Innovative Practice Management

I never dreamt of pursuing a career in public accounting. I chose the major because the classes actually challenged me and I thought it would provide the most initial job stability out of college while in search of my “dream job.”

Like many accounting graduates, my first “real” job out of college was as a staff auditor at a Big Four firm. Everything looked good: my paycheck, my resume, my wardrobe. It didn’t feel very good though, and I don’t think there could ever be enough training week “hospitalities” or late night firm-sponsored meals hunched over my laptop in a crowded audit room to ever make it feel good.

When you’re surrounded 12 hours a day by “like-minded,” “career-driven” people all rationalizing that a 60 hour work week makes perfect sense; it becomes hard to think for yourself, or see that there is more out there. As tempting as it was to have $800,000 in annual compensation dangled in front of me as my future earnings potential as a partner in a Big 4 firm, having the message delivered by a 50 year old, overweight man going through a divorce was kind of a deal breaker.

I could see the attempt at creating and marketing “work-life” balance programs dreamt up by HR departments no where to be found after 4:59pm, but there remains so much stigma attached to participating in these programs that they remain little more than propaganda for recruiting purposes.

I don’t believe the purpose of this blog is to criticize the Big Four, but to promote positive change and idea sharing for the entire profession. So rather than encourage additional Big Four alumni to pitch in their two cents on why they left and why they’re glad they left (there’s already enough of those websites out there), I welcome stories of people who have chosen to stay and how they make it work for them, or at least ideas that they think could work in larger firms to retain the talented professionals that these firms hire in the first place.

If the large, public accounting firms took all the time and energy they spend convincing their employees that their firm’s status quo is the greatest bureaucratic creation of all time and threatening that by leaving before being promoted to manager, you were bound to end up in a cardboard box down by the river, or worse, in a cubicle for the rest of your life, and devoted that energy to conducting an open dialogue with their staff on ways to make the culture better, I don’t think we would have quite the “talent shortage”. In some instances I believe people choose to stay not because they are happy, but because they are afraid to leave and then perpetuate the negative culture. In other instances, I fear this “talent shortage” is being worsened by “talent wastage” via the exodus from public accounting to industry where brilliant minds are performing repetitive accounting clerk tasks in exchange for some personal and family time. For the most part, I liked my coworkers, liked my clients, and liked the work in the Big Four … I just didn’t like being labeled lazy or stupid for wanting to enjoy all that life has to offer, so I took my chances with the cardboard box.

I’ve been with my new firm for 5 months now, and have reached the point where I can’t imagine working anywhere else. I can’t imagine finding a place with more flexibility, respect for individuality, and personal freedom combined with the daily tasks and challenges that keep my mind engaged. Public accounting could quite possibly be my “dream job.” Now how do we make it this way for everyone?