How to Choose the Right Accounting Career Path

The accounting industry is tremendously diverse, with numerous career paths available. Choosing the right accounting career for you is all about your personality, your goals, and how you want to engage with the company you work for.

One of the biggest choices you need to make is whether you want to go the public or private route. Private industry accounting jobs involve working in the accounting department of corporations or other organizations and helping them succeed. Public accounting, on the other hand, involves working for an accounting firm and working with a range of different businesses on a regular basis.

Both public and private accounting positions have a good employment outlook and very similar compensation. Having said that, salaries can vary widely depending on your level of experience, the size of the organization you work for, and what part of the country you’re located in. Fortunately, there are plenty of accounting jobs to choose from, so you can find the right one for you.

To help you find your path, here are some of the best career paths in both public and private accounting:

Public Accounting Career Paths

In public accounting, you’re going to be working with an accounting firm to offer external services to other businesses. Because you serve many companies as clients, the work is often more varied and may involve travel to visit clients at their location. For some accountants, this is a huge perk. For others, it’s a deal-breaker. 

As a public accountant, you’re likely to be specializing in one of a few different services. Audit is a major specialty for public accounting since external auditors are required for public companies. If you enjoy digging deep into the books and looking for issues, audit may be a good path for you.

Tax is another big area for public accounting firms. If tax work appeals to you, a public firm could be a great place to specialize and use your tax planning and preparation skills to help multiple clients.

Consulting and management accounting is another possible career path in public firms. If you enjoy problem-solving and applying your accounting knowledge to the bigger business picture, you could be well-suited for this role.

All three of these areas give opportunities for public accountants to start in an entry-level role and work their way up the ladder. Experience and continuing education can take you from junior to senior account, up through management, and even to the partner level if that’s your goal.

One final, lesser-known focus in public accounting firms is forensic accounting. Many public firms have a forensic division where accountants dig into fraud and financial crimes and may regularly serve as expert witnesses at trial. Forensic accountants are also employed by government organizations like the FBI and the SEC. Who said accounting was boring?

Private Accounting Career Paths

Working in private industry typically involves working for one company as a part of their accounting department. These jobs are usually more consistent, with steady hours and little to no travel. If you’d like to work with a specific company or in a particular industry, private accounting may be for you.

With an entire accounting team around you, many private accountants get to specialize in one area of the accounting function. For instance, you could be focused on AR/AP or payroll functions. 

As part of the accounting team, you’ll be responsible for daily, monthly, and yearly processes in the accounting cycle, whether that’s entering and verifying transactions, making journal entries, compiling financial statements, or contributing to the month-end close process.

If you enjoy contributing to a team and watching your efforts make a difference over time, you’re probably cut out for an accounting career in private industry. And, of course, there’s a huge range of companies and they all need accountants. You can choose to work in any industry and the abundance of accounting jobs lets you work in any region for a company that really interests you.

Private industry jobs offer great upward mobility too. Like public accounting, you’ll likely come into an entry-level role. This could be a clerk or staff accountant spot. Over time, you can work your way up to senior accountant, accounting manager, or controller. If you’ve got your eye on the C-suite, you’ll be happy to know that many CFOs worked their way up through the ranks of the accounting department.   

Conclusion

The right accounting career path is the one that fits your needs. Whether you like to travel and work with a different business each week or stay in one place and contribute to one company for years, accounting has plenty of options.

One great thing about the accounting industry is that both public and private jobs have very similar education requirements. You’ve got the opportunity to take either path and make a change down the road. It’s really all about finding the best fit for you and gaining the experience you need to move up to your ideal role. 

Mike Whitmire is Co-founder and CEO of FloQast, an accounting close management software company headquartered in Los Angeles. The company works closely with a range of organizations of varying scope and size, helping them to close their books more quickly, efficiently, and accurately.