They say there’s a shortage of accountants/CPAs. I’m not seeing that at all. Every job on LinkedIn has at least 100 applications in less than a day.

I have a CPA, MBA, and 7 YoE in industry and struggled to even get an interview for a senior role in industry. With all of my education and my CPA, I have put so much time into this career and it feels like I’m running in place. The CFO at our company makes over $250k, meanwhile the next person in line (Accounting Manager) makes only $90k. I make $70k. I just heard about a friend who passed her test for a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA). She just signed a contract for $60 per supervised hour with a guaranteed 25 hours. That’s just shy of what I make now working over 40 hours a week.

It just feels like these companies expect the best of the best with countless requirements for education and experience — yet the pay is just not there. It’s getting frustrating and I am too the point that I steer people AWAY from accounting rather than encourage them to start this career.

Started a new job this week and want to make sure I'm doing this right. Need to make sure I take enough notes and prep for the next client call.

Starting November 3, Express Entry will give 50 CRS points for a job offer in a “high-wage occupation,” and employers no longer need an LMIA for it.

“High-wage” has nothing to do with the job being offered. It’s based on the occupation’s national median. If the median for that occupation is at least 1.3x the overall median, it’s on the list. IRCC says outright that it’s not based on the person’s specific job or salary.

Financial and investment analysts (NOC 11101) and accountants (NOC 11100) are both on the 1.3x list. That means a job offer in either occupation is worth 50 points, and nothing in the announcement says the offer has to pay anywhere near the median. The LMIA used to make employers prove they were paying the prevailing wage and that no Canadian could fill the role. That check is gone.

In theory, then, a company can hand someone a below-market financial analyst offer, skip the labour market test entirely, and give them a major boost toward PR. Engineers get 70 points on the same terms.

The worst part is, last year a major energy company in Canada announced about 900 job cuts, roughly 20% of its workforce, mostly in Calgary. A lot of that work is going to global centres in India and Argentina.

So let me get this straight:

• Calgary Accounting and financial analyst jobs are being shipped overseas.
• The government’s response is nothing.
• Its immigration policy is to make it easier to fill the financial analyst jobs that are left, with no test of whether Canadians are available and no check on what the job pays.

Fewer jobs. More competition. No wage floor. What do you think happens to salaries?

Sources:

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/express-entry/changes.html

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/imperial-oil-downsizing-1.7646918

I just LOVE it when the recruiter tells me I am a great applicant and the manager's interview went well. I LOVE it when they tell me 3/4 cpa exams passed while in my masters makes me stand out. I LOVE how they drag on the interview stage for months. I LOVE it when they tell me they actually aren't looking to hire any new associates across 4 locations next year and tell me to apply again for 2028 openings!!!

Edit: Also, why do they always put a weird ass smiley face on their emails after they ruin your life

Can someone explain to me the process? I see MDs at Big 4 go to smaller firms to become Partners. What is the process like?

I’m in my early 20s and I just recently graduated earlier this year with a bachelor’s in accounting. I recently landed my first accounting-related job (a controlling position) making around $60k, despite having no previous accounting experience.

I’ve been here for about a month and honestly, it’s been pretty rough. The training hasn’t been great, and I’ve felt pretty overwhelmed at times. I’m slowly starting to learn and get more comfortable with the work, but the environment has made me pretty miserable. On top of that, my commute is about an hour each way, five days a week.

So honestly, this job has already taken a pretty serious toll on my mental health, and I’ve only been here about a month. I find myself dreading going to work, and even when I’m home, it’s hard to fully relax knowing I have to go back the next day. With my master’s and CPA studies coming up, I’m worried that staying in this environment will only make things worse. I want to prioritize my education and career without sacrificing my mental well-being in the process.

I’m planning to start my master’s in accounting this January and hopefully finish it within a year. I also want to study for the CPA exams at the same time, with the goal of passing at least 2 sections while finishing my master’s.

With my current job and commute, I genuinely don’t see how I’d manage all of that.

I’ve started looking at other opportunities, but I’m not sure what I should be targeting. Should I apply to accounting internships, entry-level staff accountant roles, AP/AR positions, financial analyst jobs, or something else? Would taking a lower-paying or part-time position while
studying be a smart move?

Also, how would you guys approach my resume? I’ve only been at my current job for about a month, but I’m planning to stay until at least January, which would give me around 4 months of experience. Would leaving after that short of a time raise red flags with future employers? Should I include this position on my resume while applying right now, or wait until I’ve gained more experience? I also have several years of unrelated work experience, including some leadership experience.

I’m not against working hard. I just want to build a solid accounting career while giving myself enough time to focus on school and the CPA exams. I’m trying to figure out what my best move would be, both now and once I start my master’s.

I will start. 0% raise, 0% bonus.

Hello all!

I keep seeing a lot of post on people struggling to land a position in accounting, or having a difficulty finding internships. I don't see much helpful advice being posted on here because the people who have the jobs are not coming here on Reddit! 😂 Since Reddit helped me so much when I was a college student struggling in trying to understand what the actual fuck amortization and depreciation meant in community college Intermediate Accounting, I just kinda figured that I pay it back!

FULL DISCLOSURE: I was a non-traditional accounting student, who went back to school after having a previous degree in mathematics with a 2.2 GPA so I had some work and life experience to navigate the career side of things. I was a party animal with undiagnosed ADHD and BPD. After first graduating with an awful GPA like that, my second time around I took school more seriously!! LOL 🤡After graduating with my BS in Mathematics from and having a 2.2 GPA, I literally had no choice but to work in service and fast food jobs, and eventually find my way into the financial services side through banking sales and call center, which got me interested in accounting. At age 28, I re-enrolled back in college starting with community school while working full-time, graduated with my accounting associates and had a 3.08 GPA. Afterwards, I moved onto obtaining my 2nd bachelor's degree in accounting from a private school and graduated Cum Laude with a 3.76 GPA!! God bless. 🙏🙌

Here are the 6 exact steps that I did as an accounting student to get a job offer upon graduation.

1. As I just said, that 2.2 GPA bite me in the ass when I realized that I fucked around with school and not taking my degree seriously, and kept getting rejection after rejection from all "professional office" jobs. So, I took this as lesson number one to have at least a 3.5 GPA when I re-enrolled for my 2nd bachelor's degree. Thankfully, I was able to maintain my 3.76 GPA.

2. Another tough lesson I learned was that I hated submitting job applications because it feels like my resume is literally being thrown in the trash!! 😭😭😭 So, my second time around, I didn't want to have to apply to jobs and hope for the best. My school had a great career center that was extremely helpful so I immediately went to them for guidance and had them do the heavy lifting of getting my resume out there!! Since I maintained my high GPA, I was immediately able to get a few callbacks from local accounting jobs for small businesses and landed my first internship in private industry.

3. Once I realized how difficult it was to move up in industry based accounting jobs after my internship, the CPA license caught my attention. I researched the hell out of it and customized my resume to be attractive to public accounting firms. I went back to my career center again and this time I aimed for tax season internships because I realized it was much easier to land a public accounting job as they have a hiring cycle for fresh graduates through internships! And this was the my magic golden ticket!

4. My previous mathematics degree and newly accounting degree provided me with well beyond 150 credits to sit for the CPA exams, so I immediately registered for it and started studying for my first section, and advertised myself as a CPA candidate on my resume. This helped me land my first tax internship in public accounting with a regional Pittsburgh based firm! One of the best firms I have ever worked for and I am thankful to God everyday!! 👏🤲 I literally did this with 0 application submitted or networking. My career center did all the work for me to get my resume out there and all I had to do perform well in the interview.

5. Immediately after I found out I received the internship offer, I wanted to be a master in filing 1040 individual return taxes. And.... you guessed it... I told my career center exactly about my tax accountant future CPA aspirations and they lead me to sign up for IRS VITA program. This lead me to simultaneously work on my knowledge gaps in real life taxes judgement free, while applying this knowledge in my paid internship.

6. I made myself indispensable through building social capital by coming into the office every other day, networking and talking with everyone from seniors, to managers, to directors, and even to partners. I attended every social event and had small conversations with people from our consulting, and audit department. I made myself highly visible to everyone so no one forget me, in case I didn't get the offer.

🥳 And 2 days before the end of tax season internship and 1 month before I graduated, I got called into the office with the executives and received the full-time offer. Thank God for all mercy!

Sorry, for the super long paragraph post but I just wanted to help anyone out, whoever may need some guidance in this industry. I am sure our paths won't be the same but work hard, stay focused, take school seriously, and NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK. I have come to the realization that in this industry social skills matter a WHOLE LOT along with your credentials! Best of luck to the rest of ya!!

I was planning to get a masters in accounting a year ago after failing to recruit for any firms during my undergrad.

For contexts I have a Bachelor already from a UC and is CPA eligible.

I went to this sub and everyone said it was not worth it, so I ended up not going for a master and just becoming CPA eligible through CC. This route makes recruiting almost impossible though as most recruiting events are at the Big universities. So now I have basically been a year out of undergrad with no relevant accounting experience and most firms are not even gonna bat an eye.

I have spent that time mass applying to different firms with rejections from every accounting firm. I got so upset that I just stopped applying for months because even at small local CPA firms that were paying 18-19/hour, they were just ghosting my application. I also used Robert half and have been ghosted as well post whatever interview it was.

Before anyone says anything about me being a bad candidate

1. I have had people who are in B4, recruiters review my resume and they say it’s good and it isn’t my resume

I suspect most big firms are directly hiring from Intern -> associate. If not it requires a ton of networking. Currently it’s impossible for me to recruit being out of Uni.

1. My GPA is 3.5+
   
2. I am CPA eligible and have said that in all my job applications
   
3. I have applied to small and big firms and most big firms reject me outright, I am talking about T100, I get instantly rejected from B4.
   
4. I am in the LA area and I hope to stay here at least for the next 4-5 years so I would not want to relocate
   
5. I have spammed email recruiters on small firms and they ghost me or tell me there’s no positions available.

My goal is to work in PA and I want to work at a T10 firm at least to start my career.

Should I go back for a masters to get exposure to the recruiting network and refresh my student status for internships/new grad status.

My options are
USC (live at home)
Not considering the UCs because I’ll have to relocate for all of those and they cost relatively the same to USC.

CSUF (relocate)
CSUN(relocate)
I want to stay in LA so not considering other programs

I have a manager who would rush me and proceeds to distract me with the littlest review points and then will come back again to me because she missed the first ones.

I feel like I’ve been comitting a lot more mistakes and review points when she was my manager. Like it seems endless. Some of her review points don’t even make sense. Some are in the form of questions and some are just her plain laziness to look at the workpaper. She would then raise me to the partners. And it sucks because i’ve been doing good before she was my manager. I couldn’t even defend myself because i am already rattled with my workload.

Sometimes it’s not even supposed to be rush she just wants to look good in front of the partners
There was a time she said that we should all do this so she can say “my team” is great. Like i get it but you definitely aren’t helping. She can be quite arrogant. Doesn’t say thank you or sorry.

Okay, lay it on me. Give me all of the details. Now that 10/15 is finally over, I’m ready to sit my happy ass down with some popcorn while reading these stories!

Hi everyone, I'm looking for some serious career advice. Please help!

I have a year of experience as an apprentice in IFRS 17, specifically in financial reporting and analysis, at an insurance company. After my apprenticeship ended, I moved into FP&A in the development sector. However, my current company doesn't consider my apprenticeship as proper work experience, and I'm earning almost the same as I did during my apprenticeship which is bothering me and also given the market situation I couldn't wait for any longer as I was already looking for a job for almost 6 months and settled with this one.

I'm pursuing ACCA and have cleared 11/13 papers.

I need advice on the following:

1. ACCA: I have SBL (a compulsory paper) remaining. I'm considering completing SBL now and waiting until July 2027 to receive my ACCA qualification certificate, rather than attempting another paper in the meantime. Would completing the remaining papers sooner significantly improve my chances of landing a better-paying job, or should I focus on upskilling instead?

2. Valuations: I've been interested in valuations for a while. I'd love to hear from people who transitioned into valuations from other finance domains. What skills should I build, and how can I make this transition?

3. Upskilling: If I continue in FP&A or financial reporting and analysis (IFRS/US GAAP), what practical skills should I focus on to improve my employability and perform better at work.

I'd appreciate honest suggestions, especially from people who've been in a similar situation. Thank you!

Let’s talk about variance, specifically in JDE E1.

Usually, R31802A and R31804 Proof are set up as scheduler run in JDE on daily basis. One of cost accounting’s tasks is to check Proof variance to find out anything abnormal and verify significant variance, material and labor overhead.

The question is how to verify? When you see GL posting, you get nothing other than a number. An experienced accountant would go to check WO part list and time entry and compare with standard BOM and Routings. For a medium sized manufacturing plant, it is not rare that there are close to hundreds WO on daily basis. How to check?

That’t how Power Query comes to play.

~ Download several JDE tables: F4801/F3111/F3112/F3002/F3003/F30006/F4105/F0901

~ Create Power Query to link these tables together with WO/item as keys

~ Create a combined report showing WO/Status/BOM/Actual/variance

~ Use Pivot to sort them out

You then get all component level variance by WO, even for those partial complete one not reaching R31804; and can compare calculated variance with GL posting!

Even better, you can use Claude in Excel, just download and let Claude write code to do the job! If Claude is built in your ERP, you even can skip download part, nice?

Real time, real operation and finance data!

I am in my final year in Accounting for my Bachelors. I did not land any internships during my bachelors but since next semester I only have one class I decided to apply to come for next winter 2027. I got two offers one from BDO (Canadian Tax Services) and EY (Indirect Tax Department).

I am not sure which one to take. BDO seems to have 5 personal days I could take and I think it’s beneficial for me since I will still have one class to finish. EY does not have. So I don’t know how they will act if I request day off for my quizzes although during my interview I did tell them that I will have one class left. Also when I talked with the partner at EY he told me that under the order de CPA the indirect tax is very niche so it will count only 4-6 months of experience towards my CPA designation. My internship at EY is 6 full months.
BDO internship is 4 months.

I am in a dilemma because EY is one of the big4 and will it be possible to change department easily after my internship?

Can someone please give me some advice please. I want to become a CPA in the long term.

Also I am in Canada, Montreal.

Hi everyone!
I have a master’s degree in Corporate Finance from Algeria, but I graduated around 3 years ago and unfortunately, I don’t have any work experience in the finance field.
I’m looking to improve my CV and make myself more competitive in the job market, especially if I want to apply for finance jobs in the Gulf countries (UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, etc.).
I’m considering learning skills like Power BI, Excel, SQL, or financial modeling, but I’m not sure which ones would be the most valuable or where I should start. I’m also open to certifications or practical projects that could help me stand out.
For those working in finance, especially in the Gulf, what would you recommend adding to my CV? Which skills or certifications are actually worth the time and money, considering that I don’t have relevant work experience yet?
I’d really appreciate any advice or personal experiences. Thank you!

I interviewed for a tax role at EY with a Partner and a manager. Two managers involved previously worked at my current employer.

I arrived 15 minutes late due to traffic and school but notified HR beforehand. The interview seemed to go well. They asked about my start date, university schedule, and graduation plans, and explained that EY accommodates students. They said they'd get back to me soon.

For those who've interviewed with a Partner at a Big Four firm, what signs suggested your interview went well? Am I overthinking things?

Hey everyone,

I’m a domestic Canadian student completing my BBA in Accounting, with an expected graduation date of April 2027 and a 3.27/4.33 GPA. My goal is to pursue my CPA designation and establish a career in public accounting.
I’ve been applying to numerous internships, co-op positions, and entry-level accounting roles, but I’ve been met with rejection after rejection, usually without even getting an interview.

I’ve had several professionals review my resume, incorporated their feedback, and attended networking events, yet nothing seems to be working.
My only real success has been with a local public accounting firm, where I’ve completed assessments, attended interviews, and visited their office. Unfortunately, I still haven’t received an offer.

Some background on my career change:

I originally pursued heavy-duty mechanics straight out of high school, completing Levels 1 and 2 of my apprenticeship training and working in the industry.
In August 2020, at age 21, I underwent a hip replacement due to a long-standing medical condition. I attempted to continue in the trades by switching to automotive mechanics, hoping the work would be less physically demanding, but ongoing hip issues eventually forced me to reconsider my career.

I subsequently decided to pursue accounting.
Since 2022, I’ve worked for an automotive parts distributor, primarily doing deliveries while occasionally assisting with accounts payable, including invoice verification and reconciliation. I’ve continued working throughout my degree and have also participated in volunteer work.

My concern:

I’m approaching graduation with no accounting internships, and I’m genuinely worried about entering the profession.

I understand that my GPA isn’t exceptional and my accounting experience is limited, but I thought my employment history, transferable skills, and willingness to learn would at least help me secure interviews.

I’d really appreciate some honest feedback on my attached resume. Are there any obvious red flags? Is my previous career hurting my chances? Am I presenting my experience poorly? Genuinely drag me through the mud. I’m not put off my brutal honesty so feel free to criticize.
I’m particularly interested in hearing from Canadian accountants and anyone that may be involved in recruiting.

Thanks in advance!

My boss doesn't have a MIA, but opened up an accounting firm. I worked here for many years and finally got my ACCA, then MIA. Then he wants to put my name as a director for the firm. So he paid for me to get PC Cert (a cert required if you are providing accounting related services). Well, long story short, i have some disagreements with the company doings, and now i've resigned. the PC cert is under my name. I would still wanna find a job elsewhere, but it seems the PC Cert is just wasted. Should i go on and open a sole prop myself?

For some context, I’ve been working as an admin assistant for about a year now. I have an associate’s degree in accounting and recently started going back to school to get my bachelor’s degree in accounting.

The job market is pretty tough here, so while I originally wanted to do something more related to accounting, I decided to take the admin assistant position anyways.

But now that I’m back in school, it’s really making me want a job that’s related to accounting. That way I can start gaining experience in the field while also studying.

Anyways two positions recently opened up internally at my company, one for a payroll clerk and the other for an accounts payable clerk. I’m planning to apply for both, but I was wondering which role might open more doors for me in the future (even if it’s years down the road)

So I guess my question is, which position do you guys think would be more beneficial long-term? Again I’m applying to both so if I am selected for either one I don’t mind, just curious which one might teach me more transferable(?) skills

Honestly I really like my company and the benefits here, I just feel ready to do something other than write memos & letters all day lol

Hey guys, I’m 10 years into my career and I just got a new job and keep making a mistake every single month end. I really don’t know what to do. I keep trying to implement checks in place but I miss the most obvious stuff.

I’m clearly burnt out and not operating the same way I used to. My manager just called me to point out something I missed (material of course) and I didn’t know what to say.

I feel dumb and useless 😭 I can’t even quit because then YE is right around the corner and my teams gonna be screwed but not to throw a pity party here, I’m not making a good impression, I can just tell.