Public Accounting: Careers, Skills, and How to Become a CPA

Public accountants offer accounting services to businesses, government agencies, and governments. They provide various services in this role, including preparing taxes, completing audits, and serving as advisors. Moreover, public accountants assist clients in learning how to manage their finances, file their tax returns, and reduce financial risk.

Learn more about public accounting, including how to become a certified public accountant and what careers exist in the field.

What is public accounting?

Public accounting refers to the services a public accountant or accounting firm offers to prepare financial documents such as tax returns and budgets. Public accountants, also called certified public accountants (CPAs), help other businesses and individuals with their tax needs. 

Public accounting firms can range in size from a sole practitioner to hundreds or thousands of CPAs, offering services locally, regionally, nationally, or internationally. Some firms are full-service in that they offer a full range of accounting services, including taxes, bookkeeping, audits, risk, payroll, and more. Some firms may specialize in one of these services. 

What is the difference between public and private accounting?

While public accountants serve multiple clients at any given time, private accountants perform accounting services within an organization’s internal finance department.

What does a certified public accountant do? 

A certified public accountant has at least a bachelor’s degree in accounting and has passed the CPA exam. As a CPA, you can perform a broad range of services, including:  

• Preparing tax returns: Helping individuals and organizations prepare documents that report income, expenses, and other financial information to a tax authority. 

• Estate planning: Helping individuals plan what happens to their assets after death

• Consulting: Includes advising clients on how to use accounting systems, the level of risk involved in different financial decisions and investments, and evaluating the financial health  

• Mergers and acquisitions: Assisting two or more companies in transferring ownership or consolidating assets 

• Business valuation: Determining the economic value of a business, such as by calculating assets minus liabilities 

• Audits: Thoroughly assessing the financial documents of an individual or organization to determine whether they are accurate 

• Representing clients during IRS audits: Advocating for taxpayers, helping them understand their rights, and handling negotiations with IRS agents  

Public accounting skills 

Building a robust skill set is essential for a career in public accounting. According to ZipRecruiter’s Career Keyword Mapper for certified public accountants, the top skills employers ask for in job descriptions include [1]: 

• Tax preparation 

• Financial statements 

• Financial reporting 

• Using Quickbooks software 

• Knowledge of GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) 

Other skills that you may find useful as a CPA include: 

• Bookkeeping 

• Completing payroll 

• Understanding how businesses operate

• Conducting audits

• Managing others 

• Serving customers 

Public accounting careers

You can pursue a career in public accounting at firms of all sizes. Explore four roles in public accounting, based on information from the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), Indeed, and Glassdoor, as of November 2024. For each role, we’ve included the US average base salary, typical responsibilities, required skills and qualifications, and top companies hiring*. 

*Glassdoor ranks companies based on employee reviews. 

Staff auditor 

• What they make: $82,620 [2]

• What they do: Develop audit objectives and procedures, prepare audit reports, ensure accuracy of financial information. 

• Required skills and qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in accounting or finance, a CPA license may also be required, understanding of banking laws and regulations, knowledge of audit theories and practices 

• Top companies hiring for this role: LyondellBasell, Dow, Merck, Union Pacific, Loeb & Loeb

Tax accountant/CPA

• What they make: $78,261 [3]

• What they do: Prepare tax returns, offer tax advice, provide payroll and bookkeeping services, conduct audits, advise people on investing or retirement planning. 

• Required skills and qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in accounting or related field, CPA license, knowledge of auditing and tax return preparation, proficiency with accounting software  

• Top companies hiring for this role: Google, Cisco, Workday, Equinix, Airbnb

Read more: What Is a Staff Accountant? And How to Become One

Tax consultant

• What they make: $86,250 [4]

• What they do: Educate clients on different tax laws and requirements, prepare tax returns, develop tax planning strategies, research taxation in multiple states 

• Required skills and qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in accounting, experience in consulting, experience in R and C programming languages, familiarity with tax laws and regulations

• Top companies hiring for this role: Genentech, LIN, GSK, Chesapeake Energy, OfferTax

Tax manager

• What they make: $124,074 [5]

• What they do: Manage the tax team, review company tax returns, improve companies’ tax procedures, provide support during internal audits, oversee special tax projects. 

• Required skills and qualifications: Master’s degree in accounting, CPA license, experience in public accounting and management, proficiency with accounting software 

• Top companies hiring for this role: Google, Meta, Airbnb, Stripe, Apple

What are the top CPA firms in the US?

The top CPA firms in the US are Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler (KPMG), and Ernst & Young. Known as the Big Four, these accounting firms boast the highest annual revenue globally, making them appealing places to work for many accountants.

How to become a CPA

Ready to launch a career in public accounting? Follow the steps below. 

1. Set your career goals. 

Starting with this step can make it easier to streamline your efforts. Reflect on the kind of company you want to work for and the role you want to fill that best aligns with your accounting interests. 

Divide your career goals into short-term milestones and long-term goals. For example, a short-term milestone might be acquiring an in-demand skill like using accounting software, while a long-term goal might be advancing into a leadership position. 

Other examples of goals include managing an accounting team, working for a large accounting firm, or starting your own business as a CPA. 

2. Earn your accounting degree. 

To become a CPA, you’ll need a bachelor’s degree in accounting, which typically encompasses 120 hours of semester coursework. According to AICPA, the pre-licensure education required for a CPA is 150 semester hours of coursework. You could fulfill the extra 30 hours by pursuing a master’s degree in accounting or taking additional relevant coursework at the undergraduate level.  

You may find that for some accounting positions, employers require or prefer candidates with a master’s degree. 

As a stepping stone to a bachelor’s degree, you might consider getting an associate degree in accounting. This level of education can qualify you for entry-level jobs such as accounting assistant, accounts payable clerk, or bookkeeper. 

3. Take the CPA exam.

Beyond a bachelor’s degree in accounting, you’ll need to take the Uniform CPA Exam. This exam consists of four sections: Auditing and Attestation, Business Environment and Concepts, Financial Accounting and Reporting, and Regulation. Questions include multiple choice, task-based simulations, and written communication tasks. To pass the exam, you must score 75 on each section on a scale of 0 to 99. 

4. Gain experience. 

Experience in public accounting and your degree and licensure can make getting hired as a CPA easier. Also, some states require two years of public accounting experience to get a CPA license. Confirm whether your state requires experience for licensure here. 

5. Build your job search materials.

As you fulfill the CPA requirements, keeping your job search materials updated is a good idea, including your resume and LinkedIn profile. It’s also a good idea to improve your interviewing skills, such as researching a company, preparing questions to ask the hiring manager, and presenting your qualifications.  

6. Apply for public accounting jobs. 

To find a job matching your accounting career goals, apply for open positions. You can search general job sites like Indeed, ZipRecruiter, and Glassdoor for job openings in public accounting. Be sure to scour job boards specific to accounting, including: 

• AICPA’s Global Career Hub

• American Accounting Association’s Career Center

• Accounting Jobs Today

• iHireAccounting

Learn public accounting on Coursera. 

Earning your accounting degree can help you land a rewarding job in public accounting. Online courses can be a great way to explore career options in public accounting, build skills in this field, and begin your journey toward becoming a CPA.

Learn how to produce and analyze financial statements, payroll accounting functions, and more in the Intuit Academy Bookkeeping Professional Certificate. You can also discover tax laws for individuals, employees, businesses, and more in the US Federal Taxation Specialization offered by the University of Illinois on Coursera.