Coda Search│Staffing’s Post

Honestly, I believe that one of the main concern of every accountant dropping accounting is lack of support from the management to make him a better version of himself, in other words, it's extremely rare to find management giving responsibility and authority to the accountant make a critical thinking and creativity environment for him to outstand himself and when he does, no gratitude given to him, Ex. Giving him tasks to find out how he might lower the cost or increase the revenue along with his main responsibilities and more importantly to show appreciation for his fruitful ideas. I've been in more than 11 interviews where I keep hearing from the interviewers that I am "over qualified", just seeing that one of the management saying that, it means that the management lacks vision of investing in employees. Thus I always advice to stay away from accounting and head to FP&A

Based on my recent job hunt, I've got a few thoughts -- 1.) Stop requiring X number of years in a given industry. I've spent the last 5+ years working fractionally and bouncing between industries picking up everything I needed along the way. Part of the beauty of accounting is that the rules and ideas transfer easily. This was something they even told us in school. Trust us, we can pick up on the nuance of your industry while we work. 2.) Let people WFH. We all learned how well it worked during COVID and no one wants to commute for 3 hours a day especially in a city like L.A. Your prospective employees are talented and conscientious and can be trusted to stay on task even when they're not chained to a desk. 3.) Stop requiring CPA licensure. Your role doesn't need it, someone just told you it was a nice certification for your accountants to have (and it is), but you don't need it and especially if your salary range doesn't line up with it.

The lack of work life balance in accounting needs to be addressed. On paper, accountants make decent money. However, when you consider the expected/actual hours worked, the money is not all that great. Years of the endless grind of demanding month ends with unrealistic deadlines requiring extremely long hours, combined with the fairly mundane respective tasks month to month, year to year are a recipe for burnout. And asking about expected hours during an interview seems to be largely taboo. The accounting field seems to be for robots sometimes. I currently work for a company which allows me a work life balance even during month end. Work life balance is my number one priority at this stage of my life. If it were not for my current company, I would also be looking to leave this field or look into an FP&A role. Just my two cents as someone who is 25 years in and on the cusp of burnout from this career.

Long working hours & low salary encourages people to switch for FP&A

Allow for growth and development along with a decent salary and benefits. The starting salary for accounting is just one major problem not to mention many companies don't allow for a work-life balance.

Here's what companies can do to hire new grads, quit expecting 5+ years experience for entry level roles. They need to offer more internships or at least be willing to do some training. If they invest in us, we will invest in them. It took me 16 months to finally find a role in the accounting field. Now I have to bust my butt to prove myself and learn everything I possibly can so I'm not stuck at an entry level position and pay after spending 3 years in school. Companies are going to have to shift the way they hire and how they encourage people to go into accounting. They can offer sign-on bonuses or referral bonuses. Offer better benefits and pay. Make work/life balance a priority. Start making those changes now, not after they've had all their top talent retire.

After having been in this industry for over 20 years, I have been exposed to both public and private accounting roles. As a result of the decrease in talent, the expectations seem to be greater on one person. It seems like the roles available now expect what used to be the duties of two people to be that of one and for the same rate or less than prior to COVID. In addition, with the shortage, why has the compensation decreased?

Finding good candidates in one's accounting team is very important. I must say that I am very fortunate enough to have Fantabulous accounting team. Not only in accounting but throughout various departments most important things are - - Trust in your staff - Constant Cross training - flexibility during office hours - show them bigger picture like what happens beyond their completion of task - involve staff in critical thinking, listen to their ideas - less or no micromanaging

They can. They should also consider another pool of people. Not only graduates and young people. How about people who have been in the field for over 20 years that are currently unemployed. Many of them have kept up with the trends in accounting and in business. How about considering them?

Starts with improving the reputation of the accounting field. Shift the perspective of accounting from that of number crunchers to valuable business partners. Amplify the value of an accountant by including them in non-accounting discussions. Every transaction that has financial impact eventually comes the way of the accountant. Finally, companies should always recognize the great value of accountants by providing competitive salaries and a clear career growth pathway. Always remember this: An accountant can teach themselves in a very short period of time, to do what an FP&A professional does, but the reverse is not true without the help of an accountant