Okay, why ignore the obvious cons. Here they are:
- Work-life balance: This job really isn't for those who have a strong family structure with whom you want to spend all your time. This is not to say there aren't several people who do manage their family life (they have flex work programs for those not wanting the crazy hours but, of course, then your compensation is reflective of that as well), but the point is, it really can be a challenge to keep up with your personal commitments. First off, you pretty much don't exist to your friends and families during January - March (I wouldn't say you work crazy busy hours ALL throughout those months, but you def. work more than 50 hours through most of it. I think depending on your client's deadline, you do work upwards of 80 hours for about 2 weeks or so). After that, you have your quarters (not totally crazy but have the potential to be busier than usual), then SOX work, then interim, and let's not even mention all the special little projects that your clients spring on you when they're going through acquisitions, IPOs, etc. The two direct contributors to the horrible hours are [1] inefficient clients who, for the most part, have no clue what they're doing and are usually busy playing mind games with you and [2] inefficiency within the audit teams. Let's face it, auditors aren't perfect either. Sometimes, I feel like it's the blind leading the blind because you have a bunch of young auditors set loose with minimal instructions trying to figure out how to do an audit contrasted by a bunch of clients who are probably resentful of the fact that a 20-something is asking them questions about their job and seems pretty clueless doing it. There tends to be a lot of "spinning-the-wheel" between managers making unrealistic budgets way early in the year, inexperienced associates usually working on areas with little guidance and a huge communication gap that tends to cause panics esp. near deadline times. And sure, most of this can be mitigated by our leaders and clients' leaders sitting down and coming up with a unified approach to the whole process and associates and seniors and managers being realistic and constantly keeping in touch with expectations (and yes, I've seen it happen on some occasions) but the sad truth is that more often than not, people get zoned in on their areas and lose focus of the big picture, and hence, end up working longer hours.
- Compensation: So speaking of those crazy clients who seemingly don't know what they're talking about. Imagine how you will feel when you find out that they probably make a good 20% to 50% more than you and work less than you. It sucks! But as I said before, public accounting, as decent their pay may be (well, not so decent compared to the hours you put in), can't compete with their counterparts in the industry world. So there's a trade-off. You won't get the learning experience that you do in public accounting anywhere else and it's true what they say that your learning starts to plateau once you enter industry, but then again, maybe that supposed "lack of learning" won't matter when you're going home at about 5 every day, enjoying time with your friends and family and are making about $20K+ more than you would in public accounting.
- Clueless leadership: So I counter this con with my earlier pro about good leadership. The point is, yes, you do have some really smart managers and partners out there who are willing to help you out. But the flip side is also that most partners and managers care about the bottom line - "Were you able to file on time while not breaking the budget?" If you can manage to do that, you're gold. Of course, it doesn't matter the sacrifice it took for your associates staying later and on weekends and other issues that tend to arise in these situations. Sometimes, it takes a lot of prodding before the partners realize there's an issue. They tend to commit to clients' expectations before even checking to see if their team has the capacity to fulfill those needs.
