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I'm about a decade out of college and looking into accounting as a new career. I have a bachelors degree, and I assume I can take the necessary classes a la carte at a local college, but I'm having trouble finding good information about the best places to look into for post-bachelors study. Obviously a lot of places are geared towards majoring in it towards a bachelors degree, and there are masters programs, which of course come with a masters price tag and no clear reason for me to get one at this point. There are also certificate programs that don't seem to quite get you all the way to CPA testing. I would be studying in or around Orange County, CA where there are a lot of community colleges and small universities. I just don't know where to start looking or what to expect to pay. I also intend to do this as quickly as possible, so I need a place that's able to let me take a full load of all these courses. As for the internship/supervised work period, how does that look for a guy in his 30s not enrolled in an accounting major and with no prior experience? How does someone like me begin to find these positions?
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Jan 30, 2012 19:51
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I'm not sure. I'm really just getting my feet wet here, but looking to start studying this fall, or maybe even summer. I'm hoping to eventually secure a position in Japan with a view towards permanent residence, but that is getting a little far ahead. Although if anyone happens to know anything about that scene I'd love to hear it. I'm pretty sure I don't want to do tax, but I might find out differently once I actually start studying the stuff.
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Jan 30, 2012 20:42
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Mandalay posted:You're kind of hosed on spring semester because the demand for accounting seats exceeds the supply, so sign up early and often.. I am a little concerned that I am about to jump into a saturating field. I switched my goal from law school, which would have graduated me just when things were getting really bad in that industry, into something possibly even worse and ill-timed, public school teaching. I am pretty well determined not not to spend another minute of my life on anything that doesn't get me on the road to career and retirement. I'm wondering if there is a sudden glut of people having the same idea as me.
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Jan 31, 2012 04:20
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OG KUSH BLUNTS posted:Around a quarter of the people that actually take the CPA exam pass all four parts. So there's always demand assuming you're something more than your average bookkeeper. Well, I'm just arrogant enough to assume this is good news for me.
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Jan 31, 2012 04:29
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Well specifically I'm going for CPA, not just taking some accounting classes. So I'm looking at the prospects for that qualification specifically.
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Feb 8, 2012 12:55
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I have a bachelors degree and am enrolling in accounting classes this summer. Under the new California requirements, how long will it take to finish all the classes necessary to sit the CPA exam, assuming a full load? I have never taken an accounting or business course before, so aside from the bachelors I am starting from scratch.
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Apr 5, 2012 19:24
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Moneyball posted:A couple semesters and maybe a summer/winter session should do it That's what I was hoping, but looking over the accounting program at Santa Monica College (only program I've gone through in detail yet) the classes seem to be in a very strict progression, not leaving me with many classes to take until I've gotten up to Intermediate accounting. Also, I don't fully understand the requirements. I'm supposed to take a bunch of business classes as well? Having trouble figuring out what those are supposed to be. The SMC CPA prep course only includes like two non-accounting business classes. Is it out of date? Edit: I see that accounting courses over and above the 24 minimum count towards Business. So just take everything you can get into. Basic Excel spreadsheets here I come! Gabriel Grub fucked around with this message at 20:59 on Apr 5, 2012 |
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Apr 5, 2012 19:36
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What should I expect from a payroll accounting class? Will it be useful at all for CPA prep, or will it at least be easy credits? I don't have a lot of options next semester.
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Nov 30, 2012 09:16
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Well, it has "accounting" in the title, so it would count toward general business/accounting credits, but it doesn't satisfy any specific requirements. I think I'll skip it though. I'll be taking intermediate accounting, internal controls (SOX), business tax, and need something else. I don't have much else to choose from. There's a cost accounting class available online, but I was hoping to take that one in-classroom.
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Nov 30, 2012 17:29
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Can anyone think of any drawbacks to taking auditing as an online course?
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Dec 1, 2012 05:04
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Harry posted:Absolutely none if it counts for the CPA exam. I don't know what you mean by this. Nearly every kind of business course can count towards some portion of the California CPA requirements. Are you saying Payroll is specifically excluded? I wasn't asking about that though. I was asking if payroll accounting was a waste of time because it sounds like kind of a BS course and it doesn't seem to do much to prepare for the content of the CPA exam. I'm definitely not going to take it in any case, because I do in fact work in a small to medium sized company and we do not do our own payroll. Now I'm debating taking audit online.
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Dec 1, 2012 06:18
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Online courses don't appear any differently on transcripts from regular ones, and there are CPA prep courses that you can complete entirely online if you already have a bachelors. Certain classes I don't want to take online because of the benefit of interaction and the resource of having a professor that you see every week. For example, I'm waiting for a non-online cost accounting class to come up because I know I will be asking lots of questions in class. Same for tax. I was looking for opinions on auditing, and if I would be missing out on anything just doing it online.
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Dec 1, 2012 06:34
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coreycoryecorey posted:I would be the only accounting person So they didn't learn their lesson, or they consider a little embezzlement from time to time worth it to only have to pay one accountant.
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May 23, 2013 08:26
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I have like 200 credits including 47 in business/accounting, no CPA work experience, and have not started studying for the exams yet. I don't suppose this has any implications for me. Even if it did, I guess the old path would require the 2 years work experience so it wouldn't really save me any time anyway.
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Jun 25, 2013 04:54
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Bugamol posted:Why do you have so many credits? Are you in the US? Are you working on a Masters? I graduated a few years ago, but isn't it only like 120 credits to graduate? Because I have a bachelors degree and a teaching credential and my accounting study, all with no overlap with each other. I'm just trying to get my CPA as quickly as possible, and I believe I can complete the accounting study/ethics requirements by the end of this year and do the exam and work experience next year. The old two year work experience path doesn't really gain me anything as far as I can see. Now if they got rid of the additional accounting study and ethics requirements, that would make my life easier.
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Jun 25, 2013 06:23
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I'm planning to look for a local or regional firm to do work experience at while taking the exams next year. I will still have about 9-12 units of study left to do to qualify for the California license. Do people ever take classes during all of this craziness? I suppose everyone waits to be done with the exams before cleaning up any remaining credits.
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Jul 20, 2013 09:52
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I'm looking for a junior position at a CPA firm right now and feeling a bit lost. I'm familiar with a few regional firms I'm going to send resumes to, but it feels like maybe I'm going about it the wrong way. I'm worried this recruiting season is going to get away from me fast if I don't come up with a strategy immediately. I'm a career changer, with a degree not remotely related to accounting. I'm now eligible to sit the exams and my grades in accounting subjects are excellent. I have a year and a half experience on staff at a small company. Being that my degree was years ago, and I have been taking my accounting courses piecemeal through community colleges, I have not had the opportunity to meet any firms at career fairs or recruiting events. Unfortunately at least one firm I am interested in, Grant Thornton, seems to exclusively accept resumes through these kinds of events. It has been recommended to me to get a list of all the firms in my county (1400!) from Dunn & Bradstreet and blast my resume. That would cost about $500 and sounds like a very inefficient use of time and funds. I'd really appreciate any advice or direction.
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Sep 12, 2013 06:46
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Mandalay posted:You could apply for tax internships at local firms now. I don't think that gets me where I'm trying to go, and I'm interested in accounting and assurance more than tax.
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Sep 12, 2013 20:52
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I'm not averse to working in industry, but I really would like to get public accounting experience. I plan to work internationally in the long term, and I believe experience in audit will be an asset. I may end up in industry eventually, but I want to keep as many doors open as possible, and at this point doing a standard entry level position at a CPA firm doing client engagements seems to be the experience I want. I'm gonna keep plowing ahead. At the beginning of last year I was in this thread asking the very basic questions and I've already reached this point. I'm just worried I'll end up treading water for a year if I miss the boat this time. If anyone has any recommendations for the Orange County, CA area I will definitely follow up on them.
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Sep 13, 2013 05:28
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Sausage of Power posted:Has any of the recruiters given you a reason for why they weren't selecting you? It sounds like SirPhoebos is doing what I'm doing, which is taking the equivalent of an accounting major a la carte at community colleges in order to qualify for the CPA exams. There will be no second degree. From what I've heard, it's emphasizing the CPA exam eligibility that is important for both those with and without accounting degrees.
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Sep 20, 2013 04:00
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In California you have to take 48 accounting and business semester units to sit the exam, and 78 units of certain things altogether to receive the license. There's room in there for maybe 12 or 15 units of "general ed" type stuff, so it's basically an accounting major's worth of classes to meet the requirements. I took beginning through advanced accounting, cost accounting, business and personal tax, accounting information systems, spreadsheets, auditing, business law, management, and a couple other things. I won't argue that a lot of people might have prejudice against a candidate who doesn't have the actual major on their degree, but in subject content I don't see any big difference from majoring in accounting and just taking the classes piecemeal. In fact I think it is amusing/frustrating seeing job postings that specify both CPA and accounting major, when possessing the CPA implies extensive accounting education, major or no.
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Sep 23, 2013 06:28
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Well, I didn't manage to get an offer from any of the regional firms in my area and I am kind of at a loss about what to do now. I majored in a completely unrelated field and went into accounting as a second career, taking community college classes while working in accounting at a small manufacturer. I am finishing up my accounting studies and don't really have much left to do in that area, so the plan was to start on the CPA exams at the beginning of next year and start my work experience with a local firm sometime during the year. It looks like the work experience part isn't going to happen, and I don't think I can realistically wait a whole year to try again for jobs that start two years from now in some cases. When deciding to do this career change I had honestly not considered the possibility that I wouldn't get on at least at some tiny firm as entry level audit, so my whole plan has been thrown off. I still plan to take the exams, but I have to consider alternative paths to getting my CPA work hours. I suppose I need to find a job on the accounting staff of a company with an active CPA supervising. Problem is most job postings don't exactly advertise who your boss is going to be or what their credentials are. I did see it once, and applied to the job on principal, even though I wasn't really looking at the time. So I don't know where to begin looking for that kind of arrangement. I attend the monthly IMA meetings in my area, so that is one way to network with industry accountants, but aside from that I don't know where to start. Maybe I should just go for CMA? CIA? I have heard it might be possible to go into internal audit without public experience. Of course all I have ever heard is that the CPA is the portable credential that you need to open doors in your career. I'd like to work overseas eventually, so I'm not sure how much CMA does for me there. Maybe this was all a big mistake.
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Nov 9, 2013 03:09
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I have taken pretty much any class you can think of, including tax. But I don't want to work in tax, so having all my public experience be in that area seems to be getting off on the wrong foot. This hiring season I presented myself as a candidate for the audit track, and trying again on a track that I'm not interested in just because I failed to get a job in my preferred area seems like a really bad idea. I got into this to do public audit, internal audit, or eventually work in industry. I have no interest in being a tax preparer.quote:In my opinion not getting a Bachelors in Accounting and your CPA license will be doing yourself a serious disservice if you really want to do well in the accounting field. If I had years and tens of thousands of dollars to start over on a second bachelors I would probably major in STEM, not accounting. In any case I am finishing up 60 semester units of accounting study and have been working as a staff accountant for the past two years, so the suggestion that I spend years learning my debits and credits again sounds absurd. I'm not sure it would even be allowed. quote:As far as going for the CMA or CIA, I've always considered those good additional qualifications to have on top of the CPA, but they're no substitute for the CPA. Also a quick check shows that both the CMA and CIA require 24 months of work experience. It's better to just get your CPA as it matters the most. I might actually be kind of close to satisfying work hours for CMA due to my current job, just leaving the exam to complete. But once again, I'm not sure what that gets me. It's not the length of the work experience that I am particularly worried about in any case, but that I can't figure out how to get started on the CPA hours.
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Nov 9, 2013 22:13
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a. Most schools around here do not allow second bachelors. b. Those that do have a residency requirement of about 30 units no matter what you bring to the table, so yes I would be retaking a hell of a lot of classes.
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Nov 10, 2013 00:32
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I'm about to pull the trigger on one of the review courses as well. I will be self-studying no matter which I choose (no live classes), but I would appreciate specifics of what anyone liked about any particular course, or anything that you feel sets it apart. I'm considering all options from the dirt cheap up to Becker. And here's a survey of courses on Going Concern. Informative but drawn from a limited pool of respondents. Gabriel Grub fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Dec 31, 2013 |
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Dec 31, 2013 04:06
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Once I have the application and all the transcripts in, how long should I expect to wait to hear from the California Board of Accountancy about signing up for the exam?
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Jan 25, 2014 04:04
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It looks like a career in public accounting is definitely not going to happen. What I considered my last, best shot fell through. I've applied for my exams and was planning to choose and purchase a review course this weekend, but I'm putting all that on hold because I do not see a path forward at this point. I know some people will say to pass some sections and try again next time, but this has all been an extreme drain on time and resources, and I cannot devote any more to an exercise where I've already received such poor results. I would like to say to career-changers or older students without a background in the subject, consider getting a Master of Accounting. All the advice I read before starting was strongly against, but most of the advice out there is not for the career-changers. I feel that the firms I interviewed with did not understand or respect the path I took toward exam qualification and if I could go back I would get the Masters. I don't think I would be any better educated, but I feel just being able to say I got a masters might have made the difference. I haven't completely given up, the exams are just on hold, but I'm not taking another step until I have a better plan for working in private industry, or even internal audit. I go to the local IMA meetings, and am considering attending IIA as well. If anyone knows of any good resources for quality industry jobs, please share. I have two years experience at a manufacturer, in just about every common area of accounting that a small-to-medium sized business might come across.
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Jan 31, 2014 04:39
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How did you CPA candidates who went straight into industry find positions where you could get the necessary work hours? Did you specifically ask companies you applied to if their accounting managers were active CPAs? Is there a resource for industry CPA candidates?
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Mar 7, 2014 08:00
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How long should I expect it to take for the CPA exam payment coupon to show up once I send my Authorization To Test to NASBA?
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Mar 25, 2014 06:53
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Got it this afternoon. Took seven business days.
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Mar 26, 2014 01:52
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I'm really glad I went into corporate accounting. I never would have had the chance to participate in setting my own layoff in motion in any other career.
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Oct 31, 2014 06:16
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I was going to send off the work experience form (California CPA) for my last job, but noticed the categories of employees listed are all people who have passed the exams or have had a license in the past. The actual form itself doesn't ask you to indicate which category you fall into, but do I have to wait until I pass all the exams to get this form signed off? I'm a little worried my management or the company itself might not be around by the time that happens.
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Nov 4, 2014 01:52
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Gleim is under a grand and you get A/V presentations with audio files, video lectures, extensive test bank, very dry but very to the point textbook, 18 months of access. All online, although you can pay for shipping for free copies of the textbooks. I like it because it is no bullshit, straightfoward, and focused on doing lots of practice testing to find out weak areas.
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Jan 14, 2015 01:11
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gently caress IFRS and especially gently caress governmental accounting.
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May 10, 2015 02:18
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Took it today, and if felt like an inordinate amount of questions were on those topics. Non-profit seemed way overrepresented too, but it's much easier.
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May 10, 2015 04:14
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I really think the correct answer to a question about IFRS should be "Who gives a gently caress?" And if they think governmental accounting is that important, maybe they should have a special credential just for that, Certified Governmental Accountant or something. Lord knows AICPA loves making up credentials. I felt that my exam was shockingly light on nuts and bolts business accounting and heavy on trivia.
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May 10, 2015 07:46
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FML, I think my supervisor from my last job is going to give me the cold shoulder on my CPA work experience. Now I have to start the long, laborious process of bringing it to the attention of the Board of Accountancy, and the only reason I took the job in the first place was for work experience hours.
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Aug 31, 2015 23:52
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Mandalay posted:Can you ask your supervisor's supervisor? My supervisor is the only CPA at the company and must be involved in the sign-off. In any case, I suspect the static I'm getting may be because the Controller, her supervisor, doesn't want to sign off. He's not a CPA and doesn't have to do anything.
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Sep 2, 2015 22:00
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Congratulations. I just my REG result back at 91, which I assume must mean everyone else just did really poorly because I did not feel I had a grasp on the material at all and was already preparing to retake in January.
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Nov 25, 2015 04:03
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Yeah, I feel like I've broken the rule to not study too much, but all I did was go through the Gleim materials. So I guess Gleim just massively overprepares you; I'll take being overprepared over having to retake a section.
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Nov 25, 2015 04:30
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