<p>@MightyNick what’s your minor? Do the recruiters care about your minor? or people could just take some “easy” classes to boost up the gpa?</p>
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<p>That’s awesome. I know someone at my school who just completed their master’s and will be sitting for the CPA exam…but a Big 4 firm gave a salary of only 56K + 5K bonus (upon completion of CPA) in NYC. So it really does vary I guess.</p>
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<p>I minored in Economics. But it doesn’t matter at all. Just keep the GPA up. That’s all they care about, besides summer work experience and EC’s to talk about during interviews.</p>
<p>One more point: I think people are too obsessed with starting salaries. Once you get your CPA and have a few years experience in public accounting, there are so many job opportunties in corporate finance, at a higher level. It is possible to make around 90-100K 5-6 years out of undergrad with a CPA and Big 4 experience. Obviously not as good as investment banking or maybe consulting, but not bad at all either.</p>
<p>If you are working at big 4, do you still have enough time to review your cpa exam since you have to work 50+hours/week? Can you fulfill your one year experience after you finished 150 credits but not pass the CPA yet?</p>
<p>I don’t start until next fall so I’m planning on finishing the 150 requirement and passing the exam before then. Once you start working it’s difficult to balance both.</p>
<p>And yes you can fulfill your one year experience anytime. You just won’t have the license before then.</p>
<p>My firm hires undergrads (non-cpa) at around 50K. We pay some overtime, so a new hire would expect about $53-55K. You get your exam and exam prep fees reimbursed and get 4 weeks PTO and 10 paid holidays. You are also eligible for a profit sharing contribution to your 401K.</p>
<p>Thetaxdad,</p>
<p>How much does your firm pay to a CPA with two years of experience?</p>
<p>Total package ends up varying between 60-75K. We are a mid-sized firm so there are no “pre-determined” levels of comp like you will see at a larger firm. It comes more down to the individual and performance.</p>
<p>So, I guess I was right about the salary before. But, you have to say that to people like Whistleblower, who believe that CPAs make 14$ per hour. I worked in a restaurant before, and even I was making 20$ per hour, in cash.</p>
<p>CPA’s don’t make that little, they also don’t make that much.</p>
<p>Taxdad, from your POV is the job market on the upswing or is hiring still depressed where you’re at?</p>
<p>I’d like to be optimistic, but I would be lying then. It’s definitely still down where I am at.</p>
<p>Hmm, well I have a feeling that tax season hiring will be pretty good for your area. I see from the BLS metro report that Minneapolis/St. Paul’s unemployment has improved from 8% to 6.4% in the last year, but that must be due to industries other than accounting.</p>
<p>gotmilk, </p>
<p>[Accounting</a> Salaries](<a href=“http://www.tscpa.com/student/career/salaries.aspx]Accounting”>http://www.tscpa.com/student/career/salaries.aspx)</p>
<p>[Careers-in-Accounting.com:</a> Your Guide to Salaries](<a href=“http://careers-in-accounting.com/acsal.htm]Careers-in-Accounting.com:”>Web Page Under Construction)</p>
<p>DO NOT EVER USE THE payscale. The reason is here lol–unbelievable lie:</p>
<p>[A</a> Close Look at CPA Salaries - The Salary Reporter](<a href=“http://blogs.payscale.com/salary_report_kris_cowan/2010/04/cpa-salaries.html]A”>http://blogs.payscale.com/salary_report_kris_cowan/2010/04/cpa-salaries.html)</p>
<p>jonahrubin</p>
<h2>Yes! GS-13 is where you end up, at least in the LMSB(Large, Medium Sized Business, as opposed to the guys that audit 1040’s), BEFORE you have to fight for promotions. If you can get in, and aren’t an idiot, you will make it to GS-13 fairly quickly(i…e in that 5-7 years). After that you have to compete, mainly for manager type spots. I don’t know how difficult it is, but I think there’s a lot more people perfectly happy to just sit at GS-13 and move up in steps, getting a raise every few years in addition to the across the board raises due to inflation and whatnot. It’s not like in public accounting where every manager that’s not trying to leave is trying to get to Senior Manager and Partner. </h2>
<p>He’s right. I work for the federal government and you even have people who retire as GS-11s.</p>
<p>Lots of people sit and stay at GS-12 or GS-13 for years. </p>
<p>The GS-14s are your division chiefs and GS-15s are the department heads (Accts Payable, Accts Receivable, etc). After GS-15 there is the Senior Executive Service (SES), these folks are your deputy directors and directors of entire organizations. </p>
<p>But even within the SES there are five different levels.</p>