Going straight to private accounting?

jotucker83
Fri, 20 Dec 2013 04:56:53 +0000

Let’s address these questions one-by-one:

Would it be advisable for an accounting grad to simply skip working in public accounting and go straight to working as an in-house accountant for a company? What would be the pros and cons of this decision?

Answer: It all depends on your career plan and goals, if you want to work in private accounting and never work in public accounting, there are avenues to build up your profile for just that in particular. For example, instead of getting the CPA you could get the CMA (Certified Management Accountant) or you could get both the CMA and the CPA, but go for a CPA license from a state like MA or CO that allows you to be a licensed CPA without the requirement of the public accounting/attest experience. In regards to would it make sense to skip public accounting and try to go straight into private, well, you could do whichever plan you prefer as long as you build up your resume and profile with the relevant experience, relevant education, relevant certifications and relevant references to vouch for your competency.

I’m an accounting major and I’m trying to weigh my options, but regardless of what path I take, I still plan on getting a CPA license. Would the private accounting experience still count towards CPA license requirements?

Answer: Absolutely not, all of the states that require experience towards their CPA licensure require that it come from the public arena. As mentioned, if you do not plan to work in the public accounting area, your goal is to get a license from a state that doesn’t require such and with the new Substantial Equivalency regulation, you won’t have an issue representing yourself as a CPA regardless of where you received your CPA licensure. Now, with the states of MA and CO the CPA license is restricted, for example the MA CPA License says you cannot sign off on financial statements, but all other accounting services you can perform.

Also, what would be the long-term salary potential? I’m not looking to be rich, I’d be okay with just 70-80k a year by the time I have an established career, so is this achievable without the public accounting experience?

Answer: This depends on the type of private accounting position you obtain, when you obtain it, and how long you can keep it. You don’t just “move” into a top management position in private accounting, you have to work your way up with the proper background/experience in addition to the proper/relevant education and certifications.

I’ve heard it’s harder to get promoted if you’ve never worked in public, but I’m talking about just making senior accountant or some middle management position. Also, do graduates who go straight to private accounting choose it on purpose, or is it because they didn’t get any offers from accounting firms?

Answer: No one can answer why someone else did something, it could have been a “fall-back” or it could have been the plan all along. The main issue with a number of today’s college students is their lack of a quality career plan. What do you want to be? How much money does that make? What’s the path to get there and the challenges that might come up to stop the plan? Etc. Etc. If your plan is to work in private accounting, you have to determine what type of industry you prefer to be some middle finance manager in and what’s the typical pattern within that industry or those industries in particular, to get into that particular position. I can tell you that anybody saying you HAVE to go through public accounting first in order to qualify for private accounting doesn’t know what they are talking about, that would defeat the purpose of the “Management Accountant” which from what it sounds like, is what you are truly looking to become.