Short answer – live in the office if you can! Long answer – live as close to the office and nightlife as you can reasonably afford (find roommates and ideally cohorts that are at other accounting firms). A big component of public accounting is making relationships and learning how to start out your life outside of college. You finally finished college, learn and spend some money to enjoy your new freedom (make sure you are contributing to the firm 401k at a minimum). Depending on your path starting out, it could mean traveling locally and outside of the metropolitan area. Don’t make part of your travel going to the office every day. Definitely take travel if given the opportunity, easier to learn on the road. I did not get this advice, lived too far from the office and made it super difficult to develop relationships outside of the office environment. Additionally, I wasted too much time driving to/from the office that was unproductive to study for the CPA exam.
Administrator
26 Jul 2018Short answer – live in the office if you can! Long answer – live as close to the office and nightlife as you can reasonably afford (find roommates and ideally cohorts that are at other accounting firms). A big component of public accounting is making relationships and learning how to start out your life outside of college. You finally finished college, learn and spend some money to enjoy your new freedom (make sure you are contributing to the firm 401k at a minimum). Depending on your path starting out, it could mean traveling locally and outside of the metropolitan area. Don’t make part of your travel going to the office every day. Definitely take travel if given the opportunity, easier to learn on the road. I did not get this advice, lived too far from the office and made it super difficult to develop relationships outside of the office environment. Additionally, I wasted too much time driving to/from the office that was unproductive to study for the CPA exam.