[mikeyrockz]

So to keep it short. I don’t have accounting experience, I majored in accounting a few years back, realized I have the 150 units and decided to start taking the CPA exam with the plan to finish it then move into accounting to get the experience requirement done. Took FAR and BEC already, but I’m starting to feel like accounting isn’t something I’d want to do as a long-term career. I feel like I still want to stay in the business field but maybe something more in the finance or IT side. What exactly? I’m not too sure.

I don’t mind making the sacrifice and putting in some time in the public accounting field to finish getting certified after passing my exams + a year or two for experience. I’m just wondering am I on the wrong path? Or would getting my CPA help me with possible finding career opportunities in the IT / finance fields. I always hear ‘you can do more than accounting with an accounting degree’ but I’ve never seen many examples.

Also I’m in the SF area if that matters.

[Anonymous]

Regardless of what you want to do for work, you already started down the CPA licensure path and if you ask me (and I know you didn't but I'll just say it anyway), you're too far into it to stop. Why would you have taken BEC and FAR and put time into studying for them if you didn't want your CPA license? Get your CPA license and then decide if you want to pursue something else. It's a very good bragging right. I have a friend who is a paparazzi. She got the license and then said “F*** it, I don't want this” and started taking pictures to put food on her and her cat's tables every day. If you decide you want to do accounting, having the CPA license will put your resume at the top of the stack. Not having it will do the exact opposite. You say you live in SF, but what I just said applies to wherever you live. Best of luck!!! Assuming your scores for BEC and FAR haven't expired and assuming you passed both, start studying right after you finish reading this message, for AUD and REG before the format changes in Q2 of next year (April 1st.) BTW – I would give ***anything*** to be in your situation right now. What you have is way more than I currently have, even though you're uncertain about your future.

[Substantive Testing]

I am also in SF, and I know that the salary of an accountant wont get me too far in this city. Just as @crazyleon mentions, you are too deep into this cpa hole, so might as well just keep digging until you finish. I cannot say that a CPA can help you land a job in IT development, but it for sure can help you land a financial analyst or a research analyst job. I recommend you to find a new motivation for why you should get your CPA, and finish the rest of the tests. Just 2 more cents, I read that 75% of the current CPAs are going to retire in the next 15 years, millennials do not like accounting, and the test only gets harder.

[ultrarunner]

mikeyrockz, I am in the SF area. I was in the business field for a while and had a good career. I tried to avoid CPA exam, but eventually, I lost the job. I learned a bitter lesson though. Business field sounded great when you had a good job, but it is not a stable field. My company just let go some people, and most of them were sales/business development. I am glad that I am no longer in the business field. Anyway, please think about the future not the present. I wish I had done CPA sooner though.

FAR 72,67,79 (Roger+Wiley test bank)11/15
AUD 80 (Roger)10/15
BEC 80 (Roger)4/16
REG 63,78 (Roger+Ninja MCQs)5/16

[mikeyrockz]

Thanks for the responses. You guys are right I went this far I might as well see it through and decide later instead of quitting half way through. Sometimes I just need a kick in the ass to keep going. @crazyleon nah they haven't expired yet, passsed FAR and I actually just took BEC on the 10th and just started Audit. Thanks for the push!

[Anonymous]

My one thought would be:

You don't know if you'll like accounting or not yet. All you know right now is whether or not you've enjoyed studying for accounting (both in school and in prep for the exams). You might enjoy really doing accounting more than studying for it, or an accounting management position where you're combining your management experience with your accounting knowledge. If you could get into a big firm, it's not uncommon for people in big firms to jump to private after a couple/few years and move into private accounting already a few steps up the food chain, so you'd go in at a management level. Sometimes the people doing that are truthfully clueless about how to really work in the business world and only know how to audit it, so your business and management knowledge could give you a distinct advantage to be a good Controller/Direct of _____ (some part of the accounting department in a bigger company)/CFO (in a smaller company)/etc. Then as you move forward in your career, if you continue to climb the ladder, you're just going to be moving into roles that are more and more business/management based and less accounting based. Ex: I'm at a small non-profit college. My boss is the CFO. He's got an accounting Bachelor's and an MBA. Honestly, his job is more managing business than managing accounting. Some of it is numbers-based, but that's part of business management. It might be working with budgets, making strategic decisions with dollars, planning capital projects, etc., but it's really more business management than accounting. He's deciding is it viable to add xyz program, is initiative abc working out well, etc., not which piece of accounting standards do we need to follow for reporting this quarter's earnings – he'll weigh in on those discussions, but most of his day isn't spent on those issues. However, you have to know accounting to get in his role. He climbed up to it through the accounting side of the house, but I'd think that your business knowledge would help you climb to such a position and succeed in it, perhaps even with less experience in accounting. But, CPA and accounting experience would still be very valuable for such a position.

[Author]

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