[Anonymous]

Hi everyone

So I’m new here and I am about to start my CPA journey and I could really use your advice. I am a US citizen but I obtained my degree outside the country (India to be specific) and I have a three-year bachelor degree, majoring in finance and accounting and graduated in 2013, at the same time I worked in a small public accounting firm for four years (2010 – 2014)

I came back to the US early 2015 and enrolled in an online college to complete the education credit requirement and I am almost done, currently in a business management program to complete my business credit requirement and got my foreign credentials evaluated. I’ve been working part-time but not in my field. It’s pretty hard to find a job… Anyway I do have a few questions:

1. Which state licensing board would you all recommend for someone in my position? I’m thinking Virginia, for one they accept online degrees and I have enough credits for the accounting and business requirements but what do you guys recommend?

2. What should I do to find a job in my field? I’ve tried applying for various positions with no success, tried recruiters and networking but still nothing. I’d prefer working in a private corporation but at this point, I will take what I can get.

3. Which study material would you recommend?

[Anonymous]

1. I would suggest trying the state that you're in or plan to be in. I only recommend out-of-state licensing when people have major, unable-to-overcome obstacles to being licensed in their own state. It's going to look a little funny when you're applying to a job in Minnesota, and have lived in Minnesota for since returning from India, to have gotten licensed in Virginia during the time you lived in Minnesota. However, if you're moving around (my family moves frequently, so I'd understand if you were, having grown up with a frequently-moving-lifestyle!), don't have a state you're really staying in or that you plan to stay in, then Virginia is one of the easier ones to get licensed in.

2. Apply to everything. Unfortunately it's not easy to get that first job – especially in private, since most private jobs require experience. Private was always where my interest was, but my first job was in public, because that was easier to get. To get that job, I used a cold-calling approach, dropping off resumes and cover letters at every public accounting firm within commuting range of where I lived. The area I live in is small-town, kinda back-woods, always about 30-50 years behind the rest of the country, so I don't know if physically dropping off resumes face-to-face would work elsewhere, but it get me a job, so I'd do it again if I was out of work. Also, if you haven't already done this, make sure you're signed up for job alerts from the job search sites (Indeed.com, CareerBuilder.com, Monster.com, etc.) so that they email you when there's new potential jobs on a daily basis – that way, you're less likely to miss something. The search term that I used most recently was “Accountant OR accounting OR CPA” – you'd probably want to leave off the “OR CPA”, but “Accountant OR accounting” should make sure you get anything related to accounting.

3. Depends on your learning style and your budget. I would suggest looking up samples of the various materials and seeing which one you think you could learn best from.

[Author]

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