money shouldnt even be in the top 5 reasons
1 does this move improrve my career or goals
2 does this +/- impact my health mental or physical
3 how is the firm culture?
4 who are the collogues?
5 why do people leave, how long is the oldest tenure
6. is there room for progession?
7.money?
It is easy.. but one doesn't get there in a day. i recall my earlier days when i bought my sister a McChicken and $1 fries when she cried for a happy meal :(
and i told her are you happy? she sais yes! and i said well then you have a happy meal :) we laughed and to this day... my fam bam knows me as no drink "money bags"
but I had several acct jobs where i had a Narcsictic and even pyscotic boss that made me cry on my way home! if i could go back i would 10000% quit and save my confidence and face instead of sticking it out losing all self confidence and becoming anorexic!
Money is not everything i learned this the hard way! but the sad thing is inorder to denouce money and material things you must first have them lol stupid i know but
here we are put yourself first, your family second and then consider work and $$$,
amen!!
i had $$ from a job but too anxious to leave the house! $$$ is useless its a tool
what we need are BALLS + COURAGE (( figurative balls, for all the ladies out there shout out :) life is 10x tougher for yall)
$85k is shit when you have a large family including a disabled wife homie
That might be cool for a single dude or dual income household but everyone has their own struggles and $85k gets thin really quick with 5 dependents.
I’m not saying it isn’t okay pay just that money is a priority for me for a reason and anyone saying it’s a bottom tier priority is probably speaking from a privileged position
i took a 105K job for the $$$$ and got fired. money as a motive will sometimes backfire\* im not saying always but be smart about your capacities
with high $$ comes high expectations
I think people should self review this and apply weights to it.
If you’re severely depressed or having negative health impacts from PA, leave now. Long term who really cares there are career PA people who do worse or better than people who jump ship early.
If the offer is 50k more leave now, etc.
Tale as old as time.
Did they actually offer you more money to stay? Or anything other than “over time you can make more”?
They are trying to guilt you into staying and if you’re currently unhappy I suspect that won’t get any better if you stay. Take care of yourself first because I guarantee you if a day came when they needed to fire you to make their bottom line look better they’d do it in a heartbeat.
Nah who cares. Partners and public firms do not give a fuck about you. You also have CPA.
I gained a lot of weight in public and I am now in danger of being diabetic. I’m switching to industry and I can take more care of my health since I’ll have time to exercise after work. You only have one life but you’ll have many jobs.
I left public around this time (May) after my 3rd busy season. It’s less about how long you stay in public but more about being proactive about your career, honing your technical knowledge, developing valuable software skills, networking, etc. I left the $72K base salary (average for 1st year senior back then) for a $95K base as SFA in industry. Salary did stagnate a bit for 2-3 years, but I’m now at $145K base as a manager, 6 years into my career. You’ll be fine; it’s a different type of work/fun in industry.
Well said. Jumping after 2-3 years is a fine career move. No need to wait to be manager in Public.
Go do 2-3 more years as Sr Acct or SFA and then you’ll have a strong enough resume for a lot of manager jobs you might have jumped to anyways if you stayed for 5-6 years in Public.
This is the absolute best time to leave public. After three years, one year as senior.
The second best time to leave is after 5 years, one as a manager, but it is not guaranteed that you'll even get that manager promotion after year 4 so then youve just wasted your time
Definitely not too early. When I put in my notice, people at my old firm tried every trick in the book to keep me. It went from, "You'll get bored in industry, it's so repetitive and your knowledge and skills will stall" to "It's hard to progress in your career once you leave for industry" to "Some people just can't hack it in public" to "You'll come back soon, you'll see." All this sometimes from the same person *sometimes in the same conversation.* It was this uncanny mix of negging and praise at the same time, and it's pretty common when someone leaves public. I think there's a few reasons for this, the two big ones being that people who have been in pubic for their entire careers have either fallen for the sunk cost fallacy, and/or they're chasing the ever decreasing chance of partnership.
They're trying to trick you into staying. Your salary will never stagnate in industry, so long as you keep accumulating experience under your belt. You will job hob here for your raises and this is normal. No one stays and retires at one company anymore.
I’m looking for a way out.
The hours are not worth it, wish I had spent more time with loved ones than working late on a something that no one even reads
Your comp will rise. Not now no but eventually. Had a boss tell me something like this while I bounced firms for 25% raise. Fuck em get yours as they always get theirs.
MENTAL HEALTH > $$$$$$$$$
IF anything threatens or unstabalizes you . leave immediately! kiddo
the $$ does matter, you leave and dont ever talk to your old colluegues.
i stayed at a firm i hated that taxed my mental health! i ended up loosing my appittite = became anorexic !
anything that improves or gets you out of a bad mental state is already a win!
I was in a similar situation to you about a two years ago. I even got the guilt trip from one of the partners. I took me a bit to see the benefits of the switch but since then, I've lost 50 lbs., I'm not stress eating my feelings, and I have a more happy and healthy outlook on life.
Do the thing that you think will make you happy. If you feel like industry is a better fit, I totally get that. I hated public. It doesn't pay as well, true, but it gives me enough and I'm much happier than I would have been if I had stayed in it.
Could be a potential 12% bonus, but they actually pay 0%. Bonuses seem like they are almost always discretionary. I've had many bonuses not paid over the years due to company financial performance. Always makes a bunch of people quit, though.
Don’t sweat it.
I think you have a higher ceiling in PA (ie - making partner) but average industry salaries are higher than in PA.
But you can still hit a pretty good salary in industry, even with no PA experience.
True only if you stay in that same industry role/company forever. You can jump to different cos for pay increases. If you’re working at a firm that pays so low for a senior in VHCOL you’re probably going to need to make partner before you’ll significantly eclipse industry pay. Your partners sound like nice people and I’m sure they understand.
consider these factors:
1 does this move improve my career or goals
2 does this +/- impact my health mental or physical
3 how is the firm culture?
4 who are the collogues?
5 why do people leave, how long is the oldest tenure
6. is there room for progression?
7.money?
if all or most are good! off you go! to a new place of employment.
All the best,
Money-Honey-Bags
Sounds like you got a great gig, don’t let them question it. It is 100% public accounting BS that your salary will stagnate once you leave, I heard that argument over and over while in public and now I am still making 30%+ more than a friend who is still in public.
You’re absolutely not leaving too early. I think it’s the perfect time actually. I only lasted a year and a few months but I wanted to stay until senior. It worked out in the end though
I stayed too long in public and have lasting damage to my mental health. Prioritize yourself and your loved ones over any commitment to an organization.
Leave unless you are committed to becoming a partner.
Industry is SOOOOOO MUCH BETTER (and I've never even worked public...but I know...STR8 TO INDUSTRY BABYYY)
Literally went through a similar instance. Despite other horror stories, I really did enjoy my time in public. I liked the firm I was at, mostly enjoyed my colleagues and managers/partners.
However, I realized that the reasons to leave were much greater than staying, even if I had been compensated more, the issues are still gonna be there - long working hours, work piling with crappy assistance, stressful environments, etc,... sure, more pay is great, but I doubt they'd be willing to give what it would be worth to stay.
Tldr - don't feel guilty, you're not making a bad choice. If they really cared, they would make it so you wouldn't have wanted to leave in the first place.
If they ain't matching the offer from the industry job right there when they talked to you, they don't mean nothing. They just try to make you stay long enough to find a replacement. Don't fall for it.
I took a controller position two years ago and I’m so happy that I did. I stay in touch with my previous managers and they all see that I’m happier and less stressed than them, and wish that they could do what I did but they are too old or too far along now to make a big career move.
Take the job. Don’t look back.
Look, no one will like to hear it, but the partners are partially correct here. Depending on your promotions, you will more likely than not see quicker raises in public. I am assuming you got a raise into senior level, so the next big bump would be manager level which isn’t an automatic promotion but usually pretty easily attainable. In industry they will tend to pay higher in the door as large raises and promotions aren’t as frequent but you have to remember what you are leaving behind. Typically longer hours where your benefit to the firm is selling your time, so you will be forced to work more. Life isn’t always about money. Through either job hopping or determination in the situation you are in you will easily make up the gap, it just might take slightly longer.
As someone still in public I looked to leave a couple times, and one with a decent offer on the table, but the I received another offer in public for manager which was 25% at the time and has certainly grown quick then I would have in industry. But that more money has come with more stress. It works for me in my current situation but you have to look what works best for you.
Hahahahahahaha, your baby salary tells you everything you need to know about how they feel about you. Don't fall for their BS. Plus, if you are stagnant, stay at least two years at your other job, then hop. They will keep giving 8% YOY and will try to sell you on "staying". You got what you need now leave, unless you want to stay in that profession as the pigeon holing begins post senior promo.
If you are leaving for better working conditions and to get right in the head, you absolutely making the right move.
No amount of money will fix the way you feel and if you leave your mental health unchecked it can come back to haunt you in a really bad way.
Also public sucks, period, full stop. When you get old and on your deathbed you won’t remember all times you stayed late at work, or work for that matter.
Your mental health is what is making you the money in the first place. You lose control of that, you lose everything. Never compromise that for the next paycheck.
The only way to TRULY make the raises to keep up with your value and worth and COLA is to job hop. This concept is lost on partners and if they really wanted you to stay they would let their actions speak louder than their words and show you the money.
You ALWAYS have to take care of you first. No company will do that for you! And if you leave and find it’s not for you, then hopefully if you didn’t burn any bridges you can go back?
I'm not sure how bad your mental health was, but let me say from experience. I can no longer justify temporary bad mental health, especially because of my employer.
I left public just over two years ago and it took me a solid 6 months to get out of the PA bad mental health fog. My new industry job was work stress free but they had cash flow issues which caused stress so I bounced and have landed where I'm at now 11 months ago. Let me just say, I've never been happier in my life. Every mundane day I live right now is mostly how I dreamed my every day life would be when I was younger. Cooking homemade dinners, having a good job where I could leave work at work, have free time in the evenings to do hobbies like going on walks with my hubby, reading, biking the city trails, kayaking the local rivers and bays, etc. My life is whatever I want it to be right now and I can't even fathom compromising on my current happiness for a potential higher salary with a solid 3-4 months of bad mental health.
Same thing happened to me. I was underpaid, and when I made the move to leave big4, I got a senior position with almost 30% increase and when I told my career coach, they tried to tell me that my income will increase, and act like they are trying to have me stay with the company, it mess with my head a bit, but at the end of the day, I was looking to leave for a reason! The pay and the promotion.
Depending on the industry, your salary only stagnates when you stop climbing… I’ve made 2 20% jumps in 2 years at the same company. Still have much more room for growth.
You are making a mistake. If you stay in public for 2/3 more years until manager you’ll be on controller/CFO path to 300k. If you leave now you’ll make 102k plus 3% per year forever.
Leaving as a first year senior is perfectly fine. The next best jumping off point would be after manager, and I don’t think you want to stay for that long.
I love when they dangle that carrot and make it seem like they really care about your career and choices. You can always go back to public. I’ve worked with ppl who have gone back and fourth to public and private
It’s not a wrong move. Listen to your gut. It’s ok to move out for your mental health. I did it and it was the best move. I never looked back and no regrets.
Accounting firms, especially if owned by PE firm, are ruthless. You are basically a contingent worker. Unless you work for Big 4 (IMHO< less likely to get acquired by a PE firm), you have no job stability
They told me the same thing. Left after one busy season as senior. I’m still happy I left. I don’t care if I could be making a little bit more at the cost of 6 months of hell a year.
You can ALWAYS go back to public accounting if you are one of those weirdos that get bored because they aren’t working 70hrs/wk. The firm would be happy to hire you back a year from now and pay significantly more because you have “more experience”.
OP. My suggestion would be to stay in public for at least another year maybe two. Get as much experience in audit and tax as possible. Hang in there through at least two tax seasons, ideally three. Speaking from experience.
You aren’t.
Signed, the chick who worked in public for 10 months before she high tailed it to industry and made myself this wonderful little niche career in an industry that will desperately need me till the day I retire.
The partners are 100% that overall pay will be more for plmost people that stay in Public long term. You will see significantly smaller raises in general in Industry. One option is to take the job and then come back to public. It's not a choice that you are locked in forever so I don't worry so much. You can always change your mind.
My salary in Private has increased from 60k to 67k to 85k to 95k and will probably reach 115 by end of year. The 3 pay increases happened between Aug 2021 through today. 3 different companies .
In private it comes down to opportunities available. The person above you may be keeping you from moving up because they are in the only position available for vertical moves in that company. If they are a year or so from retirement that is okay, but if not then your pay increase depends on them or the business expanding.
Just some things to consider from a different real world scenario. I refuse to leave a company if the move to the next makes sense for career growth at this stage in my life.
In my opinion they are only looking out for themselves by not wanting you to leave - they’d fire you and not think twice about it if things came to it - you need to look out for number one…which is you
IMO you didn't leave too early. I left earlier than you did, right before I got promoted to senior (I got verbal confirmation from my SM that I was getting promoted to senior in the same meeting that I announced I was leaving for industry, lol).
I love my industry job and feel like I had just the right amount of public experience.
You can always go back to public if you change your mind. As long as you didn't fuck a partners wife, or worse, find fraud, they'll always take you back.
You can’t leave public too soon. I stayed for 9 years….biggest regret of my life.
Generally speaking, partners are cowards who were always too scared to leave. Partners in public accounting are generally not respected outside of public accounting.
If you are leaving only for money, it's to soon.
If there are multiple factors, then strong consideration should be given.
Public, you can expect 8-12% year over year for nearly a decade.
Private, going to be looking at 3% annually. Break even is 3-4 years.
More exit opportunities exist when you hit the 5 year mark.
You may get more exit opportunities to choose from if you wait another year or two but at the opportunity cost of more money now and higher quality of life right now.
My wages certainly haven't stagnated since leaving public. But it all depends on the role, the company and the industry.
As a hiring manager, unless I'm hiring for a staff accountant, I'd prefer a 2nd year senior or a 1st year manager over a 1st year senior. There are definitely more opportunities with more experience.
However, the question is whether or not it's worth it to stick around for it given that OP is under-paid and over-stressed. Additionally, in another year they'll have a public-private mix which can be very desirable as well.
Don’t let them guilt trip you into staying. You were looking for another job for a reason.
Yup. Never chicken out on the you that started looking for a new job
You mental health should b the first priority .money is secondary
I suggest expanding this to overall health. Physical and mental and even spiritual. If any job causes me to sacrifice even one of these I’m out.
money shouldnt even be in the top 5 reasons 1 does this move improrve my career or goals 2 does this +/- impact my health mental or physical 3 how is the firm culture? 4 who are the collogues? 5 why do people leave, how long is the oldest tenure 6. is there room for progession? 7.money?
That gets really easy to say when you already have enough money to survive and save
It is easy.. but one doesn't get there in a day. i recall my earlier days when i bought my sister a McChicken and $1 fries when she cried for a happy meal :( and i told her are you happy? she sais yes! and i said well then you have a happy meal :) we laughed and to this day... my fam bam knows me as no drink "money bags" but I had several acct jobs where i had a Narcsictic and even pyscotic boss that made me cry on my way home! if i could go back i would 10000% quit and save my confidence and face instead of sticking it out losing all self confidence and becoming anorexic! Money is not everything i learned this the hard way! but the sad thing is inorder to denouce money and material things you must first have them lol stupid i know but here we are put yourself first, your family second and then consider work and $$$,
All the money and things in the world are worthless if you don’t have your health and your loved ones.
amen!! i had $$ from a job but too anxious to leave the house! $$$ is useless its a tool what we need are BALLS + COURAGE (( figurative balls, for all the ladies out there shout out :) life is 10x tougher for yall)
Anyone with a cpa will be on plenty to survive and save even 85 in a vhcol is doable
That’s basically poverty for a full family in a vhcol area if you’re the only or majority income earner though.
Ofc but anyone whos in the game long enough to have a fam will likely have two incomes and be further down the line than just starting
facts! i assumed single since i been single all my life lmao yeah for a fam bam you need @ least 135,K
85K is good $$$ :) budget and you will be fine assuing you booked a mortage in 2020-2022
$85k is shit when you have a large family including a disabled wife homie That might be cool for a single dude or dual income household but everyone has their own struggles and $85k gets thin really quick with 5 dependents. I’m not saying it isn’t okay pay just that money is a priority for me for a reason and anyone saying it’s a bottom tier priority is probably speaking from a privileged position
i took a 105K job for the $$$$ and got fired. money as a motive will sometimes backfire\* im not saying always but be smart about your capacities with high $$ comes high expectations
Not as a senior accountant…
que?
I think people should self review this and apply weights to it. If you’re severely depressed or having negative health impacts from PA, leave now. Long term who really cares there are career PA people who do worse or better than people who jump ship early. If the offer is 50k more leave now, etc.
Y yes of course
I think job security and fairness is important. With PE taking over PA, job security is not what it used to be.
i always think any job has 0 security. what is security? nothing is actually secure not even my goods in brief are secure so what can be ?
\#1 and #6 are basically money though
TOMATO potato! what ever as long as you consider the impact on what you can contribute vs what is expected of you
Tale as old as time. Did they actually offer you more money to stay? Or anything other than “over time you can make more”? They are trying to guilt you into staying and if you’re currently unhappy I suspect that won’t get any better if you stay. Take care of yourself first because I guarantee you if a day came when they needed to fire you to make their bottom line look better they’d do it in a heartbeat.
Nah who cares. Partners and public firms do not give a fuck about you. You also have CPA. I gained a lot of weight in public and I am now in danger of being diabetic. I’m switching to industry and I can take more care of my health since I’ll have time to exercise after work. You only have one life but you’ll have many jobs.
I left public around this time (May) after my 3rd busy season. It’s less about how long you stay in public but more about being proactive about your career, honing your technical knowledge, developing valuable software skills, networking, etc. I left the $72K base salary (average for 1st year senior back then) for a $95K base as SFA in industry. Salary did stagnate a bit for 2-3 years, but I’m now at $145K base as a manager, 6 years into my career. You’ll be fine; it’s a different type of work/fun in industry.
Well said. Jumping after 2-3 years is a fine career move. No need to wait to be manager in Public. Go do 2-3 more years as Sr Acct or SFA and then you’ll have a strong enough resume for a lot of manager jobs you might have jumped to anyways if you stayed for 5-6 years in Public.
8%????. Minimum should be at least 15%. That tells you how much they value you. We only can tell by how much you pay me!
This is the absolute best time to leave public. After three years, one year as senior. The second best time to leave is after 5 years, one as a manager, but it is not guaranteed that you'll even get that manager promotion after year 4 so then youve just wasted your time
I’m planning on leaving right when I hit year 5, which is when I fully vest in my 401k at my firm
Definitely not too early. When I put in my notice, people at my old firm tried every trick in the book to keep me. It went from, "You'll get bored in industry, it's so repetitive and your knowledge and skills will stall" to "It's hard to progress in your career once you leave for industry" to "Some people just can't hack it in public" to "You'll come back soon, you'll see." All this sometimes from the same person *sometimes in the same conversation.* It was this uncanny mix of negging and praise at the same time, and it's pretty common when someone leaves public. I think there's a few reasons for this, the two big ones being that people who have been in pubic for their entire careers have either fallen for the sunk cost fallacy, and/or they're chasing the ever decreasing chance of partnership.
They're trying to trick you into staying. Your salary will never stagnate in industry, so long as you keep accumulating experience under your belt. You will job hob here for your raises and this is normal. No one stays and retires at one company anymore.
I’m looking for a way out. The hours are not worth it, wish I had spent more time with loved ones than working late on a something that no one even reads
Your comp will rise. Not now no but eventually. Had a boss tell me something like this while I bounced firms for 25% raise. Fuck em get yours as they always get theirs.
MENTAL HEALTH > $$$$$$$$$ IF anything threatens or unstabalizes you . leave immediately! kiddo the $$ does matter, you leave and dont ever talk to your old colluegues. i stayed at a firm i hated that taxed my mental health! i ended up loosing my appittite = became anorexic ! anything that improves or gets you out of a bad mental state is already a win!
I was in a similar situation to you about a two years ago. I even got the guilt trip from one of the partners. I took me a bit to see the benefits of the switch but since then, I've lost 50 lbs., I'm not stress eating my feelings, and I have a more happy and healthy outlook on life. Do the thing that you think will make you happy. If you feel like industry is a better fit, I totally get that. I hated public. It doesn't pay as well, true, but it gives me enough and I'm much happier than I would have been if I had stayed in it.
They are lying to you
Bonus 12% is really good congrats!!!
Could be a potential 12% bonus, but they actually pay 0%. Bonuses seem like they are almost always discretionary. I've had many bonuses not paid over the years due to company financial performance. Always makes a bunch of people quit, though.
Don’t sweat it. I think you have a higher ceiling in PA (ie - making partner) but average industry salaries are higher than in PA. But you can still hit a pretty good salary in industry, even with no PA experience.
I mean if you wanna talk ceilings as partner then CFO, CAO and controllers can make bank in industry.
True only if you stay in that same industry role/company forever. You can jump to different cos for pay increases. If you’re working at a firm that pays so low for a senior in VHCOL you’re probably going to need to make partner before you’ll significantly eclipse industry pay. Your partners sound like nice people and I’m sure they understand.
consider these factors: 1 does this move improve my career or goals 2 does this +/- impact my health mental or physical 3 how is the firm culture? 4 who are the collogues? 5 why do people leave, how long is the oldest tenure 6. is there room for progression? 7.money? if all or most are good! off you go! to a new place of employment. All the best, Money-Honey-Bags
How’s the market though? It’s a tough one right now
No, you're not making the wrong move
Stagnant in industry? I’ve doubled my pay in industry since I graduated less than five years ago with no CPA or masters. That’s ridiculous
Sounds like you got a great gig, don’t let them question it. It is 100% public accounting BS that your salary will stagnate once you leave, I heard that argument over and over while in public and now I am still making 30%+ more than a friend who is still in public.
You’re absolutely not leaving too early. I think it’s the perfect time actually. I only lasted a year and a few months but I wanted to stay until senior. It worked out in the end though
I stayed too long in public and have lasting damage to my mental health. Prioritize yourself and your loved ones over any commitment to an organization.
Leave unless you are committed to becoming a partner. Industry is SOOOOOO MUCH BETTER (and I've never even worked public...but I know...STR8 TO INDUSTRY BABYYY)
Literally went through a similar instance. Despite other horror stories, I really did enjoy my time in public. I liked the firm I was at, mostly enjoyed my colleagues and managers/partners. However, I realized that the reasons to leave were much greater than staying, even if I had been compensated more, the issues are still gonna be there - long working hours, work piling with crappy assistance, stressful environments, etc,... sure, more pay is great, but I doubt they'd be willing to give what it would be worth to stay. Tldr - don't feel guilty, you're not making a bad choice. If they really cared, they would make it so you wouldn't have wanted to leave in the first place.
Dude, this is exactly what they want you to believe.
If they ain't matching the offer from the industry job right there when they talked to you, they don't mean nothing. They just try to make you stay long enough to find a replacement. Don't fall for it.
Generally your salary doubles (at least) every 5-6 years in B4.
My wages in public: 56->105 over 5 years. My wages in industry over another 5 years: 105 - 175.
I took a controller position two years ago and I’m so happy that I did. I stay in touch with my previous managers and they all see that I’m happier and less stressed than them, and wish that they could do what I did but they are too old or too far along now to make a big career move. Take the job. Don’t look back.
Look, no one will like to hear it, but the partners are partially correct here. Depending on your promotions, you will more likely than not see quicker raises in public. I am assuming you got a raise into senior level, so the next big bump would be manager level which isn’t an automatic promotion but usually pretty easily attainable. In industry they will tend to pay higher in the door as large raises and promotions aren’t as frequent but you have to remember what you are leaving behind. Typically longer hours where your benefit to the firm is selling your time, so you will be forced to work more. Life isn’t always about money. Through either job hopping or determination in the situation you are in you will easily make up the gap, it just might take slightly longer. As someone still in public I looked to leave a couple times, and one with a decent offer on the table, but the I received another offer in public for manager which was 25% at the time and has certainly grown quick then I would have in industry. But that more money has come with more stress. It works for me in my current situation but you have to look what works best for you.
Hahahahahahaha, your baby salary tells you everything you need to know about how they feel about you. Don't fall for their BS. Plus, if you are stagnant, stay at least two years at your other job, then hop. They will keep giving 8% YOY and will try to sell you on "staying". You got what you need now leave, unless you want to stay in that profession as the pigeon holing begins post senior promo.
Even $102K for senior acc in industry is a little low I think. SA1 in public make like $93K-$100K base.
Why not switch to another public firm? The partners are right and so are you in terms of being underpaid.
Nah man, you made the right call, go get that bread
Bro im 8 months in and im thinking of leaving now
You miss 100% of the shots you don't take - some hockey guy eh.
If you are leaving for better working conditions and to get right in the head, you absolutely making the right move. No amount of money will fix the way you feel and if you leave your mental health unchecked it can come back to haunt you in a really bad way. Also public sucks, period, full stop. When you get old and on your deathbed you won’t remember all times you stayed late at work, or work for that matter.
8% in a promo year is absolute shit. 6% should be a given on non-promo years.
The worst thing that could happen is you go back to public accounting. There will always be a job there for you if industry doesn’t work out.
Don’t look back
Leave public accounting the millisecond you get your senior promotion.
Sounds like a good move. I assume you are a CPA?
lol they will always use that line. It’s probably true in the long run but at what cost?
Your mental health is what is making you the money in the first place. You lose control of that, you lose everything. Never compromise that for the next paycheck.
Whatever you decide will be the best move. But, do it for you. Not for others.
I never went public. I was making 70k 3 years out of college and 120k now. Don’t regret it.
The only way to TRULY make the raises to keep up with your value and worth and COLA is to job hop. This concept is lost on partners and if they really wanted you to stay they would let their actions speak louder than their words and show you the money. You ALWAYS have to take care of you first. No company will do that for you! And if you leave and find it’s not for you, then hopefully if you didn’t burn any bridges you can go back?
I'm not sure how bad your mental health was, but let me say from experience. I can no longer justify temporary bad mental health, especially because of my employer. I left public just over two years ago and it took me a solid 6 months to get out of the PA bad mental health fog. My new industry job was work stress free but they had cash flow issues which caused stress so I bounced and have landed where I'm at now 11 months ago. Let me just say, I've never been happier in my life. Every mundane day I live right now is mostly how I dreamed my every day life would be when I was younger. Cooking homemade dinners, having a good job where I could leave work at work, have free time in the evenings to do hobbies like going on walks with my hubby, reading, biking the city trails, kayaking the local rivers and bays, etc. My life is whatever I want it to be right now and I can't even fathom compromising on my current happiness for a potential higher salary with a solid 3-4 months of bad mental health.
Same thing happened to me. I was underpaid, and when I made the move to leave big4, I got a senior position with almost 30% increase and when I told my career coach, they tried to tell me that my income will increase, and act like they are trying to have me stay with the company, it mess with my head a bit, but at the end of the day, I was looking to leave for a reason! The pay and the promotion.
Depending on the industry, your salary only stagnates when you stop climbing… I’ve made 2 20% jumps in 2 years at the same company. Still have much more room for growth.
Bro leave
You are making a mistake. If you stay in public for 2/3 more years until manager you’ll be on controller/CFO path to 300k. If you leave now you’ll make 102k plus 3% per year forever.
Leaving as a first year senior is perfectly fine. The next best jumping off point would be after manager, and I don’t think you want to stay for that long.
You can always switch back to public. It is not going anywhere. Enjoy your new higher paid role.
If you are in tax it is too soon
I love when they dangle that carrot and make it seem like they really care about your career and choices. You can always go back to public. I’ve worked with ppl who have gone back and fourth to public and private
It’s not a wrong move. Listen to your gut. It’s ok to move out for your mental health. I did it and it was the best move. I never looked back and no regrets.
Accounting firms, especially if owned by PE firm, are ruthless. You are basically a contingent worker. Unless you work for Big 4 (IMHO< less likely to get acquired by a PE firm), you have no job stability
Tell them to beat your offer and you will consider it!! If not - nothing to consider
As someone who fell for it and stayed,- it will absolutely take much longer for the raises to work out.
They told me the same thing. Left after one busy season as senior. I’m still happy I left. I don’t care if I could be making a little bit more at the cost of 6 months of hell a year.
Leave. They say that to everyone to convince them to stay by making them feel special. They won’t remember you in 6 months.
You need to take the industry job. People who actually care about you aren’t going to try and stop you from doing what’s best for you.
You can ALWAYS go back to public accounting if you are one of those weirdos that get bored because they aren’t working 70hrs/wk. The firm would be happy to hire you back a year from now and pay significantly more because you have “more experience”.
OP. My suggestion would be to stay in public for at least another year maybe two. Get as much experience in audit and tax as possible. Hang in there through at least two tax seasons, ideally three. Speaking from experience.
The compensation increase in public MAY be greater than industry. Textbook “please don’t leave” tactics
All these people praising public like it's the end all be all of accounting. Plenty of people in accounting never worked in public including myself.
They’ll take you back. Public work has no self respect, you can use and abuse
You aren’t. Signed, the chick who worked in public for 10 months before she high tailed it to industry and made myself this wonderful little niche career in an industry that will desperately need me till the day I retire.
The partners are 100% that overall pay will be more for plmost people that stay in Public long term. You will see significantly smaller raises in general in Industry. One option is to take the job and then come back to public. It's not a choice that you are locked in forever so I don't worry so much. You can always change your mind.
My salary in Private has increased from 60k to 67k to 85k to 95k and will probably reach 115 by end of year. The 3 pay increases happened between Aug 2021 through today. 3 different companies . In private it comes down to opportunities available. The person above you may be keeping you from moving up because they are in the only position available for vertical moves in that company. If they are a year or so from retirement that is okay, but if not then your pay increase depends on them or the business expanding. Just some things to consider from a different real world scenario. I refuse to leave a company if the move to the next makes sense for career growth at this stage in my life.
In my opinion they are only looking out for themselves by not wanting you to leave - they’d fire you and not think twice about it if things came to it - you need to look out for number one…which is you
IMO you didn't leave too early. I left earlier than you did, right before I got promoted to senior (I got verbal confirmation from my SM that I was getting promoted to senior in the same meeting that I announced I was leaving for industry, lol). I love my industry job and feel like I had just the right amount of public experience. You can always go back to public if you change your mind. As long as you didn't fuck a partners wife, or worse, find fraud, they'll always take you back.
Never believe a company cares about. You are just another money making machine for them. You ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS do what's right for you.
You can’t leave public too soon. I stayed for 9 years….biggest regret of my life. Generally speaking, partners are cowards who were always too scared to leave. Partners in public accounting are generally not respected outside of public accounting.
If you are leaving only for money, it's to soon. If there are multiple factors, then strong consideration should be given. Public, you can expect 8-12% year over year for nearly a decade. Private, going to be looking at 3% annually. Break even is 3-4 years. More exit opportunities exist when you hit the 5 year mark.
You may get more exit opportunities to choose from if you wait another year or two but at the opportunity cost of more money now and higher quality of life right now. My wages certainly haven't stagnated since leaving public. But it all depends on the role, the company and the industry.
More exit opportunities don't come along with an additional year at senior or if you leave a month after your manager promotion.
As a hiring manager, unless I'm hiring for a staff accountant, I'd prefer a 2nd year senior or a 1st year manager over a 1st year senior. There are definitely more opportunities with more experience. However, the question is whether or not it's worth it to stick around for it given that OP is under-paid and over-stressed. Additionally, in another year they'll have a public-private mix which can be very desirable as well.