USA Is it reasonable to expect a CPA to have their own office at their accounting firm?

[Avalanchi]

Hello everyone,
Running into a small conflict at work that I would like some insight on. I graduated with my Bachelors Degree in Acccounting in May 2019 and immediately found work at a firm that completes International Taxes as a Staff Accountant.

Everything has gone great so far. One of the other accountants quit during my first 6 months and I was able to move from a shared office to my own personal office, with the expectations being that having my own office was only temporary. About 3 months have passed since I have been in this office.

Anyway, being the control freak that I am I scour Indeed.com everyday to see if my Accounting Firm is making any attempt to fill the CPA position that would eventually take my office away from me and back to a shared office. Today, I see that position has been posted and will likely be filled over the next 30 days. Concurrently, I expect to take the first part of the CPA exam in the next 30 days.
I expect to have all 4 parts of the CPA exam finished by March of 2020, if not sooner. At which point, my expectation is that as a CPA I should have my own office within the firm. Unfortunately, it's a smaller firm and there will be no available offices for me to call my own. I would be a CPA sharing a "conference room" with a worker who doesn't even have her Bachelors Degree yet. Unless the compensation my firm offers upon completion of my CPA is lucrative enough, I will tire of this work arrangement very quickly.

I want to make sure that I'm not being a millennial here. But once I become a CPA, is it reasonable to expect that I would have my own office? Every other CPA in my current firm has their own office and the gal who's office I took over from didn't have her CPA license when this office was hers.

I fully understand that my job title is still "Staff Accountant" and I am making more money than I ever have before, so I don't want to ruffle any feathers. But should this be a point of contention for me? Should I make mention to my boss that I would like my own office once I complete the CPA exam? Should a CPA be entitled to their own office? I just feel like after all the hard work I completed in college and rigorous training put forth to complete the exam, that I should have a work environment that exceeds those of the non-CPAs in the office.

Why should I share an office with somebody without a Bachelors Degree when the other CPAs have their own offices? I understand there is a shortage of offices in this firm, but that doesn't mean I should sell myself short, right? Surely if I applied to any open positions that would REQUIRE a CPA license, the majority would offer me my own office, no?

The CPA we are currently hiring is definitely getting my current office, so I figure this is industry norm. Thanks in advance.

 

[ChristineP]

Hello everyone,
Running into a small conflict at work that I would like some insight on. I graduated with my Bachelors Degree in Acccounting in May 2019 and immediately found work at a firm that completes International Taxes as a Staff Accountant.

Everything has gone great so far. One of the other accountants quit during my first 6 months and I was able to move from a shared office to my own personal office, with the expectations being that having my own office was only temporary. About 3 months have passed since I have been in this office.

Anyway, being the control freak that I am I scour Indeed.com everyday to see if my Accounting Firm is making any attempt to fill the CPA position that would eventually take my office away from me and back to a shared office. Today, I see that position has been posted and will likely be filled over the next 30 days. Concurrently, I expect to take the first part of the CPA exam in the next 30 days.
I expect to have all 4 parts of the CPA exam finished by March of 2020, if not sooner. At which point, my expectation is that as a CPA I should have my own office within the firm. Unfortunately, it's a smaller firm and there will be no available offices for me to call my own. I would be a CPA sharing a "conference room" with a worker who doesn't even have her Bachelors Degree yet. Unless the compensation my firm offers upon completion of my CPA is lucrative enough, I will tire of this work arrangement very quickly.

I want to make sure that I'm not being a millennial here. But once I become a CPA, is it reasonable to expect that I would have my own office? Every other CPA in my current firm has their own office and the gal who's office I took over from didn't have her CPA license when this office was hers.

I fully understand that my job title is still "Staff Accountant" and I am making more money than I ever have before, so I don't want to ruffle any feathers. But should this be a point of contention for me? Should I make mention to my boss that I would like my own office once I complete the CPA exam? Should a CPA be entitled to their own office? I just feel like after all the hard work I completed in college and rigorous training put forth to complete the exam, that I should have a work environment that exceeds those of the non-CPAs in the office.

Why should I share an office with somebody without a Bachelors Degree when the other CPAs have their own offices? I understand there is a shortage of offices in this firm, but that doesn't mean I should sell myself short, right? Surely if I applied to any open positions that would REQUIRE a CPA license, the majority would offer me my own office, no?

The CPA we are currently hiring is definitely getting my current office, so I figure this is industry norm. Thanks in advance.

In my opinion, your expectations are too high. You say that you graduated in 2019; you've only just graduated! When I graduated with my Accounting degree, I went into public accounting and as a first-year auditor, we only had cubicles and they weren't even assigned to us; the firm called it "hotelling". Basically, if you weren't traveling to a client that day, and you were therefore in the office, you had to find an available cubicle. Sometimes there wouldn't be an available cubicle and you would have to find a conference table somewhere. The ONLY people who had their own offices were partners. Even the Audit Managers had to share an office with another manager. I did public accounting as an auditor for 4 years, then went into private. I got my CPA license and I've been doing private accounting for the past 11 years. Sometimes I've had my own office, sometimes I haven't. Right now I happen to have my own office. You're at the very beginning of your career; you have a long way to go. To fixate and insist on having your own office just because you passed an exam is very premature. Instead, focus on learning your job, working on your soft skills (you'll need them throughout your career), and making your contribution in whatever way you can. An office isn't everything, but if it means that much to you, it will come in time.

 

[Becdom]

Hello everyone,
Running into a small conflict at work that I would like some insight on. I graduated with my Bachelors Degree in Acccounting in May 2019 and immediately found work at a firm that completes International Taxes as a Staff Accountant.

Everything has gone great so far. One of the other accountants quit during my first 6 months and I was able to move from a shared office to my own personal office, with the expectations being that having my own office was only temporary. About 3 months have passed since I have been in this office.

Anyway, being the control freak that I am I scour Indeed.com everyday to see if my Accounting Firm is making any attempt to fill the CPA position that would eventually take my office away from me and back to a shared office. Today, I see that position has been posted and will likely be filled over the next 30 days. Concurrently, I expect to take the first part of the CPA exam in the next 30 days.
I expect to have all 4 parts of the CPA exam finished by March of 2020, if not sooner. At which point, my expectation is that as a CPA I should have my own office within the firm. Unfortunately, it's a smaller firm and there will be no available offices for me to call my own. I would be a CPA sharing a "conference room" with a worker who doesn't even have her Bachelors Degree yet. Unless the compensation my firm offers upon completion of my CPA is lucrative enough, I will tire of this work arrangement very quickly.

I want to make sure that I'm not being a millennial here. But once I become a CPA, is it reasonable to expect that I would have my own office? Every other CPA in my current firm has their own office and the gal who's office I took over from didn't have her CPA license when this office was hers.

I fully understand that my job title is still "Staff Accountant" and I am making more money than I ever have before, so I don't want to ruffle any feathers. But should this be a point of contention for me? Should I make mention to my boss that I would like my own office once I complete the CPA exam? Should a CPA be entitled to their own office? I just feel like after all the hard work I completed in college and rigorous training put forth to complete the exam, that I should have a work environment that exceeds those of the non-CPAs in the office.

Why should I share an office with somebody without a Bachelors Degree when the other CPAs have their own offices? I understand there is a shortage of offices in this firm, but that doesn't mean I should sell myself short, right? Surely if I applied to any open positions that would REQUIRE a CPA license, the majority would offer me my own office, no?

The CPA we are currently hiring is definitely getting my current office, so I figure this is industry norm. Thanks in advance.

Earn it don’t demand it. Just because you pass your CPA doesn’t mean you deserve it. Work harder than ever and it will be rewarded.

 

[eazy899]

I mean no offence by this but you are acting like you are a Leadership Team level manager in an organisation.

You are a fresh graduate and an entry level accountant who is neither professionally qualified nor qualified by experience.
Even mid level managers do not get their own offices.
In many global, super large organisations even Senior Managers do not get their own offices because the office space is open plan.

The only time I would ever have the expectation to have my own office is at Director level.

I am in senior management and do not have my own office (I do get to work from home 5 days a week and work at whichever offices I want though).

Keep your expectations realistic and try to stay humble.

P.s. I work with many Fully Qualified Accountants who are worse at their jobs than others who are qualified by experience.

 

[kirby]

"I want to make sure that I'm not being a millennial here."

Hmmmm.


Why should I share an office with somebody without a Bachelors Degree ...?

Because you want to someday become someone who respects other individuals as fellow human beings. Moreover, somebody once said "Love thy neighbor.."

 

[CPAinUSA]

In my experience, individual offices work much better for accountants. Because accounting work is "solitary", you're given some big complicated problem to solve, you go off and solve it, and then bring the solution back. It's not "collaborative".
The "open office space" concept has become popular because of (software) engineering, which IS collaborative. And because it's cheaper. And so that the manager can keep an eye on everyone.
But in accounting, individual offices work better, because you can put the whole knarly problem in your head, straighten it out, and come back with it solved. Shared spaces mean constant interruptions and people "popping by" to tell you something or chat. There is no need to "watch" everyone because the work gets done or it doesn't. Easy to tell if you're working or not that way.
You may try and sell your company on offices in this way, rather than the "status" of having an office or not.