<p>what are the pros and cons of working in accounting?</p>
<p>lol :|</p>
<p>yes.</p>
<p>: |</p>
<p>uhhh...</p>
<p>To answer your original question, it is good and bad :|</p>
<p>Pros - very stable profession, accountants are likely to be needed for all types of organisations. Not a very stressful job or one that requires very long hours.
Cons - Starting salary may not be that great, need to do a professional course like CPA to be more respected and earn big bucks. Accounting and other related work can be a little monotonous and repetitive.</p>
<p>Actually, the starting salary isn't bad. Depending on your grades and which firm you go with, you will start somewhere between $35,000 and $55,000. If you stick with the profession, you can easily earn six figures +. Even gevernmental accountants can easily earn $75,000+ without even going into management. Management accountants with the government earn over $100,000. Industry accoutants earn significantly more. Partners in mid size firms can earn $200,000-$500,000. Partners in the big 4 or large firms can easily earn in excess of $1,000,000+ per year. This is not small change. Accountants can easily be in the top income earners in the country if you are good at what you go and are willing to work hard.</p>
<p>yea the salary is almost top for starting careers
problem is partner is hard and you'll probably be making ~75k your whole life (which is considered poor here in the silicon valley)</p>
<p>around 75k your whole life?</p>
<p>Kmzizzle, I can't speak for where you are,but most accoutants that I know earn six figures. They can always go work for the government and make almost that.</p>
<p>is it safe to say youre well into 6 figures after 15+ years? (CPA)</p>
<p>I am a CPA. </p>
<p>"Not a very stressful job or one that requires very long hours"</p>
<p>As a sole practitioner CPA in tax season, that is certainly not true of this area of the profession.</p>
<p>With regard to income, after getting the requisite experience and certification, your income is very much dictated by your effort. Since it is a profession which generally bills for time, you can earn a very good living by working very long hours and cut back some when your life circumstances tell you to slow down. </p>
<p>When you say "well into the 6 figures", I presume you are talking about $300 - $700K. That type of income for a CPA, working as a CPA, would be very atypical.</p>
<p>Well it seems like accounting would be a goal to break six figures (non partner)(or say >125k) as your "final" salary, when compared to finance or actuary jobs (non partner) can make double that within several years
But the industry is very stable, and there are a lot of jobs, and the Big 4 recruit a lot of people
But definitely you'd have to be partner to be "well into the 6 figures"</p>
<p>I don't know why I said well into 6 figures because I didn't mean it at all. I'm an idiot. I meant after 15 years is it likely (with hard work obviously) you would see an accounting making 150k+? Or is breaking the 100k mark rare?</p>
<p>Let me clarify something. There are some big differences in job duties and pay between accountants and bookkeepers.</p>
<p>Bookkeepers usually work for a company and do data entry. They don't make a lot of financial statement decisions and usually don't do audits. Accountants do audits. They prepare or help prepare financial statements. They are responsible for doing tax returns and/or seting up internal controls among other consulting services.</p>
<p>A bookkeeper would be lucky to make $50,000-$60,000. Accountants, who perform services beyond basic bookkeeping, are the ones that I wrote about in post #6.</p>
<p>cons, it is highly boring a lot of the time.</p>
<p>Again, as a CPA with 25 years experience I would beg to differ with The Revolution. I am CPA who specializes in taxation. Since tax laws change, to one degree or another, every year, my job is constantly evolving. I truly never think of it as boring.</p>
<p>I would also point out that training as a CPA leads to a fundamental understanding of business that has served to lauch many famous Forutne 500 CEO's - Phil Knight of Nike for instance. In fact, according to a 2005 study, 20% of Fortune 500 CEO's were CPA's.</p>
<p>From looking at my bosses practice and from talking to him, you can easily pull in over 100k as a solo tax accountant. If you push it and get the right mix of clients (which takes time) you can get close to 200k. However i have also seen people with large client bases charging less, working more and making 54k. Middle of the road per hour charge from what i have heard would be 200/hr</p>
<p>SBdad, where do you practice and what do you see as an average range for income.</p>
<p>
[quote]
A bookkeeper would be lucky to make $50,000-$60,000. Accountants, who perform services beyond basic bookkeeping, are the ones that I wrote about in post #6.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>some bookkeepers can make significantly more than that. It depends on whether you are full time or whether you work part time jobs which can add up to over 40 hours per week and can range from 15-60 per hour</p>
<p>Personally, I don't know of any bookkeeper that makes $60 per hour unless they have others who work for them.</p>
<p>Pros: In the current environment one can make a lot of money.
Cons: It's highly dependent on government regulation making an environment which requires accountants. If the tax code got revised significantly I could see a huge drop in the amount of work available for accountants.</p>