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Which Type of Accountant do I Want to Be: Private versus Public Accounting

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For all accounting majors one tough decision each of us must make before graduation is whether or not we want to work in private or public accounting. The usual question that we always bring up is which one makes the most money? Well, that question should hold little importance. The more important questions are what kind of opportunities will each career path open up in the field of accounting and whether or not you personally feel that the public accounting lifestyle is the right fit for you. Public accounting involves the accounting work one does for another company. The “Big Four” are the most recognized companies by college students that deal with public accounting services and public accountants perform services not only for …show more content…

There are even benefits for working in one of the bigger public accounting firms as well a middle size firm. The “Big Four” searches throughout all campuses to find the best candidates and this can be very good if you feel that not only can you compete with the best, but shine above them all as well. There’s also this stereotype that public accounting is made out to be dull and boring and usually all you do is sit in a cubical with very little communication going on. I feel that this is misleading because public accountants tend to be doing a lot of work for more than one company, which keeps the job interesting and can even lead to many other potential opportunities for networking. Another benefit for public accounting is that there are larger projects that require you to work in a team which I feel is an essential experience when trying to apply for higher positions. While working within a public accounting company it is not unusual to rise up to a higher level position after two or three years of experience. If you are able to stay within one public firm for a long time, you can then become a partner which is a position that holds a large salary. Many employees of the “Big Four” companies are not even able to stay within the company for the first year in a lot of cases. The public accounting firms are known to have employees work over a forty hour week period which at times can be too much for people to handle. Very

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