Good news in the midst of busy season: tax managers, audit managers and finance managers are ranked #2, #10 and #16 respectively among the 25 Best Jobs in the U.S., according to a survey published earlier this week by Glassdoor, a leading job search and recruiting site. Finance manager ranked #2, and accountant ranked #18 in Glassdoor’s 25 Best Jobs in the U.K.
Survey methodology
What do these results tell us? Dr. Andrew Chamberlain, Chief Economist at Glassdoor, explains the study’s methodology ranked jobs based on a trio of factors
- Salary (median annual base salary reported on Glassdoor over the past year),
- Job openings (the number of U.S. job openings as of 1/8/16), and
- “Career opportunity” (the average ‘career opportunity’ rating on a scale of 1.0 to 5.0 reported over the past year by users on the site)
In the U.S. the position of finance manager currently has more job openings listed on Glassdoor, and a higher median salary (1,632 jobs at median salary of $115,000) vs. tax manager (1,574 jobs at median salary of $108,000)or audit manager (1,001 jobs at median salary of $95,000). However, the tax and audit manager jobs received a higher overall ranking, due to a higher ‘career opportunity’ ranking given to tax and audit (3.9 on the 5 point scale) vs. finance (3.3).
Ease in finding job openings
The Glassdoor survey is particularly useful to job seekers since the open positions are readily searched by clicking on the blue highlighted links to job openings in the Glassdoor’s U.S. survey or Glassdoor’s U.K. survey. A quick glimpse of current job openings in finance (as of January 20) in the U.K. include companies such as Deutsche Bank, NBCUniversal, Grant Thornton UK, and the UK National Health Service. Current openings in the U.S. include, for example, tax manager positions with companies such as EY, Hertz Corporation, BNY Mellon, Raytheon, and Washington Gas & Light Company.
Strategy and Analyst Jobs
What else do the survey results tell us? Stepping back for a moment, surveys conducted by the MACPA and others have shown that businesses have been asking their internal management accountants and finance staff, as well as CPAs who serve as their external auditors and outside tax experts, to be more proactive than reactive. Additionally, accountants who want to advance to higher levels of career growth need to able to exercise a future-oriented, anticipatory view. Those who will truly excel and thrive in today’s technology-fueled and fast-changing world will also exhibit strengths in such areas as strategic planning and data analytics.
Those accountants and finance professionals looking to grow into such jobs will find opportunities for analytics manager ranked at #11, and strategy manager ranked at #19, in Glassdoor’s U.S. survey. Another career avenue for CPAs and management accountants is often to go into consulting, which is ranked #21 in Glassdoor’s U.S. survey, and #20 in their U.K. survey.
Be sure to check out the MACPA’s Career Center, and consider joining the MACPA to benefit from networking with peers, continuing education programs offering CPE, the opportunity to participate in advocacy programs like CPA Day (January 21 in Annapolis; follow the action at #cpaday).