How accountants use public accounting to jumpstart their career
A frequent question I get from my students is "where should I start my career out of college?" And most of the time the answer is public accounting. Across the world, college professors are giving this answer to students but it's not always clear why. Today, I'm going to explain what typically makes public accounting a great place to start your career, and why so many instructors recommend it.
The Disclaimer
Not all public accounting firms are created equal, and your experience may vary. However, due to the nature of the work and the resources that most public accounting firms that employ more than 70 people have, it's very likely that students who start their career in public accounting will share these experiences in some way. Be sure to do your own research on the firms you might work for.
What makes public accounting so great anyways?
For decades, the accounting profession has had a large number of professionals start their careers at public accounting firms with the idea that starting there is akin to "paying dues" for a brighter tomorrow. Due to the nature of their business model, public accounting firms are great at getting young professionals experience that would be difficult to substitute in an industry role at the same level. Here are a few examples of those early career public accounting benefits:
Opportunities to work on multiple clients - learning how a business works is a lot easier if you can work on more than one business, and public accounting offers the opportunity to do just that at the entry level.
Training resources - public accounting firms devote tons of resources to training their employees. They can afford to do so because there's so many of them that fit the same profile. In an industry job, you would likely be the only staff accountant starting on any given date whereas in public accounting you could be one of 20+ in a single office.
Exposure to work - while the busy season hours suck for sure, they allow public accounting to function as a boot camp for young professionals. I've had recruiters tell me that when they look at "years of experience" for a prospective candidate, some consider one year in public accounting to be 1.5-2 years of equivalent industry experience due to the number of hours and diversity of work responsibilities.
People management - it's difficult to think of any other industry where a college graduate will be given the responsibility of supervising or mentoring someone else within 2 years of their start date. Public accounting firms have internships and offshore offices that give young professionals the opportunity to learn people management skills at a very early age.
For many, the plan is to do a few busy seasons in public accounting to get trained up quickly and then leverage that experience to land a higher paying job in industry. While the public accounting experience will not teach you everything, it's commonly accepted that with the fast-paced working environment, formal training, and variety of client interactions, early public accounting experience breeds transferable skills that will serve you well in any role.
Why am I being pushed to join public accounting?
Public accounting is not the only way to succeed in the accounting profession, but it is a career step that yields a positive result for most people that give it a good amount of effort. I know this, your instructors know this, University career centers know this, and we will all push you to make a good long-term career decision if it is in your best interest to do so. In addition to the individual benefits, public accounting firms are a great source of employment opportunities for new college grads because of the systems they have in place to take on entry level personnel every single year. This means filling those roles at those public accounting firms and gets them to come back next year to recruit more students. Academic programs are judged by their ability to place students into jobs after graduation, and having good relationships with employers by providing a constant supply of candidates is a great way to keep the program strong. Additionally, a lot of business schools take donations from public accounting firms, where the funds are used to strengthen the program and therefore strengthen the quality of candidates that the firm can hire.
If you are considering a career in accounting, I strongly recommend you start off in public accounting because it's a great training ground. Public accountants get tons of experience in a relatively short amount of time and the best candidates are able to leverage that experience to supercharge their resume and achieve their career goals faster. Make sure you do your research about what public accounting opportunities are available to you, and start planning your career progression today!