[wng1885]

I hope to pass the last two parts of the CPA within the next 6 months and after that it’ll be back to school for an MBA. I was wondering what my options are as far as employment goes. I currently only have about 5 years of work experience as an Staff accountant and no public firm experience which is why I would need experience at a Big 4.
What are some of the positions I would be looking at if I were to go with employment at a Big 4?

[wng1885]

Yes I believe you are Right Anyatver. You do not need Public accounting experience to obtain the CPA but the non-reporting license will limit what you can do. I believe that you will also not be able to sign off on Financials. I tried calling the Mass NASBA office today to verify if it is indeed true that 3 years of accounting under a CPA will count as 1 year of Public accounting experience. Though it seems like the office was closed today.

It seems like a lot of companies look for candidates with Big 4 experience therefore it seems like it is in my interest to slave it out for a couple of years at a Big 4 and move on into private corporate accounting… Anyone have any input on this?

Also I'm considering whether I should be going with an MBA or a Masters in accounting. Not sure which would be more beneficial to me if I were going the Corporate accounting path.

[Anonymous]

There are a multitude of paths, depending on what you want to be doing five years from now, why you're going back to school for an MBA, if you can legally work in the USA without sponsorship, etc.

[Smallwood]

I'm licensed in VA and I didn't nee public experience, nor did I need to have experience under a CPA. I just needed 2,080 hours of accounting experience in any field, signed off by my supervisor who need not be a licensed CPA.

FAR - 76
AUD - 74, 72
REG - 62, 74, TBD
BEC - 09/2016

[Missy]

In MA the experience has to be in audit, tax wouldn't count but yes if you have a master's (and only with a master's) you can get a non reporting license which is what I have. You never even have to say it's a non reporting license unless someone asks you to sign off on financials but if you're working in industry that will never come up.

And any its not true that 3 years of other experience counts. I had over 20 years general ledger experience and it didn't count for anything. There is an exception with three years of very specific experience but hard to satisfy that requirement and I've never heard of someone who actually got that exception.

Licensed Massachusetts Non Reporting CPA since 2012
Finance/Admin/HR Manager

[Missy]

The three years experience under a licensed cpa has to be in work the board considers “substantially equivalent to a cpa firm” and there's not much they consider substantially equivalent unfortunately. For government they may consider a dcaa auditor to be substantially equivalent and in industry possibly someone in internal audit who audits multiple entities and even that may be hit or miss. I've heard of about three people here who tried to use the three years and all three ended up getting licensed in another state.

Licensed Massachusetts Non Reporting CPA since 2012
Finance/Admin/HR Manager

[MOAC]

I'm glad that I'm not in MA. It's very hard to get into public accounting even after passing all four sections.

FAR May 2012 81 (lost credit, didn't sit for other sections.)
FAR 86 Aug 2015
AUD 85 Nov 2015
BEC 84 Dec 2015
REG 78 Mar 2016

Passed ALL sections in first attempt!!

[Missy]

Yeah I was lucky that I was halfway through my master's when I even considered the cpa because there was no way I was going to take an entry-level audit position for the sake of getting my license. MA is also one of the most expensive to get NTS. They even specify that out of the 1000 attest hours not more than 300 can be compilations. Tough crowd here.

Licensed Massachusetts Non Reporting CPA since 2012
Finance/Admin/HR Manager

[Author]

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