Landing your first Senior Accountant job
Making the leap to Senior Accountant from Staff Accountant can be challenging for many. There are far less Senior opportunities than Staff and the job market is fierce. Getting the promotion to Senior Accountant can often feel like a game of Survivor whether you’re aiming for a promotion at your current company or making the leap to a new organization. It’s important that you stand out from the crowd and that starts with getting your hands on the right activities to build your resume so that you can be the sole survivor.
Time-frame
Don’t expect to be a Senior Accountant over night. The very best make it to the Senior level around 3 years and on average most arrive in a Senior Accountant role around 5 years. But if it takes a little longer, don’t sweat it. In the meantime, focus on the skills sets below and start building your resume.
Month, Quarter, Year End Close
Senior Accountants are expected to be more involved in the close process. They may even manage the close checklist with other accounting staff. Take the opportunity to take on as many responsibilities as possible and be involved. You should know what the close process looks like, why it is set up the way it is, on what days certain reconciliations take place, and what cut-offs are implemented and why. If you really want to build your resume, start looking for ways to make this process more efficient.
You’ll also be expected to talk about your internal business partners during an interview for Senior Accountant. What other departments did you work with to accomplish a successful close, how did you get their buy-in, and how did you provide value to them?
Balance Sheet Accounts
Seniors are typically assigned more complicated balance sheet accounts. Some of these accounts may be roll forwards, AR allowances, warranty accruals, or lease obligations.
Even if you’re not assigned any of these, take every opportunity to work on these accounts and learn about them whenever you can. Ask questions and be inquisitive. Take ownership for your learning. If you really want to stand out, get some experience working with debt.
Estimations
Senior Accountants typically calculate estimations or work with estimation accounts. These are accounts that are based on some type of historical trend where you will project into the future based on the past. Some accounts that may require estimations are warranties, bad debt, sales returns and allowances, slow and obsolete moving inventory, intellectual property, or self-insured workers compensation. If your company works with any of these things, try to learn how the estimate is calculated, how your mentors look at trends to calculate them, and see if your manager will let you take a couple of cracks at them during close.
Financial Statements
A solid Senior doesn’t rely on system generated financials alone. Anyone can push a button. Great Senior Accountants pull information from their software system and use Excel or a report writer to create a nice Financial Statement Format.
Analyze, Analyze, Analyze
Senior Accountants take shots at variance analysis. They look at budget to actual, TTM, current period vs. prior, and can take a first cut at the analysis for their managers. You don’t have to be a Senior Accountant to try your hands at these items. Take the initiative and go past just providing the numbers. You’ll make mistakes and that’s OK. Talk to your manager about them and seek to understand. Most managers will be thrilled in having someone else on the staff that can do this work.
These are just a few of the skills that managers look for in Senior Accountants. The more experience you gain in these areas, the more you seek to learn from your current co-workers and managers, and the more ownership you take for your learning now will pay off when you’re ready to make that leap to a coveted Senior Accountant role.
If you’re looking for more advice on climbing accounting ladder or how to nail your interview for Senior Accountant, connect with one of our career advisors and get the edge you need.