Them: What do you do?
Me: I’m an accountant.
Them: Oh so you can do my taxes.
Me: Not that kind of accountant.
Them: Blank stare because accountants are supposed to do taxes.
I always have to tell people that accounting is simple arithmetic. Most complex it’ll get is prob college algebra and even then you use excel formulas for all that. Keep having to explain that accounting is more law-based regarding financial reporting for companies with the use of simple math hahaha. All you have to know, Assets = Liab. + Equity and your DRs/CRs
Can confirm. I only took college algebra in college for my degree. That’s all I use in my career. Now, I use much more complicated math equations out of work, but that’s another thing. I went to college to get my accounting degree, not a math degree. I have a sibling that got a math degree and I knew it wasn’t for me
Technically I would say the statistics fundamentals of accounting are very math adjacent. Statistics is arguably harder than elementary algebra. Anyone who’s gone to college for more than a semester should be more than fine in accounting though, there’s much less abacus use than I expected.
Eh, I agree with you in some ways but I think it totally just depends on what specific types of math you have a proclivity towards.
For me, stats was much more heuristic whereas Calculus, even by derivatives became pretty esoteric. I found stats to be really intuitive just based on a lot of the concepts being kind of naturally occurring throughout life. Calculus was very much predicated on having a good foundational understanding of algebra, geometry and trigonometry (though less so in business calc).
I was super happy to see that auditing has a lot of statistics applications. Definitely reminds me of one of the more enjoyable classes throughout my schooling.
It's funny too because I am good at math and I do like math but I completely agree that accounting is more law adjacent than math related ... and because accuracy is extremely important I always use Excel for even simple calculations.
I'm good at math, but I hate complex math. Good thing I stare at numbers all day! 😎
Tbh I do 5th grade math most of the time in my spreadsheets. Not complex at all.
I had a friend who asked what else there is to do other than taxes once and tried to explain accrual accounting to him and just continued getting the blankest stare.
I was the same way. I was a tax account for a C Corp. I did THEIR taxes only. In April they were like “I bet you are busy” and I was like. “I’m not that accountant”
For sure. It’s just easier to explain what I do.
I’m a cpa. But I help start ups raise money. I’ve helped raise over 100mm so far. Oversee like 50 clients. Have a team of 7 people under me one manager. Offshore people. Hah. It’s kind of insane to think of about.
Jump jobs. Pass the cpa. Keep putting myself in challenging situations to keep on learning.
If you aren’t getting paid enough, hope you are learning. Once you stop learning/growing and you don’t get paid enough to sit and chill and let your retirement grow, just keep on jumping till someone will pay you enough.
Learning what I want long term have a few paths I want to go down but deff need some luck along the way.
I had a girl on hinge ask me what I did and when I replied "accountant" she thought I meant onlyfans, This girl literally thought that accountant was just a word for onlyfans.
I just got bumped to controller about a month ago and I had this for the first time tonight. I wussed out and said “I’m in accounting at…” because I thought they probably wouldn’t know what a Controller is. Now I regret that, lol.
Just say it's day to day accounting/finance if they ask you to elaborate. My role has HR mixed in too and a few other things but that's really what most folks will latch on to
If I care what they think I typically say financial controller from the start. If I don’t I’ll leave it at controller and when they ask what I control say “everything” to which my husband is conditioned to immediately say “she really does”
I always wonder how to add HR in there. It got to the point where I would just list everything and people would stop asking. Admin, HR, bookkeeping and accounting for 7 different businesses and three different owners. 🤪
Corporate finance & accounting.
It's just non-specific enough that most people won't ask follow-up questions, but specific enough that they usually don't assume I do tax prep.
Cuz no, I don't do tax prep.
I just say “I run a finance/accounting department” or “I’m a cpa that does corporate books” to curb the tax thing right off.
I feel like a tool saying VP of finance.
CPA. I learned in year 1 that “auditor” does not get a good response. I learned by year three to let people assume I do taxes. When they ask if I can do theirs, I quote $150/hr. No one has taken me up on it yet.
When I was in public I used CPA, but now I really just mention the department I work in vs my title. So instead of saying finance director i just say I work in finance for these certain departments
I keep getting the response "oh so your a tiktok 'accountant?'" Any time I say that so now I say I'm an auditor. I really don't understand why people assume I do only fans lol I'm not that pretty
When people say that to me that I respond asking “what is a TikTok accountant?” in as earnest a tone as possible and wait for them to fill the silence. Most times they’ll mumble something about it being a joke, to which I respond “can you please explain the joke to me? I want to laugh too.”
I have no problem letting people marinate in their own rudeness.
I say accountant, controller, or CPA. It just depends on the audience and if someone will actually understand what I mean. My default is just to say accountant.
I tried telling them that I work in internal audit and the response is usually along the lines of “so you work in taxes?” Then I would try explaining that I was like an accountant but the kind that doesn’t work with taxes at all. Watching the gears turn in their heads the first few times was a mix of amusing and concerning. So, many of my non-accounting friends just settle on I do something with numbers.
Honestly, “doing something with numbers” sums up the profession pretty well. “Convincing other people to do something with numbers” is where your professional designation comes in handy.
I say CPA, when people ask what that is I say consultant - corporate financial statement review. If they know what a cpa is or is remotely in a similar field- I’ll say financial statement audit or assurance
If I say accountant people don’t think client services. If I say I am an accountant in client services they think tax.
50/50 between CPA and accountant. Usually tell salespeople CPA because they want to make you finance something and will try to make the numbers sound better than they are. If someone asked about taxes, I say no I do corporate accounting since auditor doesn’t make sense to some or they think IRS.
It took me two years to refer to myself as an accounting instead of “I’m in accounting” lmao I could not imagine referring to myself as a CPA personally
I am not a CPA and make sure that everybody knows it. Anytime somebody asks me what I do, I say I'm a staff accountant. I then make it very clear to them that I do not have, nor will I ever have my CPA. And that it's not that I can't do it, it's that I don't want to do it. So stop asking. I could do it if I wanted. I just don't want to. I really could, honestly. You gotta believe me.
Now, leave me alone. I've got some balance sheet recs to do. Poorly.
Nothing quite yet, I'm only a few months in. But I do process sportsbook bets that are sent in via mail, which is slowly dying out in a digital age, but people still do it!
CPA, since it's synonymous with tax for most people. And I do work in tax. If you're a CPA not in tax , I wouldn't say CPA, cause people are going to assume you work in tax.
Just imagine how confusing it is for those of us who have accounting degrees, are licensed CPAs, and yet don’t work in accounting.
Went from audit, to FDD, to FP&A.
Please, someone help me explain to my family what I do!
I am an accountant when in between projects. Otherwise, the current job title. I’m an accounting manager, or credit analyst, or credit collections. Often they reply oh ok, or oh that’s good money. Then, they move on. If they ask what does that mean or what do I do, I reply with one or two lines. The accounting manager, I said I keep track of business income and payments and manage people to help them get those things done too. The credit analyst, I said I help figure out how much credit a business can have to buy products. Credit collections, I said I collect money for businesses from other businesses that owe it to them. Then, we move on to topics like whatever sports game, their children and grandchildren, the antics from the last party, or last travels. Only held one longer conversation with another woman about accounting at a party in twenty-five years. She was an accountant from South America who worked in a warehouse here. She was very excited to talk about accounting with someone finally. This along with her former country’s cost of living, culture, and structure. We went on and on while everyone else ignored us. I enjoyed the conversation as well. It gave me a good reminder to be grateful for my profession and lifestyle here too. While it can be better, it can be much worse too.
I say accountant and don't really elaborate. Most think I must do taxes lol. Yes I have my cpa in industry over 30 years. Don't usually say cpa just accountant...
CPA if I'm trying to impress or want respect quick. Accou tant if I expect someone to ask me to do their taxes and with contractors. I figure people generally think a cpa makes more $ than a plain accountant so contractors maybe give me different quotes a lower one hopefully
My HR paperwork shows office manager accountant because my permissions level is that of an office manager... ao I say office manager accountant cause it sounds snazzy
I say I’m an accountant and then make a joke about how exciting my career is. Most people laugh and move on. Others are actually interested (or at least pretend to be actually interested) in what I do, so I go into a further explanation.
I just say CPA. I cried and struggled many nights to be able to say those letters. So now, I'm gonna say them until I'm blue in the face. Then I just say I have my own practice. I then get asked the question from the pits of hell, "Do you do taxes?" 💩
I say I work in finance, my title or job defines me very little so I try not to talk about it cause it bores me but usually saying finance is sufficient
Definitely CPA! People automatically assume I'm rich and I can do their taxes. Truth is I know shit about the tax code and I make just enough to get by. I earned this facade damnit!
I say I am an EA then, to their immediate follow up question, I explain what that is. Then I say, no, I won’t (do their taxes, give free tax advise, or whatever else stupid question that they have and do not want to pay for the answer).
There are so many “sub-disciplines” under the title CPA, that I start with, “CPA”, and if they seem interested or want more, I’ll go to the next level (e.g. audit, tax, public, corporate). If they’re still with me at that point, I’ll go ahead and dive into the details.
Family asked, “So what do you do now?”, I answered with, “I play on a computer at home, I play on a computer with numbers at work”. We all chuckled and they still wonder how I make six figures.
I was a first responder, then I worked on the side as an accountant part-time for a buddies logistics company. Then stepped into a controller position there full time as he expanded. Now I’ve taken a ‘step back’ to a Senior Accountant position in private equity making more than I did at the logistics company with a written contractual pathway to financial controller and $140k base salary plus stipends and bonuses at the one year mark.
I usually say “accounting and finance things for a [industry] company.” If they ask what my role is I’ll tell them, but I don’t lead with my title.
For some reason, non industry people always assume CPA = taxes; it’s too much effort to clarify.
I tell them I’m an accountant. My wife makes it a point to say auditor. She specifically differentiates that she is an auditor. Sure there’s a difference but it’s such a weird hill that she will fight tooth and nail to die on.
Auditor but that has been misinterpreted a lot. I normally follow up with I prepare financial statements. That just gets me blank stares and the topic changes.
Them: What do you do? Me: I’m an accountant. Them: Oh so you can do my taxes. Me: Not that kind of accountant. Them: Blank stare because accountants are supposed to do taxes.
my other favorite...: you must really like math. 😑
I always have to tell people that accounting is simple arithmetic. Most complex it’ll get is prob college algebra and even then you use excel formulas for all that. Keep having to explain that accounting is more law-based regarding financial reporting for companies with the use of simple math hahaha. All you have to know, Assets = Liab. + Equity and your DRs/CRs
I like to tell people Accounting is Law with math problems (especially tax)
Can confirm. I only took college algebra in college for my degree. That’s all I use in my career. Now, I use much more complicated math equations out of work, but that’s another thing. I went to college to get my accounting degree, not a math degree. I have a sibling that got a math degree and I knew it wasn’t for me
Technically I would say the statistics fundamentals of accounting are very math adjacent. Statistics is arguably harder than elementary algebra. Anyone who’s gone to college for more than a semester should be more than fine in accounting though, there’s much less abacus use than I expected.
Stats was definitely harder than algebra imo. This might be a hot take but I thought stats was harder than business calc until integrals.
Eh, I agree with you in some ways but I think it totally just depends on what specific types of math you have a proclivity towards. For me, stats was much more heuristic whereas Calculus, even by derivatives became pretty esoteric. I found stats to be really intuitive just based on a lot of the concepts being kind of naturally occurring throughout life. Calculus was very much predicated on having a good foundational understanding of algebra, geometry and trigonometry (though less so in business calc). I was super happy to see that auditing has a lot of statistics applications. Definitely reminds me of one of the more enjoyable classes throughout my schooling.
I tell them you could do all the math I do right now you just need to know what to add, subtract, multiple and divide.
It's funny too because I am good at math and I do like math but I completely agree that accounting is more law adjacent than math related ... and because accuracy is extremely important I always use Excel for even simple calculations.
I say it’s like a jigsaw puzzle. Just need to fit the pieces together.
That’s how I look at it too. I find it is much more logic and thinking based, than just being good at math.
I always clarify that I like numbers, have a passion for finding solutions, and nothing gets me harder than balanced debits and credits
How did grandma react to that conversation?
I love adding and subtracting things, it makes me feel special.
I'm good at math, but I hate complex math. Good thing I stare at numbers all day! 😎 Tbh I do 5th grade math most of the time in my spreadsheets. Not complex at all.
Not math, meth
“Oh, do you like it?”
Now hold the phone I’m an accountant who does taxes. But I can’t do individual’s taxes…
My partner doesn’t even really understand lol the glazed eyes when you try to explain it is inevitable
I hate this lmao
As a tax accountant in corporate taxes...I still say no lmao
I had a friend who asked what else there is to do other than taxes once and tried to explain accrual accounting to him and just continued getting the blankest stare.
People always tell me I must be so busy in march... my busy season is april may and august september. March is sloooow
100% this. Please don’t ask me about taxation. Ugh. I use a different type of account for that.
OMG. This is verbatim me.
I have the opposite problem. 😂 I'm a Chartered Accountant who does taxes but not accounts prep/audit. People are always asking if I can do accounts.
This is exactly what happens 98% of the time.
I was the same way. I was a tax account for a C Corp. I did THEIR taxes only. In April they were like “I bet you are busy” and I was like. “I’m not that accountant”
Evidently I’m also supposed to give them stock tips
Accountant
I find people's eyes tend to glaze over and the topic moves on when I say that.
That’s why I say it.
I don't even work directly in accounting anymore and I still say Accountant for this reason.
Either that or they are about to trauma dump
They do the same for compliance and audit, lol.
Oh, I'm in a finance ops role at this point but I am a CPA. It's just easier to say "accountant" and go about my day.
Me too. I just meant any of those words will make people immediately stop asking questions.
I'm living life and having fun.
I say CPA. They say I must be really smart. And then we changed the topic. 😂
Only smart for the tests, then never again
Smart (enough) for tests, then building good enough systems around me so I can be as dumb as I am.
Book smart a long time ago…
[удалено]
I SUMMON POT OF GREED
Hey I just looked it up, this card allows you to draw two additional cards from your deck and add them to your hand!
That’s what it do, Yugi!
My turn again!
Trust in the heart of the accounts
Lol. I just looked that up. I thought it was a reference to the army 18th airborne corps
🤣
Work from home office admin job.
That sounds like you are selling yourself short.
For sure. It’s just easier to explain what I do. I’m a cpa. But I help start ups raise money. I’ve helped raise over 100mm so far. Oversee like 50 clients. Have a team of 7 people under me one manager. Offshore people. Hah. It’s kind of insane to think of about.
Wow you’re incredibly humble. i would tell ppl what i do if i were you lol
How did you get into that?
Jump jobs. Pass the cpa. Keep putting myself in challenging situations to keep on learning. If you aren’t getting paid enough, hope you are learning. Once you stop learning/growing and you don’t get paid enough to sit and chill and let your retirement grow, just keep on jumping till someone will pay you enough. Learning what I want long term have a few paths I want to go down but deff need some luck along the way.
Do you mind hiring an unpaid trainee ?
Same! I tried saying bookkeeping for a while but it still always circled back around to accounting and taxes.
I had a girl on hinge ask me what I did and when I replied "accountant" she thought I meant onlyfans, This girl literally thought that accountant was just a word for onlyfans.
OnlyThots thinking Accountants are OnlyFans lol
Those are some sexy W-2s now balance those with these 1099s
Depreciate my land harder oni-sama, it's so~ fertile uwu
I have also gotten something like that in response before. FWIW Female accountant = sex worker has been around for a long time, before only fans.
Personally love saying title of Controller because a lot of people outside of business don’t know what it is and it’s fun not to elaborate.
I do this too and if people ask i say “Control things”. But no one ever asks questions when you say that you’re an accountant.
I just got bumped to controller about a month ago and I had this for the first time tonight. I wussed out and said “I’m in accounting at…” because I thought they probably wouldn’t know what a Controller is. Now I regret that, lol.
Just say it's day to day accounting/finance if they ask you to elaborate. My role has HR mixed in too and a few other things but that's really what most folks will latch on to
If I care what they think I typically say financial controller from the start. If I don’t I’ll leave it at controller and when they ask what I control say “everything” to which my husband is conditioned to immediately say “she really does”
I always wonder how to add HR in there. It got to the point where I would just list everything and people would stop asking. Admin, HR, bookkeeping and accounting for 7 different businesses and three different owners. 🤪
My kid is VERY proud that his mom is “the boss of the Accountants” so if he’s around he’ll clarify. Otherwise, I agree, it shuts down the tax jokes!
IKR - been getting that response my entire 30 year career.
Wait till they heard about the Comptroller
OnlyFans
Those are some sexy work papers you got there ;)
[I’m an “Accountant”](https://www.tiktok.com/@andreamonicahug/video/6863032663876406533)
Corporate finance & accounting. It's just non-specific enough that most people won't ask follow-up questions, but specific enough that they usually don't assume I do tax prep. Cuz no, I don't do tax prep.
After i answer the question, that usually ends the conversation for some reason.
Sometimes I just tell them I’m a glorified bookkeeper.
I just say “I run a finance/accounting department” or “I’m a cpa that does corporate books” to curb the tax thing right off. I feel like a tool saying VP of finance.
Nah you earned that title now flaunt it lmao
Same on the tool front. I just say "manage financial systems team for X company." No need drop a title.
CPA. I learned in year 1 that “auditor” does not get a good response. I learned by year three to let people assume I do taxes. When they ask if I can do theirs, I quote $150/hr. No one has taken me up on it yet.
They must have been wanting free because that’s not a bad price
When I was in public I used CPA, but now I really just mention the department I work in vs my title. So instead of saying finance director i just say I work in finance for these certain departments
I am a bank teller
Hi Michael
Say I’m in “fuh-nance.”
This guy fuh-nances
I just say accountant
I keep getting the response "oh so your a tiktok 'accountant?'" Any time I say that so now I say I'm an auditor. I really don't understand why people assume I do only fans lol I'm not that pretty
When people say that to me that I respond asking “what is a TikTok accountant?” in as earnest a tone as possible and wait for them to fill the silence. Most times they’ll mumble something about it being a joke, to which I respond “can you please explain the joke to me? I want to laugh too.” I have no problem letting people marinate in their own rudeness.
Ben Affleck
I say accountant, controller, or CPA. It just depends on the audience and if someone will actually understand what I mean. My default is just to say accountant.
No CPA, but I usually just say accountant rather than my title. I usually get, "Oh, a bean counter?" as a response.
I say CPA. If they don’t know what that is, then fuck em
I tried telling them that I work in internal audit and the response is usually along the lines of “so you work in taxes?” Then I would try explaining that I was like an accountant but the kind that doesn’t work with taxes at all. Watching the gears turn in their heads the first few times was a mix of amusing and concerning. So, many of my non-accounting friends just settle on I do something with numbers.
Honestly, “doing something with numbers” sums up the profession pretty well. “Convincing other people to do something with numbers” is where your professional designation comes in handy.
CPA always. I didn’t go through those exams to not tell everyone
CPA or accountant.
I tell them I do the numbers.
Tax wizard or capt. awesome
I say CPA, when people ask what that is I say consultant - corporate financial statement review. If they know what a cpa is or is remotely in a similar field- I’ll say financial statement audit or assurance If I say accountant people don’t think client services. If I say I am an accountant in client services they think tax.
50/50 between CPA and accountant. Usually tell salespeople CPA because they want to make you finance something and will try to make the numbers sound better than they are. If someone asked about taxes, I say no I do corporate accounting since auditor doesn’t make sense to some or they think IRS.
I’m a controller and people always asked “what do you control?” So now I either say CPA or Accountant depending on who’s asking.
Murders and executions
It took me two years to refer to myself as an accounting instead of “I’m in accounting” lmao I could not imagine referring to myself as a CPA personally
I say accountant
I say corporate accounting, try to avoid explaining im in industry but dont have cpa
Accountant. Saying CPA will either confuse people or think I’m a wanker.
I am not a CPA and make sure that everybody knows it. Anytime somebody asks me what I do, I say I'm a staff accountant. I then make it very clear to them that I do not have, nor will I ever have my CPA. And that it's not that I can't do it, it's that I don't want to do it. So stop asking. I could do it if I wanted. I just don't want to. I really could, honestly. You gotta believe me. Now, leave me alone. I've got some balance sheet recs to do. Poorly.
100%
I say I am a finance guy! Very few people really want to know what you do for a living, much less whether you have a CPA or not.
I also work in the gaming industry so I just say I work as an accountant in the casino
Any cool fun stories?
Nothing quite yet, I'm only a few months in. But I do process sportsbook bets that are sent in via mail, which is slowly dying out in a digital age, but people still do it!
Just tax. If they ask me to elaborate I shrug. Works well with the other daycare parents.
I tell them I'm a certified lifeguard. A just as irrelevant, less snobby, and way cooler designation.
“I’m definitely not an actor” 🎶
Was looking for this one.
Audit Managing Director.
I just tell them I deliver pizza. Better odds of getting laid that way
CPA, since it's synonymous with tax for most people. And I do work in tax. If you're a CPA not in tax , I wouldn't say CPA, cause people are going to assume you work in tax.
Just imagine how confusing it is for those of us who have accounting degrees, are licensed CPAs, and yet don’t work in accounting. Went from audit, to FDD, to FP&A. Please, someone help me explain to my family what I do!
I go clicky clacky to make numbers show up on the light box
I tell my kindergartener that I “count money”
I’m trying my best.
If I’m trying to be impressive, CPA. Otherwise….accountant
Usually accountant, sometimes CPA.
Accounting
Given poor attempts at jokes from men about sex workers, “I’m an accountant, I have my CPA”
I’m not an accountant. I do accounting 😎
I am an accountant when in between projects. Otherwise, the current job title. I’m an accounting manager, or credit analyst, or credit collections. Often they reply oh ok, or oh that’s good money. Then, they move on. If they ask what does that mean or what do I do, I reply with one or two lines. The accounting manager, I said I keep track of business income and payments and manage people to help them get those things done too. The credit analyst, I said I help figure out how much credit a business can have to buy products. Credit collections, I said I collect money for businesses from other businesses that owe it to them. Then, we move on to topics like whatever sports game, their children and grandchildren, the antics from the last party, or last travels. Only held one longer conversation with another woman about accounting at a party in twenty-five years. She was an accountant from South America who worked in a warehouse here. She was very excited to talk about accounting with someone finally. This along with her former country’s cost of living, culture, and structure. We went on and on while everyone else ignored us. I enjoyed the conversation as well. It gave me a good reminder to be grateful for my profession and lifestyle here too. While it can be better, it can be much worse too.
I say accountant and don't really elaborate. Most think I must do taxes lol. Yes I have my cpa in industry over 30 years. Don't usually say cpa just accountant...
I just say I'm an accountant. Nobody knows or cares what do you do is like what's your sign.
I say accountant because financial analyst would get more follow up questions and CPA makes it sound like I should know more than I do.
“CFO”
Idk how to explain transfer pricing to ppl, I just said analyst
I say I write financial statements for the SEC.
I always say CPA, but a lot of people don’t know what that is. And then it becomes a longer story, but I’ve never changed my approach.
"Emails, meetings, spreadsheets"
Bean counter 😆😆
I just say I'm in finance because trying to explain what an auditor does to someone in sales or marketing is too much work
I say I’m a CPA and if they don’t know what that is I say I’m an accountant.
Dungeon Master
Obviously I do math for a living
I’m 3/4 with FAR to go…I can promise I’ll be saying CPA as soon as I hit 4/4. Now I say I’m a Corporate tax accountant.
CPA if I'm trying to impress or want respect quick. Accou tant if I expect someone to ask me to do their taxes and with contractors. I figure people generally think a cpa makes more $ than a plain accountant so contractors maybe give me different quotes a lower one hopefully
CPA. I like to swing my letters around.
I just say I'm an accountant with an apologetic look on my face bc I know I'm about to kill the conversation
My HR paperwork shows office manager accountant because my permissions level is that of an office manager... ao I say office manager accountant cause it sounds snazzy
I say I’m an accountant and then make a joke about how exciting my career is. Most people laugh and move on. Others are actually interested (or at least pretend to be actually interested) in what I do, so I go into a further explanation.
I just say CPA. I cried and struggled many nights to be able to say those letters. So now, I'm gonna say them until I'm blue in the face. Then I just say I have my own practice. I then get asked the question from the pits of hell, "Do you do taxes?" 💩
The latter.
I tell people I’m an “It Cop” (IT Auditor). They might ask questions or move along.
Tax accountant. I have my CPA, but I'm finding more people have no clue what a CPA is unless they are a small business owner.
I do taxes for a living. If they ask more, I tell more. For most, that is sufficient.
I say I work in finance, my title or job defines me very little so I try not to talk about it cause it bores me but usually saying finance is sufficient
CPA for a tax firm.......and yes i can do your taxes but you probably don't want to pay my rates, even discounted
After getting that cpa? You bet your sweet ass I say cpa
Definitely CPA! People automatically assume I'm rich and I can do their taxes. Truth is I know shit about the tax code and I make just enough to get by. I earned this facade damnit!
I say I do taxes and I have experience.
I say that I sell life insurance.... I avoid the inane tax questions and they don't want to talk to me anymore.
I say I am an EA then, to their immediate follow up question, I explain what that is. Then I say, no, I won’t (do their taxes, give free tax advise, or whatever else stupid question that they have and do not want to pay for the answer).
Corporate tax, so if they ask me advice, I ask them if they’re a corporation…
I say I do consulting and am bored just talking about it.
I don't have a CPA and I always say "I work in accounting"
I say CPA first (so they know I mean business) and my job second so they know I’m not unemployed
I run the books at XYZ.
I just say I’m an accountant and I specialize in such and such.
World’s most boring job.
I say CPA. I EARNED it😂
Do you say it every time you introduce yourself ? i.e. my name is xxxxx, CPA
I wanted to but I forget most of the time🤣
"I work in finance" so they don't ask me tax questions
Bean Counter
It's kind of fun to just blandly say "accountant" to see how people react.
Federal Agent
I’m a police
There are so many “sub-disciplines” under the title CPA, that I start with, “CPA”, and if they seem interested or want more, I’ll go to the next level (e.g. audit, tax, public, corporate). If they’re still with me at that point, I’ll go ahead and dive into the details.
I say that I'm an accountant (my actual title is auditor but no one wants to hear that)
“I put numbers in boxes.”
I'll say my job title and usually follow up with CPA.
Family asked, “So what do you do now?”, I answered with, “I play on a computer at home, I play on a computer with numbers at work”. We all chuckled and they still wonder how I make six figures. I was a first responder, then I worked on the side as an accountant part-time for a buddies logistics company. Then stepped into a controller position there full time as he expanded. Now I’ve taken a ‘step back’ to a Senior Accountant position in private equity making more than I did at the logistics company with a written contractual pathway to financial controller and $140k base salary plus stipends and bonuses at the one year mark.
Do you have CPA?
Nah, I’m working on it though
I say financial statement auditor. Adds a little flair
I cater my response to what kind of job they have (and therefore knowledge they have about what I do).
Being an an accountant is knowing how to categorize things and in what reporting period
Accountant. I only ever say CPA if they ask if I am one.
for some odd reason when people ask me what i do i just say admin assistant or something vague… i don’t like talking about work outside of work
I usually say “accounting and finance things for a [industry] company.” If they ask what my role is I’ll tell them, but I don’t lead with my title. For some reason, non industry people always assume CPA = taxes; it’s too much effort to clarify.
I tell them I’m an accountant. My wife makes it a point to say auditor. She specifically differentiates that she is an auditor. Sure there’s a difference but it’s such a weird hill that she will fight tooth and nail to die on.
I say “accountant” and if the conversation goes longer I give a little more color. That’s it.
CPA. Then it’s always followed by “you don’t look like one”
I say CPA because people don’t know controller for some reason
CPA
Auditor but that has been misinterpreted a lot. I normally follow up with I prepare financial statements. That just gets me blank stares and the topic changes.