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riding the big gray wave.<\/strong><\/p>\n by brannon poe<\/em><\/p>\n the demographic tsunami actually might surprise you. according to pew research, millennials are projected to soon overtake baby boomers as the largest generation. that\u2019s right, they will be the biggest generation in the u.s. and they are almost there.<\/p>\n another very important consideration is the declining number of cpas in the profession. the total number of first-time licensed cpas has declined about 20 percent since the 1990s.<\/p>\n it appears that the \u201cgreying of the profession\u201d may be more of a function of the number of people who have chosen the profession and those that have decided to get out of public practice altogether.<\/p>\n that said, we remain very bullish on the marketability of cpa practices that are profitable and well-managed.<\/p>\n i\u2019m going to go out on a limb here and talk about some of the stereotypes of these two generations.\u00a0i realize the dangers inherent in stereotyping and there are of course many, many outliers.<\/p>\n boomers have a ton of grit.\u00a0<\/strong>from our experience, a lot of the cpas that are now thinking of retiring work long and hard. we have met many cpas that work 2,500, 3,000, and even more hours per year. i can remember working seven days a week at ernst and young when i started my career in the early \u201990s. the partners then had every expectation that everyone would work like that. if you wanted to move up, you had to work those long hours. that was just beginning to shift when i came into practice.<\/p>\n millennials demand work-life balance.\u00a0<\/strong>millennials find the long hours that the boomers worked to be absolutely unacceptable. they won\u2019t do it unless there is a huge silicon valley-type of payoff for them. honestly, who can blame them? if you don\u2019t have to work that hard, then why should you? finding good talent is a challenge in the accounting profession, so they can make work\/life balance demands on employers. couple this with their ability and willingness to automate their work with new technology, and they are able to work less than past generations have.<\/p>\n\n
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