Accounting for a Detoured Economist

The Anonymous Accountant (TAA) recently wrote a post declaring his hatred of his new big four employment position.

Lately, I have been somewhat too disillusioned by the accounting profession to bring myself to right about it. Two months in, and I really HATE public accounting. I started off with a positive, “gotta pay your dues” attitude. Everyone does. But it wears thin not long after your training.

It seems that the long hours and brutal working environment are beginning to take there toll.

After all, if what I have to look forward to is 60-70 hr weeks planning and supervising audits for what DEFINITELY is the LOWEST salary for someone putting in those kind of hrs, then hope feeds quite quickly. One senior told me everyone starts off thinking that they will do their 5-6 yrs, get to the Manager level and then leave. This too fades, and you begin to understand why so many leave after getting their designation.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Although I have openly questioned the work hours of public auditors…I think TAA isn’t taking into account the non-immediate compensation that is being earned by all that work. A person taking a job at a big four firm generally knows that the hours suck and the pay is sub-par. People accept this because they know once they have put in a few years and get their designation/CPA they have soo many doors open for them that it makes the ordeal a painful right of passage to a luxurious and rewarding career in corporate accounting, finance, or upper management. I don’t feel bad for those who accept that path. You made the choice…the information was available to let you know what a pain in the ass it is…and you chose to take that path anyway. If you are a rational person, then you weighed the costs and benefits and decided a job at a big four firm was the optimal path at the time of the choice.

The problem TAA is experiencing is what I like to call the ‘time discount factor of pleasure and pain’. Immediate pain is always worse then pain sometime in the future. The farther in the future the pain is expected the less a person’s decision are effected by it. The same theory works for pleasure. TAA is feeling lots of pain at the moment and all of the pleasure that TAA will be rewarded with is so far in the future that, although the volume of pleasure is likely to be drastically more rewarding then the pain it is being paid with, TAA can not see why all of the long hours and monotony are worth it. They may not be…but TAA should have explored that possibility before taking a job that requires soo much from it’s employees.

For me a big-four job, especially on the terms that TAA is complaining about, is not worth it…and I would never take a job with one of the big firms. I work for a regional firm and love it. The hours suck some months…but most months are reasonable. We don’t audit fortune 100 companies…but then again, when I audit a company I know all the pieces of that companies business. I don’t spend 2 months auditing assets without any idea how any of it ties in with cash, debt, risk management, etc. I like my job as an auditor…and remember, this is coming from an economics PhD that dropped out and took a job as an auditor as a filler until I figured out what I want to do with my career. I very likely will remain an auditor for the remainder of my working life. If TAA doesn’t like his job, that doesn’t mean that he dislikes auditing….just like a bad girlfriend shouldn’t dissuade you from dating another girl.

Chin up ole’ chap.

Update: Novembers CFO magazine has an article about financial professionals seeking the perfect fit.

Cut to the West Coast, where Ashley Spencer has a different attitude toward her job search. On a whim, the newly minted CPA flew from Portland, Oregon, to New Zealand and spent six weeks touring after leaving PricewaterhouseCoopers following her fourth audit season. Still not ready to work, the 25-year-old spent the next two months attending weddings and visiting friends, expecting that employers would probably move quickly once they saw her résumé.

Four audit seasons and Ashley is dictating her job terms. Pretty sweet. Most people don’t have such luxuries in job choices.

Krupo recently mentioned a topic I have been thinking about lately. “Why does getting an important document you need for an audit take so long to get?” Anyone who has spent a few months auditing knows this scenario. You ask for a simple bank statement, reconciliation, schedule or answers to an analytical workpaper and it takes the client all day to get it to you. Krupo has noticed that many times the lack of immediacy of a reply is not due to the massive workload of the client…

If the person you’re waiting for is working with other people, maybe it’s because they spent half the day chit-chatting.

…if you want something done, sit next to the person who owes you the information until you get it. You may think standing is a good option but it’s not - you’ll get tired, and they’re probably sitting. Make yourself comfortable - that way they know they won’t be able to stall you out by dragging out their response with myriad stalling tactics.

Heck yeah! I do a fair share of government agency audits…so let me tell you from ample experience how correct Krupo is. I have taken to bringing my laptop to the desk of my contact and working in front of them until I get the information I need to continue my work. Client’s hate auditors hovering! If they insist on continuing there non-work conversations I just keep asking for more info. Every few minutes I am at their desk waiting for my documents I ask for a new piece of information. Eventually they get the hint. I don’t hate down-time…breaks are a good thing…but some people take 15 breaks a day. When I am depending on them to complete my audit…and they know it…and they go on with there leisurely work schedule it makes me mad. I already work many more hours then the client knows on their audit….Saturdays…nights…Holidays…while I am at other jobs…to get THEIR audit done. Every minute they stall my work means I spend one less minute with my new baby on Saturday….to hell with that!

When my company prepares for an audit we send the client a 7 to 10 page list of items we will need. If I walk into the client’s office and they have a stack of stuff waiting for me, then they will probably not have to deal with me for 85% of the time I am at their offices. But people that organized usually aren’t the type of people that chit-chat all day…so the point is rather moot.

Client’s aren’t the only time stealers at a job-site. Other auditors can kill your productivity as well. I bring an ipod to every job. In the morning I usually get to the clients site, turn on and set up my laptop, say pleasant morning greetings to my co-workers, and put the earbuds in. I do this so that chit-chat with my coworkers is kept to a minimum. It’s not that I don’t like my co-workers….quite the contrary, most of them are amiable, pleasant, and interesting…but if I talk to them at the job or listen to their stories I find that my Saturday and night workload increases proportionally to the length of those conversation. So the ipod actually makes me multiple times more productive by eliminating distracting time stealing conversations. It sounds anti-social, I know, but it’s the truth.

The last major time stealer is the damn internet…this blog is a prime example…I love to hear a client has internet access for me when I am at their site….but the lure is such a strong pull. I can’t seem to stop myself from checking email, blog comments, news, and various other internet distracters a few times a day. I am getting better about this…but this time stealer is my weakness.