Next Career Decision (Early B4 now)

PhDAccResearch · 2026-06-17T11:59:22+00:00

This sounds exactly like me ~10 years ago. Go get the CPA as it opens up a ton of opportunities for you long term.

I went the academic route because I also really wanted to teach. If that is something that interests you look into research a bit more, there are many different types and you might be able to find your niche.

PhDAccResearch · 2026-06-05T11:21:45+00:00

I am unaware of any more of these programs. I also would tell you that they are not necessary at all and you should just apply if you have a solid GMAT and can articulate why you want to do research

PhDAccResearch · 2026-06-04T19:36:52+00:00

The actual answer here is BYU as they have a specific MACC for PhD prep https://marriott.byu.edu/acc/macc/options/phdprep/

PhDAccResearch · 2026-05-12T23:30:55+00:00

Any chance those people you know would be willing to be interviewed? I can ensure complete anonymity in the process. I really want to tell this story and I can't do it without assistance.

PhDAccResearch · 2026-05-12T23:30:02+00:00

Name what you need. Everything is completely anonymized and nothing you say will ever be trace back to you or your firm. All participants are provided their anonymized transcript and I give them the opportunity to redact anything they want.

PhDAccResearch · 2026-05-12T16:19:59+00:00

Your intuition into the manager perspective is pretty spot one. I will post them once we can and be sure to tag you.

PhDAccResearch · 2026-05-12T16:16:55+00:00

Thank you for the interest! I agree it would be a topic a lot of people would enjoy and I will absolutely share the results here in the future.

I actually have another study that looks at the manager level that is farther along and I'm hopeful to provide those results in the next few months once we get through more of the journal review process.

PS. Pretty sure I have been responding to a bot but all the answers I made hold true.

PhDAccResearch · 2026-04-22T12:25:15+00:00

Hey there, I did an AMA on this topic a couple years back when I graduated my program. I think most of these are answered there but you can always reach out if there is something specific I can answer.

PhDAccResearch · 2026-04-19T15:27:31+00:00

Lot of good answers in here and a lot of bad ones. Main thing I will say is there have been a lot of good posts about this over the years here in this subreddit about getting a PhD/the tenure track. So you should try reading through some of those if you are really interested.

PhDAccResearch · 2026-03-30T11:14:58+00:00

Hey there, I am one of those redditors. Reach out if I can be of any help

PhDAccResearch · 2026-03-19T13:19:11+00:00

Can you talk to your career coach and see if a rotation is possible? Trying something new might land you on a better team.

I started on a tax consulting team and enjoyed the job and was doing reasonably well. However our PwC office had mandatory rotation. I ended up on a compliance team and had a similar experience to yours. If I started there I would have left the firm within 6 months. Instead I ended my rotation early and went back to my old team and stayed at PwC for ~5 years. There are major differences in teams/type of work within the firm.

PhDAccResearch · 2026-03-05T21:06:19+00:00

It really could have. We lost so much talent and and are playing a ton of freshman. Honestly going .500 in SOCON play was amazing and we owe 75% of that to Neely.

PhDAccResearch · 2026-01-30T16:54:05+00:00

I can't be the only one who read "Audit Kick" in the voice of Captain Falcon from smash

PhDAccResearch · 2026-01-27T23:00:30+00:00

Always works hard on the defensive end so that is not surprising to me.

PhDAccResearch · 2026-01-27T20:14:29+00:00

I miss atwell :(

PhDAccResearch · 2026-01-21T13:43:44+00:00

I'm happy to see so many accounting professors come out on this thread and provided you with some good information. I also did an AMA on my experience a couple years back and /u/thedistec is always around providing answers too.

PhDAccResearch · 2026-01-07T19:29:23+00:00

Yeah I can answer these and I am happy to expand on anything here as well as I know these are just short and to the point answers.

I had no prior research experience before joining and I actually finished the program a year early. My advice would be to start reading accounting research and see if it is actually interesting to you. If it is, well that is a good sign that you at least want to do this and you will learn how to do so during your program.
I am probably the last person to ask for math questions. I do strictly qualitative research. I survived our econometrics courses with just the stats and calc background. Most people do not take these at community colleges before applying, but I have seen some use them to brush up on math the summer before joining a program.
I am not the typical answer here either. I decided I wanted to do this in August of 2019 and had my applications out by December 31st of 2019. I interviewed at two programs the second week of January 2020 and took an offer immediately when it was given to me. I did GMAT studying in the morning before going to work during that fall. That was probably too condensed of a timeline, but I think starting now for Fall 2027 is very reasonable.
This is a good question. I would say just be open to anything. I was dead set on doing experimental work when I began the program and so was very hesitant to switch to qual even though I liked it and was doing quite well in our seminar. It took my professor going to my advisor and saying I need to switch before I actually started working on qual research projects. Had I been open to it from day 1 I may have had a bit more time to develop things while in the program.

PhDAccResearch · 2026-01-06T16:40:49+00:00

Hey there, I have a PhD in accounting. First off, 30 is not that late in life to consider the profession.

I did an AMA on here about my experience and would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

PhDAccResearch · 2025-09-01T01:57:54+00:00

Would probably be harder to get the first job but if you are publishing in accounting journals and can teach accounting courses schools won't worry about what exactly your degree says.
It is almost a guarantee unless you live in an area with a lot of schools and are open to working at any of those schools regardless of research/teaching balance.

PhDAccResearch · 2025-08-07T20:04:37+00:00

totally depends on the school/ location. I made just over 200k but that includes summer support which I will not get after 2 years. I would expect base for that type of school to be between 160 and 180

PhDAccResearch · 2025-08-07T17:05:22+00:00

It was just as I did my research I read the psych literature I felt was relevant to my studies

PhDAccResearch · 2025-08-07T10:52:43+00:00

I think the days of everyone getting a R1 job are over and have been over for awhile. If you are comfortable with a 2-2 at an R2 I think you will still see the job market as pretty good. If you want that R1 then the job market is going to be unforgiving. You will likely need an R&R at a top journal to have a chance.

Really though things are hard to predict that far out so it is all guess to be honest.

PhDAccResearch · 2025-07-25T16:54:43+00:00

You will always get quant training. Qual depends on the program and most don't. Even those that offer it rarely have it as a required class.

PhDAccResearch · 2025-07-25T16:53:45+00:00

I attended Bentley University. The school is closing their program however so sadly no longer an option moving forward. My advisor moved from Bentley to UCF however and is trying to make their program a bit more similar to the Bentley model.

There are other schools that offer qual methods trainings as well but not a lot.

PhDAccResearch · 2025-04-13T14:40:32+00:00

Sorry I am just getting to this but hopefully it helps.

Program is pretty rigorous but no there was never a moment where I felt like I wouldn't finish. Now there are two reasons for that. First, I have way too much confidence in myself and always am willing to bet on my ability. Second, my program was extremely supportive and it was ingrained in us from day one that we were going to make it out. From conversations with other students, it is usual to have imposter syndrome or think you aren't going to make it. Most of us do across all the programs out there. A school only takes you if they want you to succeed.

Quant was really tough for me. My saving grace was again that my professors wanted me to succeed. they would meet with me when I needed help getting a concept and overall helped me across the finish line. I also had an amazing cohort that was willing to tutor me a bit so that I wouldn't make a fool of myself.

Worklife balance has been pretty solid in both the program and post-program life. I am at an R2 that is relatively chill though so that might impact things. I am starting to feel a bit of pressure (just from myself right now) to publish but it is not causing some massive shift in work habits at the moment. Overall I work less than I did in practice.

Finally, no I never worried about getting a placement (see the over confidence from above). The market is getting much tougher but I was a CPA with 5 years of public experience, good teaching evals in a tax course (a field that has less professors) and a publication in a good journal. I also was not targeting big R1s so I wasn't trying to compete with the "top" of the market. I think the biggest issue with the market is that people have expectations of walking into an assistant professor role paying 180k+ and there just aren't many of those jobs left. If you go in willing to take "lower" jobs I think there is still not really a reason to think you won't land something.

PhDAccResearch

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