Industry ain’t Utopia

When you're in public accounting, everyone talks about working in Industry like it's a Utopia. Newsflash, it ain't 😲 ....the lesser discussed downsides are covered below.

The Bad 😳

You may be the youngest person on your team and might feel left out when everyone's talking about their kids.

It used to be easy to get a crew together for happy hour, but it’s not quite as easy these days. You’ll notice a few older coworkers that you thought would have higher titles by now.

A lot of accountants are fooled into thinking that a jump to industry for a pay bump and improved WLB means it was a smart choice. That alone doesn’t mean it’s a good opportunity for your career.

One big downside to industry is that moving up the ladder can be excruciatingly slow. You can no longer expect a promotion every few years, even if you deserve it.

Rising tides lift all boats, but the tide rises very slowly in industry. There is just less hiring so you may be the low man or women on the totem pole for quite a bit.

Getting a meal comped will be more of a rarity. You’re no longer driving revenue for the company, welcome to life as a cost center.

The Ugly 😱

The worst parts about industry are the close cycles. You’ll be slammed at month end, quarter end and year end.

The beginning of each month will be your crunch time and you won’t be able to take PTO. It just so happens that this is also when your friends and family want to make plans, go figure.  

Conclusion 🙏

Most accountants are going to tell you industry is better than public accounting, but there’s no need to put down public accounting here.

Working as an accountant in industry is a great experience judged on its own merits. 

As a side note, the real benefits of a career in accounting start to materialize once you have both public accounting and industry experience under your belt.

When I interviewed for an accounting manager position at Nike they explicitly said “The ideal profile is someone who has public experience, currently working in a big corporation”.

I received comments like this all the time from top companies. If you don’t fit the bill, you get filtered out before being seen by human eyes. It’s not about favoring public accounting or industry, for the best positions you’ll need both.

💎

The above was an excerpt from the No Flux Given playbook. If you want to see the insider tips that are included in this section and a walk through of my accounting interviews with some of Silicon Valley’s best, you can find a link at the top and bottom of this page.

Cheers!