Undecided wrote: I'm about to pick my major for school and I just had some questions about the Accounting field.  I always hear that Accountants make good money, but how come everything I see puts Accountants at $50-60k average? I know that is above the average American's salary, but I was wondering how possible it was for an Accountant to make six figures (Are CPAs the ones who make the most?).  Also, how important is an MBA if you passed the CPA Exam? Is it something you should do just because it would only benefit you or is it really not worth it at all?  Thank you all in advance.

Take it from me as someone who has worked for the big 4, passed the CPA exam, etc.  You will start at about 50k (this will be slightly more in a larger city where its more expensive to live) in a Big 4 firm regardless of whether you have your CPA or not.  Your average first year manager at a big 4 probably makes 75k.  You have to have a CPA license to be promoted to audit manager in any CPA firm.  I did know a guy that was a tax manager that didn't have a CPA but had a juris doctorate of taxation.  Senior managers make about 120.  New partners make between 200 and 250k.  It takes 6 years to make manager and about 12 years to make partner.  I only knew one guy that had an MBA when I worked for PWC, so I'd say it isn't terribly important.

Hi, Lelik,

I'm at the Big 4 now and I work about 45-50 hours a week.

I guess some people are just bitter because they are not strong enough to deal with long hours and studying for the CPA exam.

Sacrifices and hard work are almost always precursors to future success.

There are those who try hard and those who cry about how bad it is so that others cannot succeed where the crybaby has failed.

I would say look at all the people that do get hired as well and look at both sides of the coin before concluding that accounting is a bad profession.

Lelik,

Yeah, good and bad everywhere

Certainly in CPA firms

That's why I moved from my old CPA firm to the Big Four