Public Accounting Career

As a public accountant, you work for individuals, governments and business firms. Public accounting companies provide tax, auditing and management consulting services. Size of these accounting firms largely depends on the type of services they provide. Small accounting firms offer tax and auditing services for small businesses. At the same time, big accounting firms offer services to some larger businesses. Some of the businesses also have their own accounting department to handle the accounting work. Every business has to perform a yearly audit. Most of the businesses look for a large public accounting firm to carry out their accounting work.

In United States, there are many public accounting firms which offer various accounting careers for graduates. Out of which, there are four largest accounting firms. These four largest accounting firms are also known as 'Big Four' in United States. These Big Four have various branches throughout the country and abroad.

Candidates seeking a career in accounting look to get a job in one of the Big Four accounting firms. However, the Big Firms recruit their candidates from top schools throughout the globe. Apart from the Big Four firms, there are thousands of accounting firms including small firms to big international firms. Most of the small or domestic accounting firms have their clients in U.S. only.

Most of the accountants tend to start their accounting career as a public accountant. After acquiring an experience of 2 to 3 years in the public accounting career, they switch to private accounting. Candidates with an experience in public accounting also have a good opportunity to work in corporations, non profit as well as government organizations.

Workload for the public accounting career is seasonal. Generally, they have less workload during the summer. During this period, they offer various services including SOX and other related consulting services.