Redditer: People who studied a Diploma/Degree in Accountancy, where did you end up?

[Tragedeigh]

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People who studied a Diploma/Degree in Accountancy, where did you end up?​

Career, Job, Edu Qn in SG

Hi everyone,

I’m thinking about going into accountancy, but I’ve got some worries. I’ve never been strong with advanced math (think calculus, differentiation, integration, trigonometry), so I’ve never really been interested in fields like engineering or IT. Advanced math numbers make me feel terrified, and I feel more comfortable with subjects that are structured and logical rather than abstract.

From what I’ve heard in Singapore, accounting, especially at the Big 4, can come with long hours and a tough work environment. But at the same time, it seems like a pretty stable career, aside from some basic bookkeeping jobs which AI is replacing. I’ve also heard that some people end up regretting studying accountancy because of the work culture.

Given my math anxiety, I’m wondering if accounting is actually a good fit for me. I like working with rules, organising information, and understanding how things work financially and in words as I am stronger in my language abilities, but I worry about whether the math side will be too much.

I’d really appreciate any advice, especially from people who weren’t “math people” but still managed in accounting.

I have some futher questions if you don't mind answering,

1. What pathway did you take to study Accountancy? (E.g. Poly Acc -> Big 3 Acc, JC -> Big 3 Acc)
2. How was your experience studying accountancy?
3. Why did you study Accountancy?
4. Upon graduation, how was finding a job? What are you working as now and how is your salary?
5. Do you regret studying accounting? If you were to redo Uni, would you still study Acc?
6. Any words of advice for people looking to study Acc?
7. Did you do SCAQ or CPA (Aust) or ACCA?

 

[batman1]

Some accountancy graduates ended up as property officer, property agent, SAC manager , insurance agent , etc .

 

[A Singaporean]

Sinkies mostly end up as PHV drivers.

 

[KingFook Sr]

Accountancy and Banking .... 2 sure victims of AI.
Closely followed by paralegals of the Law offices.

 

[batman1]

Go get at least a accounting degree and go to industry as a company accountant.

 

[Tragedeigh]

Go get at least a accounting degree and go to industry as a company accountant.

Like SIA Singapore Flying Club?

 

[VanDick]

Sinkies mostly end up as PHV drivers.

Or cleaners. Or security guards. Or making a fool of themselves on Tik Tok.

 

[sbfuncle]

Gansiokbin with cpa ended as mad chicken, the ultimate ending.

 

[knowwhatyouwantinlife]

Think big the world is an oyster:
https://www.straitstimes.com/busine...tors-to-prosper-as-a-wealth-hub-chee-hong-tat

 

[Tragedeigh]

Gansiokbin with cpa ended as mad chicken, the ultimate ending.

Is it because she had an unsuccessful marriage and hence ruin her outlook for life?

 

[sbfuncle]

Is it because she had an unsuccessful marriage and hence ruin her outlook for life?

Must be 1 on the main contributor.

Flowchart

Cpa - > unsuccessful marriage - > turned slut - > leefusal of admission & acknowledgment of slut - > mad chicken

 

[kulgai]

Is it because she had an unsuccessful marriage and hence ruin her outlook for life?

no la. the last straw was when nobody believed that she's a virgin

 

[Fatboy]

 

[aerobwala]

Chances of sponsored eat melon at Tian An Men Squre.

 

[myfoot123]

I have many friends who worked as Accountant and Auditor. Here are my take.

Accounting used to be a lucrative job, but these days it is taken over by cheap pinoy and CECA candidates with CPA qualifications but knows very little a about Singapore accounting standard.

1) Accountant is good if you join a private company and your boss is nice. You ended up being treated with tremendous respect by your boss and your colleagues, when you performed well and became the 2nd most important guy in the company, next to your boss.

2) Join a company where you handle full sets of book, not partial, and you are not reporting to any middle manager, preferably a small set up company where work is manageable, and deadline is minimal. You report to the director, CEO or the boss - hopefully someone who is quite flexible (not creative). You have the chance to work with auditor, tax agents, payroll and corp-sec. A one-man-show duty is the best because you control your life, your work, your time and is quite indispensible as an all-round guy in the company.

3) The high level of stress came from those in the F&B, Hotelier, Supermarket, construction industries. It can get pretty messy with extreme high turnover rate, not just the volume of works, but the high resignation of staffs in those industries. Not suitable for people who prefer more organised and neat work.

4) As auditor, you are exposed to different people culture, different industries and different deadlines to meet. Depending on your speciality, you can be rotated to audit, tax , book-keeping or corp-sec department in the audit company. Expect more field-work, working late and lots of travelling to client offices.

5) With audit experiences, you get fast track to become a CPA, unlike Accountant. With CPA, you can also set up your own audit firm.

6) Here is the catch, not all auditors are good Accountant. Almost all accountants can be a good auditor. It is like saying a nurse who dispense medicines knows way more better than a doctor to treat patient.

7) Accountant and Auditors are micro-managing job because the work are mostly done with precision eg...zero is not the same as 0.1.

8) Like many jobs out there, the older you are, regardless of qualifications, the more difficult for you to find a job. You will confront career crisis too.

9) As such, many Accountants ended up changing career or become a freelance book-keeper. Otherwise, the latter part of your working life will be mostly unemployed or taking up junior book-keeping role or demoted to become younger cohort's assistance, even if you have a degree in Accounting.

10) Not all accountants are well paid. I think only about 30%? The higher you are paid, the more stress your jobscope becomes.

10) Bottom line, is Accountant good? It can fall either way but Item (2) above is something you should aim for if you want to become Accountant or
item (5) above if you want to become auditor. Otherwise item (1) to (9) can posed a huge challenge, and stress and then you regret on your choice.

 

[50000]

5) With audit experiences, you get fast track to become a CPA, unlike Accountant. With CPA, you can also set up your own audit firm.

small audit firms are struggling too as a lot of companies don't need to be audited anymore hence less jobs to spread around. the remaining jobs don't give good fees also. small firms also end up hiring not very good staff and ALL staff in SG (regardless good or not, local or foreign) are getting very expensive. So small firms, less income, high costs...... may not be ideal also

 

[PatriotMissile2025]

A.i. will wipe them all out. Including lawyers, doctors and teachers.

 

[myfoot123]

small audit firms are struggling too as a lot of companies don't need to be audited anymore hence less jobs to spread around. the remaining jobs don't give good fees also. small firms also end up hiring not very good staff and ALL staff in SG (regardless good or not, local or foreign) are getting very expensive. So small firms, less income, high costs...... may not be ideal also

Aiyah!!! You can easily find budget office in Singapore. My friend used to have his own firm at the old Golden Mile complex and then fortune center. Just like many small recruitment agencies. Audit firms reveneue not necessarily must derive from audit fee, they can also do small company payroll, tax filing for you and corp-sec and book-keeping services. If you are one man show, you operate from home with no rental problem.

On top of which I find small audit firm tend to be more flexible as compared to more expensive larger audit company. They can help 80% of SMEs in Singapore file ROC, calculate tax and conduct audit as package deal on budget. IRAS will recognise those as legal and trusted documents unlike you do it yourself.

I remember going around many big corp-sec firm to file simple documents that require two directors' signatories but those big firm insisted that I need 4 directors (two of whom are permanently overseas) to sign the documents, even though company M&A didn't specify that I need to do that. Ended up, I look for small audit firm who happily assist to file the ROC with just two directors signatories and at much cheaper cost. If you fail to file your ROC on time, it looks bad when people do a profile search on you.

Small audit firm has its important place in Singapore when big ones are unreachable for SMEs.