@CPAski I'll share with you my “successful” personal experience, I left my old job for reasons unrelated to CPA and I decided to take all CPA parts at once. I had plenty of time to study and I was able to pass all parts within an extremely short amount of time (started studying at the end of November 2011, finished all four parts by February 2012). Now let me tell you why this is a HORRIBLE IDEA:
1- Even without a job you will get distracted by unplanned things. I had my unplanned event less than one month before the exam and let me tell you, a job would have been less distracting.
2- having nothing going on in your life other than CPA will make you go nuts. At one point of time I ACTUALLY WISHED TO SEE A FAILING SCORE JUST TO GET OVER THE WAIT.
3- How much time are you planning to stay unemployed to study? Let us take the best case scenario, two months of studying, one month of examination, one month of waiting for the results, two months to get a license. Under the assumption that you do pass, that is at least 6 months of unemployment so you can use the CPA title on your resume.
4- The unemployment gap explanation won't impress recruiters. They might simply claim that it was easy for you to pass since you had nothing else to do and might even get the wrong impression that you can't handle heavy work pressure.
5- The CPA alone won't get you a job. Networking & experience are more important. If you are short on both, don't quit your job.
If you are still unmarried and the work pressure is normal, you can pass all four parts within six months without leaving your job especially if you are highly motivated.
REG: 80 (02/02/2012)
FAR: 91 (02/06/2012)
AUD: 89 (02/09/2012)
BEC: 79 (02/12/2012)
Ethics: 90 (02/11/2012)
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