Switching Industries from Public Accounting

Hi all, I’ve been in public accounting my entire post-college career (a little over 8 years now) and while I’ve advanced, I can’t see myself in public my whole life. The work isn’t all that stimulating anymore (much of it is compliance-oriented) and the industry has become stale for me. In an effort to diversify my skills and hopefully make myself more marketable, I started working on the charter in 2008 when I passed L1. Wandered in the wilderness for a while and then failed L2 in 2012. Took and passed L2 this June, and my committment to be as prepared as posible to pass L3 in 2015 is strong.

Was wondering if anyone else here has a public accounting background and could offer any advice on making the jump to financial services. I was thinking that a role in fund accounting or something like that would get my foot in the door and from there I could transition to a more finance-oriented role. It would almost certainly mean a pay and perks cut in the short-term but it would be the right thing to do for the long-term.

Thoughts/comments are definitely appreciated.

It’s doable, but it will take A LOT of networking, hustle, and patience. Years of patience to ultimately get to where you want. I am proof.

Can you give us a summary of what kind of networking you did, how did you hustle, etc?

Thanks for the advice JBrowntown. One hurdle I’m trying to overcome is that I tend to get pegged as an auditor, and people only want to talk to me about auditing positions, which I’m not interested in. I’m talking mostly about recruiters, and this is one reason I stopped talking to them a few months ago.

How close are you to a partner position at 8 years?

Yeah if you can get partner forget switching the grass ain’t always greener

One of the partners in my firm and I have discussed him transitioning out and me taking over his book of business. This could happen within the next 5-10 years I think. I’ve brought in some clients, but my book is not big enough to support me making partner by itself.

Like I said in the original post though, it’s not lack of opportunity for advancement that makes me want to get out of public accounting. I just don’t find the work that enjoyable anymore and busy season is becoming more and more of a drag, and I don’t even have a family to take care of.

I also have aspirations to travel and possibly work overseas and feel like some experience in finance and having the charter will be more beneficial towards my international marketability compared with staying the course in public accounting.

After college, if I had chosen employment with a Big 4ish firm, rather than go independent, then I may not have switched over to finance. Becoming partner, rather, equity partner is something to behold. There, you make low-to-high mid-six figures.

To make the jump from accounting to finance, it is like starting over from scratch. You are a CPA? That’s nice, they’ll say. It may give you some cred. May not. I had to go out and meet with every firm in my area. (A couple dozen). See what they do. Are they hiring? Do they know anyone I should talk to? What can I do to help them?

You may have to start out a financial advisor (as I did), selling financial products and services. Keep networking and keep an eye out for analyst, trader, etc. positions. Once you have a foot in the door, then do very well in the role and keep hustling, looking for the next step up. Become familiar with hiring managers and let them know you are interested in roles for which they supervise. Hopefully, eventually, you will make good contacts, keep them in your loop, and opportunities may pop up for which you may be a candidate.

It has taken me since 2007 to finally become a finalist candidate for roles that I have targeted from the beginning.

^ Great post and advice.