Lessons learned in a decade of accounting, Part 2

Last time I checked in, I shared my personal (and complex) journey through the world of accounting. We touched on the path of public accounting; now, let’s talk about what it looks like to run the corporate accounting and start-up paths. 
 
Starting off in public accounting, you are constantly hounded by recruiters persuading you to try the other side of accounting by jumping ship and going into the corporate world. In public accounting, they would tell you that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. To a certain extent, they were right, it’s not always greener, but I think we’re really comparing apples and oranges here.   

I started off my corporate accounting career with a public company and later transitioned to a small start-up company, both providing vastly different experiences.   

Public Company Experience  

When I worked for the public company, my job was very structured. I had a task list that I needed to complete every month, quarter, or year. For some people, that’s ideal; you get to manage your time and deliverables because you already know what they are going to be well ahead of time. The only time you get thrown a curveball is 1) a process changes or 2) another department/process that you rely on doesn’t provide you with the information you need on a timely basis and a workaround procedure is suddenly needed. Although the latter can be infuriating, in the grand scheme of things, it’s much more relaxed than anything I faced in public accounting. In terms of innovation on current processes, public companies are more resistant to sweeping changes because there’s inherent risk in changing an entire procedure, even if that procedure ultimately creates efficiency.  

Another challenge is dealing with office politics (every company has this to varying degrees). In public accounting, promotions are often time-gated, meaning that after X years you get promoted from associate to senior, and Y years later you get promoted to manager, and so on. Most of the time, you will not get promoted early for being an overachiever in public accounting; it seems like the exact opposite of what you are told by your supervisors and partners, but it seems to be true more often than not.  

If you’re a senior corporate accountant and you work for an accounting manager and the company hasn’t grown enough to warrant multiple accounting managers, you don’t get promoted. You wait until a vacant seat is there to fill the role. In other words, progression isn’t as systematic as it is in public accounting. It can work against you or in your favor, depending on your organization’s turnover rate. I’ve seen people turn into VP of Finance or CFO quicker than some people can make it to partner, but that’s not always the case. 

Start-Up Experience  

After being with a public company with all of its standard reporting and mandatory deadlines, I wanted a work environment that was more flexible. That’s why I decided to choose a start-up. The experience is totally different. You may be the only person in your accounting department. During my time at a start-up, I was a one-stop shop for everything accounting from AP/AR all the way up to investor reporting. We weren’t as strict in our reporting standards because we didn’t have to follow strict US GAAP and therefore the environment was much more relaxed. There was more work schedule flexibility; I was able to take a longer lunch to go work out and come back to finish off my day. Don’t get me wrong, this is possible in a larger public company too. However, it was much easier to do in my experience in a start-up, especially if you’re managing the entire department, you’re on your own schedule. 

You may think that this sounds great, so what’s the problem? The problem is that being the only person capable of doing any of the accounting work meant the buck stopped with me. In addition, processes weren’t fleshed out, which meant that the information I received needed to be validated multiple times to ensure that I was reporting the appropriate numbers correctly. Things were generally messier and less structured, which led to more stress. Lastly, in a start-up you often wear all the hats. At my start-up, I was in charge of accounting, finance, HR/payroll, as well as the de-facto office manager and event planner. This is very typical because in my experience, accounting and finance is not a full-time job in a start-up company, there’s just not enough activity to keep you busy for 40 hours a week. 

In both corporate accounting and the start-up world, my work-life balance was much better than it was in public accounting by a large margin. I was also getting paid more money than my counterparts in public accounting, both in terms of overall salary and in terms of hourly rate. 

TL;DR: My overall opinion of corporate accounting is that I understand the appeal of it. In both instances, the environment was more relaxed compared to public accounting. Both had a decent work-life balance, but both were a little too slow paced for my liking. If you’re looking for slightly more autonomy and a less defined job role, I would choose the start-up.  If you’re looking for something where you’re a small part in a much bigger machine, choose a public company. 

Next time, I will dive into my path with Zeroed-In (bias warning) and the way we have taken the best of many worlds to create something truly unique for our employees and clients.