- Hi, I'm Roger Phillip CPA, CGMA,
founder and chief creative officer here
at Uworld Roger CPA review.
Now, today I wanna address one of the most common questions
we get from potential and current CPA exam candidates,
which is, hey
what can I do as a certified public accountant?
Well, today I wanna give you a brief overview
of what a career at public accounting looks like,
including positions, compensation, and what the benefits are
of choosing this as a career path.
Now, first of all, in public accounting
the CPA serves many clients as an objective advisor
or in an advisory capacity.
Currently there are over 46,000 public accounting firms
in the United States,
and they range in size
from a small local accounting practice
to large international CPA firms.
Now below are some examples of public accounting positions
and what they require.
Now first of all, a staff auditor that's what I did
and that's about one to three years in,
I did that when I worked at Deloitte
and they perform the detail work of a financial audit
under the supervision of a senior.
Now staff auditors will often begin to direct small audits
at about the one to two year level.
Another position is a staff tax staff
and tax staff is again, one to three years
and they prepare tax returns,
they research tax questions
and they counsel clients on tax problems and other issues.
All of this is done again under the supervision
of a tax senior or a tax manager.
Management services or consulting staff,
that's also one to three years,
and that provides a variety of consulting
and management advisory services
and reviews the integrity of client systems again,
under the supervision of a senior or manager.
Now, how much can I make as an entry-level CPA?
Ka-ching, ka-ching right?
Well, in these positions
you can make anywhere between 59,000 starting
up to about 68 and a half thousand,
again, it all depends on the size of the firm
and the level of experience that you have.
Now, many firms also give bonuses which is nice
up to 5,000 bucks if you receive your CPA license
within the first two years that you're hired,
so again, I highly recommend
that you make passing the CPA exam a priority.
You can then move up into a senior level position,
and that's about three to six years in,
in which compensation ranges from about 68 and a half
up to about 88,000.
And then after that you become a manager,
so six plus level years up,
and then the compensation level for a manager
is about 89 to about 110,000 or more
again, depending on the firm that you're at.
Now the highest position
that you can obtain in public accounting
is that of a partner,
but only about 2% of all people entering the CPA firms
are gonna actually reach that plateau,
and the financial rewards there can be very significant.
A partner is normally required to purchase equity
in the firm
and therefore they get to share on all the profits right.
Now, typically
a professional must be a CPA to become a partner.
Now, an audit, tax or consulting partner is typically
responsible for the overall client related activities.
Now, how much can partners make?
Anywhere from 110 up to like I think average 356K
although I have several friends who are partners
and they make seven figures.
So again, you can make quite a bit a bank as they say.
Now, some of the benefits of public accounting
include things like structured feedback.
That means that your performance is based on internal
and external rating so every job you're on,
they're going to rate you at the firm
and you get detailed information
of what people did like about you
and what they didn't like about you,
and you can then work on these things to improve yourself
and make yourself a better contributor to the firm.
Another benefit autonomy, which is what I love,
because that means you get to work quite a bit on your own
because firms trust you with important client documents
and of course, confidential client information
and they trust you with all of this.
So in order to get your work done,
and they also wanna make sure
that nobody's micromanaging you
so because of that you get a lot of,
you know, a lot of leash room,
which means that you get a lot of autonomy as well.
Another one incredible opportunities,
because after you've worked at a firm
for as little as three years,
usually six to eight makes you even more marketable,
but as little as three years,
you can be sent to another country of your choosing.
Now frequently firms will pay for most of the expenses
for your travels,
so if there's a country that you'd love to live in
and stick it out for a few years,
then you can get there so if you put in your time,
all these wonderful benefits are available to you.
Another one, reward points are free vacations.
I like free, free, free
that says that no matter which company you work for,
you're gonna put thousands of dollars
on your company credit card.
Now, many people forget to sign up
for all the different reward points
that are available right,
so you wanna make sure that you sign up for those
because these can be redeemed for things like products,
vacations, flights, and even more.
Now that means that you're not gonna have to pay
for all of those things like hotels and flights
on personal vacations on your own,
because you earn these points by putting things
on your either company credit card
or on your personal credit card and then billing the firm,
but make sure you do sign up for all those reward points,
sounds good to me.
Another benefit, exposure to high ranking client personnel
including executives,
on other words right out of school,
you'll get the chance to speak and work with representatives
who are CFOs, CEOs and so on,
so on public accounting,
you can go straight to the top as far as the employees
and the people you're working with at the client,
and you're gonna get that exposure very early on
in your career.
Living the public accounting life is like in dog years,
because one year's worth of experience
multiplies in other industries of accounting
and the level of people you're exposed to comes much faster
as a result,
so because of that you get that exposure
and it makes you much more valuable
and much more marketable as well.
So let's summarize,
public accounting is just one satisfying career path
you can take as a certified public accountant.
Remember while there are many different opportunities
licensure can offer to you,
here's what they all have in common higher salary,
upward mobility, job stability,
and always you're in high demand.
Thanks for watching and I hope you start
or continue to pursue a CPA career path.