u/Beginning-Visual-843

I’ve been noticing this more and more in job posts and also from talking to people in the field.

A lot of “staff accountant” roles now seem to want month-end close experience, reconciliations, variance analysis, audit support, ERP experience, Excel skills, maybe some tax, maybe some payroll, and sometimes even process improvement or automation stuff.

But then the pay is basically entry level, and the company still says they’re looking for someone who can “hit the ground running.”

I get that accounting teams are lean and nobody wants to train from scratch, but at some point it feels like companies don’t want juniors, they want discounted seniors.

Is this just the market right now, or has it always been like this and I’m only noticing it now?