Before we jump into today’s Work History, we have a few updates:
- Today is the last day to take advantage of our September sale! Get 10% off your annual subscription!
- This fall, Lindsey and I will be working with The Washington Post on a few stories related to the sandwich generation and caregiving. We are hoping to speak, on the record, to people who have:
- Inherited a home and are willing to talk about all of the financial (and emotional) complications that come with that. If you’re interested, reach out to Alicia at alicia@thepurse.co.
- Rebuilt their careers or reentered the workforce after caregiving for parents, children, or other family members. If you’re interested, reach out to Lindsey at lindsey@thepurse.co.
- On Sunday, October 4, Lindsey will be joining the team at Krazy Coupon Lady for their New Parent Saving Session, a webinar all about the big and small ways families can save money. It’s free! More info here.
We’ve featured a lot of lawyers, doctors, marketers, and other professionals on The Purse across our various franchises. But Lindsey and I realized recently we haven’t had much representation from a core contingent of The Purse: women working in finance!
Today, we start to fix that. Our Work History writer has been working in accounting for almost two decades. She got her start at a “Big 4” accounting firm—the name given to the group of the largest accounting and auditing companies in the world, Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC.
Building a career at a large company has its pros and cons. While promotions and pay raises were consistent at that firm, the job required her to work long hours, which became increasingly unappealing as she grew her family. Now, after switching companies and the type of work she’s doing, she’s feeling more fulfilled—and less stressed with her workload.
If you’d like to submit your own (anonymous) Work History, you can do so here!
The responses below have been lightly edited.
Age: 40
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Job title and industry: Tax director at a publicly traded company
Career length: 17 years
First salary: $20 per hour, plus time-and-a-half for overtime
Current salary: $210,000, plus a $60,000 bonus
What’s the most interesting part of your career?
I spent (survived? ha) 15 years in public accounting. Public accounting is similar to law firms: We had billable hour targets and overtime requirements. I went into tax but can also do audit or consulting within public accounting.
A very prescribed compensation and promotion process is the norm in public accounting. There’s a pretty standard career path progression; i.e., you work X number of years until the next promotion, which are given out twice a year (though early in my career, promotions were only once a year). There is very little room for negotiating on an annual basis and few opportunities for bonuses.
Biggest career regret?
Staying in public accounting as long as I did and not advocating for myself more. The firm where I worked for most of my career offered prescribed annual adjustments with what seemed like very little room for negotiation and minimal bonus potential.
During my last year at the firm, everyone at my level received a $3,000 raise, and I was told I should consider myself lucky because they didn’t reduce the amount, even though I was working an 80% schedule.
With hindsight, is there anything you would have done differently at any stage in your career/salary journey if you could go back in time?
I don’t think so. I am happy I made it as long as I did in public accounting. It gave me a wide range of experiences and allowed me to ultimately end up in a more specialized role.
Do you have a spouse and/or kids? How have they impacted your career journey?
I am married with two young kids. The desire to spend more time with my family and less time working has impacted my career journey. Initially, I took a pay cut when I reduced my schedule, and eventually, I left public accounting for a less all-consuming role.
What skills/education have you needed to progress in your career?
I decided to go into accounting after I took an accounting class in high school and loved it.
Once I took my first tax class in college I landed on the tax path. I needed a master’s degree in order to start in public accounting, and having the certified public accountant, or CPA, designation is required for a promotion into a manager role.
Are you worried about the effects of AI on your career?
At my level and specific role, I am not worried about the effects of AI on my career. If I were earlier in my career, I absolutely would be worried. AI is being used for virtually everything I did as an intern/tax staffer. In tax, we are using it to compile data, review data, prepare work papers and tax returns, and perform research.
Work History
1st job: Tax intern in public accounting for one of the Big 4 firms
Starting salary: $20 per hour, plus time-and-a-half for overtime
Ending salary: $20 per hour, plus time-and-a-half for overtime
Years: 2008
It is fairly common for undergrads who are studying accounting to get a full-time internship. My internship was approximately six months, and I spent the majority of that traveling for a client project. The project I was on required a significant number of hours, so I made more in my six months interning than I did in my first year working full-time in public accounting.
The best part about the internship was that I got a job offer to start at the same firm once I finished with grad school a year later.
2nd job: Staff tax accountant in public accounting for Big 4 firm
Starting salary: $48,000
Ending salary: $52,500
Years: 2009 to 2010
I mostly prepared business tax returns during my first two years. This involved working with client data to create work papers and prepare the returns. I also worked with U.S.-based interns and teams outside the U.S.
There was no negotiation for my starting pay—I tried! The project I was on during my internship was out of state, and the intern salaries started at $54,000. I did attempt to negotiate up to $54,000, but I was quickly turned down and told that they only got the higher salary because there was a higher cost of living where they worked.
I received a 9% raise in 2010, which seemed so great because the year before there were no raises across the firm and promotions were delayed.
3rd job: Senior tax accountant in public accounting for Big 4 firm
Starting salary: $62,400, plus a $5,000 promotion bonus and $1,200 performance bonus
Ending salary: $70,500
Years: 2011 to 2014
Promotion! As a senior accountant, I was responsible for working with the U.S.-based staff and interns, as well as teams outside the U.S. and performing a first-level review on work papers and research. I started doing more research and consulting-type work for my clients.
In 2012, I received a pay raise to $65,500, and in 2013, I got bumped up to $70,500. I did not receive a performance bonus in 2012 or 2013.
4th job: Tax manager in public accounting for Big 4 firm
Starting salary: $76,500, plus a promotion bonus $6,500 and $1,495 performance bonus
Ending salary: $101,600, plus performance bonus of $1,528
Years: 2014 to 2017
Another promotion! This was another expansion of my role on the projects I was already doing. I was now in charge of leading the projects internally and being the day-to-day client contact. I mostly worked on business tax return preparation.
The firm changed the performance bonus metrics in 2014, which resulted in more employees receiving an annual bonus based on their year-end rating and firm performance.
In 2015, I got a pay raise to $89,400, plus a performance bonus of $1,561. That year, I strongly considered leaving public accounting for an in-house tax manager role. I had what felt like perpetual busy seasons due to clients with different year ends and the typical winter busy season doing projects that I didn’t necessarily love. The firm ultimately convinced me to stay with the promise of “better career opportunities” and a bigger-than-normal pay raise.
The better career opportunities promise held true, and I transitioned off some of my tax return clients to do more consulting-type projects, like tax research, tax impact of transactions (mergers/acquisitions/divestitures), planning related to significant tax law changes, and working with clients on tax audits.
In 2016, I got a pay raise to $96,700, plus a performance bonus of $1,618, and in 2017 I got a pay raise to $101,600, plus performance bonus of $1,528.
5th job: Tax senior manager in public accounting for Big 4 firm
Starting salary: $116,000, plus an $8,000 promotion bonus and a $5,588 performance bonus
Ending salary: $134,411, plus a $3,763 performance bonus
Years: 2018 to 2024
Another promotion! I took on similar consulting-type projects with a bigger internal project management type role with some business tax returns.
Here is how my pay raises worked over the next few years:
- 2019: Pay raise to $123,540
- 2020: No raises across the firm due to COVID
- 2021: Midyear compensation adjustment to $126,011
- 2021: Pay raise to $146,901, plus a $6,301 performance bonus
- 2022: Pay raise to $157,901, plus a $9,231 performance bonus
- 2023: Pay raise to $164,264, plus a $7,058 performance bonus
- 2024: Pay cut to $131,411, followed by an annual pay raise to $134,411, plus a $3,763 performance bonus
In 2024, after the birth of our second child, I opted to reduce my work schedule to 80%. I was burnt out from the constant grind of worrying about my billable hours and the daycare illnesses that seemed to make their way home every other week. I was working most evenings after the kids went to bed in order to keep up. The firm I was at had a formal program for things like reduction in schedules, specific work hours, or alternative work locations (mostly pre-pandemic regular work-from-home schedules). I had to make my case with my direct boss and get buy-in from my project teams.
After reducing my schedule, I worked four days per week, which gave me some breathing room in my billable hour goal and the opportunity to spend some more time with our kids. In reality, I still worked after the kids went to bed one or two nights per week.
Later that year, all senior managers were given a $3,000 raise, and I was told I should “consider myself lucky” because they did not prorate my $3,000 raise for my 80% schedule (cue the eyerolls).
In the end, I opted to leave public accounting for a less all-consuming role. I was on a horrible project with a client where nothing we did was ever good enough. My team was working around the clock (literally) for months on end, as we did not have the enough people or resources to do the work. Until this project, I had always felt like the partners I worked with had the team’s best interests in mind, whether by having conversations with the client to adjust expectations or assistance with finding additional people to work on the project. Neither of those happened in this instance.
6th job: Tax director for a manufacturing company
Starting salary: $202,000, plus a 20% bonus
Ending salary: $208,000, plus 20% bonus
Years: 2024 to 2025
This was a remote role for a newly established manufacturing company under private equity ownership. I was the sole tax person responsible for anything that had tax in the name. This role was mostly project management, using service providers to do a lot of the work.
I did not negotiate pay for this role at a new company, as I felt the original offer was fair and in line with others I knew in similar roles. I opted instead to negotiate additional time off, as I had unlimited vacation in public accounting, and the original offer for this new firm was three weeks.
7th job: Tax director for a publicly traded company
Starting salary: $210,000, plus a $60,000 bonus (bonus could be stock or cash or mix)
Years: 2026
Currently, I am an individual contributor in an in-house tax role in my tax specialty.
I did not negotiate the salary offered, though I did ask during the interview process to be at $210,000. The company prorates bonus based on start dates, so I negotiated to have the proration dropped.
Thank you so much! Please comment with kindness!
More Work History:
Alicia Adamczyk
Alicia Adamczyk
