In the spring a young auditor’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of a new job
Of the group of new hires I started with at this company, 50% are now gone (one of them was fired during the middle of busy season - we think. No one really knows what happened.). Of those one year ahead of me when I started, 50% have also left the company this year. One of my coworkers just announced this week they are switching to another firm, thus prompting this post.
I know high turnover is a fact of life in public accounting but it is a different thing to be living it first hand. Kind of scary to see how quickly things change. We will be getting a bunch of new hires in the fall, and then maybe next year we'll lose some of our first years that we hired last fall already.
In a way, it's good for those of us left behind - more work to go around. To some extent, it seems you can get ahead in the firm just by sticking around long enough. One of my professors actually did some interesting research on whether the people who end up sticking around the longest at audit firms are actually the best people to be auditors. Do the people who self-select out due to boredom, or promises of higher salaries, actually have better auditing skills than those left behind? Of course, as the last few people to "quit" were very strongly encouraged to do so, one cannot underperform and keep the job just by showing up to work every day.
The other thing turnover makes you think of are the potential jobs available out there. Are there better jobs than I currently have? How much more would I get paid if I switched firms? For me, my current firm is still proving to be a good fit for me. I could probably get myself a small pay raise by switching firms, as that seems like a way some people raise their own salaries faster, but I don't think it would be a big enough pay raise to make much of a difference at this point. Basically, all CPA firms in the city pay new hires very similar salaries, so it takes a few years for significant differences in salary levels to be created.
Any thoughts of sticking with a firm longer, vs switching jobs every few years to ratchet up your salary?
May 10th, 2012 - 02:32
Well for me, as long as you love what you are doing, you should stick to it because if you continue switching to another every couple of years, you wouldn’t be happy with it..
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May 13th, 2012 - 08:48
The firm is more likely to help you get your CPA certification if you stay with the firm at least 2 years. To me the problem of leapfrogging firms is that the grass is never greener at the next firm, meaning you’re starting over again at the associate level. Stay 4-5 years and get a controller position in private or 6-8 years and get a decent CFO position. To me it is worth staying in public until you have kids and real responsibilities and travel and stress is no longer wanted. Personally, I’m clinging very desperately to the idea I may become privileged to become partner some day.
May 13th, 2012 - 11:00
I do think that the raise would have to be quite high to think about switching firms, since you would have to lose ground on things like knowing who you work best with at the firm, having clients you know really well (making the job run smoother), knowing how the firm likes to do things.
There are some firms (not mine) where the firm is not growing enough to justify adding new partners from their management pool, and if I were in that situation, I would definitely think hard about switching public firms.
Kellen recently posted..In the spring a young auditor’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of a new job
May 14th, 2012 - 09:30
*puts on professor hat*
It depends on two things: 1. the returns to firm-specific human capital (that is, is the company special in a way that learning how to do things the company way is way more productive than learning how to do things a general way– is what they’re teaching you useful to other firms or just their firm) and 2. monitoring costs which can create an incentive for Lazear-type contracts in which you are paid less than your marginal product early on, and more than your marginal product later (so you’re more afraid of getting fired).
My sister works at a large multinational company famous for its hiring only from within and for their specific corporate culture. She’s making money hand over fist with just the one company. She could move to another company in the industry for a one time bump in her salary, but her regular increases wouldn’t be as steep in the future. I work for a public university and most of what I do is portable to other universities and my productivity is easy to measure in terms of grants, publications, and citations. I would make a lot more if I were willing to move around.
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May 21st, 2012 - 22:10
I work for a public university and most of what I do is portable to other universities and my productivity is easy to measure in terms of grants, publications, and citations. I would make a lot more if I were willing to move around. Thanks for sharing.