Salary reviews are approaching across many accounting firms in June and July, and for accountants working in public practice, 2026 is shaping up to be one of the strongest salary markets in years. While flexibility, hybrid work, career progression, and culture remain major priorities for candidates, remuneration has become a much larger focus again as firms compete for expe...
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How Public Practice Accountants Can Secure a Stronger Salary Review in 2026
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Easy to Action Interviewing Strategies for Accounting Hiring Managers
An interview strategy for accounting hiring managers is a structured plan that standardises questions, scoring, and format across candidates to reduce unconscious bias and improve hire quality. Effective strategies combine competency-based questions, a two-stage interview format, dual interviewers, and standardised scoring rubrics tailored to the accounting role.When most a...
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6 Accounting Interview Mistakes to Avoid (2026 Guide) | Hedley Scott
The most common accounting interview mistakes are arriving unprepared, dressing too casually, criticising former employers, poor punctuality, weak body language, and failing to listen actively. Avoiding these six errors covered in detail below measurably improves your chance of converting an interview into an offer in the Australian accounting and finance market6 Accounting ...
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How to Handle a Resignation Meeting in Public Practice
Leaving a role in public practice, whether from a boutique firm or Big 4, is a significant career step. The accounting profession is relationship-driven, reputation-sensitive, and tightly networked. How you resign can directly impact your future referrals, references, and even client opportunities.With many accountants moving firms or transitioning into industry roles over ...
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Should You Stay or Should You Go? Evaluating Your Accounting Career Move in 2026
Is It Time for a Career Move? A Guide for Accounting Professionals in 2026In today’s accounting industry, staying with the same firm for your entire career doesn’t always guarantee long-term success. While your current employer may offer stability, remaining in the same role for too long can limit your growth, earning potential, and overall career satisfaction.With ongoing ...
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How Diverse Is Your Accounting Team in 2026?
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) have become essential priorities for accounting firms and finance teams in 2026. Today’s accounting professionals are increasingly selective about where they work and many actively seek employers that demonstrate genuine commitment to inclusive, flexible and supportive workplaces. At the same time, the accounting profession is evolving ...
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Mental Health Strategies for Accounting Professionals in 2026
Mental health challenges continue to be a growing concern across workplaces worldwide and the accounting sector is no exception. Increasing workloads, tight deadlines, evolving regulations and the rapid integration of new technologies have created new pressures for accounting professionals. In Australia, mental health remains a major issue for the workforce. Millions of Aus...
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Holiday Blues or a Career Cue? How to Tell the Difference.
Holiday Blues or a Career Cue? How to Tell the Difference.We’ve all been there: that sinking feeling on a Sunday night after a long break. You’ve spent the last two weeks switching off, but as the Monday morning alarm approaches, the "back-to-work" nerves feel heavier than usual.For public practice accounting professionals, the start of 2026 brings a unique set of questions....
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Is 2026 the Year You Make a Move and Grow Your Accounting Career?
The start of a new year has a way of sharpening focus. Fresh goals, new budgets, new priorities, and for many accounting professionals, a quiet question that keeps coming up: Am I still growing here, or am I just comfortable?In an industry where skill shortages continue and firms are competing hard for the right people, staying put does not automatically equal stability or...
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Handling Job Rejection: Five Practical Ways to Stay Grounded and Move Forward
You did everything right. Applied for the accounting role of your dreams with a custom resume and cover letter, showed off your skills in the interview, and completed the assessment tests. But despite everything, you still get the same response: “We’ve decided to move forward with another candidate.” What You'll LearnProcess rejection without spiraling — Practical self-com...
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The Top Questions to Ask Candidates to Identify Their Fit and Motivation
Often, an accounting candidate who looks fantastic on paper appears in your recruiting pool. They have all the credentials you’ve been looking for, maybe they have even done the job before, and their references check out. Everything seems to line up until they start. Then, within a few weeks, you notice that something feels off. The energy’s not there. They always seem dis...
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Trust: How to Strengthen the Psychological Contract before Accounting Employees Walk
It’s not just finding the right accounting candidates that’s a challenge for business leaders anymore. It’s keeping them. People are increasingly drifting away from the roles they used to love. The disengagement isn’t obvious at first. A colleague might talk less in a meeting, or someone starts updating their LinkedIn profile more often. Maybe a good employee who used to g...
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The Economics of Retention - Calculating the True Cost of Employee Turnover
Most accounting firms don’t track turnover costs until they cost them money. One resignation leads to another, and momentum disappears somewhere between the exit interview and the hiring post. But retention issues are more expensive than companies realise. Gallup puts the national cost of voluntary turnover at around $1 trillion USD each year. The cost of replacing just on...
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Finding Your Fit: An Accounting Job Seeker’s Guide to Remote, Hybrid, and In-Office Roles
A few years ago, remote work in the accounting industry was an emergency plan. Then it became a preference. Now it’s a battleground. Some firms want everyone back. Others are holding onto hybrid plans. A few are staying remote by design, but they’re the exception. For job seekers, this makes things complicated. Because you’re not just choosing a job anymore, you’re choosing...
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Finding the Best Accounting Recruiter: The Simple Guide
Even when you’re eager to find the ideal accounting role fast, getting constant messages from recruiters can be stressful. Some are thoughtful and specific. Others look like they were copied to a hundred people at once. It’s hard to know which ones deserve your attention and which will end up wasting your time. Finding a recruiter who genuinely cares about your goals makes ...
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Creating Development Plans That Deliver for Your Accounting Team
Ask any business leader in the accounting industry, and they’ll tell you it’s becoming a lot more difficult to keep teams fully staffed, engaged, and confident in their skills. Across industries, hiring is starting to feel more like plugging leaks than building momentum. 75% of employers say finding qualified people to fill roles is their biggest challenge. As technology e...
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How to Handle Underperformers in Your Accounting Team
Underperformance in an accounting team isn’t always immediately obvious, but the side effects are inevitably painful. Whether you’re dealing with a few missed deadlines, the occasional delayed project, or a series of complaints from clients, eventually, you’ll realise something needs to change. That’s an uncomfortable thing for business leaders to recognise. Approaching an ...
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Maintaining Your Motivation Through Extended Hiring Processes in the Accounting Sector
Looking for a job in accounting wasn’t what it was a few years ago. Now it drags on, sometimes way longer than you expect. It’s normal to stretch out three, four, maybe six months before you land somewhere. You're waiting even once you spot a role that looks like a match. Companies are taking their time, setting up round after round of interviews, assessments, and more inte...
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Building Team Resilience: How to Create Stability When Economic Signals Are Mixed
If you've felt like the economic signals this year are sending mixed messages, you’re not alone. Global growth is forecast to slow to just 2.3% in 2025. At the same time, the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index just hit its highest mark this century. This uncertainty leads to tension inside the accounting workplace, as teams start to ask questions. Is the business okay? Is ...
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Managing the Great Mismatch: When Accounting Candidates Don't Have the Skills You Need
Recruitment in accounting right now is a challenge. Resumes and applications might pour in for every job listing you post. But after two rounds of interviews, a few assessments, and more “we’ll get back to you” emails than you’d like to admit, you might realise something. No one quite fits your mould for the perfect candidate. You’re not alone. 75% of employers say they s...
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