Public accounting isn’t for everyone. Some days, I feel like it isn’t for anyone. The grind is unceasing, the deadlines are arbitrary and capricious, and the system is entirely unconcerned with your wellbeing. Creating a manifesto for what I believe about public accounting feels like an exercise in futility because my beliefs are often contradictory. How can a career be both anxiety-inducing and boring? Both lucrative and underpaid? Both frustratingly inequitable and a meritocracy? Somehow public accounting manages to balance the juxtapositions, and I’m left trying to find out how and why.
I think Pat’s manifesto is partly correct: working in public accounting is a transactional relationship. You exchange your time and effort for money and benefits, which is how nearly every job since the World’s Oldest Profession has worked. What makes public accounting unique from other modern careers is its rigid and archaic structure. There’s a quasi-militaristic hierarchy, with the partner class acting as the officers and the W2 employees acting as enlisted. Promotions are awarded on a standardized timeline, with few opportunities or incentives to climb quickly. The most reliable way to differentiate yourself from your peers is to work harder, work longer, and stick around at the same company.
I’ve worked for several public accounting firms, and I believe that loyalty to one company is not necessarily the best way to manage your PA career. Common wisdom says to “bloom where you’re planted” and to make the most of your current situation, even when things are rough. I prefer to leave. Call it the coward’s way out, but I recognize that I don’t have the power to make any significant changes to the system. When I feel I’m being treated unfairly, I seek a better situation elsewhere. There’s a trade-off, of course: you’ll never earn the power to change things if you don’t stick around, but you make more money by switching firms. I’m comfortable with that exchange.
Public accounting does an excellent job of capturing high-achievers fresh out of undergrad and putting them on a predictable career path. It attracts those that have the capacity to do great things, but places them in roles that burn them out quickly. The cliché is that firms use you up while you’re young and naive, then hope you’ll remember them fondly and hire them when you leave for an industry role. Public accounting is a business, and the employees are the assets and the inventory.
Since the PA infrastructure is designed to serve the partners, you must advocate for yourself. You must act selfishly at times because the job is neutral towards your career goals and personal ambitions. I wholeheartedly agree with Pat’s manifesto on another point: you joined this profession, and you’re going to work hard while you’re here; you owe it to yourself to make as much money as possible before you leave.
I want to show people that there are different ways to manage your public accounting career. Just because there’s a prescribed path doesn’t mean you have to follow it. You can be a loyal soldier or a mercenary for hire. You can leave after eight months, or after eight years, or after you turn 80.* I believe there are many ways to make the most of this career, and I believe we can show you how to use the system to your advantage, even when it’s working against you. I encourage you to share your experiences with us in the comments so we can find your best path forward together.
*Please leave before you turn 80, both for yourself and your colleagues.