Do what you need to do to get the license. Does it have value outside the profession? Probably. I have friends who do not work in public accounting but maintain their license for whatever reason they do so. Some work in related fields, private accounting and others in unrelated fields. Digging deep and finishing will do more for you than just giving up because you decided you just don't care anymore. What is that, anyway? How many things in life do you think you really get to quit because you don't care before you run out of chances? There is value in the knowledge you acquire and there is value in the effort you see through to completion. What do you have to show for all this time, effort and education if you just abandon it? At the end of the day, it's just a test. You're not passing because you don't want to. Set a goal and get it done. Oh, and Happy Holidays!
@monikernc& others thank you for the wishes and encouragement, I now have a promising solid lead with a local CPA firm, that is interested in engaging me for part-time work during tax season. This might just work out as I was hoping to apply and develop knowledge and build on this base. I will come back here and post the update if this lead works out. All through this process, I had been updating the Adjunct faculty that taught the sole 3-credit hour accounting class at the local community college that I took just in case I fell short of the 150 hrs requirement. It turns out he has a CPA firm that could use some additional help and I interviewed with them yesterday for a part-time role.
I would like to share my personal experience. I did not really need the CPA but I just could not let go of something that I started long back unfinished.. I still regret the one professional diploma that I did not pass because I did not apply myself. The Company Secretaryship license. It probably did not matter. But I did not want to add another ‘regret' to that list by not completing the CPA.
Is it going to change my life substantially, May be , may be not. But I would much rather have it in back pocket than not have it. That is important to me.
I would like to think myself as an uncommon CPA candidate. I work in IT (well sort of) having left my accounting job in industry back in 1997. But the pull of CPA in my adopted country was always there.
When I was 34 , I attempted this in half-hearted manner and got embarrassing scores. I put it on the back burner for the next 15 years. My now-departed father used to remind me of this unfinished business every year. After he passed on, I got this determination to give it my best shot one last time and oh boy am I glad it worked out. I signed up for GLEIM Review and slogged through it for the next 8 months taking my first exam just before my 50th birthday and the remaining 3 sections in succession 6-8 weeks apart.
I learnt that I needed more discipline, self-denial and focus.
Monirkernc said it best “there is value in that knowledge” and “value in the effort”. Just the other day a high school friend from India called and enquired about a simple tax situation for his elderly US Citizen client that wants to live her golden years in India and wanted to understand implications of selling her property here in the US. I was able to help out with that query.
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