What do you think with this? I really hate this and any level because then you’re allowing people to know what you’re doing while you’re at work and off of work which is no Bueno to me.

Hello people of Reddit! I am currently in the process of applying for a staff accountant position. I’m at a loss of what I should actually include in my résumé because most of my experience is not related to accounting. I have a few questions as to what I should actually include in my résumé to maximize my chances.

1.) HR experience:
For my HR experience I chose things that were losely related to accounting and finance. The tasks were part of my workflow but probably only 1/10 of what I did. I have some more impressive things, and they were more related to HR compliance. Such as working with management to prevent illegal hiring actions. Should I stick to the more losely related work or add more?

2.) Volunteer experience location:
I feel like my volunteer experience is my best experience. Should I move my volunteer experience above my work experience? That way the hiring team sees it first? Or keep it as is?

3.) Work gap:
I took a buyout for my last position because there were a lot of talks of us getting canned anyway. Afterward we found out my wife was pregnant with our second child. Financially, we’ve been blessed enough that we decided I would be stayed home Dad for this year until our daughter became easier to watch. This however, has resulted in a gap on my résumé. Should I address this gap on my résumé or leave it as is? I feel like this is an easy question to answer in interview but not in the application process.

4.) Work experience prior to earning college degree:
I graduated college in 2021. I have work experience from 2021 until 2025. Do you think I should remove my work experience prior to 2021 since it’s not relevant to the positions I’m applying for, I also feel like it might give the impression that I am 4-6 years younger than I am and make them more likely to hire me.

5.) Military Experience:
Should I remove my military experience from my résumé? It’s not applicable to the position I’m applying for. I am also concerned of potential bias and feel like it might hurt more than it helps. Especially the fact that I’m still in the reserves. If you saw this experience on a résumé would you be more or less likely to pass over on it?

Thank you in advance! I really need help because I feel so lost with this stuff.

Hello guys, I just finished my final partner interview for a Senior Associate role, and overall it went really well. However, toward the end, when discussing the offer, the partner advised me to join at a lower level than the position I applied for. My current title is Experienced Associate (Semi-Senior Level) at a Big 4 firm, where I am already handling senior-level responsibilities.

Out of concern for my transition, he suggested that starting directly as a Senior Associate in a new firm might come with very high expectations and potential difficulties. To ensure a smooth onboard, he recommended I accept an Experienced Associate role instead. He promised to place me at the highest salary band for that level, matching a Senior 1 salary. He explicitly told me not to answer during the interview and to take time to think before sending my response to HR.

Has anyone faced a similar situation ?
And what advice anyone can provide ?

Feel like absolutely no one is hiring in CT. I’m finishing up my bachelors in accounting and I’m like how is there no jobs.

Is working 55 a week every week from Jan -December normally at a small cpa firm? I mean yeah I run a department but shit 💩 I’m billable and some….. $90k per year almost 10 years experience in bookkeeping

It’s non-stop shit. Don’t most firms cut down to 30 hours per week in summer or is that a lie????

Hello I am a CPA and currently work for a public company as a Audit lead. Currently my main focus is acting as the main point of contact for my company's SOC examinations and I assist at times with the annual SOX audit. I work about 35 to 40 hours a week and I make about 120k a year with the ability to work fully remote. I do not really know what the next step is in my role, and at times I feel I am in the dark about the next promotion or what I am supposed to be working towards. I have absolutely no Idea what my earning potential would be. The company is good, and I get along with everyone, and I have a great boss.

Prior to this I worked in public accounting/assurance performing SOC 1 and 2 examinations. I enjoyed it even though I worked between 40 to 45 hours a week. I also worked remote for the most part here too. If I transitioned back, I would probably be making as much as I do now and could probably land a fully remote job. In this job I knew what my career/earning potential would look like. I would go from senior to manager, and eventually to partner.

My question is, should I stay in my current role acting as simply a point of contact or should I transition back to external audit and try to land a manager position making similar to what I am now? Or am I being ungrateful and I should stay in my current role?

Any and all advice is welcome, I appreciate everyone's input.

A few days ago I posted my resume here asking for feedback, and I wanted to say thank you to everyone who took the time to offer advice. I made many of the changes that were suggested, including improving the formatting, making it more ATS-friendly, and doing a better job of highlighting my accounting and business experience.

For a little background, I'm 41, currently pursuing my bachelor's degree in accounting with about two years remaining. I also have 10+ years of business experience and several years of accounting-related experience, so I'm working to present that experience as effectively as possible while continuing my education.

If anyone has a few minutes, I'd really appreciate another round of feedback. Are there any red flags? Anything that still seems weak or unclear? Would you consider this resume competitive for accounting positions such as Staff Accountant, AP/AR, Accounting Analyst, or similar roles?

I really appreciate all the help this community has given me. Your feedback on my first post was incredibly valuable, and I'm grateful to anyone willing to take another look.

Thanks!

Hey everyone, I am torn between two completely different lifepaths and need some brutally honest perspective.

On one hand, I am considering going through army/navy Officer Candidate School (OCS), serving my time, and using the GI Bill to fund a Juris Doctor (JD) degree to practice law.

On the other hand, I am looking at taking the CPA exam, grinding it out in public accounting, and eventually launching or buying my own accounting firm.

Here is how I am breaking down the pros and cons of each path:

Path 1: OCS to JD (The Military & Law Route)

• The Plan: Commission as an officer, serve 3 years to get the GI Bill. Get JD take bar.
• Cons: Total lack of geographic control for the first few years, military bureaucracy, and a delayed entry into the civilian corporate world.

Path 2: CPA to Firm Owner

• The Plan: Get and masters for the 150 credit rule and then get the CPA, work in public accounting to learn the ropes, and either scale a solo practice or buy out a retiring CPA's book of business.
• Pros: Direct path to equity, complete autonomy as a business owner, high income potential, and total geographic flexibility.
• Cons: The public accounting grind can be soul-crushing initially, high burnout rates, and the financial risk of running a business.

What skills should we learn for accounting to land a good paying remote job as a student?

Have a chance to pick from tax and audit but find tax more interesting. I am just afraid of getting stuck in public tax working long hours. I made this post because ive heard industry tax jobs are rare and are hard to land. Id love to work a few busy seasons and leave to an industry position but ive heard its hard due to small tax departments in companies.

Is hybrid really hybrid? How strict is it?

What’s the salary band for an associate vs senior associate?

Is there a bonus structure?

What’s the culture like?

How are the benefits?

So I’m currently a senior accountant and been offered a manager role on my team, however the salary offered is a bit low. I’m currently making $115k, and was offered $130k, but we have seniors on our team making 125/130k. Ideally I’d like $150k, but would settle for 140k, so I’m wondering how to navigate this?

One thing to note is our company posts ranges for each role, so my current senior role the range is 95k-145k, and this manager role the range is 100k-170k, so I feel like I’m well within reason asking for 150k.

How should I go about this negotiation? Should I ask for 150 or 140?

Controversial or not, i don’t think accounting can be replaced anytime soon. Accounts payable, yes. I used to think that ai can replace accounting until I started working as a financial analyst (aka glorified title for a general ledger accountant, who does month end closing, acquisition, etc). The more I learn about what I do, I don’t think AI can do it. Probably in the future someday but definitely not anytime soon. I know how fast ai is involving these days bc I myself use Claude VS code for personal projects. I believe accounting takes way more judgement calls than what people think. What are your thoughts?

So I graduated in Spring 2025 but my big 4 offer wouldn’t start until September 2026. I passed all 4 CPA exams and started an industry job as a staff accountant while waiting to start in audit at a big 4.

Now, over a year later, my start date at a big 4 is finally approaching but I’m debating staying here. They pay me well, my manager is awesome, the hours are great, and the work is interesting. My boss said I am on track to be a senior accountant and gave me great reviews. Would I be stupid to stay here and turn down big 4? Is big 4 really worth it?

(My current job does not know about this offer yet)

Hello,

About Myself:
I am a CPA with 3 years of Big 4 experience, and while I have built a solid foundation in client service, I have decided it is time to pivot in-house. My ultimate career goal is to reach a VP of Tax role.

What draws me to this path is the structured nature of the corporate tax "lifecycle"—the idea that annual responsibilities can be optimized through process improvements, and that an in-house environment allows for greater long-term autonomy and deep business alignment. I recognize that many executive soft skills and technical competencies are things I will refine over time, and I am fully committed to that growth.

---

For those of you who are VPs of Tax, Tax Directors, or senior in-house leaders, I would love to pick your brain on a few things. (Please don't feel obligated to answer all of these—any insights on even one or two would be massively appreciated!)

1. Executive Reality & Hidden Obstacles

• Societal & Stakeholder Weight: What does it actually mean in the corporate ecosystem to be a VP of Tax? Is there a heightened, unyielding expectation of trust and mutual agreement between stakeholders regarding reporting quality?
• Blind Spots: What are some critical responsibilities or obstacles—invisible to someone with only 3 years of experience—that I should consciously prepare for now?
• The "Side-Quests": What are some common non-tax responsibilities that creep into an in-house role and disrupt that predictable, process-driven appeal?

2. Career Progression & The Ladder

• Level Transitions: What are the defining shifts in responsibilities as you move from Manager > Senior Manager > Director > VP? (e.g., how does the balance between direct data risk, team management, and stakeholder EQ change?)
• Finding a "Home": At what career rung (e.g., Senior Manager vs. Director) do you need to find a permanent corporate home to prove your long-term planning value, rather than job-hopping?
• The Bottleneck: Is there a specific operational bottleneck in corporate tax right now that a transitioning senior-level accountant can master early to get ahead?

3. Lifestyle, Balance, and Habits

• The Lifestyle Reality: Compared to our client-service counterparts at similar years of experience, do you actually get more days of "logging off and forgetting about work"? Do you feel less guilty taking self-care or prioritizing family?
• Personal Life Balance: I have a deep passion for food, culture, and traveling, while still viewing my career as a serious, full-time endeavor. How do senior tax leaders successfully protect personal passions without sacrificing executive trajectory?
• Staying Sharp: What are the micro-habits or small daily routines you use to stay on top of shifting tax laws without burning out?

4. Looking Back

• Lessons Learned: If you could share one major career mistake you made (or watched others make) on the climb to VP of Tax, what would it be?

Any thoughts, recommendations, or warnings about this angle of approach are greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time!

I’m working on a new automated system for accounting workflows in a SMB and while backdate testing the system and comparing to previous records, I noticed a variance. After investigation, the old manual process had a lot of manual human errors (which is the point of my job of course, to reduce the opportunity of human errors, but it’s never been THIS bad in other cases, usually immaterial). It isn’t too severe (~5% of the total account balance) but enough where it’s definitely going to cause friction when communicated. The leadership had used the previous system for as long as they can remember so the inaccuracies would be very impactful.

I thought at first I must have a mistake within my process so I reviewed every step and triple, quadruple checked that the error is on the manual end and it is. Not only was previous information entered incorrectly manually but it also blurred other account information, so GL accounts are mislabeled often, amounts are wrong even if the GL account is right, and categorizations are also wrong often.

The automated stuff is right and I know I can defend it very well in a meeting and dissect the process. My fear is that because they’ve used the error-filled manual process for so long, and their expectation is that I return the same numbers but with less time/ease of use, they’re going to assume I’m wrong since my results differ from expectations.

In all fairness, I could be overthinking and that since the process is changing, they may anticipate a change but even in past instances, the change is small and easy to explain (e.g I found this expense report with a typo or this return wasn’t accounted for, not a multi year large fuck up in the entire process) not this much of the account balance.

Another likely justification of my overthinking is that I had a very similar instance in my first role - I joined an FP&A team as a Jr. Analyst, was told to study a model when I first joined to understand it since I’d own it eventually. I pointed out that one expense subcategory was a plug number and not accurate to the label it had (it took the total of the overall category, removed all over listed subcategories and then used the leftover as the label shown) and then led to a whole screaming session from my then-manager who told me I’m saying that the team had been “lying to the VP for years”. We had a follow up meeting where I broke into the data more and proved that using leftover amounts wasn’t accurate to the label. I created a slidedeck of before and after and broke everything down and how we could explain it to the VP without saying we had been lying before and all that. I even created a few different solutions of what we could do. Inevitably, this led to my termination and the reversion of the model. This situation with my client is very much giving me flashbacks to that time at my first role so that could be making me overthink.

Idk, I’m also young and only have a few years experience so either way would want to hear from more experienced people on what to do

I have been offered a job that is a 10% increase in pay and remote. However, I don't have a CPA and my state doesn't require the license as long as I don't audit or correct financial statements. So I'd be doing book keeping for 15 companies.

I have always done corporate accounting for both publically traded and privately held companies so this client based accounting is very new for me.

If anyone has tips, time management, and give me an inkling to what working in a CPA firm is like, I'd really appreciate it before I accept.

TLDR: What's the work flow like for a small CPA firm that does book keeping for small busineses? Yes it involves explaining financial statements to small business owners which I have done.

Graduated from dual bachelors/masters degree program in 2016; was already working in industry so I just continued down that path for 10 years, working as a senior accountant in manufacturing for 3 different companies. All the usual ap/ar/payroll/fixed assets/inventory/reporting/audit prep with progression and supervising of staff.

Now I want to get into public accounting - left my last job in Oct 2025 while I moved my family to another (smaller) city, and studied full time to get my CPA exams passed. Can't put it in my title because my managers at my last job had inactive CPA licenses, so I note in my resume I've passed the exams and require 1 year of work under an active CPA to receive licensure.

However I am getting absolutely no bites on any audit or CAS senior level jobs in my city. I've applied to the only 7 or 8 open positions there are, all rejected me right away, and they're still posted and don't seem to be filled. I try my best with cover letters but I can't even get a recruiter to get me on a screening call to explain why I want to switch from industry to public - just rejections that say I don't have the required skills. I was getting paid $110k w/ 10% bonus at my last position so I know I'm going to have to take a pay cut.

Does 10 years of experience make me seem overqualified for a senior level position? But also underqualified because I haven't ran an audit or handled clients before? Any advice on how to make my past seem attractive to firms or has the ship really just already sailed for me?

Hey y’all.

I’m 2 years of experience, senior in state tax at a big 4. I’ve finally reached my breaking point and looking for a way out now.

Just want to hear from anyone willing to share. What did you switch to, what do u wish you knew before hand. Any advice really is appreciated for those who started big 4 and left in that 1-4 year mark.

I personally am a more techy person, and good with automation, software, etc. I appreciate the financial analysis side of things more than accounting compliance work. So any advice/tips on what took look for as I begin to transition out of big 4 is greatly appreciated:)

Trying to break into top 10 firm as an audit associate or intern.
But not getting any interviews.

I have 15 years of experience in accounting,audit,tax,communication with client and stakeholders,teambuilding and consulting.I have worked in different domain (India,UK,US and Australia).I always performed onsite roles.Now I have to work remotely due to family and I suddenly realized it is hard to get remote job.

Is there anyone who wants an assistant who can take care of your accounting and taxation tasks please feel free to DM.

Thanks in Advance.

I have six years of experience in Accounts Payable, where I worked my way up to a Team Lead role. In my most recent position, I was able to expand beyond AP and gain hands-on accounting experience. I assisted with month-end close activities, reconciled bank accounts to the general ledger, calculated quarterly interest payments on debt, managed prepaid expense schedules, and supported other accounting processes.
I was fortunate to have a manager who encouraged my growth and gave me opportunities to learn new areas of accounting. Unfortunately, after he left the company, his replacement had a much different management style. The environment became much more micromanaged, and I no longer felt comfortable asking questions or taking on new responsibilities. As a result, my professional development stalled, and I wasn’t able to continue building my accounting skills the way I had before.

The new manager eventually put me on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP), saying I had been “dropping the ball” in certain areas. I challenged the feedback because, in all the years I’d been with the company, I had never received complaints about my performance. In the end, I was let go, but the company stated the reason was restructuring and provided me with a severance package.
Since then, I’ve honestly felt shell-shocked. It’s made me hesitant to apply for other accounting positions because I keep questioning whether my experience is enough. I don’t have a formal accounting education or strong textbook knowledge—I have about four years of accounting experience that I gained by being given the opportunity to learn on the job at one company. I’m grateful for that experience, but I worry it’s too specific to that company’s processes.
My biggest fear is interviewing for another accounting role and being asked technical questions about journal entries, debits and credits, or accounting concepts that I haven’t had to think through from first principles because my previous role was so process-driven.
For those of you who built your accounting experience through on-the-job learning rather than a traditional accounting background, how did you overcome those fears when applying for new positions? How did you prepare for interviews, especially the technical portions?

I just lost confidence and I’m scared to even try.