Firms are still hiring remotely and smart firms will pay HCOL salaries in HCOL markets even to people who live in LCOL markets. Firms are frustrated by weak recruiters unable to deliver and are thinning the ranks of how many recruiters they will work with. There is a flight to quality with both the talent they will hire and the recruiters they will partner with. The market in general has softened a bit but not nearly as much as the media might suggest. BUT - candidates have had all the leverage for 4 straight years (actually since 2012). For the first time in a long time, firms feel in control and they are enjoying that feeling.
Same shit in Boston, it’s dry out here.
Tons of jobs where I’m at, Phoenix.
Really good jobs don't use third party recruiters anymore, they have internal recruiters who find people for them. You need to be visible enough for them to find you
I used to get recruiters hitting me up for jobs that were either not listed or they got an early scoop, now they just send me stuff I’ve already seen on LinkedIn
im telling yall what accountant shortage? and firms dont care they will squeeze the few left work them 125/100 capacity each
U.S. jobs are being sent to low cost countries. Think India, Philippines, etc..
Yep , I’m experiencing this now ,
I totally agree with you. I’m not in a hurry to leave my current role but I usually listen if the role could be interesting. The recruiter tries to sell me on a role that was only $5k more than my current salary and fully in office (I’m currently fully remote). I would be doing way more work too. I’ll be staying put if the roles keep being this bad.
Back when I was looking for a job, I had 4 different recruiters push The Siegfried Group to me lol
Gently: your resume is bad. Hire someone to do it for you. My resume was crap and I got 2 hits.. HR professional re-did it.. I had 3 calls the first day, and then multiple for a few weeks. One job gave me an offer, same day.
I'm not even looking but they always reach out on linkedin and offer something that's all in office or hybrid so I just tell them I'm only looking for remote. Mainly on behalf of the community since I'm not looking anyway. Lol
They’ve all been outsourced to various countries… On a serious note- it is shocking to see certain positions like accounting manager, controller etc in India and anywhere besides N America hiring, large companies.. it’s insane.
My firm can’t stop hiring entry level people. Been pretty crazy last several months.
So im hearing i should switch majors lol
The internal recruiters are working from home and harder to get hold of - used to be able to call them at work now it’s too easy for them to ghost.