“Public accounting I think is a great basis to start and figure out your career.”
Thomas Murdoch is the Senior Audit Manager at EisnerAmper LLP. EisnerAmper is a leading full-service accounting and advisory firm, among the largest in the United States. They provide audit, accounting, and tax services, as well as corporate finance, internal audit and risk management, litigation consulting, forensic accounting, and other professional advisory services to a broad range of clients across many industries.
Limited to public accounting.
Thomas: “Typically people who start in the public accounting practice do not stay until they’ve reached that partner level. I would just say an average class that we have over here at EisnerAmper, may be about 24 entry-level positions for audit and tax. I would say by the time you get seven, eight years into your career, that class has dwindled to about two to five.”
Thomas: “Public accounting I think is a great basis to start and figure out your career, get a good business base, and understand companies. I know a lot of people will go to their clients to be a controller and hopefully a CEO or CFO. More the natural progression.”
Thomas: “I’ve had people here leave for many different reasons and to many different careers. It’s all based on what kind of experience they got in public accounting.”
Crunching numbers all day.
Thomas: “I think part of all myths is based out of some sort of truth. You are on your computer, you’re dealing with Excel and you’re dealing with formulas and adding up numbers. But it’s just a very small part of your day. Once you complete it, you’re kind of done.”
Thomas: “Most of what people are doing on a daily basis is dealing with teams and dealing with their clients. They’re on the phone, they’re writing emails, they might be writing memos. It’s not just taking numbers from some kind of report, putting them into your computer and just doing that all day with your head down. So that is definitely a big myth.”
Complex math.
Thomas: “Adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying is really the essence of the complexity of the math that we deal with. So just because you’re an accountant doesn’t mean you’re a nerd or you’re good at math, but you do deal with math.”
Thomas: “The more you can understand those things and the better you are at math, you’ll run into some areas that that will definitely help you. But the majority of it, if you are not a good math student, do not let that deter you from the profession.”
Introverted personalites.
Thomas: “It’s one of those professions that, from the outside looking in, you think of it as one way. However, the people who really succeed and get ahead are the people who can communicate, who can engage with their clients, and with their team members.”
Thomas: “It’s not a heads down job where you work for yourself and go home. You report upwards and you have people underneath you and you’re working for multiple clients. So being a people person or being good with people will make you that much better. You actually do need it to succeed.”
