当我刚刚步入公共会计行业时，与我共事的一位审计合伙人分享了一个比喻：在公共会计行业工作就像乘坐电梯——待的时间越长，职位越高。

你应该什么时候离开?

每家公司的所有合伙人都会给你的答复是：至少留到当上经理。这可能是他们试图留住你的话--尽管 "在这里工作一年顶在企业内工作两三年 "和 "我不得不这样做，所以你也应该这样做 "的说辞似乎是冲突的。真正的答案（也是世界各地所有会计师最喜欢的答案）是：视情况而定。

以电梯为例——电梯可能会上升，但它真正把你带到哪里？你来对地方了吗？想想审计行业。审计大楼相当大，但在最上面几层是什么？审计合伙人？绝对的。但这个时候要小心PCAOB的检查员、内部检查员和同行审查检查员，审计合伙人忙于应对不断增长的FASB、SEC、PCAOB监管，以及萦绕在这些办公室的坚定的“指导”，这使得登上大楼顶部的吸引力逐年下降。

在经理层或经理层之后去企业工作怎么样？首席会计官可能是这条路线的顶峰。在这个过程中，管理者、财务报告、技术会计、内部审计、收入会计和一些特定类型的咨询都将继续进行，但随着你每上一层楼，你需要知道你选择留下什么。

你想要财务规划和分析？对不起，你应该从二楼的电梯出来，走天桥到隔壁的FP&A大楼。财政部？情况一样。私募股权？也是如此。兼并和收购？你应该在升到高级审计时或之前转入交易咨询。你想在商业战略和首次公开募股方面获得大量经验？你应该按下电梯的按钮，离开大楼，走到街边的咨询公司。你想成为一名基金经理或私人财富顾问？你需要在城市的另一个地方(也就是“金融MBA”)。你想成为首席财务官？那么你在核心会计部门呆得越久，成为全球5000家公司的首席财务官的机会就会成倍下降--你最多只需要在会计师事务所呆两到三年，然后你就应该转到财务、咨询或私募股权角色。

当你考虑这些问题时，大型会计师事务所的格言“只要做到经理，然后探索你的选择”不再是一个适合所有人的好答案(事实上，它从来都不是)。真相很伤人(但它会让你自由)。在一个充满专业化的世界里，选择职业道路的需求比以往任何时候都来得更早。

开始考虑未来规划的时候应该是开始从事公共会计师工作的那一天(或者更早)，而不是你成为经理的那一天。问题是什么？大型会计师事务所(以及大多数中型会计师事务所)的目标似乎都是让员工和资深员工忙个不停，以至于你没有时间去思考自己想要什么。如果你只是不停地从一个项目到另一个项目，几年时间就会飞逝而过。这是疫情无意中改变的，也是当今公共会计人员配置问题的一部分——当在家工作，让人们有时间停下来，反思他们当前的选择和未来。

那么，你现在该怎么办？如果你在电梯里，但你意识到现在的一切不是你想要的怎么办？或者更糟的是，如果你在电梯里只是因为你还没有弄清楚你想要什么呢？不作为仍然是一种选择，因为什么都不做，你仍然在电梯里上升。

今天就开始弄清楚自己到底想要什么！和任何你感兴趣领域的人交谈，了解他们的经历以及他们达到目标所采取的(或目前推荐的)途径。履历和你在公共会计行业发展起来的职业关系网是你用无尽的忙碌季换来的两个最大的资产。利用这个网络，弄清楚你真正想要什么，实现你的梦想！这可能意味着你要在这家公司再待一年、两年、五年，甚至整个职业生涯。或者，这可能意味着你去年就应该离开，或者就不应该开始。无论怎样，你都应该弄清楚，你是唯一一个让自己远离它的人，无论 "它 "是什么。

英文原版报道如下：

When Is the Right Time to Leave Public Accounting?

When I started in public accounting, one of the audit partners I worked with shared the elevator metaphor: working in public accounting is like riding an elevator—the longer you stay on, the higher up you will go.

When should you leave?

The go-to response from all partners at every firm (stay until manager) is probably the biggest load of horseshit they will ever try to sell you—although “one year here is the same as two or three in industry” and “I had to do that, so you should, too” are close competitors. The real answer (and the favorite answer of all accountants everywhere): it depends.

Take the elevator metaphor—the elevator may be going up, but where does it really take you? Are you even in the right building? Think about auditing. The audit building is pretty big, but what will you find on the upper floors? Audit partners? Absolutely. BUT beware of the PCAOB inspectors, internal inspectors, and the peer review inspectors who surround the ever-growing mounds of FASB, SEC, PCAOB, and firm “guidance” haunting those floors. This makes the ride to the top of the building less and less appealing each year.

How about leaving for industry somewhere at or after the manager floor? Chief accounting officer is probably the pinnacle here. Controllership, financial reporting, technical accounting, internal audit, revenue accounting, and some specific types of consulting will all still be available along the way, but with each floor you go up, you need to know what you are choosing to leave behind.

You wanted financial planning and analysis? Sorry, you should have exited the elevator on the second floor and used the skybridge to walk to the FP&A building next door. Treasury? Same thing. Private equity? Ditto. Mergers and acquisitions? You should have transferred into transaction advisory at or before you made it to audit senior. You wanted lots of experience working on business strategy and IPOs? You should have hit the down button on the elevator, left the building, and walked to the consulting firm down the street. You want to be a fund manager or a private wealth advisor? You need to be in a different part of town (aka “Finance MBA”). You wanted to be a CFO? These days, your chances of becoming a CFO at a global 5,000 company get exponentially worse the longer you stay in core accounting—you only needed two to three years max at an accounting firm and then you should have moved on to more of a finance, advisory, or private equity role.

As you consider these facts, the big-firm adage of “just make it to manager and then explore your options” is no longer a good one-size-fits-all answer (in reality, it never was). The truth hurts (and then it makes you free). In a world full of specialization, the need to make career path choices comes earlier than ever before.

The time to start thinking about your future is the day you sign an offer to start in public accounting (or perhaps even before that), not the day you make manager. The catch? The goal of every big firm (and most mid-size firms, too) seems to be to keep you so busy as staff and seniors that you have no time to step back and reflect on what you want. A couple years fly right by if all you do is move from one fire drill to another. This is something the pandemic inadvertently tampered with and is part of the staffing problem in public accounting today—working from home while the media screamed “the sky is falling” gave people time to pause and reflect on their current choices and their future (i.e., the Great Resignation and the real reason I believe many companies are pushing to force a return to the office, but that is a topic for another day).

So, what do you do now? What if you are on the elevator and you realize you never wanted to be? Or worse, what if you are only on the elevator because you haven’t figured out what you want? Inaction is still a choice because by doing nothing, you are still moving up in the elevator. (Side note: this is how about half the partners in public accounting became partners.)

Start figuring out where you are headed TODAY! Talk to people in any area you MIGHT be interested in. Learn about their experiences and the path they took (or currently recommend) to get there. A name on your resume and the professional network you develop while in public accounting are the two biggest assets your firm gives you in exchange for perma-busy season. Use that network, figure out what you really want, and live your dreams! That might mean staying at the firm another year, two, five, or the rest of your career. Alternatively, it might mean you should have left last year or never started in the first place. No matter what, you deserve to figure it out and you are the only person keeping yourself from it—whatever “it” is.

信息来源：www.goingconcern.com   由四大君编辑整理，转载时请注明转载来源。