[Anonymous]

THIS IS LONG I KNOW BUT I NEED SOME GUIDANCE! 🙁

Hello everyone, I am new to the forum and am seeking some advice and different points of view.

I am a 21 year old college senior majoring in Accounting, graduating in May with about 125 credit hours or so.. and I am starting to become overwhelmed with what I should do once I graduate.

My school’s career fair is in September and I am thinking about looking for a full time job for when I graduate so I can start working and gaining experience since I have barely any experience at all.

I babysitt my sisters to help out my parents Friday through Monday, then during the week my schedule doesn’t allow me to find a job anywhere else. I did work at a bank this past summer but other than that I am very lacking on experience.

Also, I am not 100% sure whether I want to work in public accounting, private, banking or anywhere else I just know I want it to be accounting related and start making money!! My old plan was to pursue an MBA with a focus in accounting at my school to get my 150 hours, but that was before I came to the conclusion that I need to start working.

I have also considered maybe taking random classes at a community college to get my hours and then take the CPA exam. But another problem is, should I even become a CPA? We are told to become a CPA all the time at my school so it has become a goal of mine but it seems that I can only keep my license if I work in public accounting, so what if I go into private accounting instead? would I lose my license? would it be a waste of time? Should I work in public with a bachelors for a while and if i like it, pursue my mba and then the cpa? or what?

Please help?! Sorry for the long question I am just all over the place at the moment and its stressful because I like to have a set plan, I am also a first generation college student and so I don’t know many people besides my professors that can somewhat guide me…

Also, I am in Illinois, if that helps anyone understand the requirements better since I think there is going to be a change soon in which theyre adding Research and ethics requirements to the CPA exam.

I would also appreciate if you all shared a little of how you all got your hours and to the point of being a CPA or sitting for the CPA exam.