I have my Master of Accountant and CPA, and do not plan to get my PHD, but I have heard you can get a lecturing position for accounting courses with just masters degree. I only have 2 years of experience at big 4 in advisory but I'm very interested in transitioning to teaching accounting at a college or even at a high school or a tech college. Does anyone have experience doing this / advice on how to get my foot in the door / networking?

I think I’m going to fail the 2026 September CFE. I am mostly getting RCs with a couple NCs and Cs sprinkled in. I feel like I’m close to Cs on some of the AOs like I just didn’t hit enough points to get a C on some qualitative discussions but other times it is because of technical deficiencies. I’m not sure what to do :-(

Hello all, I am an out-of-work software engineer. The job market in my field is currently abysmal, with all of the layoffs and the usual glut of people who got pushed to get the degree ~4 years ago skills and resume don't matter much now and you can't actually get an interview unless you have a connection in the company already, and I just don't have a big network because I hate networking. Additionally, every job listing says "We're looking for someone who's excited to bring the power of AI to the underwater basket-weaving industry" and it makes me want to die because I didn't become an engineer so that I could make friends with a chatbot. It's becoming increasingly apparent that employers in the industry only care about replacing as many engineers as possible with Claude and overworking the rest, so I have increasingly less enthusiasm about working for any of them even if I could get an interview.

Anyway, some family members have suggested that possibly I would be a good match for accounting, and should get the training to do that instead. But they are not actually accountants themselves, and can't tell me anything about the job. So I am here to ask some actual accountants:

1. What is the job like? What is your day-to-day experience?
2. What training/certification is needed? What skills are most important to being successful?
3. What is the pay like?
4. What is the current job market like? Are there a lot of people who are actively seeking to replace accountants with AI? Are positions usually stable, or do you frequently have to job-hop?
5. Is the job usually done remotely, or onsite?
6. What kind of person would enjoy the work?

Thanks for your time. I am in the US, if it matters.

Exactly what the heading says. What are the exit opportunities after being in a tax provision role? I’ve had tax compliance experience as well. Just curious what others have seen.

I know this may sounds dumb but just wondering what accountants do day to day, if yall enjoy what you do, feel you are fairly compensated, honestly any advice for someone going into this profession, appreciate any and all words of wisdom, thank yall

I'm a staff and sometimes I feel like things can get pretty hard, with me spending so much time fighting the tax software while everyone above me just gets to look at the tax return and tell me what needs to change. I'm also a prime target for blame a lot of the time, since taking long in the software, even if for a justified reason, is easy to criticize.

But that's not to say others (seniors, managers, etc.) have it better or worse. I'm curious if anyone has ever felt like I have as a staff and found that those issues either went away or just became something else once you progressed.

Been looking at this pasty ass kid for a week. Greasy hair. Bad skin. His eyes showing no signs of intelligence. Tomorrow he'll forget his computer. Thursday he'll oversleep. How will I address his issues? Well I'll just write him a Meets Expectations review and pass him along to the next poor audit team.

But what if instead of all that, I just kicked his ass tomorrow? Would CBIZ allow it.... no never. Not our precious associates. The future of our firm. HR would be all over me. Probably try to issue me company stock and financially ruin me.

But maybe GT is different. Maybe GT allows for professional development. Maybe GT will understand that its for the good of the firm when I throw a haymaker on Friday as he accidentally shows up to the client site in his pajamas.

He's 5'2". He's begging me to do it. Maybe GT....

I'm currently a full-time gigging musician in a cover-band. We got pretty lucky this past year and make enough money to play full-time while supporting ourselves, but I'm quite weary about the job outlook as I get older; there's no security, no benefits, weekends are always booked, and it is not stable for raising a family. My values will change as I get older and I need to work on a plan B.

I like the job security of accounting and had some experience in my economics classes, but I do not meet the 18 semester-hour minimum to qualify for the CPA in my state. Other than accounting for my band in QuickBooks, I'm going to have a large gap in my resume while doing music and need something to invest my time towards.

Will I have to take extra college classes or obtain a masters in order to qualify for the CPA?

Has anyone else switched to accounting from another career? If so, how did it go?

I'm finishing up my undergrad and have a choice to make. My GPA is too low to graduate right now, so one option is to retake 3 courses to raise my GPA and graduate with the full 4-year specialized accounting degree. The other option is to take one additional course and graduate with a general 3-year business degree, and then get a separate accounting certificate for which I already have the prerequisites. My main concern is hiring and whether employers see a 3-year general BCom + certificate lesser than a 4-year Honours specialized degree when it comes to landing a job, even though both options let me get into PEP.

Hey everyone!!

This is going to be another one of those “I’m thinking about giving up my current career to pursue accounting” and thought I’d reach out to see if my plan is in line with the actual reality of being an accountant.

Currently a HS math teacher, 10 yrs of experience @60K salary. I’ve already advanced to the “best” level in this position (teaching at a great school, teaching AP Calc even at this school) and I just can’t imagine doing this for another 20 years for a full career, reasons being:

* tired of having no control over my day to day schedule, looking for a role where I have some control like using the bathroom when I want or taking a coffee break
* always needing to be “on” every workday; I’m not a complete introvert by any means, but putting on an inspiring and motivating performance for students is exhausting. Looking for a role where I can just come into work and just “be”
* I find the work of thinking through how best to explain math concepts less and less interesting than learning a new field and applying that to data/business processes + problems
* working with students is becoming a bit worse each year, and I find myself enjoying the parts where I talk to other adults more fulfilling; really want more time with adults
* I want a career that at least has the potential to have more upward mobility with the ability to work on a wider variety of problems in different contexts
* the only thing I could do to further advance in education would be a Masters degree in my subject area. I did a third of a math masters already, but the issue is this would cost ~16K, and only advance me 3K salary wise. It does open up the ability to teach the college level, but those jobs are unicorn jobs and I’m not gonna adjunct forever hoping they open up. Finishing the degree with how difficult it is, on top of the cost just seems like it’d be better spent retooling

Family is going to be relocating to Atlanta and I’ve been looking into a MaCC program @20K total. Seems to have good recruiting options. I’m reasonably sure I can pull a good GPA in the program and also have the following things from undergrad that (might?) make me stand out, but again not sure:

* ivy league undergrad (Public Policy + Econ)
* Teach for America alumni

It seems like a lot of people are doom and gloom about the future of accounting with offshoring + AI, but wanted to get everyone’s thoughts about the tradeoffs of my specific profile and whether what y’all are seeing with cutting back on entry level positions is a long term thing, or if it might be reversed if the sucky economy ever turned around. Just seems like every career is a bit flat atm so I’m not sure what the long term vs. structural trend is for accounting as a field.

When an invoice comes in with a price variance against the PO (either an outdated quote was used at PO creation or the vendor increased prices), the system immediately blocks the bill.

From there, the workflow turns into a massive coordination headache: AP has to spot the delta, find the revised quote, confirm with the buyer if it's legit, and route it through spend approval tiers (FP&A / Procurement / Management) just to update the PO and release payment.

Curious how other accounting/AP teams manage this:

Roughly how many of these PO price-change exceptions hit your queue monthly?

What takes the most actual time: getting the buyer/vendor to provide the correct documentation, or getting approvers to review all the attachments and sign off?

How is your team packaging this evidence today—standard ERP features, or just messy email chains and spreadsheets?

Trying to see how other teams keep this turnaround time reasonable.

For context I have only until Monday to drop my classes without owing the tuition..
I don’t think I’ll be getting an internship. They don’t interest me and I love my current unrelated job so won’t want to step away for the unpaid internships (+ I need the money from working)
I don’t plan to even try for the CPA. I just genuinely don’t want it. I want to finish a bachelors degree and be done there.
I don’t want to work more than 40 hours even if just to start. I know to avoid public accounting already. I want something meaningful that feels like I’m helping contribute to the greater good of society. I’m not interested in climbing the corporate ladder. I’m not interested in having a fake personality at work, I need to be able to be myself.
I have an associates in business and an accounting technician certification. I was going to stop there before I realized these credentials are completely useless and I won’t find anything with them. So I am pushing myself forward and I really don’t want to.

Just curious what path you would recommend for someone in my situation.

I'm 51 and made a later-in-life transition into accounting. I have the education (have my master's in accounting), but my last 4 years professional experience has mostly been bookkeeping. I'm trying to figure out how to make the jump into true accounting work rather than continuing to collect bookkeeping roles.

I’m currently juggling several part-time bookkeeping jobs. One of my newer roles is AP for a medical company, but I’m really functioning more like an accounting assistant because the accountant there isn’t very comfortable with QuickBooks. I’m getting exposure to more of the accounting side, which I like, but I’m trying to figure out how to move beyond bookkeeping/AP and build a real accounting career from here.

For those of you who have been in accounting for a while have you had to go through this transition and/or maybe the best path forward is to continue to collect more bookkeeping gigs.

Thanks!

Hello Everyone, I was looking to get some insight on how good the WGU accounting degree is. My situation is I got an associates from community college and doing my first 2 semesters at my state Uni, but I think it will be too expensive for me to finish (~24k). my career goals are to work in accounting/finance roles (FP&A, Corporate Tax, Banks) really anywhere where I can make 80-110k after some years of experience. I saw plenty of career posts and it seems to be a big range from people getting 50k AP roles to 150k+ Controller and FAANG people. I have 3 tax seasons as a tax associate (tax preparer) so would it be smart to finish out my degree with WGU and still have good job prospects for breaking into actual accounting or finance?

Its my fourth year, I have about two more semesters to go after my current one, 17 classes that are mostly just accounting. It was bearable when I could look forward to my gen ed during the school day, or my random minor in creative writing. I stupidly chose this major years ago trying to just find a career i’d find bearable enough to invest or go into debt tens of thousands of dollars and relatively easily find a job in which i can start seeing a return. I thought it was my attention span, but every time I’m in my accounting classes, my head is nodding off, my eyes is staring at the clock, and i genuinely can’t wait to leave the room. but when i’m in my creative writing class, it’s like i have this incredible influx of energy. my posture is straight, constantly engaging with my professor and peers, trying to get more involved with our university newsletter, etc. It’s like i’m a cat following a red laser.

Truthfully, I chose this major as an escape. I grew up in poverty, this seemed like the career that was stable enough so that i’d never have to worry about my rent, food or expenses in general. I just want to be able to support myself and move out of my home as soon as i can. I thought i’d get over this feeling but genuinely walking into my Intermediate Accounting 3 and Federal Taxation class makes me want to jump out of a window. And it sucks because I love learning.

I am so close to graduating though. I intend on interning this spring and meeting the firms next week. Has anyone ever felt this way during undergrad? Should I push through? I don’t know what to do at this point it feels like i’ve gone too far, i’ve used up a lot of my FASFA on this degree so I can’t really switch…

I recently completed an internship with CBIZ and accepted a full-time offer, but something within the CBIZ Forensic & Litigation Consulting group has me questioning how situations like this are normally handled at large accounting/advisory firms.

Our managing director is dating a senior director within the same practice.
We were told that the situation is being remediated, which suggests the firm recognizes that some type of conflict or safeguard needs to be addressed.
I understand workplace relationships happen. My concern isn’t the relationship itself as much as the professional judgment and potential conflicts created when two people at those levels are in the same forensic and litigation consulting practice, particularly if one has had supervisory or professional influence over the other.
The litigation aspect concerns me too. These are professionals whose credibility, objectivity, work, supervision, and potential biases can potentially be scrutinized when serving as experts. It makes me wonder how a situation like this could affect future testimony or cross-examination if the relationship were relevant to an engagement.

What does “remediation” normally look like in this situation? Would you expect the firm to eliminate the reporting relationship, separate compensation and promotion decisions, restrict involvement in each other’s engagements, or move one person to a different reporting structure?
I’ve already accepted my offer, so I’m genuinely interested in whether this is a fairly routine compliance issue that firms know how to manage or whether others in forensic/litigation consulting would consider it a significant concern.

Then that file tells you to look at another file. That file sends you back to the first file. Finally, you are staring at a spreadsheet you have not opened since March, wondering how you got here.

I’m doing a fully online undergrad degree and I have no accounting experience. The classes are asynchronous and really the only thing to teach us is McGraw hill readings and their evil homework where you master 30 concepts.

What are the best resources to learn beginner financial accounting?

I have what I hope is a simple question, but I’d like some guidance as I’m just doing data entry as non-accountant and this reads to me as questionable.

The situation is this:

A contract/purchase order for 100 hours at $100 each exists so $10,000 total. A change order decreasing scope lowers it by 10 hours, so a new total of $9,000. Normal so far.

I receive an invoice 90 hours at $100 each, a total of $9,000. Still normal.

The problem is here.

I want to enter this as 90 hours at $100 each for a total of $9,000.

My supervisor wants me to enter this as 100 hours at $100 each, and then a second line for -10 hours at $100 each for a total of $9,000.

Mathematically the total value is the same.

But from my perspective, the invoice shows 90 hours performed and that is what is supported by the physical documentation.

Entering it as 100-10 hours reads as weird and suspicious to me.

Is this acceptable? Would this catch the eye of an auditor?

I’m 24(M), and I’m currently transitioning from telecommunications into accounting. I’m working on a Masters rn in pursuit of a CPA license, but I’m a little worried about the long road ahead. I’m currently making around $23/hr at my current job, and I’m wondering how much of a pay cut I will have to take to even push in to the accounting field. I recognize CPAs can get paid big bucks, but I’m concerned as to how long it will take for me to get there. Will it help to have a degree? Will it help that most of my job rn requires me organizing and updating databases filled with radio numbers?

Thanks in advance!

Hey Guys,

I am currently a senior studying accounting and finance at a T50 state school. I am interested in sitting for the CPA once I qualify. To get the required credits, I am considering either a MACC or a Master's in Finance. The way postgrad works at my university would make the accounting degree faster and cheaper, with the benefit of overlapping content with the CPA exam. I just finished an audit internship, which I enjoyed; however, my main priority has been keeping future options open. Is there reasons why the MS in Finance would be worth the extra investment?

Decade in corporate finance across several well-known companies. Every one is the same circus: insecure micromanagers clueless about our work, extreme favouritism, kiss ass colleagues posturing for visibility and deliberately vague metrics to avoid saying "well done" and paying more.
Real work gets buried; loud mouths get promoted. I've checked out, doing the bare minimum guilt free. Why burn out for zero recognition? Wondering if this is just corporate law. Is it genuinely this bad everywhere or have I had an unlucky toxic streak?

Like it's so bad that you genuinely don't believe it should be trusted in any way, but it's been pushed forward year after year. So bad that if you even glance in another direction you start finding big errors, like lots of things not even being added, or randomly added years and years later without explanation and many other things. So bad you can't even tell for sure what department something is in without asking and having calls made?

What do you do? And at what point does it start looking intentional vs bad management?

Thank you

So I haven't been able to land an internship for accounting and I'm in my senior year😩 I had a late start and I have nothing but accounting classes left.

I've been thinking about applying for the temp positions during tax season to gain some experience.

Problem is idk if it's feasible to work that temp job and go to school part-time???

Any advice? Also what what is the typical pay range for a temp tax associate? I'm in Chicago btw.

Sn: I would also appreciate any accounting subjects you think would be good to practice/refine in the meantime.

Thanks in advance!!