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Originally Posted by TeRRoRiFiC35
And I agree with you about moving up in the world without my CPA will be hard. But I don't agree that I should be having to have a CPA license to get a job as a staff or senior accountant; management yes or even a CPA equivalent like a CMA or something. In NJ, it is 2 yrs at being at a public accounting firm to qualify to sit for the exam.... I also didn't shit around in college and take courses I didn't need. I took all the accounting courses my accredited business school had to offer to undergrads. The reason I didn't go into public was I didn't want to be constantly moving around from place to place working all hours of the night no matter what time of the year it is. My auditing teacher my senior year didn't help the case with how horrible she was. Plus I graduated during the financial crisis where most public firms would hire you for the tax period, then law off everyone because they could get away with it then. I know the firms I've dealt with only have specific people for each department, they don't go into the other ones. I used to work with a girl who spent 4 years at one of the Big4 firms, she would tell me all these horror stories of what she had to do. She also ended up having the same exact job title as me, so it didn't help the case for me getting it. I also find it funny that I have completed over 40 hrs of the so called "continuing education" that is required from me getting bored at work and being able to use tools we have through the company to use it.
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There is no two year requirement to sit in NJ. Assuming you have taken the required classed you can sit after 120: (Straight from NASBA's site)
http://www.nasba.org/files/2011/02/I..._NewJersey.pdf . Basically, if you received your bachelors in Accounting you have the requisite classes to sit for the exam.
Of course no CPA is needed for a staff or senior job, but if you ever aspire to move higher than that then you should get a CPA. I too graduated during the financial crisis and don't agree with your comment about them hiring people for tax season and then laying them off. First and foremost, there are multiple different practices in a public accounting firm with the main three being Audit, Tax and Advisory. Someone who joins Audit and Advisory will not generally (unless there is a massive shortage) deal with taxes at all. You might only work in Audit, but when you do you will touch all aspects of the audit. If you work in tax, you will deal with all areas of the taxes as opposed to a tax staff at the company only dealing with calculating one certain provision. I have multiple friends who I went to school with and we all found jobs and are all still employed by our firms. It might have taken a few of us a bit longer to find our jobs but in the end we were all hired. There wasn't any mass layoffs at the end of each practice's respective busy seasons. Rather, the companies would trim the fat. During the boom times under performers were able to squeak by. Now if you aren't cutting it they will let you loose.
As far as moving place to place, I'm guessing you mean client to client. My daily drives are never more than 50 miles, plus I get paid mileage, so it's not that bad having to drive that far. Most clients are within 20 miles. I'm on each engagement anywhere from 3-8 weeks and I like the variety. It breaks up the jobs and stops things from becoming monotonous. Horror stories? Sure, the hours suck during busy season (80 hour+ weeks), there are constantly shit storms going on that need to be taken care of, and sometimes the clients are assholes to you, but in the end it's worth it. After 2 years I was getting offers such as the one below:
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XXXXXX,
I found your profile on Linkedin.com and I wanted to speak to you regarding a Accounting Product Manager role we are currently looking to fill in our Alpharetta, GA office.
We are looking for someone who has a strong background in accounting, financial reporting, and some stock plan administrator.
I would love to chat with you for a few minutes.
Please let me know when you are free to discuss further…
XXXXX
Client Recruitment Specialist
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That was from a very large and well known online stock broker. Does public accounting suck? Sure, but there are a lot of perks, the biggest one being if you put in the time all kinds of doors open to you that wouldn't be there otherwise.