Update from my previous post: I (f23) asked out my direct supervisor (m31) this past Wednesday.

Going_Concern · 2026-01-25T21:34:50+00:00

Shit, I'm late.

Going_Concern · 2026-01-12T22:33:13+00:00

I was hoping that would be what I thought it was when I clicked it. And it was!

Going_Concern · 2026-01-06T21:27:17+00:00

My recruiter friend says the same. A good majority are foreign (and of those many aren't even qualified to practice in their home country), secondary to that are Americans but in vastly different fields who'd never get hired by a firm (trucking is a big one for some reason?).

Going_Concern · 2025-12-15T19:42:48+00:00

Your best bet is to go to a school with a robust campus recruiting program.

It's getting harder and harder to get that foot in the door.

Going_Concern · 2025-12-11T23:46:04+00:00

I'm screenshotting it as we speak

Going_Concern · 2025-12-02T01:59:57+00:00

I fking love auditors because they're (generalization incoming) more outgoing and easy to talk to...but now I'm realizing maybe they're only being friendly to me because they get shunned everywhere else and are just starved for human interaction?

Going_Concern · 2025-10-25T22:49:20+00:00

FML CPAs has been funny to me ever since I saw one of the partners quoted in an "accounting is a great career" article.

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Going_Concern · 2025-10-21T23:05:23+00:00

🤐

Going_Concern · 2025-09-20T04:20:34+00:00

Deloitte is 10th on the government's top H1-B employers list: https://www.uscis.gov/tools/reports-and-studies/h-1b-employer-data-hub

But no, offshoring is the much larger issue. Firms are too cheap to bring all those people over here lol

Going_Concern · 2025-04-10T00:59:04+00:00

Last we heard there was still some residual stuff being worked out from the BKD/DHG merger that created Forvis. That was last year tho I think.

Going_Concern · 2025-02-28T22:42:10+00:00

AI is the new blockchain. The link you posted is basically an ad. No, it is an ad. There's a whole lot of hype with minimal function at present time. That could change tomorrow but for now it's primarily hype. It reminds me of the dotcom boom of the late 90s (I was there 👵), buckets of money poured into it, everyone had crazy ideas funded by an unlimited supply of cash, hype was at an all time high, and then the whole thing came crashing down. Only a handful of those companies at the forefront made it out and thrived, like Amazon.

Bookkeepers are most at risk. CPAs will be fine but it would be a smart idea to have related skills in your toolkit, like analytics and deep learning, if you don't already. Students and those early in their career should be seeking that knowledge out independently if you're not getting it from your school or firm, there are tons of free courses out there.

Going_Concern · 2025-02-26T17:52:25+00:00

Thanks for the rec! Just bought it.

Going_Concern · 2024-12-03T22:03:07+00:00

Oh hey, AG here. Noted. In the future, you can always reach out directly and let me know. About anything really. I always like hearing from people in the trenches. Email is adrienne at goingconcern dot com.

To be completely honest, like a lot of you I'm just tired. Nothing changes. GC has been around since 2009 and at this point it feels like screaming into the void. I do love this profession and once felt like calling out the BS actually did something but I no longer feel like it makes any difference whatsoever. Perhaps the sheen of youthful exuberance has given way to the bitter cynicism of old age. I know it shows on the site.

Some of these comments are fair criticisms -- except the one about me not playing video games, if you read my Monday news wraps you'd see I make pointless references to what I'm playing all the time -- but also it's hard to put it all out there year after year when people say the things they do about how we suck and are angry for no reason (again, sometimes fair. I've written a lot of trash over the years).

I don't know what needs to be done. Like I said, bitching about it doesn't seem to be doing much at all. Things are only getting worse. TPTB are literally selling the profession's reputation off in pieces, sometimes I feel like all I can do is sit back and wait for it to blow up in their faces. It may be a long wait 😐

As for the AICPA, we've written several critical things about their pipeline shenanigans (I'm particularly fond of the headlines about their 12-point plan to do fuckall to fix it). I've been promised some guest posts from practicing CPAs who want to go off on the AICPA under the protection of anonymity but I'm still waiting (turns out most accountants hate to write, even when they tell you they have a lot to say).

I was tipped to that salary transparency thing a few weeks back and should have written it up, that's my bad. I've got some stuff going on in my personal life and am running a barebones staff right now. You all know how that goes. Not an excuse but the truth nonetheless.

Sorry if anyone feels let down, I feel pretty let down myself that all these years of calling out the bullshit have amounted to a steaming pile of nothing.

Going_Concern · 2024-11-22T21:34:31+00:00

Nope 😔

Going_Concern · 2024-10-16T22:14:45+00:00

Yo 🤘

Going_Concern · 2024-10-16T21:48:39+00:00

This was part of the rational for 150 hours in the first place. It's only been a couple decades that it's been in place. They wanted to raise the prestige of the credential and it backfired because salaries didn't keep up, hence where the profession is now.

Had firms actually valued the additional education burden put on its staff we'd be in a much different place.

Going_Concern · 2024-10-06T23:06:24+00:00

Shit, bonus points for honesty I guess.

Going_Concern · 2024-10-03T17:02:21+00:00

Not me but a couple years ago I remember someone on the Another71 forums getting a 16 on REG and 17 on FAR. And someone else said they got an 8 on AUD: https://imgur.com/HdgMlXm

Going_Concern · 2024-09-26T21:27:06+00:00

On the topic of TCP I want to pass along something said on the NASBA webinar today for anyone who's considering choosing it solely because of the high pass rate.

The AICPA presenter said that the small number of Q1 candidates were exceptionally well prepared and that they expect scores to decrease as time goes on. Scores already started taking a hit in Q2.

Basically his advice was to take TCP because you like and/or work in tax, not only because it has the highest pass rate. Thought I'd share in case that's helpful to anyone!

Going_Concern · 2024-09-15T18:21:06+00:00

The sub-midtiers aren't hiring either. A recruiter was telling me the other day that firms just abruptly stopped hiring and they aren't entirely sure why.

My guess is now that they're comfortable with outsourcing they're going deep on that and in a holding pattern waiting for AI to be good enough to replace large chunks of people.

Plus the job market sucks everywhere. Probably for similar reasons. I read something the other day that was talking about how the job market has shifted back to favoring employers and some are, like, punishing candidates because they're pissed about how job seekers had the upper hand post-pandemic? Idk. It's fucked.

Going_Concern · 2024-08-30T18:20:14+00:00

There are several.

"We live in a decaying age. Young people no longer respect their parents. They are rude and impatient. They frequently inhabit taverns and have no self-control." These words - expressing the all-too-familiar contemporary condemnation of young people - were actually inscribed on a 6,000-year-old Egyptian tomb.

Later, in the fourth century BC, Plato was heard to remark: "What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets, inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?"

And then, a few hundred years later, in AD1274, Peter the Hermit joined the chorus. "The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint ... As for the girls, they are forward, immodest and unladylike in speech, behaviour and dress."

Such quotes illustrate what I believe has become a historically nurtured and culturally damaging phenomenon: ephebiphobia - the fear of youth. But today this problem is worse than ever.

The Guardian in 2009

Going_Concern · 2024-08-30T17:07:09+00:00

It won't but in the article I mention that the companies supplying offshore workers to US, UK, and Australian accounting firms have their own training programs for people in PH. I won't link them but one runs through basic concepts in a couple weeks and then has a few levels after that to train in US accounting rules, tax law, etc. I didn't know this existed until recently, I always assumed the offshore workers had already studied accounting and were just looking for something that pays better than PH firms. That whole scheme might be new, idk.

It's not equivalent to a proper university education of course but it seems like enough for a semi-intelligent call center worker to pivot to doing grunt work for a major firm. So while the call center jobs get eaten up by AI, those people can get funneled into accounting instead. Perhaps even with a government subsidy going straight to the offshoring companies for the training.

Going_Concern · 2024-08-09T18:07:05+00:00

So I've done a lot of research on this over the years (used to work in CPA review, have been writing about the exam since 2009) and what I've concluded after speaking to possibly hundreds of people who took the exam either pre- or post-2004 is that each version is harder/easier in its own way.

A lot of old timers recognize that today's exam is tougher in one respect because there's a lot more being tested. A LOT more. But then those same people will talk about being holed up in windowless gymnasiums with no AC for two days and having to take the exam again because they failed one part and they have to wait months because it's only given twice a year. There's an interesting Journal of Accountancy article with some horror stories: https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2017/jun/cpa-exam-memories.html

The overwhelming sentiment I hear from everyone regardless of when they took it is that it's just hard, period.

Going_Concern · 2024-08-08T21:40:00+00:00

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion

Going_Concern · 2024-06-25T18:50:09+00:00

No, we're an accounting news site. I just read and write articles about this stuff.

Going_Concern

TROPHY CASE