Accountants: Do you like your job?

Originally Posted by pseudonym

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Bump. Anybody care to share some insight?


Thanks.

I had the same aspirations and ended up leaning more towards accounting/finance.

When I initially started looking at classes and I planned on focusing on econ/IR. This seemed like it would give me a good overview of everything.

Originally Posted by Johnny_5

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I have been told by a couple of people to avoid tax. Their reasoning is that since new tax laws are being passed and codes are changing so often you are never truly an "expert" at your craft. What is your take on this fellas?
it is wrong IFRS is coming. Tax experts are experts because they keep up with the times. The rest of us keep up with as much as we can. also, applying tax laws and looking for... stuff... is what an expert does well.

Originally Posted by itsallinurhead

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I had the same aspirations and ended up leaning more towards accounting/finance.

When I initially started looking at classes and I planned on focusing on econ/IR. This seemed like it would give me a good overview of everything.

So did you take classes in Econ/IR?

I have a gut feeling I'm not made for office jobs, after a disastrous internship last summer at a bank.

Originally Posted by Viktri

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it is wrong

IFRS is coming. Tax experts are experts because they keep up with the times. The rest of us keep up with as much as we can.

also, applying tax laws and looking for... stuff... is what an expert does well.

Agreed. And as someone else wrote upstream, the tax people I know are for the most part doing quite well and in some cases enjoy their work much more than those in say corporate reporting.

Originally Posted by pseudonym

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So did you take classes in Econ/IR? I have a gut feeling I'm not made for office jobs, after a disastrous internship last summer at a bank.
Do tell please, I'm thinking that might happen to me as well

Originally Posted by longskate88

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Do tell please, I'm thinking that might happen to me as well

Ditto. I'm quite curious about your experience as well.

Originally Posted by GreenFrog

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Ditto. I'm quite curious about your experience as well.

Yep...I'm worried about going stir crazy after the first hour. One time I visited a friend's CPA firm, and we were standing in a hall talking for 45 minutes or so. All of a sudden, she said, "let's meet Bob" and we peeked behind the cubicle next to us stuck in a dark niche of the hallway, an there was this guy! He'd been sitting there the entire time, silently. No typing, no phone calls, no music, and he was the only guy on that lower floor. Kinda depressing

I actually had planned on shopping at the local mall after (SCP) but instead I went straight home. I had this bad gut feeling about the place, even after only visiting for a couple hours. I was so worried about hating the job, I didn't want to spend any money afterwards, kind of a plan for the worst case scenario I guess. I hope that, had I had some actual work to do, the visit wouldn't have been so depressing.

I hope to at least have an iPod to keep me company, that should help a little.

Originally Posted by longskate88

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Do tell please, I'm thinking that might happen to me as well

Originally Posted by GreenFrog

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Ditto. I'm quite curious about your experience as well.

Well, I did a bank internship on Wall Street last summer of '08, after requesting for a job/internship from my counselor. I worked there for about 2 months, and it was a pretty good pay (around 14/hour), but the annoying thing about it was that I hated waking up everyday. I basically did spreadsheets, went to presentations that I had no clue about what was going on, and all of these acronyms thrown around that I totally didn't understand. The worst part of it was that I had to put up a front and show that I loved the experience. The only redeeming parts of it all were the pay and the other college interns I met, who I talked and joked around with everyday. They were absolutely carefree, having to do no work at all, and taking 3 hour lunches. This was most likely because their supervisor was one of those middle-aged, 'want-to-fit-in-with-the-youth' type of guys. Overall, most of the work I was doing was so tedious, so monotonous, that the only thing I cared about was getting that check every other week. My cubicle was empty, except for a rundown computer. Honestly, I have never seen 2 months progress so slowly. I guess I didn't enjoy it much because I wanted more interaction with people, not just with a computer.

Originally Posted by pseudonym

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Well, I did a bank internship on Wall Street last summer of '08, after requesting for a job/internship from my counselor. I worked there for about 2 months, and it was a pretty good pay (around 14/hour), but the annoying thing about it was that I hated waking up everyday. I basically did spreadsheets, went to presentations that I had no clue about what was going on, and all of these acronyms thrown around that I totally didn't understand. The worst part of it was that I had to put up a front and show that I loved the experience. The only redeeming parts of it all were the pay and the other college interns I met, who I talked and joked around with everyday. They were absolutely carefree, having to do no work at all, and taking 3 hour lunches. This was most likely because their supervisor was one of those middle-aged, 'want-to-fit-in-with-the-youth' type of guys. Overall, most of the work I was doing was so tedious, so monotonous, that the only thing I cared about was getting that check every other week. My cubicle was empty, except for a rundown computer. Honestly, I have never seen 2 months progress so slowly. I guess I didn't enjoy it much because I wanted more interaction with people, not just with a computer.

Hate to break it you but most entry level corporate jobs are like this. You sit in an office or cube and stare at a computer all day.

Well I don't hate it, I do work well with numbers and it is nice to have a job where I am doing something I am good at. I did hate it starting out, it was nothing but sitting in front of a computer crunching numbers. Now that I am in charge of the position I started out in I find that I enjoy it much more. Now I have other task like meetings, scheduling and other duties to break up the monotony.

Originally Posted by Texasmade

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Hate to break it you but most entry level corporate jobs are like this. You sit in an office or cube and stare at a computer all day.

I agree.

I came in expecting it to be how you stated it. But I guess you never really 'feel' the environment until you're actually in it.

Bump this.

Originally Posted by pseudonym

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Bump this.

Pseudo, so what's your final appraisal of the cubicle-job? Do you think you'll be able to adjust/be happy, or not until you're higher up the food chain with more responsibility and freedom?

So far I've come up with Police officer, Electrician, and USPS mail carrier as backup careers

^ I honestly don't know.

The time at my suicidal-cubicle-job made me want to, well, simply put, kill myself. I honestly looked forward to 5PM each day. The only driving force, as I stated above, was the above-average pay. If I could do that again as an internship experience, I would, simply for the money. For a long-term job? Ehhh, count me out.

Honestly, my main desire is to travel and work in different countries, while making decent money. I like to spend money on clothes, etc. and want to hold a job that allows me to do that + encounter different cultures/languages.

I'm 17. Clueless.

How many of the accountants here actually did it because they decided it was what they really wanted to do with their career? For me I basically ended up on this path through a process of elimination... law school admissions were too risky, I don't have the manual dexterity for med school (or the grades), I wasn't good enough with math for engineering, and getting a job in finance is dicey.... so next thing I know... I'm an accountant.

Most people I know in the profession are in the same boat.