[msquared17]

Background: I’m mid 40’s and my last accounting job a Budget manager for 2years. I have a total of 7 years of accounting experience starting at staff and ending with business analyst. My career took a different turn and landed me in Information Systems (8years) of which I have been a manager for 2 years.
My dream is to someday open my own accounting/tax business. So I thougtht I would start with the CPA exam (another personal goal). But I would really like to work in accounting again before branching out on my own. Well, now I’m a crossroad because I don’t think
there is any chance at someone hiring me in accounting at my current salary?? My entire career has been in healthcare.

I’m at the point of making a decision whether to continue with the CPA or cut my losses now. Being away from accounting for so long has made studying a tedious process. I did my 1st retake of FAR in March and currently study REG. Why put myself through this if I never go back to accounting.

Has anyone switched careers and landed an accounting job with comparable salary?

[Anonymous]

Yup! You asked precisely the right question of exactly the right person.

For a decade after graduating from university in 1999, I worked as both a chemist (my first BS was in Chemistry) and after relocating to Southern California from Oregon, I landed a decent job in the financial services (banking) industry. During the recession, the company I was working for started to tank. I could go back to doing chemistry again or try something else in financial services. But, then one day, I met a CPA. We had a fling…didn't date for long and just became very good friends. He told me that I needed to get myself back into school and that accounting would be a wise choice – that I could get my CPA license eventually. Well, I got back into school. I didn't even think anything about doing the CPA exam, but I started with Accounting 1 and 2. Got A's in both and then decided i would get myself another Bachelor's degree. Which I did. After getting it, I left my financial services career and for 2 years worked at 3 or 4 long-term contract positions as an accountant. They all paid better than my former career, but not by much. Last year, I landed a permanent position in the real estate industry and it's the best (and highest-compensated) job I've had yet. Although I'm not done with the CPA exams, my boss has told me that once I'm done, she'll sign off on work experience. Moral of this story: if you're in a rut, jump out of it. Take the risk. I'm in my early 40's. I don't want to say “If I can do it, anyone can” but if you feel strongly about a career change, do whatever it takes to make it happen. Had I stayed where i was, I'd be in therapy and on Xanax and probably a dozen other drugs to keep me from being suicidal.

Regarding the CPA exam, I'm not an expert about it at this time. I've had my struggle with it and continue to. Everyone does it differently. Like I always say – if you really want it, and/or really need it for what you're doing in your life, then you should get that license and those three letters behind your name!

[Anonymous]

i am trying to find an accounting job in NYC with no luck and I was in financial services before. I am in my 30s and I got a 76 on FAR and 91 on BEC.

[Anonymous]

@ems215 – get your CPA and you will have the key to the kingdom. Easier said than done, yes, but CPAs are never unemployed. Myself…I had a lot under my belt when I got this really good job. No CPA license but tons of work experience, not only in accounting but dating back to the late 90s. I'm “older and wiser” (thank God, I don't look it). They probably interviewed some younger folks who were right out of school but knowing my company, they didn't want to hire fresh grads for the higher-level accounting positions. NYC is tough. You may want to consider relocating at some point if you don't find something good in your area, to Southern California. That was another thing I had to do on my career path. i lived in Oregon, where good jobs were few and far between.

[Missy]

A CPA license is not a golden ticket and plenty of CPA's are unemployed. To switch gears from being a budget manager to self employed accounting and tax services will likely require a step down temporarily particularly in salary if you don't have experience in either. But even if switching gears like that is something you choose not to pursue, I think the license is worthwhile, it makes you more marketable and makes your resume stand out among the competition particularly for management positions. I've stayed in accounting, late 40's, finance mgr for a very small company and basically a glorified bookkeeper which was ok with me. Well along comes the merger and acquisition of my teeny tiny little company and guess who's suddenly the financial operations manager for a group of companies about ten times the revenue of what we were a year ago? The CPA license played into it for sure.

Licensed Massachusetts Non Reporting CPA since 2012
Finance/Admin/HR Manager

[Ian]

Have you considered going the CISSA route as an addition to the CPA or an alternative?

[Anonymous]

Well, unemployment rates of CPAs are very, very low. If a CPA collects unemployment for a few weeks, that's one thing. Somehow I don't think they struggle to get jobs…correct me if I'm wrong, those of you on here who have your licenses? They're always in demand. Having said that, the AICPA carefully measures how many people they let pass their fourth exam at any given time…so, if there's a shortage, they're the ones to complain to about it.

[lurking_CPA]

There are a lot of CPAs who are just good test takers. The license without meaningful experience combined with it is pointless. You can be an AP clerk, pass the test, and have your CPA boss sign off on your general experience.

There are plenty of higher level accountants holding CPAs who are unemployed because places don't want to hire those people at lower level positions (knowing they'd be unhappy in the long run) or they are overqualified for many positions.

If I was a guy in my 40s with a CPA and had corporate controllership experience – but was laid off and couldn't find a controller job I'm probably not going to be applying to senior accountant jobs unless you are at the end of your rope of your career. At that age, a step back can be worse than taking no job at all and waiting for the right call. That is the main reason older CPAs are unemployed.

But if you're talking about being a mid-level career person with a CPA? Yea, there's tons of McSenior Accountant role everywhere and nobody at that stage of their career should be unemployed really. Things are different for those with very little experience and those with too much.

[Missy]

The unemployment rate for licensed CPAs is lower than the national unemployment rate but still around 2%. Sorry I'm a licensed cpa and telling you what you want to believe isn't true. When I lost my job as a controller it was very hard to find another. For every management job available there are easily a dozen staff jobs available. The higher you go in your career the smaller the job pool gets and the tougher the competition for those jobs. And as said above experience matters, if you're a cpa with experience in a 20 million dollar company no fortune 500 company will give you the time of day. The license is a nice marketing tool but little more.

Licensed Massachusetts Non Reporting CPA since 2012
Finance/Admin/HR Manager

[Anonymous]

You learn something new every day I guess. Maybe I'm just basing my comments on what i've personally observed. I'd hate to think that anyone with a CPA would be
crunching AP and AR but it's entirely possible. I would never want a job doing those tasks because just about anyone can do them, they don't take much in the way of skills and you can start getting bored really fast. I know a handful of CPAs who are in private practice – somehow they didn't want to work for others and started their own one-man firms. I'd probably do that too if for some reason I was an unemployed CPA. It does make sense though, about somebody mid-career who loses a job and can't find anything comparable, and taking a staff accountant-type position being an unwise move.

[maxb]

To add to the above, you also become defined by your experience many times. In other words, if you are a partnership tax person and that is where your experience has been, it will be very tough to get a job doing Corporate work. You will likely either not get that job or be asked to take a step backwards. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, CPA is not a magic bullet. It is just the key that gets you through the door. Once you are through, everyone is vying for the same jobs. Your life doesn’t magically get better and everything doesn’t just start going your way. If that’s why your taking these exams, you will be disappointed once your finished. Good luck!

[msquared17]

Thanks for the feedback. I guess the real question is this: is it enough that you have experience or will it count against you if the experience is not recent?

[Pete]

Yea, you keep hearing the golden sides of passing the CPA exam. In the Northeast, the competition is insane. I’ve passed the exam over two years ago, have experience within private, but I’ve yet to land a job that pays well or qualifies me experience-wise for the license. Now I’m sitting on a fancy 6k piece of paper. Not a good feeling. No one is hiring right now, unless we consider the top 1% of accountants or those going for part time retail jobs. CPA definitely doesn’t garentee a high paying job.

B=84 This exam was such a b**** that I thought I failed-don't know how these things work
A=76 Slacker I am, I'll happily take it
R=81 I LOVE taxes
F=80 I don't wanna get banned for an expletive I'm thinking with "yea" proceeding it

[ultrarunner]

I am about to switch my career and will make less money than I am currently making when I start a new job. Although I'll make less, it is all worth it. I will guarantee you that nobody will hire an entry-level position with the experienced level of salary. The opposite (senior-level position with entry-level salary) happens a lot. A friend of mine with 20+ years of private accounting experience (she is no CPA) ended up getting an entry-level job. She said she was just happy to have a job. Anyway, if you are not fully committed to doing this, you won't be able to finish. I think you should think about what you really want to do in next 10 years and decide. Good luck.

FAR 72,67,79 (Roger+Wiley test bank)11/15
AUD 80 (Roger)10/15
BEC 80 (Roger)4/16
REG 63,78 (Roger+Ninja MCQs)5/16

[Pete]

A lot of it boils down to luck, knowing the right people, and timing. The knowing the right people thing you can sort of control.

I also want to add something else to the above comment about entry level salary. Even though you have a ton of experiance, it will likely work aggainst you for some entry level positions, even at the lower salary. Age will work aggainst you for some jobs (they'll never tell you that, but it definitely happens). A ton of companies/firms would much rather hire someone from their intern/campus pool than someone with experiance for an entry level position (not all-but a vast majority); it's dumb, but they feel that their intern to hire method of recruiting is superior. A person within this pipeline is likely at a significant advantage for entry level positions, especially within public accounting.

B=84 This exam was such a b**** that I thought I failed-don't know how these things work
A=76 Slacker I am, I'll happily take it
R=81 I LOVE taxes
F=80 I don't wanna get banned for an expletive I'm thinking with "yea" proceeding it

[Missy]

When it comes to job searches it's about your competition as much as it is about you. Let me give a simple example. I'm a CPA, have 26 years accounting experience, everything from AP two decades ago to finance manager now. All sounds impressive (to me). If I apply to a company that sells software as a service and my competition is a kid with a bachelor's, studying for the cpa, that only had three years experience but those three years were in a SAAS company he's the better candidate for that job, period because his three years in that industry trumps my 26 years in manufacturing to that particular employer. If I was the ONLY applicant I'd be qualified to do the job but in a pool of candidates I'm not necessarily the best candidate.

Licensed Massachusetts Non Reporting CPA since 2012
Finance/Admin/HR Manager

[Author]

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