The First 3 Years

Think of a career with no plan being like getting a college degree with no chosen major..

Although you are luckily now getting compensated for your work rather than paying for schooling, your actions are still affecting your wealth and potential income.

So to sum it up the first ~3 years of your professional experience are so critical to determining what career options you have.

A lot of us were sold this idea in college that if you majored in accounting and started interning/working at a public accounting firm that you will be able to do whatever you want afterwards. Sounds nice, right, but how many of us actually understood what those options are and how to get there?

One of the most eye opening concepts to me has been fully understanding the benefit of how long you stay in public accounting. So many people have the mindset to push through and stay at the big 4 as long as they can take it when it fact it is the opposite. All you are doing is minimizing your opportunities and setting yourself back.

The sooner you have a plan, the better. Trust me, I get it, it can take time, I most definitely did not have a plan those first three years. I know I am not the only person who has been unhappy pushing through busy season. I want everyone to know that you don't need to do that..

You will be looking at the same job opportunities with 1, 2 or 3 years of experience. It is just a matter of how quickly you can get there.

The benefit of working at the Big 4 is that they audit over 90% of the Fortune 500 companies so you are pretty much guaranteed the opportunity to work on a large, prestigious business and obtain the skills you need to work in industry. This allows for the opportunity to begin a career in industry within just 1-3 years of working.

Why would someone need to stay

2-3 years vs 1-2?

• 1 year - a strong 1 year public candidate who could be qualified for industry opportunities would be someone with a year of Big 4 audit experience and passed 4 parts of the CPA exam. Having a internship/busy season intern experience, going into the industry that you have experience with, and having experience working on SEC filings/ publicly-traded clients are also some additional advantages. There are also more opportunities for this type of 1 year candidate in the financial services industry.
• 2-3 years - Staying the additional 1-2 years will give you time to utilize more of your company's resources, study for your CPA, etc. Also if you do a variety of work/rotation program your first year (work on small engagements for audit, different type of advisory practices, etc..) you might want to take an additional year to focus on one set of skills to pursue outside opportunities with.

1-3 Year Job Opportunities

FINANCE JOBS - This is important one to note because if you are in audit and decide you "don't want to do accounting" and would enjoy something more finance related, then you really need to leave public accounting within your first 1-2 years, potentially 3. If not, you will end up needing to take a step back (in terms of a career move, pay) to switch into Finance later down the road. There are often light FP&A (Financial Planning and Analysis) open to seeing a candidate that is early in their career with an accounting background and wants to get into Finance.

Financial Analyst/Senior Financial Analyst - working in a Finance group at a public or private company. Forecasting, projections, using models to form projections, budgeting, identifying company/industry trends etc.

Most candidates to start in an an analyst type FP&A position to have a successful career in that world. This sets someone on a direct career path to being a CFO/Director of Finance in financial services or a non-financial services industry. There is also opportunity to get into a more valuation specific role, a more data/technology-driven role, etc.

SENIOR ACCOUNTANT / CORPORATE ACCOUNTING - This is generally where someone with public accounting experience is going to have the most opportunities/is most qualified for. It can be a mix of corporate accounting, financial reporting and fund accounting (for asset management firms).

• Financial Services - join an accounting/finance team of a growing hedge fund or private equity firm - we work with a variety of asset management firms utilizing different investment strategies, real estate investment firms, brokerage firms, etc.
• Non-Financial Services - join an accounting/finance team of a public or private company in a variety of industries, including media and advertising, retail and consumer goods, biotechnology, technology, healthcare. Depending on the size and reporting requirements of the company, they may have a separate financial reporting and corporate accounting team or it could be handled by one team.

To be continued I will talk about what it looks like if you stay in public accounting for 3+ years and 4-6 year experience opportunities..........

Hope you enjoyed :) Were you surprised as me about the value of 1 year vs. 3?! You can also always go back to a career in public accounting but you can't go back to the first years of your career..