[TerrenceK09]

Hey everyone! First and foremost, this is my first post on this site but after a little lurking it seems like a really smart and friendly community that I look forward to being a part of.

So anyway, back to the question at hand, will passing the CPA exam actually hurt my chances of getting an entry level job?

Here’s a little background info: I live in New York City and I graduated a few years ago with my bachelors degree in Accounting and took a job at a company doing accounts receivable work. Now after about 4 years of working there, I’ve decided to leave to pursue public accounting. I hope to go into auditing in particular. So this fall I plan on going back to school to get my masters degree in Accounting and in the interim I will have some downtime and figured it would be a good time to (or try to at least) knock out my CPA exam. This would leave me with my bachelors and masters degrees, 4 years of accounting related experience with great references, and having passed my CPA exam. (I also have half a bachelors degree completed in Computer Science that I did on the side)

I thought this would be a good thing. I am obviously only looking for an entry level position in audit as I have never worked in public accounting or audit before. I figured, the more qualifications the better right? But now my family accountant has suggested that perhaps passing my CPA exam will hurt me by making me over qualified for an entry level position. She claims that her son passed his CPA exam and has had difficulty finding an entry level position because he was overqualified for an entry level position but under-qualified for a more advanced position.

Now I don’t know her son at all, so am obviously skeptical about this story/advise because it honestly goes against everything I’ve ever been told previously, which was more along the lines of ~passing the CPA exam is ALWAYS a positive~. So I was hoping to get some second opinions here. Has anyone ever heard of anything like this or have experienced it themselves? Is this something I should be concerned about or was my original thought of it definitely being a good thing more on par with reality?

Thank you for all of your help in advance!

[Anonymous]

A public accounting firm usually has the opposite problem with not enough CPAs. They typically pride themselves with how many CPAs are on staff. I can't imagine having the certificate would hurt your chances, especially if you explain the situation and come in with the right attitude expectations regarding salary and title.

[TerrenceK09]

Hey CPleaseA. Thanks for the reply.

That's exactly what I was thinking regarding the attitude/expectations you come in with. When I was told about her son, I sort of wondered/wonder if possibly he came in wanting a higher salary, or wanting a higher position, due to his passing of the CPA exam, which was obviously unjustified and that's why they weren't interested.

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