I Really, Really, Hate Public Accounting

A view from the other side.

If you follow along, you know I was able to secure myself a new position where someone pays me to do something other than accounting. This is my first winter without the busy season blues, and let me tell you first hand, its as amazing as it sounds. I love skiing and winter sports, and I essentially had to give it up to be an auditor and sit in a conference room and "tie-out" work-papers for 13 hours a day, 3 months straight.

What's also striking is how short the first quarter of the year really is. Life moves fast, and public accounting's busy season really slows it down for you. Outside of the audit room, three months is flying by, but when your life is miserable, it seems to never end.

I want to share with the auditing world some truths about the working world that really shocked me when I first sat down at my desk at my new job:

1. People deserve their own desks!
What an unbelievably depressing thing to not have your own desk. As an auditor I was a travelling workpaper output machine, and was sent to where I was needed, be it down town, cross town, or across the country.  I love my desk. I have a place to sit everyday!  Literally, on more than one occasion, I went home from my Big4 job beacuse I had nowhere to sit. All of the desks in the building were taken, the tables in the cafeteria had been claimed by those senior auditors more adept than I at claiming real estate, and after over an hour of stressed out searching, I decided the fastest way to get working and get to billing my time was to go home and log on my wifi. What an unacceptable way to run a business!

2. No one yells.
How many times have you heard someone yell during your accounting career? I've heard it a lot. Senior managers particularly like to yell, as they are the most stressed and most underpaid. But senior auditors like to yell too, its their first time as a manager, and most dont know the first thing about handling people. Part of the problem is busy season and the stress it creates, the other part is the people. In real corporate america, on the front lines, there are no 'episodes' or blow ups. People are exceedingly professional and politically correct.

3. Working 7 days a week is unheard of, if you're not paid for it.
I knew some go-getter audtiors who worked investment banking hours. Literally 7 days a week. And for literally 1/3 the pay of the bankers who put up with those hours.

4. There are a lot more adults.
In public accounting, I'm pretty sure the average age is 28, the partners are all retired, and those who are older, and not retired, are too busy doing the real work and winning business to show their face in the audit room.