Which career path is better, Public Accounting (Audit) or General Accounting??
I have an offer from a small public accounting firm specializing in government audit. I have gone through 3 interviews with an international, Fortune 500 construction/oil&gas company and an offer is likely.
The offer at the Fortune 500 company pays “better than public accounting” according to the director who interviewed me.
Which route should I choose, I am so torn?
I would appreciate responses only from senior to management level auditors or accountants in a senior, manager or controller position within private industry.
Thanks.
Moses, thanks for the great response.
Well, I am not intentionally limiting myself to those options, but that’s the options that have presented themselves so far. My accting GPA is only a 3.2, and despite having held an auditing internship for the past 1.5 years, its been difficult to get any bites from any large firm.
If you were in my position and had only those two offers to consider, which route would you take?
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One Response to “Which career path is better, Public Accounting (Audit) or General Accounting??”
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I am a senior at a Big 4 firm, so naturally you would expect me to say go with the small public accounting firm! However, my boyfriend, who is also an auditor, worked for a public governmental firm for almost 2 years and absolutely hates his job. He simply did not like governmental audits. He quit about a year ago and is now an auditor for a public accounting firm that does a variety of audits (not for publicly traded companies though, but also not strictly governmental audits). Over the past few years with my current firm, the opportunities I have seen in public accounting are incredible! I actually like my job, which a lot of people can’t say. The benefits are great, the learning curve is steep, but so worth while, and I’m looking forward to a rewarding career.
I would encourage you to not limit yourself to the 2 options mentioned above. I think when the right opportunity presents itself, you will know that it is a good fit for you. Good luck!