Why accountants should start their career with a small CPA firm?

​If you are an accountant and dreaming to start your accounting career with one of the biggest CPA firms in your area or state, then you might not be going on the right path as many accounting experts say that a new accountant should start his/her career with a smaller CPA firm first.

In the modern day world, the need for accountants has evolved and most of the accountants have shown no resistance to the changing needs as they have evolved according to the changing accounting industry and needs. With the role of accountants becoming more diversified and accountants being considered as tech-savvy smart professionals who play a major role in a company, more and more people are looking to make their career in the accounting field.
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Although, the road to becoming a good accountant is similar for all, when it comes to starting their career then most of the accountants get confused and they end up with the popular trend of sticking with large CPA firms. But it has been found that your chances of growth can be increased if you start with a small CPA firm. Your choice of CPA firm may also depend on what your goal as an accountant is but in this blog post, we will talk about the benefits of starting your career as an accountant with a smaller CPA firm.

You get to learn everything related to accounting

One of the biggest benefits of starting your accounting career with a small CPA firm is that you are able to become an all-rounder accountant as you get exposure to everything related to accounting from start to finish. It is true that the training and learning in the starting phase will be a lot more than your expectation in both large and small CPA firm but in smaller CPA firms, you are more likely to deal with more aspects of accounting if you are able to prove your worth and perform better.

By working on payroll, bookkeeping, taxes of clients on various industries you get better work experience and you are able to understand the whole picture of accounting rather than dealing with only a portion of it. 

No busy hours throughout the year

​One of the best things about smaller CPA firm is that they don’t keep you busy throughout the year which is mostly seen in large CPA firms. New accountants are not used to too much workload and in most of the cases, they can’t handle the workload given by big CPA firms. Therefore, grow gradually, you need to increase your workload slowly and that can only happen in smaller CPA firms. The only busy season in smaller CPA firms is during the tax seasons. After that, you can get flexible schedules and you can also keep learning and improving yourself as an accountant on personal level as you will get appropriate time for yourself. 

Get the chance to work in a team and understand team value

​If you are a new accountant then it is very much important to understand the value of teamwork in accounting as, without a proper team, no accounting operation can be completed effectively, especially if it on a large scale. You will get the chance to work in a team in both large and small CPA firms but in small CPA firms, the bond between the team is stronger s there are only few employees and due to that strong bond, you have a better relationship with your coworkers. With a team that has a much stronger bond, you don’t get a chance to get stressed during busy tax seasons and you are able to perform much better.  If you really want to understand the value of a team and make a strong bond from upper level to lower level employees, then you should start with a smaller CPA firm. This will further help you in the later phase of your career when you will start working in a large CPA firm. 

Better chances of growth 

Because of the low number of employees in small CPA firms, everyone is monitored well. The supervisor understands the weaknesses and strengths of each accountant on personal level and that’s how they assign the task. This allows you to do a SWOT analysis of yourself in a much better way as you are able to understand your strength and weaknesses on a much better level. With better guidance and your work being noticed by the supervisor, your chances of growth increases and if you perform well, then your efforts will never go unnoticed.
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So, if you are a new accountant and looking to learn the ways of the accounting industry in a better way then you should start your career with a smaller CPA firm.