Senior Tax Associate

Some firms talk about retention. This one has a slightly more convincing way of proving it.

This is an established full-service CPA firm in Naperville, and two long-standing people are preparing to retire, including one of the Partners. Over the last decade, they’ve replaced six people. Every one of those departures was a retirement!

And interestingly, some of the benefits here are better than you’ll find at Top 10 firms.

Not because they’re trying to compete with them on paper. They actually care about keeping good people.

Busy season works up to 55 hours, with 55 being at the higher end; then you’re back to around 40. You’ll start with three weeks of vacation, but overtime can either be paid as a bonus or taken back as additional time off. Typically, people build up around 120 hours, which could mean roughly another three weeks away from work.

Then from Memorial Day through Labor Day, Fridays are half days. That works out at roughly another eight days off across the summer.

It’s hybrid too, and everyone has their own private office when they’re in.

The tax work is broad, predominantly working with privately held businesses. There’s the compliance you’d expect, but also tax planning and specialty work, so you can become properly involved with clients rather than simply preparing returns and passing them upwards.

And if you want more responsibility, there’s somewhere for it to go.

Most of the team has grown through the firm, with people mentored into Manager and Partner positions rather than the firm continually hiring above them. You could start by supporting a Manager with their book, build your own relationships with those clients and gradually take more ownership.

If you eventually want to develop your own book and work towards Partner, you can.

If you’re not thinking that far ahead yet, that’s fine too.

They’re looking for someone at Senior level or above with recent public accounting tax experience. Lacerte experience isn’t necessary, and they’re open to someone coming from a firm using different software.

There are bigger CPA firms you could join.

But bigger doesn’t automatically mean better benefits, better hours or better opportunities. Sometimes working somewhere that actually wants you to still be there in ten years is worth rather a lot.

If you've read this advert and you're unsure whether to apply because you don't have every bit of experience listed, I'd still encourage you to apply. We support the CPA firms we partner with in building diverse, inclusive and equitable workplaces, and the right attitude often goes further than ticking every box.

If this position isn't quite right, it's highly likely I'll be working on another Public Accounting opportunity that is.