[Anonymous]

Greetings everyone!

So I have been out of school since August 2010, have been working a retail job part time the past five years while I pursued my undergraduate degrees and the CPA exam, and have been actively searching for a job since said graduation time. Anyway, I’m having absolutely no luck with anything (I know I’m not the only one, cause this economy is pretty terrible still), and was curious as to what else I should pursue to differentiate myself among the competition? I was going to go back and get my Masters of Professional Accountancy but the two counselors I’ve talked to from different Universities (Seattle University, University of Washington) said it’s not worth it if I have passed the CPA exam because the MPacc basically just preps you for it. So I thought maybe I’d get my MBA, but every other Master’s degree requires roughly two years of actual professional experience (I doubt being on the operational side of a retail company counts). I would pursue another designation, but I do not know where I will ultimately end up as far as accounting goes, and don’t want to take on the CMA, then end up in something like compliance auditing and having the CMA expire due to not meeting the time allowance for meeting the experience requirement. Every other designation but the CPA, I’m finding out, will expire after X period of time. So… Now I’m considering maybe pursuing an undergraduate IT degree and get into IT auditing (auditing is my primary area of interest). Does anyone have any other suggestions or input as to whether or not an IT degree would be beneficial? Or any other degree that isn’t Law 😛 ?

[Anonymous]

Just realized I posted this in the wrong forum, hopefully Jeff will relocate it to a more appropriate forum 🙂

[jeff]

🙂

Jeff Elliott, CPA (KS) | Another71 | NINJA CPA | NINJA CMA | NINJA CPE

[kb24]

If the only reason you're considering a new degree is to get a job, make sure you've exhausted all job search avenues first. If you haven't already tried these, consider the following:

Check out alumni career services at your university. Mine provides resume assistance, interview practice, job listings, and interviewing with campus recruiters. The last one is good because that's where a lot of firms hire for entry level positions.

Use linkedin.

Look into accounting and financial analysis jobs at non accounting firms and tailor your resume accordingly.

Good luck.

FAR 4/1/11 - 89
AUD 4/15/11 - 85
REG 4/29/11 - 80
BEC 5/13/11 - 85

[kandisjoy]

Rather than going back to school for an IT degree, you could get your CITP (Certified Information Technology Professional). Check out this site: https://www.aicpa.org/InterestAreas/InformationTechnology/Membership/Pages/Overview%20of%20The%20Certified%20Information%20Technology%20Professional%20Credential.aspx

FAR: 71, 77
BEC: 70, 82
AUD: 62, 78
REG: 71, 68, 85

CA Licensed 11/2011

[Anonymous]

The CPA designation expires too, you have to do continuing education and pay renewal fees to keep it active.

Why kind of jobs are you applying for? Try an entry level accounting job somewhere to get the general accounting experience, then you can apply for the CPA license, and once you get it, that should open up alot of doors!

I agree with the counselors that the Masters in accountancy really doesnt mean anything once you've passed the CPA exam.

[Anonymous]

@kb24: I have exhausted the majority of job resource sites, including my colleges worthless one! I'll probably play around with LinkedIn and see if that yields anything. Thanks for the insight :).

@Kandisjoy: That is a really neat designation, but unfortunately, it's only given to licensed CPA's, I don't have any accounting experience whatsoever :(. I know their are other designations like the CISA (Certified Information System Auditor) but that one also requires I think 2 or 3 years in a role that does IT auditing before you can sit for the exam. However, if I ever get my foot in the door I will probably look further into the CITP designation.

@CalCPASoon: As for the expiration, i mean the exam expiring 🙂 The CPA exam, once you pass all four parts, doesn't expire. If you don't apply for the license (at least in Washington) within 4 years of passing it, you have to take some CPE classes for “refreshment.” All the other designations that sounded interesting to me exam sections expire if the experience is not met within some period of time. However, I have pretty much accepted that I'll have to work some job from Craigslist to get the 2000 required hours before I can be signed off for my license XD.

[Author]

Replies