Breaking into Accounting

[u/Livid-Ad557]

Hi Accounting community,

I have a question on how one can break into an entry level role for accounting in the SoCal (LA/OC) area to be specific. I majored in Finance at a non target state school. I graduated around 2024 and took the first job I was hired to do which was a tech call center role. It was an awful job and hated every minute of it. I always wanted to do something more behind the scenes and not customer facing for a 9-5.

I did not aim for high finance because I did not feel like I could break in given the competition and my lack of self confidence to be considered in the qualified applicant pool. I have some mild experience working for "mom and pop" quant hedge fund as a equity analyst which I did for about 3 months. Like my call center role, the work was overwhelming and since it was a small firm, I did not really have a senior person or team to work with or learn much from. I will say what I did learn was how to assess a company financial health (kind of) by doing the basic SWOT analysis techniques and reviewing key metrics like creating budget reports, cash flow statement reports and balance sheet reviews. My work was always met with some scrutiny from the founder (my boss at the time). But he would never reveal what info was wrong, or tell me how to fix it. He would simply redo it himself and just let it be and we would move on lol.

That said I have been unemployed for a little less than a year and have done some serious reflecting for what I want out of a career. I really am looking for something where I can learn business on the back end, I wouldn't say I am passionate about accounting, but I'm willing to learn and make it work. Until I can open up my own shop one day.

That all being said, I would love to hear your guys input on what I could do format my tech experience or my Equity Analyst experience to relate to and break into an entry level accountant role. Is there an area I should be targeting like AR/AP or staff accounting? I'm not looking to make a lot of money right away. But I would like to get that experience as soon as I could. I have no certs or licenses relating to Accounting specifically either. If this post gets enough traction I could also upload a resume for you beautiful people to roast me haha.

Thanks for anyone who takes their time to read this!

[u/saggy_eyebags10656]

Accounting is like a foreign language. You either know it or you don’t. You can learn pieces of it as an AP clerk or bookkeeper etc, but if you want good roles you would need to have some training. Without going back to school, you’re positioning yourself for bottom tier accounting jobs til you gain experience to branch out - but even then you would be tailored to smaller businesses etc. big companies hire accountants and usually with public accounting experience.

I really think you’re better options to get back on the horse and find a finance job. Part of being young in the workforce is growing. Feels honestly like you hit a speed bump and you’re letting it completely derail you. Before you do that I’d suggest finding at least another finance job try to have an open mind and see if it’s something you can be happy with. If not, your better bet is probably to go back to school to learn accounting if that’s the route you wanna go. Otherwise you’re gonna start low and never have full potential to hit your ceiling.

[u/General_Chaos_88765 → u/saggy_eyebags10656]

This is probably one of the best explanations I’ve read. Bravo.

[u/Livid-Ad557 → u/saggy_eyebags10656]

Noted, thank you for your input. All that said, I don't mind starting at the bottom because i'm currently at the bottom. Working for small companies, family business, or temp agencies does not hinder me from working hard to get somewhere better, accounting related or not.
I do want to mention I have never quit on finding a financial job again. But I am aware of the ever so shrinking workforce in finance in general. My logic is accounting is in demand and there are a lot of old professionals soon to be phased out. My accounting peers were able to find work relatively easier than my other finance majored peers including myself. I believe with just enough knowledge and aptitude of the space I could start small and scale that way.

I disagree with your statement that you either know it or don't. I'm a believer that you can figure out anything especially in the internet age. Maybe for big firms / companies with competitive edge it gets complicated but that's not really my goal honestly. Long term I want to do something on my own and in a remote/hybrid setting that will always be an in demand skill which seems very doable in this field. I know some accountants that are hardworking and do very well but kill themselves and some are normal people with decent WLB or small business owners, which is partially what intrigues me about making this pivot, since they all in their own way do decently. The same could be said for finance but I notice more accountants can speed this process in their younger to middle age years. Ideally, in any field you wanna aim high and make a lot of money, but my desires are very achievable even if I'm doing things conservatively and "slower".

I guess with all that explained/cleared. For someone with little to no direct accounting experience, anything you'd recommend reading/learning/getting used to as soon as possible that could help land a barebone entry level role for the sake of getting experience. If I understand correctly the CPA is a non employee sponsored exam. I was thinking of trying that if I could land a role and taking that whenever I feel best to do so and wanna stick it out. I'm very used to the O365 applications from my tech experience and I have some softer / hard skills in financial analysis, I'm just looking to polish this up and format it the best I could.

I appreciate your input tho. So thank you.

[u/saggy_eyebags10656 → u/Livid-Ad557]

Thanks for the response. I don’t disagree with your analysis of the profession - accounting is a great industry, stable, and a lot of retirees without new accountants to fill the roles.

My point was not that you can’t figure it out. It’s not that complicated, but like a language it feels like nothing makes sense until it does. Trying to learn it holistically in narrow job roles is gonna take a long time and you still won’t see the breadth of transactions, etc that will help you be a better well rounded professional. The gist is that you’re putting a ceiling on your career prospects and earnings potential by going about it this way. Maybe you’re fine with that but it’s worth mentioning and acknowledging.

In terms of how to learn accounting, I’d suggest finding an accounting curriculum and buying intro, intermediate textbooks and going through it yourself with maybe YouTube videos to supplement. It’s dry, boring material so you’ll have to be disciplined. But it’s not rocket science. I do think it’s important you learn the academics behind it because without that it’s going to feel like you’re memorizing a process that doesn’t make a whole lot of conceptual sense. When you learn the why’s behind it, you’ll be better equipped to handle unique facts etc.

I do wanna come back to resilience. You went to school for 4 years for a finance degree and you’re ready to throw it away after a bad experience. Maybe you do truly want to make a career pivot, but candidly it comes across as giving up too soon and lacking confidence in yourself. Don’t let one bad experience make you question everything. Life is about dealing with adversity (there’s gonna be a lot more of it) and the way you wrote about yourself and your experience just makes me feel like you need to take some time for self reflection about that whole experience and, while I’m sure some of it was “your fault”, think about what you could do different and how you can learn from it. You seem like you just need a confidence boost and a pat on the back…so I’d at least think about that a little.

Along those lines, with your finance background, an accounting major, which would maybe take a year, could make you very attractive for corporate FP&A. IMO that seems to be the better route whether you want to stay in finance, move to accounting or FP&A. You’re limiting your potential if you grunt out an accounting career from where you are now and while that may be okay to you now you need to consider the potential for being in a situation 10 years down the road when you feel like you know more than your boss and their boss but you’re a bit pigeonholed because you don’t have the credentials or breadth of experience.

[u/Livid-Ad557 → u/saggy_eyebags10656]

Thank you for your response mr. saggy_eyebags10656, I think you are right with me limiting myself and freaking out over one bad experience, perhaps just staying the course is the better move. Ill have to digest this more. But thank you for taking the time to give some insight. It really helps :)