<p>I'm thinking of going into accounting largely because I did well in my intermediate accounting classes and I like the versatility of the accounting career but I was curious if its possible to earn good money in an accounting career/plenty of experience working at a public accounting firm. Some might mention finance/investment banking but doesnt really fit my interests and has a different atmosphere that I'm used to. </p>
<p>Good money might be subjective and depends on location, but what positions/career paths in accounting lead to an upper middle class lifestyle in CA since the state has a huge income tax? These high paying positions very difficult to come by or does it come with progression in extensive experience?</p>
<p>In my experience, public accounting is definitely a good field to develop plenty of experience. The job progression is very steady and experience-based. In general, you will start out as an associate, then in a few years (2 or 3) you will move to senior associate, and then manager/senior manager if you perform reasonably well and don’t quit or get arrested/indicted or something. Moving up to the highest ranks in a CPA firm does tend to give you more responsibilities in terms of revenue generation though. A plodder might make it to manager solely based on their skill at doing whatever it is they are doing but a partner has to know how to sell since they are evaluated on the contracts they win/the new clients they acquire for the firm.</p>
<p>The pay is definitely middle class/upper middle class – probably not in the same tier as an investment banker but with a more tolerable work/life balance depending on the type of work (audit, tax, consulting/advisory) as well as the time of year (busy season can be grueling though).</p>
<p>What a lot of people do end up doing is taking the experience and knowledge they get from their CPA work and moving to private industry. If you’re coming from, say, Deloitte or PWC as a senior manager and getting a job as a controller or an internal auditor of a good company, you could easily be upper-middle class anywhere you happen to live. The trick is staying in public accounting long enough to develop those valuable skills that companies will pay you a premium for.</p>
<p>A manager I used to work for had worked out some kind of equivalency theory in his head – where X number of years in public accounting equates to (X * 2) years in private industry when you move (so if you stay in public accounting for 10 years and then move to private practice you are competitive with people who have spent 20 years in that private industry in terms of salary and employment opportunities). I don’t know how scientific that is but it’s definitely a common path for public accountants.</p>
<p>I’m sure you can do OK starting in industry too, of course, but I can personally vouch for the benefits of public accounting as an entry position. As far as tax, audit, and advisory that’s going to be a personal choice depending on which of those you like the most.</p>
<p>I know someone who did exactly what @DimitriR described – starting with accounting for a firm (in an auditing position) and then moving into the finance side of a large corporation. She is now a CFO of an international company and makes $3 million a year. Another friend was a CPA and also switched to working for a large corporation as a CFO making lots of $. Accounting is a great choice. </p>