Public Accounting

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I have come to the conclusion that the public accounting industry is anti-aspergers. Firms within the industry, especially bigger firms like Deloitte and KPMG, discriminate against any person who shows any form of social restraint or awkwardness whatsoever with some exceptions (i.e. if you're an attractive female). The problem is these days with the economy the way it is, if you really want to be an accountant, you pretty much have to start out in public accounting. Major and mid-sized public accounting firms are the only ones who are willing to hire entry-level candidates right out of college. Most private companies, governments, and non-for-profit organizations only hire people who have been doing accounting for at least 7-10 years because they want someone who can hit the ground running with little to no training whatsoever, and there are plenty of those candidates out of work and searching for jobs. For the most part however, it has always been that way; you start out in public, work for a few years, possibly become a manager, and then get a position with a private company, government, etc.

The problem is in public accounting, one thing holds much more weight than anything else - how well you interact with others. Having a stellar resume will only get your foot in the door. If you're a guy, you have to work much harder to impress. You essentially have to be that "life of the party" type guy or else they weed you out. In fact, most public accounting firms design their interviews with the sole intention of weeding out the socially inept. If you make it to the 2nd round of interviews (usually following a campus interview or phone interview), you're usually invited to a pre-interview social at a place like a bowling ally or a sports bar. On the day of the interview, you're interacting with people from the whole chain of command. This includes going to lunch with a manager or two and some staff members. Every minute, from when you go to the pre-interview social to when you leave the office at the end of the interview and the moment you send your thank you letter(s), you are being evaluated. If you don't automatically click with the management and other staff members, they pass you over. The reason being is because what's going through a hiring manager's head is not how well you did in school or how sharp your technical skills and competency in accounting is, but how good of an image you will paint for the firm when you interact with clients. How you act around them reflects how you will act around clients or how much of a team player you will be. Worse yet is if you do get a job in public accounting, the higher up the chain of command you go, the more interactive you're expected to be. By more interactive, I mean they expect you to be able to go out into the public and seek out new clients, which involves stealing away clients of a firm who has been providing their accounting services for 20-something years.

I've been pursuing public accounting for some time now with little to no success. I even worked for a small CPA firm before I was canned because I turned out to not be a good fit for the firm. I love doing accounting and I know that I would be really good at any accounting job I would do on the technical side. I was one of the top students in my grad program and I was an active participant in my BAP chapter. I am outgoing in that I attend every social and volunteering event, and I've helped tutor lower level accounting students. I even passed the CPA exam on the first attempt, which is not an easy feat to do. I always go to networking events and am told I perform really well in interviews as far as answering questions and asking the right questions goes. Where I fail is being part of the "in-crowd" and being best buds with everyone around me to the point where we all go hang out and have a few beers every Friday night. That never seemed to be much of a problem where I have worked in the past, but apparently they make that a mandatory requirement in public accounting. Just being an "active participant" in social activities isn't enough unfortunately. I've decided it's time to give up pursuing public accounting and focus on a field that is more suitable to my interests and is more accepting of my personality.

Anyways, I just wanted to share this in case there are people on here looking to go into public accounting, can vouch for me, or have had different experiences.

I am truly astonished. Honestly I would have thought accounting to be more accepting. It shows my ignorance of the mechanics surrounding the paperwork that so many hold dear.

You are right on the money. I am a CPA who has found this to be true. I work for myself and am not well paid ( I have an out of state CPA license). I am also an enrolled agent. I can only do the best I can. My husband has a job with the post office which helps ( up to now at least). I have been canned by big and small firms for social stuff and executive functioning skills. I am 51 so it would be difficult to do something else.

I'm hearing how cutthroat working for a major accounting firm really is. You absolutely HAVE to be best buds with your superiors and fellow co-workers or else you will be quickly shafted. Management can give you bad evaluations if they simply don't like you.

Happened to me, I worked for PWC for a year and was shown the door. Haven't worked since.
In one case, the senior was dishonest, having me hold my schedule up for work that he said was on the way, but it turned out he had given my work to someone else. Made me look bad with both his manager and with the other engagement I was on.

It wasn't the right job for me, but I'm still hoping something in the field may end up being a fit for me. Accounting was a career change and I went into it in my 30s---it is probably too late for me to try and do anything else now. I occasionally get calls about possible jobs from the temp agency, and I do apply to jobs almost every week, but I'm lucky if I get one interview per month. I haven't worked for nearly two and a half years.

I have a CPA license but it's starting to look like I will never actually use it.

The economy is really bad where I'm at and I'm hoping that my wife and I can move sometime next year, but am worried that my gap in employment may keep me out of the job market.

That sounds like a job I would get if I wanted to build up some motivation to off myself.......so no accounting for me.

I wouldn't know I failed accounting in college when I was a business major. I did fine in more social classes like marketing and management, but failed at accounting. I just struggled to understand the balancing aspects of it. ADHD and accounting are not a great mix. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. I do better at more visual and social things then I do with math related things.

I work in a public accounting firm. I've had some social/communicative difficulties but I'm still there for some reason. My employers must be more understanding than most. It's not a big firm at all either (about 25 people).

Smaller firms are often less competitive and treat their employees better. I think they provide the best chance for someone on the spectrum to have a good career in public accounting.


The accounting job market is tough right now for everyone, and there is a lot of age bias especially with a lot of the firms. It is also really hard to get a job once you're out of school...a lot of the major employers recruit on campus and don't anywhere else for new hires.

I just had an interview yesterday but have already learned I didn't get it. I have another one tomorrow that I'm hopeful about, but I've been out of work since summer of 2009 so I cannot get my hopes up too much. It seems like these days once someone is out of work for a while they're just expected to go off and die somewhere.

Really hoping that some private company will give me a chance. I've pretty much given up on working for a firm again, which is probably best.

The media is still selling the idea that there are a lot of accounting jobs, but it was very hard hit by the recession, and hiring is still pretty flat especially at the entry level. If you look at places like CPAnet or other sites that are more within the profession you see a better representation of what the job market is really like, at least for new people. The best opportunities are for those who are still in school, after that a lot of doors close.

The IRS was another great place to start out, but they have perpetual budget problems and haven't hired anyone in about a year and a half--even when they do hire the competition is very tight and due to vet preference it can be very hard to get in if you are not a veteran. I've always kicked myself for not trying the IRS a few years ago when I was in school instead of messing around with the accounting firms. It was still pretty easy to get in back in 2007-2008.

I had an interview today that seemed to go well, so I'm hoping to finally get back to work, but I've been through this before over the past couple of years, so we will see.

On another forum, one person was asking about two offers he had in writing -- current MBA in Accounting deciding on a staff auditor job or asst director for school and said he also may have 3 other offers as well.

I have an MS in Finance, BA in Accounting and some relevant experience and can't even get a $12 an hour temp job anywhere

I worked for a mid sized public accounting firm for about 3 years. I definitely struggled and during my evaluations, they always told me that I needed to work on my communication skills. My company had a government contact doing Medicaid auditing, so the people I worked with were a little more down to earth, which helped. There were definitely some people that didn't understand me and judged me for being quiet and less social. I hated my job towards the end because they were constantly sending me out on the road (about 60-70%) and traveling definitely affects my sensitivities.

I thankfully got a job doing accounting for an insurance company and have been there for about 3 years. I have definitely liked it better than my public accounting job and am glad to not have to travel anymore. My issues with communicating affect me there, too, though, as I don't enjoy socializing as much as others and I'm not great in meeting settings. At one point I got stuck doing some more administrative type tasks, like depositing checks, which I didn't enjoy. Thankfully I have proved myself somewhat and that task was taken away from me. My managers value my work for the most part and I get to work on a variety of things. I've decided to go to grad school for accounting because I want my employer to take me more seriously and I also need more credit hours to work towards my CPA. I'm hoping that by getting my graduate degree I will be able to work on more challenging projects at my job. Am nervous about going back to school as I struggled some with undergrad even though I did well, but that's another topic...