As a slow learner i can’t understand what our prof discussing, anyone here can help me?

I'm junior year accounting student trying to land an internship and I plan on obtaining a CPA license.

Currently, I've submitted 18 internship applications to one of the big 4 accounting firms, across mainly audit and tax.

I feel silly asking this but could mass applying to one of the big 4 accounting firms - or any accounting firm - cause a recruiter to ignore my applications?

Hiii, still undecided kung anong acc firm sa cebu ang mas better.

Among those po ano ang merong healthy work environment??(yung mabait yung team etc)

So right now, I’m spending my time working for my family’s business. I absolutely love it, it’s my hobby and passion. truthfully though, I know that this job is temporary for me, whether it’s 2 more years or 10 more.

It’s been over 2 years since I graduated with my bachelor’s and I have no accounting experience whatsoever. I graduated with a 3.8 GPA and 150 credit hours so I’m CPA ready as far as education goes.

what’s the best way for me to keep up with my knowledge and maybe pick up some extra money on the side using accounting? Or should I buckle down and start studying for the CPA on my own for the next year? Is there any place I can volunteer to do like, work during tax season for 10 hours a week or something for basically minimum wage just to get some experience?

I'm an accounting student and my first Meet The Firms is coming up at my university. I just transferred from a community college so it's my first professional networking event even though I'm a junior.

How do you address recruiters, with their first name or Mr/Ms Lastname?

When researching some of the smaller firms, I found the names of recruiters who will likely be at MTF. Is it a good idea to greet them by name before they introduce themselves and maybe talk about their recent LinkedIn post or something, to show them I've done my research? Or would that come off as too forward or even creepy?

Finally, someone told me that while black suits are most common for students right now, many recruiters especially older ones dislike them and prefer navy blue suits and ties, seeing them as more professional. How true is this?

I worked for a big 4 when I finished school as an auditor. I became a mom and the 14+ hour days became highly unrealistic for my family. I moved into a local government position as an Accountant. Honestly, I heard nothing but good feedback about government accountant positions and mine has been significantly better than my position as an auditor . I do work for a small city though which means that ALL of the work gets divided among 3 accountants only. As soon as I got hired, I have been tasked with all the clean up work that consisted of YEARS of work that disgruntled employees left. I’m tired and burned out by both jobs.

What has been the most stress free accounting position that you have had and with what type of employer? I need to look for something that will allow me to focus on my mental health but still provide for my family and my future (retirement). Pls help :”(

I’m a junior accounting major and I’m gonna be completely honest: I feel like I barely know shit about accounting.

I’m taking five classes right now, and in probably four of them I really don’t know what’s going on. For a lot of assignments, I’ve depended heavily on AI. Sometimes I basically just use it to get the work done and don’t even bother checking enough to actually understand what I submitted.

Last year we did Excel worksheets and projects. I used AI for a lot of that too instead of actually learning the formulas. If somebody put me in front of Excel today and told me to make a spreadsheet or use basic formulas without help, I probably wouldn’t know what the hell I was doing.

That’s the part that bothers me. At this point I sometimes feel like there isn’t much difference between me and some random person who has never taken accounting, except that I have credits toward an accounting degree.

I’m not gonna sugarcoat it and call it “using resources.” I’ve cheated and depended way too heavily on AI.

At the same time, I think I’m actually a pretty fast learner when somebody points me directly toward what I need to learn. I’m probably also just lazy when it comes to sitting down and putting the work in.
One thing that throws me off badly is the language of accounting. School makes accounting feel insanely complicated to me. There are all these worksheets, terminology, problems, calculations, and steps, and after a while my brain basically checks out.

But here’s the weird part.

Sometimes I’ll randomly watch YouTube videos of people explaining what accountants actually do at work. I’ve watched people demonstrate bookkeeping, entering transactions, doing reconciliations, working through Excel, things like that.

And when somebody actually shows me the job step-by-step, I’m sitting there thinking, “Okay… I could probably do this.”It doesn’t look nearly as scary as accounting school makes it look.
I know watching some bookkeeping videos obviously doesn’t mean I understand professional accounting. I’m just saying that seeing the actual work makes more sense to me than doing endless textbook worksheets.

And honestly, if I had actually put the amount of effort into learning that school expects from me over the last couple of years instead of looking for shortcuts, I’d probably know a shit ton more accounting by now.

Another thing going through my head is AI.
The world is changing ridiculously fast. By the time I graduate around December 2027, AI will probably be way better than it is today. Part of me looks at all these worksheets and thinks, “How much of this shit am I actually going to manually do at a real job?”My assumption has basically been that if I get an accounting job, I’ll continue depending heavily on AI to help me do the work.

Obviously there’s a huge IF there, because I might walk into an interview, get asked basic accounting or Excel questions, and get exposed immediately.
Or maybe I somehow get hired, they give me something basic to do, and I realize I have no clue what I’m doing.

That’s one of my actual fears graduating with this degree, realizing I don’t understand the profession, quitting, and ending up working some random retail job while wondering why the hell I spent years getting an accounting degree.

I’m not really asking for sympathy and I’m not asking for a motivational speech about believing in myself.
What I genuinely want to know from people who actually work in accounting is:

How different is accounting school from the actual day-to-day job?

If someone basically does what I’ve been doing passes classes, relies heavily on AI, understands very little, and hopes they can learn once they get hired how fucked are they?

How much accounting knowledge and Excel are you realistically expected to have walking into an entry-level position?

Do companies actually teach you how to do the job, or are they expecting you to already know most of this?

And with AI becoming more capable, is my idea of heavily relying on AI at work realistic, or am I seriously misunderstanding how accounting jobs work?

Be completely honest. I’d rather hear “you’re cooked unless you change something” than have people make me feel better

A week and a half till the CFE and im still regularly getting RCs and the very occasional Cs on FR AOs

I know you need at least 2-3 C’s on FR or MA to pass level 2 and i was shooting for C’s in FR as MA is too varied for me and more of a gamble

But i just wanted to know is it normal to be getting this little C’s in FR AOs for both day 2 and day 3?

I find that the feedback guide is very nitpicky on what they want for a C and it feels like missing one discussion point can hold you back from a C

I am in my last semester of college (unless I continue to my masters to get cpa credits) I unfortunately have narcolepsy. I am medicated and can work the hours I need to work but I am also realistic. I know how competitive big 4 is, and the extreme hours you need to be willing to work to make it in the industry. I always planned to go that route but with my limitations due to my narcolepsy, I know I can’t compete or work those extreme hours. I had an internship with a very big company and did very well but they don’t have entry level positions for accounting in the U.S so I did it more for the experience and to put on my resume.

Can I still become a successful accountant without big 4 path? How? I see some entry level accounting positions paying really low wages and that worries me given I wouldn’t get a lot of experience in different areas of accounting with those types of roles.

I really want to do a job now but I don't have time because I'm 29 and my family is pressurising me to marry now. So I want to do a short term course in accounts field so that in future I can do WFH jobs also and be financially independent.can you please help me if you have knowledge in this field. Suggest me courses I can do now so that in 2027 I'll be financially independent. I've done tally Erp-9 but it didn't benifit me at all.

What's the most expensive piece of software your firm bought that turned into a $50K PowerPoint slide nobody actually uses?

I don't have any direct bookkeeping / accounting experience. I'm 32. My background is in operations (workforce coordination), tech support, customer service, and basic office administration stuff. I recently completed an online business degree at WGU. I realized that their accounting degree course load is virtually identical to the degree I already obtained. I believe there are only 7 classes I'd need to take in order to get a second bachelors in accounting, which I think I could bust out in less than 6 months. Looking back, I enjoyed the accounting-related coursework I took, I had just never considered it as a career option.

My question: if I got that degree, would that make me employable alongside my existing professional office experience? Would it at least help me get an entry-level Accounts Payable Specialist position? I'm in the greater Seattle area, if that matters. I know nobody here can make any guarantees, especially with how vague I'm being about my existing work experience, I'm just trying to get a sense of what the accounting job market looks like. I wouldn't want to pursue this if it'd be a blood bath to get an entry-level gig even with a degree.

(I know there are a lot of posts about people considering a pivot to accounting, sorry to add to them haha).

I have been in public practice for about 10 years. I have had angry clients, fee disputes, and some genuinely unpleasant conversations.

Never had anything quite like this.

I sent a returning client our engagement agreement and the same time, emailed him explaining that it was for his 2025 tax return services, payment was scheduled for 10/15 after completion, and we needed the agreement approved before filing.

He responds:

“You have not even prepared our returns for 2025 yet. What is this?”

I explain that it is our fixed-price engagement agreement and payment occurs after the service is complete.

I end with, “Let me know if that still is not clear.”

In hindsight, I can see how that could sound condescending. I genuinely meant, “If this still does not make sense, let me know and I will explain.”

He calls me.

I explain again that this is simply the engagement agreement and that he is not being charged for work we have not done.

He gets testy almost immediately. Somehow this escalates into him getting extremely angry and repeatedly dropping F-bombs at me.

Afterward, I actually send him an apology. I tell him I clearly came across differently than I intended, that I was not trying to anger him, and that I would simply mark him down as not engaging us.

I figured that was the end of it.

Nope.

He sends me a long email saying I sounded like “someone’s Midwest mother,” that I went on a “Midwest accented Ned Flanders sounding condescending rant,” and then concludes:

“I assume you are autistic.”

At that point the whole thing was so absurd that I was no longer even mad.

I told him that in 10 years nobody had ever insulted me quite like that, that it was extremely unprofessional, but that I had to give him kudos for creativity because I genuinely chuckled at being called an autistic, Midwestern-accented Ned Flanders.

Then I wished him the best and sent him on his way.

Could I have worded one sentence better? Absolutely.

Did I expect an engagement agreement to end with F-bombs and a detailed comparison of my personality and regional accent to Ned Flanders?

I did not.

Public accounting is a magical profession.

Why does it seem like the talent coming out of Big 4 tax over the last decade has been declining in quality? Would love to hear from the younger accountants. Isn’t because of offshoring? Is it because there is enough tech that people aren’t in the weeds as much? Or have I just been unlucky in hiring processes?

Hi all,

I’m about 20 days out from writing my cpa core 1 exam. Does any one have any tips on what to study and how to study. I know that’s it FR heavy but how much of audit stuff should I be brushing up on. Tax? Finance?

I’m doing the MCQs for the ebook to brush up on previous unit topic but I’m not sure if that’s enough.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Interested to hear some stories. Anyone here just never interested in climbing the corporate ladder and felt like you earned enough as a staff/senior so never tried to advance?

My first recruiting event as a student is coming up and I’m really nervous as a lot of the companies I want to work for are going to be there. I apologize this is so broad but is there any go to you use ?

I'm wrapping up an engineering technology diploma in Calgary and heading into a business degree. Finance and accounting are both on the table and I'd rather hear it from people in the seat than from a program brochure.

1. What does a normal week actually look like early on? How much is building models, how much is pulling and cleaning data, how much is meetings?
2. How much of the work is forecasting and taking a view on where things go? I'm strong at organizing and documenting and much weaker at calling which direction something moves, so I'm trying to figure out whether that's a dealbreaker or something you learn.
3. What kind of person does well in finance and accounting, and what kind washes out?
4. For anyone who considered accounting and picked finance (or went the other way) — what made the call for you?
5. What do hours actually look like in a normal week, and how bad do the busy stretches get?
6. Once you're in, how competitive does it feel internally? Is it collaborative, or are you measured against the people beside you?
7. What's the realistic way in? Should I be aiming for internships starting second year, or is there something else that matters more?

If you got any advice I would love to hear it please let me know!

We have Copilot embedded into excel at work and it’s constantly trying to predict my formulas. I feel stressed trying to quickly type in my formula before copilot overtakes and if I don’t make it in time it often merges the two resulting in an error. GO AWAY

Edit: and yes I know you can turn it off, which I’ve done now. Just wanted to vent about how useless copilot is.

and ill die unemployed or atmost poor

I’m about to accept an offer from Siegfried coming in as a manager from Big 4. My SM gave me the advice that I should keep waiting for a potential in house role somewhere else but I don’t think I can gamble on that not working out ahead of busy season. My only real concern is transitioning out, wondering if anyone here that has worked at Siegfried could tell me anything about how easy/difficult it was to leave to in house after a few years there.