Survey: What Was the Salary at Your First Accounting Job?

Posted on October 15, 2014 by Caleb Newquist

If you remember, that is. Personally, I do. The job was with a boutique CPA firm and they offered, and I accepted, $43k. This was 2003.

I imagine most people vividly remember their first job's salary. The feel of the paper it was printed on or the person who called with the news. But the number, number, comma, followed by three zeros that fell in line behind the dollar sign, that's the detail that trumps all. It's such a paramount moment in a young 20-something's life to get that first job out of college; I'd be surprised to meet someone who doesn't have a slew of memories about the events that led up to that first job offer. Sure, once the green washes off, it's easy to trivialize your giddiness about that first salary, but you can tell by reading the new hire threads that those kids are wet-their-pants excited.

Which is why we're sharing with you this story of a Notre Dame professor who's collecting data on first full-time positions for people who obtained accounting degrees.

Her name is Jennifer Stevens and she is an Assistant Professor at University of Notre Dame's Mendoza School of Business. She claims to be "an accountant all the way" because she has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from Miami University (OH), plus a Ph.D. in accounting from The Ohio State University.

After obtaining her master's she worked in fraud and forensic accounting for EY in Chicago. She then joined a boutique consulting firm, Alvarez & Marsal. Dr. Stevens says that she enjoyed the corporate world, but "I am glad I returned to academia. I absolutely love my job (and football season)."

And before you start, she doesn't get summers off, she spends them doing research. Which brings us to the survey. Dr. Stevens is interested in studying the labor market for accountants. She hopes to build on prior work done in labor economics and "investigate the unique complexities related to our profession."

The survey takes less than 1 minute to complete so if you could fill it out, we'd appreciate it. And be sure to share the link with your accounting friends, colleagues, bosses, grandbosses, great-grandbosses, etc. etc. so the data and conclusions reached can be added to the profession's understanding of the labor market for accounting graduates.

We appreciate your participation. No, really.

Let’s Finally Talk About How Much Money You Can Make In Advisory

Adrienne Gonzalez
June 20, 2011

Somehow I find myself pulling the Accounting Career Emergencies rabbit out of my hat (or, as I like to say, “Decide My Life For Me: GC Edition”) and for once it has absolutely nothing to do with the CPA exam. We get yelled at all the time for focusing too much on tax and audit and not enough on advisory, so now’s your chance to start the discussion.

Though this question ended up in my inbox, it’s obvious that it was directed at you, dear Going Concern readers:

There is a lot of discussion on GC about the compensation for the audit and tax arms of the B4, but I don’t remember seeing much on what the strategic advisory/consulting branches of the B4 can expect in compensation as one rises through the ranks. It is pretty much assumed that compensation is much better on the performance and strategic side of the business but can you lay it out what is expected at each level?

I know different markets will pay at different rates, so a general range would be appreciated. I expect for associates in all branches to start in the same general range between $45,000-$58,000 but at what point in the chain of command does advisory compensation really separate itself compared to audit and tax?

Signed,

New Advisory Associate

First off, you’re right that we don’t discuss advisory that often but we do discuss it when we can, dependent on how many emails like yours we get and whether anyone in the advisory family has embarrassed themselves enough to warrant a note to us telling us all about it. If you’re playing along at home, that’s a strong hint that we’d talk about other areas besides tax and audit more often if more of you non-tax-and-audit folk contributed to the conversation. This is a good start, keep it going.

Anyway, based on comments left here and there around this site, the separation between audit/tax and advisory is not so much defined by dollars but by quality of life. What good is making more (or less) money if you’re miserable and overworked doing it? So before you look at how much more (or less) you’ll end up making than your cohorts in audit and tax, it’s appropriate to look at how much having a life is worth to you. So keep that in perspective while you are trying to figure out just how much you can make and when.

While you’re waiting around for useful comments from the GC miscreants, we were able to dig up a useful discussion on the Wall Street Oasis forum that will give you some actual numbers (though the validity of those numbers is apparently up for debate). That’s a starting point, and puts you at 65K out the gate, average. Since we’re getting that information from the Internet, let’s be conservative and say 60. This doesn’t help much as you already knew as much.

You might want to check out this GC thread (granted it’s two years old) and see if you get any better numbers there. With 311 comments, chances are you’ll get your answer, or at least a reasonable ballpark to aim for.

Cue to comments from the advisory bad asses out there who have been dying to see a column all about them. Now’s your time – especially those loyal soldiers who have put in a few years – to shine. Or blow smoke up each other’s asses to see who spins the most unbelievable compensation tale. I’m cool with either but please, help your soon-to-be advisory brother.