Hi I'm Jeri Walker with Your Best Designed Career. I'm a CPA with more than
25 years of experience in the accounting and finance field and I'm here to help
you with your accounting and finance career today I'll be talking about the
differences between working in public accounting and working industry
accounting so in case you're not clear on the difference between the two public
accounting is when an accountant is employed by an accounting firm and works
with a variety of clients to provide them with say accounting auditing tax
preparation or consulting services an industry or private accountants are
employed by a particular company and perform the accounting duties and
functions exclusively for that company which one is better
there's no clear answer that question really it depends on what your personal
preferences are and often times where you are in your career so let me lay out
some of the main differences between public and industry accounting so the
first one is the career path the career path is more structured and predictable
in public accounting in a medium or larger sized accounting firm you'll
specialize in either audit or tax and start off as a tax accountant and very
quickly move to a senior than a manager and eventually a partner now that's a
pretty predictable career path now with industry accounting your career
progression isn't as structured also it usually takes a little longer to move up
the ranks now one challenge is is that there's not much movement within the
company people tend to stay at their companies longer than in public
accounting where a turnover is generally higher as people move between public
accounting firms or they move out of public accounting so in the case of
industry accounting unless you leave your company you could very well be
waiting for one particular position to open up in order for your opportunity of
promotion to present itself so next is the work characteristics
in public accounting you'll have the opportunity to work in a variety of
industries and develop really a broader range of skills public accounting is a
great place to start so that you can learn about different industries as well
as types of accounting so earlier on in my career I worked at a couple of
smaller firms where I had the opportunity to work on audit and tax
returns so I worked on retail businesses manufacturing companies governmental
agencies I did some credit unions even a couple of museums it was just a really
wide variety of industries and not only will you be working with different
industries but when you're serving a book of clients you're dealing with a
variety of people personalities and skill sets so there's a never-ending
amount of variety and change that you do get in public accounting you will not
get bored that's for sure on the flip side with industry accounting you don't
have that kind of variety but what you do have is the opportunity to really
learn about your industry and how your company works now because you have the
ability to really drill down and become an expert in a particular industry as
well as the inner workings of your company there's the opportunity for you
to move into a more strategic role in the company where you aren't just
performing accounting functions but are participating in decision making as
opposed to just being on the outskirts that you would be with public accounting
okay now another difference in public and industry accounting is the working
environment in public accounting you'll not only have variety in your work but
you'll have variety in your working environment as well now if you're an
audit you'll be traveling to client sites for field work not only locally
but potentially to different cities and each client will have different
accommodations for you one week you might be sitting in a posh conference
room at a client's headquarters and the next week you may be sitting at a small
table in the corner of a menu during client's warehouse now this isn't
the case with industry accounting where you work at the same location every day
okay now let's talk about the schedule you can expect to have long hours in
public accounting during the busy season which is typically from January through
the middle of April so plan to be working 10 to 12 hours a day six and
possibly even seven days a week when you get closer to the end of the busy season
it can get grueling and during busy season this was really one of the
reasons why I left public accounting I hadn't planned on stayin in public
accounting for my entire career but I knew I was done with public accounting
when I was sitting in my office as a senior staff working on tax returns on
Easter day and my family was home celebrating Easter and the holiday and
other family and I'm in the office I decided to write at that moment I ain't
doing this anymore I'm out of public accounting and the next tax season I was
out of public accounting
in industry accounting your hours generally aren't as heavy you'll have
monthly quarterly and annual closes to get through but these are routine and
predictable deadlines that you can plan for and typically they won't require the
heavy time commitment as when you might be juggling multiple clients in public
accounting now all this said Wow the busy season in
public accounting is hectic if you're semi-retired or interested in seasonal
or Templer k-- public accounting is a great fit for you because companies are
always looking for people during busy season so what's my recommendation
public or industry irrespective of where you think you want to end up in your
accounting career my recommendation is that you start out in public accounting
get your CPA and then make a decision about really which direction you want to
go next a few years in public accounting that will give you insights that you
won't get if you go right into industry accounting right out of college now I
know that in my case just knowing the ins and outs of the audit process helped
me immensely in building accounting best practices in my industry roles so if you
have questions about the differences between public and industry accounting
let me know below I'm happy to answer your questions and please like and
subscribe if you enjoyed this video so I'll know that you want to see more
videos just like this one thanks for watching I'll see you next time