<p>I am considering to major in accounting or Finance. I do not hate accounting and it seems like an enjoyable profession to me, however the problem I have with it are the tough work hours.</p>
<p>I'm talking like 70-80 hours work weeks in some areas of accounting. I want to be able to live a healthy life, exercising regularly (at least once a day), and I don't want to come home exhausted from my 10 hour work day. </p>
<p>I would love to hear from accountants or accounting majors or even people who know someone in accounting, and wondering how much free time you guys have. Thanks.</p>
<p>My neighbor is a partner at a midsize firm in LA and is hooking me up with an internship. Firm has 8-10 partners and then I believe maybe around 60 staff. The dude, seriously, has the life. He works 40-50 hour weeks from Jan 1 - Feb 28th, 50-60 in March, and then 60 in April (He told me he tries to cap everyone at 60). He then starts working 50-60 again in September because corporate taxes are due October 15th if I recall correctly. Anyways, other than that he works 30-40 hour relaxed weeks the rest of the year and probably has 6 weeks off a year, considering he always takes 2 long vacations (ie 10+ days) per year.</p>
<p>I can manage up to 60 hours a day, but the guy owns his own business. </p>
<p>I understand that at the beginning of your career many big 4 firms will know you need the work experience to earn your CPA, and will not care how they treat you. I am down with this and I am always willing to work hard to earn a great living, but there is more to life than money. I would like to know if this work load dies down as you earn more experience in accounting or does it only get bigger.</p>
<p>As for the guy who said McDonald’s, I understand you love your job there so don’t take any offense by this, its too little money for me.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>3:
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Hahahah, funny thread. I average about 10-14 a day and few hours on weekends. Today, I am working about 5 hours and I have the entire day to myself. As long as you don’t get tired after 10 hours a day (Not sure why you would when you are just sitting in an office like the poster mentioned above), then you have plenty of free time. I still go to the gym everyday.</p>
<p>I know salaries differ by the location you work, but does the time you work follow suit? For example, you probably make the most money as an accountant in NYC, but if you work more hours than someone in say, Philadelphia, you’re really not getting compensated more.</p>
<p>True which is why the average salary in New York is so much higher. But do you know if accountants in New York work substantially higher hours than in other east coast cities?</p>
<p>Hey Dawgie I seen you on this board for a while now and was wondering what your average hours of the day are at the big 4? Like when do you actually start and when do you leave? I don’t have any office experience yet but I don’t think it would be hard to do ten hours a day since at my current job as a busser I am always active and work overtime a lot at about 10-11 hours a day. I can just imagine how sore your a** must be at the end of the day lol.</p>
<p>It’s not that bad. It’s about 10-11 like you mentioned and if deemed necessary put in 1-12 hours on the weekends. That leaves me about an hour to go to the gym, an hour to study for GMAT/CFA, etc, and an hour or two to wind down. For weekends, I typically have the entire weekend open and I average roughly 5 hours.</p>
<p>Yea, the ass can get sore. I have a lot of flexibility with my schedule, so I can go to the gym mid or late day if I want choose to. At my office, I would say I am at the higher end of the scale in terms of hours worked. I really think the hours are overrated at Big 4. Also note that I have zero stress at work, so that might help prevent me from getting “tired”.</p>
<p>^ Do you find much variation in terms of hours worked during different times in the year? I’ve heard various takes on busy season vs regular season hours. Some seem to have huge jumps from about 45 hours a week in reg season to 70 during busy season, others seem to pretty much average 55 hours or so. Guess it depends on office location/client/team. What say you?</p>
<p>Thank you all for the replies, sorry for the late response. I didn’t mean to come off as “lazy” or anything, but what I want to choose what career is best for me, even if it means making several thousand dollars less. Work isn’t my life, that’s all.</p>