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Subject Topic: Firms that audit cities and governments (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post ReplyPost New Topic
  
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keith905
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Posted: 23 Jul 2009 at 12:21 | IP Logged  

Has anyone began their career in auditing governments and non-profit companies?  Is there a future in it?  What jobs could I get afterwards in this type of auditing?
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camustaha
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Posted: 23 Jul 2009 at 19:25 | IP Logged  

I am about to start my career with a small CPA firm that only perform audits for city governments and not for profits and I have the same questions as you. I hope people who have been through what we are about to go through can advice us.

 

What I can tell you is that the auditing procedures for government and companies is not that different and so I am hoping that after I do a government audit for a year or so I can then switch to auditing companies and by the time I completely exit public accounting I would have enough experience to tap in to a job in industry or open my own practice.

 

Off course this is what I am thinking now, who knows what will happen in the future. I have decide to take this government/not-for-profit audit for now and then hopefully later on it will open other doors.



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keith905
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Posted: 24 Jul 2009 at 11:42 | IP Logged  

I believe that if you work in the non-profit/gov industry, you would have to start over in the private/public industry.  Maybe not as a new hire but at least as a year as an associate. 

But what my concern is since I have already worked in a large national firm is by going over to the gov. side, what kind of opportunities would be available in I decide to leave?
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gigi2008
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Posted: 24 Jul 2009 at 20:18 | IP Logged  

I started my career with a CPA firm which conducts audit for local government and non-profit.  Since then, all the positons I have held are related to local governments, school, university and non-profit.  I never have any problems finding a job.  I know a lot of people don't want to work for government or non-profit, but I am happy with my choice because I always have 40 hours work week, excellent benefits, fair salary (in my opinion).  People complaints about how difficult to find a job out there in this kind of economy, but I had no problem landing a job that I wanted, as matter of fact, I got 4 job offers at the same time.  I still receive recruiters phone calls asked me if I am interesed in some of the postions they are recriting.

I guess what I am trying to say is when you look for a job, ask yourself what is your long term goal.  Government/non-profit job is not always a bad choice.  

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vicky
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Posted: 25 Jul 2009 at 10:23 | IP Logged  

Audit is audit. I am an auditor for the government. If anything, auditing government/non-profits may be more complicated than some of the regular public stuff. The Single Audit stuff is changing continuously and CPA firms don't seem to be on top it too much since I reject half of their stuff. Smaller non-profits can be a mess because their funding is limited and accounting not exactly their specialty. Because it is more niche than public companies and more steady, it is a very good field.

With the American Recovery Act, huge amounts of federal stimulus money is pumped into the non-profits and governments. The division I work in will have twice as much grant money to oversee as before. There is a huge demand for additional auditing of these funds and internal control.

Before I started with the government, I thought it would be stuffy and bureaucratic. It is the opposite. It is an excellent learning environment without the hysteria I experienced elsewhere. If I had joined the big 4, I would be counting inventory and tally numbers under the guidance of a 'senior' half my age for 80 hours a week. Now I get paid much better, work 40 hours a week and actually do something that requires the use of my brain. Unlike some public clients, all my clients are courteous and helpful since I have the power to cut of their funding.

There is absolutely no truth in the earlier comment that you will have to start out as an associate elsewhere again just because you switch to auditing public companies. As you progress in your career, you will still have to acquire more technical skills but other skills such as interpersonal skills and your personality/character will become much more important. There is no doubt in my mind that if I want to switch to a CPA firm, my government experience will be looked down upon.
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