Accountants and Financial Professionals, come on down!

Trying to stay in the Richmond, Va area. Go to school in NC so that doesn't help me. Everyone has told me to start in public and then see where you want to go from there, but I just need any income at this point.

 

My Bureau will be hiring 50-70 accountants this fiscal year.

Locations will be Houston, Dallas, OKC and Tulsa.

They will be hiring in Denver, but that's really for relocating peeps, like me!

 

I'm not, but my wife is a CPA working as the SR VP of Finance for our local PBS TV/FM broadcasting station.

 

Good deal sir!

That makes her the Station Comptroller, correct?


My first job offer after I earned my B.A. was with the PBS station in Tampa. I actually declined their offer, a decision I've always regretted!

 

Staff Accountant for a little over a year at a local firm. Mainly tax and i dabble in audit once tax rush is over.

 

Thank you for posting during the busy season! Where in LA? I lived in Uptown, NOLA for 8 months. Can't say I miss the place, but I miss the food...


And well my ex too I guess!

 

I work in Ruston. Not the biggest of towns but we stay busy

 

I worked Big 4 audit for 2.5 years, it was HELL. In college I bought into the delusion that you need to do Big 4, I didn't really have any reason for it and didn't really even understand what audit was. I still can't believe how much I learned, and the career progression was rapid. If you stay on that path and care about nothing else you will be set for life and on the path for riches. I personally HATED every day of it. I was never so miserable in my life. Nationally, my office was 2nd only to the financial services department of our NYC office in terms of hours and technical accounting, which means we work like dogs all year round. I had a major burnout, and the traffic here is atrocious and it only adds to the misery. I was sitting on my ass for 16+ hours a day and my only exercise was getting up to go to the bathroom. I decided if I stayed I was going to fall into a deep depression or die of a blood clot in my leg or a heart attack. We got done with our year end audit and I put in my two weeks and gracefully made my way to the door.

After quitting all of my anger, anguish, and misery simply evaporated and I was really happy. I also find it amusing to tell people I'm unemployed. I didn't want to do anything in accounting or even be inside. I applied for some real adventure jobs and looked at everything, even teaching English abroad. After a few weeks off I kind of came back to reality and decided I was willing to give accounting a second chance.

I've had nine different interviews since quitting. I bombed some, did ok in others, and hit some home runs. Everyone told me "don't quit, no one will look at you if you are unemployed. It's much easier to find a job if you have a job." I say that's completely false and would like to see anyone else seriously look for jobs and interview while working the Big 4 grind, it's nearly impossible unless you are working out of some mickey mouse office doing some jib projects. I was offered a job as a rev analyst at a public company, and the salary was really good- a little over $80K. I turned it down though because I felt like they were really fluffing me and didn't feel like it was a good fit. I've got a couple other irons on the fire, and hopefully something will bite soon. Otherwise I'll head to Thailand and chill on the beach for a while!

 

^ Awesome, txs for that post! Glad I'm not the only one who views killing yourself over work, negatively!!!

 

for the tax gurus


could a storm/tornado shelter be written off as a home improvement on the federal returns? spent the last 45 minutes scouring the irs website with no luck, figured someone in here might be a good start for info.

 

Right! She has oversight of all of the financial operations as well as HR. And, she gets to be on TV and radio all the time. She loves it.

 

For the last six months I have been working as a revenue auditor for a large resort company based out of Denver. Revenue Audit didn't suit me very well so I recently transferred to a staff accountant/accounts payable position at one of the resort properties the same company operates here in Jackson, WY.

 

WOW! I pray to GOD, I never have to do Financial Accounting again, unless is for a not for profit.

How is life in Jackson? Never being to WY, but I worked for the IRS in Denver, and will be moving back to Denver (Golden, really) in about a year.

 

How much does something like that pay annually? Wife is starting at OU in May for Business Admin/Accounting and I plan to continue my BA degree while on active duty.

 

Yea, I know what you mean about working in the Big 4. I worked at PwC in San Jose for 2 years, then PwC in L.A. for 2. Yea, learned a lot, but man did it burn me out. I hated most of it, except the 'training' when it was just a huge party. Those damn software/semiconductor public companies are quite complex and painful to audit.

I agree with you about being unemployed and trying to find a job. Don't know how anybody can work and interview at the same time. The way I look at it is since I was looking for a new company to work for, I wanted to devote all my time in preparing for what I wanted. It would benefit both myself and the new employer if I did my homework and was really prepared for the interview.

 

It really varies by location, and grades. When I earned my B.A. the kids that got the plum interviews had 3.2 GPA or better.

I'd say low to mid 30's. It is generally above 50K if you go BIG firm or with the bigger firms.


I don't mean to bust your bubble, but the halls of Marketing are LITTERED with Accounting drop outs... Not trying to discourage you, just stating the facts.

Good luck, and look forward to meet you in the next Okie meet!

 

Went a different route than most Big 4ers. I started as an internal auditor for a mining company (1.5 years), then off to EY for over 5 years (was a manager in mining &metals), left and spent another 1.5 years at a publically traded mining company and got recruited as basically a controller in waiting been there for nearly 3 years.

 

HOLY MARY!!! Wow, that is one heck of a resume!!! Manager in 5 freacking years @ Ernst & Young? SH&T!

 

As mentioned above, mid 30s is about the starting point, but in the resort industry there tends to be a good bit of turnover so it you stick with one company or are willing to move around there is plenty of opportunity to advance. The resort industry tends to pay lower than market or at least lower than in bigger firms in major cities but for me its about a balance of earnings and living where I want to live. I took a little bit of a pay cut but I love where I live now and get a guaranteed month of vacation every year.

Jackson is an amazing place, theres lots to do outdoors and amazing skiing. It reminds me of Summit County Colorado 20 years ago, its quiet in the winter relative to other large resort areas. It is busy in the summer but also great weather and lots to do too. It's a great change for me, I have always been a small town person and don't like being in the city, especially one the size of Denver. As a place to live though it only has a slightly higher cost of living compared to Denver, plus you got to love no income taxes! You just have to not mind a 1.5 hour drive to Walmart or other major stores.

 

Any of you accountants have a few years of oil and gas experience? My company is expanding our O&G mineral holdings and I have ?s occasionally. One of which may be if anyone knows someone with a few years of O&G that might want a good paying job in western WV.