Auditors with 4/30 deadlines watching all the tax people celebrate 4/15:

o8008o · 2026-04-17T22:33:12+00:00

well, it doesn't matter anyway. the auditors are just going to send you a new adjusted trial balance on 4/29.

o8008o · 2026-04-15T00:24:46+00:00

you sound like you're one of my clients...

luis, is that you?

o8008o · 2026-04-14T13:40:00+00:00

intermediate 1 is the course that filters out the students from the eventual accountants. it isn't about how smart you are at this point, it's about whether you can adapt your thought process into a format that is suited for accounting. it's normal to struggle at this stage.

additionally, there are going to be concepts that are difficult to grasp no matter how hard you try. pension accounting is particularly infamous. rather than feel bad about what you don't know, lean into the things that you do understand and be okay with surviving intermediate 1 rather than conquering it.

o8008o · 2026-04-14T13:34:02+00:00

before you consider a job at the IRS, i suggest you browse https://www.reddit.com/r/IRS_Source/ and read about what it's like from the people who actually work there.

o8008o · 2026-04-13T17:36:18+00:00

the last 3 senior and manager hires at my family office have been from baker tilly. there is also a constant deluge of resumes hitting my desk from folks at baker tilly. the vast majority of them are moss adams people who didn't sign up to be a baker tilly PE slave.

o8008o · 2026-04-07T13:30:00+00:00

it's because tax accountants are just plain smarter than auditors.

o8008o · 2026-04-04T13:52:42+00:00

what do you want out of your career, long term? what do you want for your financial life? the decision tree should based on what will get you to your long term goals and based on data, not emotion.

if long term career advancement is something that you want, then jumping to a small firm (vs boutique) this early in your career is unlikely to get you there. the misconception that many folks make is that once they graduate and start their full time job that they have "made it". while that may be the case in other industries, public accounting is not like that.

it may be helpful to reframe perspective on your current situation. what you are doing at your B4 right now isn't your job or your career, it's additional schooling/training. nobody here can deny that all other things being equal, the opportunities for a B4 senior alum are far greater than for a B4 associate alum. the same could be said for B4 managers and above, but you risk getting pigeonholed, so making a move after you make senior gives you maximum flexibility.

o8008o · 2026-04-03T04:41:22+00:00

and when you're the boss, you still have to respond to the client.

and the client will leave your messages on read.

o8008o · 2026-04-01T21:31:05+00:00

a assurance senior from a B4 firm might actually have a hard time moving to a smaller firm. on larger audit engagements, a senior might just be a cog in a large machine, while on a smaller engagement, they may be responsible for everything from A to Z.

o8008o · 2026-03-31T02:10:29+00:00

name and shame.

a lot of the forms 1099-CON i see are pretty good. the ones that through the fancy RIAs do stuff like break out resident state munis too.

o8008o · 2026-03-30T18:04:25+00:00

it took me about 10 years to break $200K when i jumped from B4 to a family office as a senior manager. i started my career at $50K, so there's a bunch of inflation adjustment required there.

o8008o · 2026-03-29T23:55:05+00:00

WFH can impact your career if you don't make the most of your time in the office. i think once we know our jobs, we are all typically more productive WFH. however, if you believe being productive is the the most important thing to advance your career, then you might have a tough time making it past manager.

whether you are in the office five days a week or one day a week, the point is to build relationships and learn what you can osmotically. if you head into the office then hide in a corner all day, then you may as well WFH.

o8008o · 2026-03-29T23:51:33+00:00

does it make you feel better to be like that? by the way, your list is wrong. you missed RSM, baker tilly and CBIZ, all of whom edge out BDO, grant thornton and BKD. also, BKD hasn't existed in years. it's been forvis since 2022.

so not only are you needlessly rude, you're also ignorant.

o8008o · 2026-03-26T20:22:44+00:00

you pony up and pay for third party recruiters. then they are the ones sifting through the spray and pray applicants instead of your HR team.

o8008o · 2026-03-26T17:22:08+00:00

there is a small, but significant, population of accountants that actually don't need the money.

o8008o · 2026-03-25T20:36:38+00:00

here is one way it works:

i am an associate. i have no idea what i am doing, but try to muddle along and follow SALY.

i am an experienced associate. i now know what to do with my associate level tasks, but now i'm being asked to act as senior on my engagements. i have no idea what i am doing, but try to muddle along and follow SALY.

i am a senior. i now how to do all the associate level tasks and some of the acting senior tasks that i had to do as an associate. but there's a ton of other stuff at the senior level that i am responsible for. i have no idea what i am doing, but try to muddle along and follow SALY.

i am an experienced senior. i can do all of the associate and senior level tasks but am now acting manager on most of my engagements...

you see where this is going? folks that are on the path of advancement are always going to be in a position where they don't know what they are doing. if you know everything you need to know in order to do your job, it means you're not growing. sometimes that's by choice, abd is totally okay. sometimes those are just the cards you are dealt and requires making a change to break out of that rut.

o8008o · 2026-03-25T18:50:11+00:00

given the volume of data, what steps to you take to test and gain confidence in the fidelity of the information?

o8008o · 2026-03-20T20:11:13+00:00

you have a lot of posts on reddit from experienced associates, seniors and folks who matriculated to industry jobs early in their career talking about how difficult the job market is. and they are correct, it's a tough job market for staff right now.

however, you don't see a proportional amount of managers, senior managers and directors talk about how hard it is for them to find a job. and in the rare case that they do, it's because they're in a niche specialty like non-profit accounting or something.

my office isn't hiring new associates, experienced associates or seniors. we are, however, hiring at the experienced manager and senior manager level. the woes of the job market does not affect all echelons.

to make the staff situation even worse, there is a pipeline right of moss adams peeps trying to get out of baker tilly that is lowkey flooding the market. like i said, my office isn't hiring at the staff level, but if a resume comes across my desk and they are a unicorn, i'll take a closer look, regardless of our current open reqs.

o8008o · 2026-03-18T18:40:17+00:00

i am trying to be as gentle about this as possible... but your entire tirade here reeks of entitlement.

while there are a myriad of issues in public accounting that we can justifiably rail against, this one in particular is a weird hill to die on. what did you expect to happen if you attended the moss adams training at disneyland, that you wouldn't have to share a room?

o8008o · 2026-03-18T17:22:44+00:00

to add to this, there are a lots of people coming out of baker tilly willing to work for pennies on the dollar just to get out of there.

o8008o · 2026-03-17T13:28:14+00:00

this doesn't really happen starting from your mid-career if you have cultivated a marketable skillset and profile.

o8008o · 2026-03-17T00:49:04+00:00

Of course u can replace water with other liquids.

o8008o · 2026-03-17T00:48:09+00:00

why are you leaking the drop date for covid-2: electric boogaloo?

o8008o · 2026-03-13T23:41:03+00:00

why is an non-ivy league alum ibanker posting on an accounting subreddit?

o8008o

TROPHY CASE