Accountants: How much free time do you have?

domrom1
Sat, 08 Dec 2012 04:01:37 +0000

Three things

1: There are very few successful people who only work 40 hour work weeks. Most people who have prestigious, well-paying jobs work AT LEAST 50 hours a week. There is a reason the exit opps for Big 4 accounting are infinitely better than a tiny local firm.

2: 80 hours isnt the norm. Thats just busy season. And its not ALWAYS gonna be 80 hours. Depends on your group, client, city, etc. During off-season, you shouldn’t expect to work 80 hour weeks, probably more like 50ish.

3:

mostar:

and I don’t want to come home exhausted from my 10 hour work day.

Lets be real here: you’re sitting down doing work on a computer in an air-conditioned office all day. Take my college summer job of 60 hours a week of actual manual labor out in the Florida sun, and then be exhausted.

One more thing, yes the hours will probably be better at your next job. Thats the point of doing Big 4 instead of a small firm. Big 4 always you to exit to director of internal audit or something, make a nice cushy $150k a year, and work normal hours. Its not PE, IBD, or HF money, but its far better than the average American has it.