Accountants want to quit the profession
39 posts across 3 communities in the last 30 days; 92% from r/Accounting.
“How do I lack the skills just because I find it exhausting? skills vs liking it are 2 different things [re: Quintupled Compensation at Big 4 - A Message to Accounting Majors]”
“Love solving problems. Hate repetitive mundane tasks and office politics that are stuck in the 1970s.”
“Well, I also have English problems. I can’t even read the case in the allotted time. Never mind answering the question with grammatically correct English. As to my issue of ethics, I understand as long as the clients signed the contract regarding our scope, we should focus on…”
Accountants express a desire to leave the accounting profession entirely, citing burnout, lack of enjoyment, and a desire for a simpler life. They feel undervalued and overworked, with no clear path to fulfillment in their careers.
SOURCES (60)
“Yeah, this is really common. "Accountant" in a job title tells you almost nothing, and a lot of companies put it on AR or AP clerk roles because it gets more clicks. The fastest way out I've seen is moving toward the GL from inside…”
“Thanks! [re: Transferred to FP&A but don’t like it. Can I get back to accounting]”
“How do I lack the skills just because I find it exhausting? skills vs liking it are 2 different things [re: Quintupled Compensation at Big 4 - A Message to Accounting Majors]”
“And you need to reduce your I.Q. at least by half somehow... [re: Thinking about leaving Accounting after 9 years, but where to go?]”
“Oh I hated it at first. But once I realize I could build a template/working paper to automate my work, I fall in love with it lol [re: I feel like accounting is not the career you can really be passionate about]”
“What is it about accounting that you don't like ? [re: Thinking about leaving Accounting after 9 years, but where to go?]”
“Love solving problems. Hate repetitive mundane tasks and office politics that are stuck in the 1970s.”
“I started in AP, I was always bogged down with work. People would not follow company policy and then get mad at me when things weren't paid. When I would ask for coding for an invoice, I would hear nothing back despite following up for weeks and again, the invoice not getting paid and me getting yelled at for it. Once an invoice got paid that shouldn't have been paid due to someone approving it and the vendor admitted that we did not owe us money but would not return the money, and again”
“Well, I also have English problems. I can’t even read the case in the allotted time. Never mind answering the question with grammatically correct English. As to my issue of ethics, I understand as long as the clients signed the contract regarding our scope, we should focus on the tasks. But when ethic course is mandatory and the audit course covers the WIR, I can’t stand the mindset that we ignore everything that is out of scope - let them deal with it if they get audited”
“As an implementation manager I had no code experience at all and literally got to a point where I cried daily, slammed my laptop closed, and eventually rage quit. Few years later now I’m an architect with like 80% of the coding skills needed.”
“No anger here. If you are struggling, please know there are other options you can still find success in .”
“There was a guy from KPMG Canada who sent the entire audit practice his resignation email saying he was going to pursue a rap career looks like hes still doing his rap thing. resignstion letter in the link https://www.reddit.com/r/Accounting/comments/7qvjs3/be_on_the_lookout_for_a_hall_of_fame_quitting/”
“It's called inflation. It also depends on what your practice area is. If your in audit your making chump change for the effort.”
“Helps to have an iron stomach. ERP is definitely an area where perfection is unobtainable.”
“I’m doing intermediate 1 after not taking an accounting class in over 10 years, and I did not do well on it back then. Learning to do the thing way before understanding the reasoning behind it” has been the #1 thing to remember so far. Once I let go of trying to math or reason the material, it simplified everything. It seems Accounting has its own (completely made up) framework/logic. After that debits,credits, and the accounting equation finally clicked in my head after all these years. Now it’”
“Oh god yes! I won’t set foot in a store after 11/1. I love working from home; not having to commute and zero politics or idle chit chat. My work is in the slow season so I have plenty of time to get stuff done around d the house. I moved in June so still a lot to do. Come busy season in winter I will be nice and cozy in my home office! I do deal with customers but they are professional and I have excellent relationships with them.”
“Did it for 2-3 years during college and I hated it. Super repetitive and mind numbing work.”
Stupid professor. Lots of successful accountants without a CPA.
“Much prefer it as it gave me broader exposure to more types of engagements, I wasn’t just doing audits over and over which was repetitive and didn’t really encourage you to think beyond fundamentals you learned. Although the fundamentals you learn from audit are super important to be able to apply to cyber GRC work. So spend a few years building a good base and then you can pivot!”
“Dawg come on you know audit is genuinely trash work life balance these kids just don’t give af given the cost of living and how much work there is for the pay, not saying it’s your fault but imagine being in these kids shoes”
“Accounting isn’t an 8-5” also that I take lunch every day
“Here’s a tip you won’t hear from many. If you picked accounting because you are awkward and just want to sit in a cubicle crunching numbers and not talking to people, you probably aren’t going to get that far in your career. The highest profile / best paying accounting jobs require you to manage engagements and relationships with clients,staff, and other stakeholders. This is especially true in Public accounting. If you have difficulty interacting with others, like to keep to yourself, and suspe”
“If I have even a hope of FIREing with shitty Canadian salaries and one of the most unaffordable housing markets in the world, then there is hope for others. To be clear though I'm not going for full FIRE. I still plan to work to cover expenses, it's just gonna be a lower stress job. Maybe I'll offer accounting services, maybe I'll fuck off to some government role, maybe I won't do anything accounting related at all. I don't really hate working, I just hate what North Amer”
“Yup, found out i hate contracting despite the money on offer. Hate accountancy and tax and the risk and went back to a job on 50k less. Equally realised i don’t want to manage people and put brakes on promotions to those roles. I just like to play with tech and show people what it can do, leave me alone..”
“I'm more concerned about the fact that so many don't understand the basics of accounting. Who the hell cares if someone uses a mouse or shortcuts? I use a mixture of both because I don't have the time to learn and remember every shortcut. Sometimes I use shortcuts that I couldn't define to someone off the top of my head, but my fingers just seem to remember. If someone does good work and doesn't hard key numbers, I give zero thought to the way they prefer to use excel.”
“Me too. I am trying to tone it down but they still slip out. Love being able to wear what ever I like. It has been one of the more interesting industries I have worked in. I quite enjoyed manufacturing too.”
“Oh please. Big 4 sends excel workbooks to India for footing and doing pivot tables. They are not wizards at basic stuff.”
“Not sure what you mean by this because OP's criticisms apply equally to ASC 842 and IFRS 16.”
“This is my exact frustration. Sure, put it in my liabilities I get the idea. But it’s an operational liability, not a financial one. I can back out of a rent agreement mutually or exercise cancellation options written into the contract. I can't back out of a bank loan without surrendering liquid assets from my balance sheet. Treating them as the same thing makes no sense.”
““they don’t think accounting is as important as engineering”… it’s not. next question”
“No art to accounting. Just integrity or, at least that is the way it is supposed to be.”
“Let me know when you quit your job so I can apply to it lmao. The fact is, there are more qualified accountants than there are engineers. "Ppl who are not familiar with accounting look down on it" a big reason why we get paid and have jobs forever is because the business people who don't value accounting end up regretting it, and that often is a less that has to be learned from their own foolishness rather than someone else's wisdom. Stop whining. Sounds like you are in the Bay”
“What does detail oriented even mean, like I make stupidest mistakes when I do menial manual work, the solution has always been to either autometa or turf it of to a junior when I got to senior and onwards. The thing is I'm much better at controlling, finding other people's mistakes (and often my own too) and setting processes and controls for my team than doing quick and accurate data entry or other menial crap. You're doing fine you just need to find you niche.”
“Having CPA next to your name is just playing the game on a lower difficulty. You can still accomplish most things in accounting without one.”
“The overcomplicating thing is real, I think some people conflate complexity with competence, building a spreadsheet with 15 tabs and elaborate formulas when three clean columns would do the job just as accurately, it often says more about wanting to look busy or impressive than actual skill.”
“Thank you so much ,this actually makes a lot of sense!!!I wasn’t thinking of it this way”
I don’t think I ever use anything higher than algebra one.
“Ugh the bank recs part - this was so frustrating to me! In my first job I spent a few months feeling overwhelmed by the bank statements because I had never had to read one before. Especially when every client had a different bank with differently formatted statements.”
Yes I do. The statements I prepare are meaningful and useful.
I definitely developed it. Shitty bosses will do that to you
“Before I want to say, don’t feel bad, GAAP is not easy and it takes a lot of time and effort to learn. I say this kindly, you need to learn GAAP if you want to become a CPA, you should already know the fundamental principles. You will not pass the CPA exam if you don’t. If you can’t service your client or don’t have the time/capacity to learn how to service them, it may be the right decision to have them find a new service (if they absolutely need it). I’m gonna get pushback on this one. I come”
“Your company doesn’t want to pay you more as a CPA so they are trying to put you down and discourage you from trying. Quietly look for a new place of employment.”
“I'm in an industry role training with an accountant who is retiring. While preparing for YE, I've been going through their Working Paper process which is already incredibly exhaustive. Like, analysis spreadsheets for nearly every expense account, and making copies of all the back up, resaving in a separate folder. When everything was ready to send off to our tax preparers, I asked if they just send a zip file with everything. No, we recreate the network drive folder system in the tax pre”
“My role is not client facing. At all. Getting my CPA was about the education and adding the credentials THEY VALUE to my name.”
“Yes. Most of my clients are tradesmen and small business owners. I have never had a client come into my meetings with a suit and tie. An even my wealthiest clients (land developers) wear polos and jeans.”