Partner and Staff perspectives on the work environment of public accounting

What is it about?

We conduct several structured interviews with partner- and staff-level public accountants to understand their perspectives on (1) what it is like to work in public accounting (i.e., auditing) today; (2) the best and worst aspects of the job; (3) whether/how public accounting is different than expected (for partners, whether public accounting is different than when they started their career); (4) if the staff plan to stay in public accounting; (5) if the partners would recommend public accounting to others; and (6 ) whether/how PCAOB regulation had affected the work environment in public accounting.

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Why is it important?

Our findings raise a number of concerns regarding the profession’s ability to sustain the quality of its human capital, especially since there are no signs of a radically improved work environment in public accounting that may appeal to Millennials.