Why A CPA, Why Accounting?

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Why A CPA, Why Accounting?

24 posts from 24 voices

Started 1 year ago by 75orbust
Latest reply from duker8012

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75orbust

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I am curious what everyone's motivation was to go to school for accounting. Was a family member a CPA and gave you the idea, did you want to go to school for 5+ years and then after graduating have to face another year of he11 with this exam? What was it?

I more less stumbled backwards into my accounting degree. I wanted to go to school for business and decided against management-too basic, marketing-hate sales, statistics- ahh no, finance-a poormans accounting degree, economics-not very applicable to a small town business I don't think. They always said accounting is a good starting point and you can learn the other aspects of business after accounting but its much harder to learn the accounting after doing something else for awhile. Plus its the most prestigous degree in the business school and I liked all the professors.

I also enjoy hunting and being from MN I would prefer my busy season to be in the spring when few hunting seasons are open and the weather outside is lousy.

Anyone else?

FAR-1/04- 86 KAPLAN Review
REG-5/12- 89 MN Licensed CPA
BEC-7/17- 81 ETHICS - 100
AUD-8/31- 85
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Posted 1 year ago #
BluMerle

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I grew up around a family of entrepreneurs so I knew I was business school bound from a relatively early age. I didn't realize where I wanted to focus my efforts though until my senior year of high school (2000-2001). Looking back I honestly believe that the number one reason I gravitated towards the accounting profession was because I thought it was the most stable career option out there. When I took my first survey of accounting course, I remember how excited I was to learn the lingo and I remember all of the mistakes I made along the way during those initial exams. I didn't give up though. I persevered and once I reached my senior year of college that's when my desires really caught fire. I had the most awesome professors for tax and audit. Both men challenged the you know what out of me, and they helped me to realize my true potential. Put simply... I had mentors, and damn good ones at that! After I finished my bachelors degree I decided to put it to use in an industry setting for four years. Around year number two I came into contact with a CPA or two and I acquired a great deal of respect for these individuals. By year number four I realized that I had plateaued and that I was nothing more than a glorified bookkeeper. I knew it was time for a major change so that's why I made a phone call to my old audit professor and asked him if he would honor his promise to write me a letter of reccomendation for graduate school. He obliged and next thing I knew I was back in the academic saddle as a Macc student. Once again the fire took hold and then I met a superb Becker representative and I nabed an internship position at a CPA firm. Blah blah blah... next thing I knew I gave a year of my life to the pursuit of excellence... the CPA. So that's my story. I knew I wanted more, to be honest I still want more so that's why I'm trying to capitalize on this journey. Okay, back to work before I find myself looking for a new place to call home. :-)

Another 71 Class of 2011

Posted 1 year ago #
Accounting Pilot

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I started college intending to get a degree in International Business. I nervously took my first accounting course during the first semester of my freshman year (I had been told accounting was hard) and ended up loving it. I decided by the end of the semester that accounting was what I wanted to do. Although I branched out and majored in finance and economics in addition to accounting, accounting was and is my first love, professionally-speaking.

...except for tax. It is a good thing I took financial accounting well before any tax classes, or I would not be here now.

Wisconsin Candidate. NTS 450
BEC - 82 AUD - 85
FAR - 83 REG - 71, 86

Posted 1 year ago #
kandisjoy

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I was planning on majoring in marketing, but I fell in love with accounting after my first class. Then my second accounting class was taught by a CPA and she really impressed me. She even took students to Chamber of Commerce meetings and to her old CPA firm where she used to work. After I got my BS in Accounting I sent her an email thanking her for her influence on my life. Now that I'm in the middle of trying to get my CPA, I am feeling a little less grateful... ha ha. :)

@ Accounting Pilot - I agree about tax! My first two jobs in accounting were in public accounting and I had to do a lot of taxes, and I was seriously wondering if I really even liked accounting! Now that I'm in private accounting and doing more actual accounting rather than auditing/tax, my love for accounting has been rekindled. Not that auditing and tax aren't "real" accounting (I don't want to piss anyone off), they just aren't the part of accounting that I enjoy.

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

CA Licensed 11/2011

Posted 1 year ago #
rknight21

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I got into accounting from high school days. what we learn in accounting in the first year and a half in college in the U.S is what I learned in the high school in my home country, so back then i fell in love with doing journal entries and double entry accounts and seeing everything balanced out.... I thought it was a cool concept so i did well in my accounting classes along with math classes. i did have my doubt after going to college but like someone said it seemed more stable than all other careers. Also, for a brief period i was thinking about doing aviation technician. after one class in that program i knew accounting was my calling lol

Posted 1 year ago #
CalCPASoon

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I kind of just fell into accounting...I was in a business program in college, and the Big-4 accounting firms, and some of the larger consulting firms were recruiting very heavily. It felt like everyone was choosing either accounting or consulting, as though there were no other fields to choose from, so I went to some of the recruiting events, and just decided to pick accounting. I think I was worried about graduating and not really knowing what to do with my major since business admin can be a very broad field. Accounting felt very secure and very familiar since I had already taken some accounting classes. I didn't even know about the CPA exam until I started applying for jobs, and was seeing that a lot of jobs preferred a CPA.

I don't think it was "love at first sight" for me, but I certainly have enjoyed it so far (only been in accounting for 3 years), and I really look forward to the new opportunities in accounting that come with being a CPA.

CalCPASoon....CalCPAFinally! Yay I made it!
CPA licensed in California!

Posted 1 year ago #
kb24

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I'm a bit of an oddity. I graduated from college with a major in applied mathematics in 1979. My mother wanted me to have a more practical degree so she pushed me towards accounting. I took one class and absolutely hated it due to the horrendous professor. I worked in the network planning area of the local phone company for 14 years until I quit due to no promotion opportunities combined with a lack of acceptable child care. I always planned to go back to work but was at a loss as to what I wanted to do. For the first several years after my switch we lived in the suburbs where the only local employment options were teaching, real estate, medicine and retail--none of which I had the training and/or inclination for--and where my commute would have been close to an hour each way if I was willing to drive downtown. After we moved back into the city, I thought about various options when I had what can best be described as an epiphany that I should go into accounting. I can't think of anything that happened to point me in this direction, but I was certain this was the right choice once I thought of it. I took the introductory classes at the local community college both to make sure this was what I wanted to do and to satisfy my prerequisites for grad school. I loved it and went on to get my MAccy. It's been a rocky road. I was involved in the care of first my terminally ill mother-in-law and then father during the first year. Then I realized my mother probably had dementia during my second year. I delayed applying for a job because I thought we'd be moving her to assisted living right after I graduated. However, it wasn't as easy as that, and dealing with the crises that developed turned into a full time job for a while. I ended up putting my career plans on hold until her situation was more settled. Now I'm 53 and getting ready to apply for a job for the first time in over 30 years. I decided to do an all out study blitz and take all four sections of the exam this window. I thought it would get me up to date and indicate my high motivation to any potential employers.

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

Posted 1 year ago #
dhuffman

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LOL...I'm not an accounting major but I had to take 24 hours to meet the state's requirements. I have a BS in Public Admin and an MBA. I was working on a career in project mgmt when the telecom company I worked for was sold and I didn't want to move to Denver. So I was a consultant for a period and my husband got a job in the middle of nowhere. So we moved and the only jobs that paid well were nursing (sorry but ick) or law and after I worked for a couple of attorneys decided that wasn't for me. I'd used a CPA firm for my taxes (we have a farm now) and when I heard they needed someone to do audit work I applied. (I love auditing) Even tho it's govt auditing and from my one class had decided that was way too complicated to be fun I got the job and now 4 years later I still love it and am working on my CPA. I'll be taking the CFE exam in Aug no matter what happens with what I hope are my last to attempts at my last two sections.

Posted 1 year ago #
misanthrope87

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Just like most people, I got into accounting because I didn't know what else to do.

B 87
A 90
R 86
F

Posted 1 year ago #
tulip

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I took an accounting course on a whim my senior year of high school. I loved it instantly - there was just something about things fitting neatly into buckets and balancing out that appealed to me. I chose accounting as my major in college. I also graduated from law school later, but that is a different story.

I have no intention of being a practicing CPA. I really like working inside of a business, and I found myself at a managerial level that really requires a CPA to be taken seriously. So that is why I have chosen to get licensed now.

BEC - 10/18/2010 - 79
FAR - 10/28/2010 - 82
AUD - 11/04/2010 - 73; 02/18/2011 - 86 - IT'S OVER!!!!!!
REG - 11/21/2010 - 83

Posted 1 year ago #
Jason_E

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money

Posted 1 year ago #
HazeEastwood

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I was actually a pharmacy major that always had more of an interest in business. I took an accounting course just for the hell of it and loved it. Immediately switched over the the school of business where my major was business admin but I didn't major in accounting. I took a lot of accounting courses as electives though so I had more than the average business admin major. I went and got a masters in economics/finance. Once I got out of school I found it easiest to get a job in accounting. The jobs were really in demand. Haven't looked back since. The reason I went after the CPA is because there aren't African Americans with the designation. After avoiding it for years, I finally buckled down in 2010 and decided I would give up a year of my life in pursuit of the ultimate prize in accounting.

FAR-81
BEC-84
AUD-91
REG-89

Posted 10 months ago #
fizzle406

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I knew I wanted to major in business when i started college (2004) but I wasn't sure which field. At that time there was more jobs than applicants and my college had a 100% placement rate. That was pretty much my motivation to get into it. Fast forward 6 years, I had finished undergrad, took a year off and did grad school and spent 4 miserable months desperately looking for, what should have been a slam dunk, job. In currently in public accounting but am thinking of switching to private after a few years

Posted 10 months ago #
RedRage00

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I had no idea what I wanted to major in when I was in college. I took a Principles 1 accounting class and I was pretty good at it while the rest of the class seemed to struggle. My professor came up to me one day after class and asked me if I ever thought of getting an accounting degree. She talked to me and gave me some info and after doing some research I decided to stick with it. I'm glad I did :)

Texas CPA
Licensed, March 2012

Posted 10 months ago #
Liz317

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I needed a class for the first period of my sophomore year of high school. Basically the only thing that even remotely interested me that wasn't already full was accounting. I was really good in my math classes (and I loved math, even though we all know that math & accounting are very different), so I thought, why not? My teacher noticed that I was good at in really early on & wanted me to compete in accounting in our high school's business club's district competitions. That required a little extra work on my part, but I ended up loving accounting. In college, I graduated with a B.S. in math and had a minor in accounting. However, mid-way through my junior year in college, I decided that I wanted the wide-variety of job opportunities that CPA had instead of being stuck in a classroom as a math professor. I was already mostly done with my math degree, so I took a ton of accounting, econ, & finance classes my junior & senior year of college to satisfy prereqs for grad school. I got a M.S. in accounting, and the rest is history!

FAR - 92 --- AUD - 87 --- REG - 80 --- BEC - 87
A licensed CPA in Louisiana!!!

Dear CPA Exam, You are a beast. But you WILL be defeated!

Posted 10 months ago #
IwannaBaCPA

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Accounting fell into my lap...I had never even thought of it before it landed there...

Basically the short of my story is that I started college majoring in math education. I LOVE MATH! I wanted to, you know, teach smart kids math. Riiiiiiight! My 2nd year of college I did a semester of observation/assisting a newly graduated math teacher at a public school and OMG! I realized rather quickly that teaching remedial students, who did not give 2 spits about math, was NOT for me! The only teachers that had the honors classes had been there forever and had put in their time...

So then I had to make a mad scramble for a different major. I wanted to keep numbers close and considered actuarial science, but my advisor suggested I take basic financial accounting and that is how it landed in my lap! I really loved it and have that first professor (Dick Kochanek) to thank! He is pretty famous at my University and is so friggin quirky, he made accounting interesting!

So now maybe I want to thank him a little less as he did not warn me about this whole process, but hopefully it will pay off in the end!

Posted 10 months ago #
Smith

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I watched my older brother burn through 100k in tuition at a fancy private school in CA and all he had when he graduated was an "International Relations" degree and no job (8 years later he still is struggling to find a career).

I went to a big Pac-12 school and knew I wanted stability. I took an Accounting class and did so well that I was invited to an "accounting luncheon." In hind site, I realize the accounting department was picking out the most talented business students and steering them into accounting. I was a Finance major and my accounting teacher cornered me and told me that you can get a finance job with an accounting degree, but not vice versa. I was sold and switched to accounting.

Now, I have a skill which I can perform from a distance (Master in Tax) to, at some point, live abroad and make decent dough.

AUD - 92
BEC - 85
FIN - 10/13/11
REG - TBD

Posted 10 months ago #
CPAMan

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Well someone I knew in high school suggested to me that I try Accounting. I took the advice with a grain of salt. I just tried a course in college to see if I like it and I did. It's challenging and I enjoy studying this stuff. I honestly have no regrets picking Accounting as my major. I think it's my calling in life.

FAR: 52, 66, 73, 61, 89
AUD: 47, 87
BEC: 80
REG: 64, 74, 84

DONE!!!!

Posted 10 months ago #
bill.S

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I graduating with an undergrad in Finance and couldn't find a job. I saw how cyclical finance was and didn't think it was a stable profession.

I choose accounting for the stability. Even my colleagues that were laid off during the recession quickly found new positions fairly quickly in a terrible job market. Maybe not the most ideal jobs, but still were able to work.

I do enjoy the work, but the stability was why I chose it.

Posted 10 months ago #
mla1169

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I had no choice. Literally. I worked for years as a bill collector for a credit card company. Got a job doing business collections. (much better than retail). Employer was good to me let me try out various other positions as they opened up--a/p, employee expenses, commissions, etc.

Got divorced and had to do something better for myself and the kids so I went back to school. Chose accounting because it was what I was doing at work. Only wanted my associates, figured anything else was too intense for me.

Once the ball was rolling I transferred from my associates program to a bachelors program, then decided to move to my masters. Figured after all that schoolin' LOL I may as well be able to add 3 letters to my name.

FAR- 77
AUD -49, 71, 84
REG -56,75!
BEC -75

If I can do this, YOU can do this! Hang in there :)

Posted 9 months ago #
ROACH

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I have no passion for accounting but I don't have passion for many things in life. I get dat dere money from accounting so its what I do.

If I had the choice to go back 5 years and pick another major.. I would consider becoming a geologist. I heard they get all the girls around here. No girls wanna **** an accountant.

BEC - 66 (2/29/12) Retake on 5/1/12
AUD - (5/31/12)
FAR -
REG -

Posted 9 months ago #
hilaryh_88

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I loved accounting in high school and then was bored to tears with my first class in college and switched to Psychology. After getting a BA in that and starting grad school for marriage and family therapy I knew that wasn't for me and returned home to the family farm. I immediately became the bookkeeper for the farm and for my husband's plumbing company. During the winter I worked for a local accountant. I realized that I enjoyed what I was doing but wanted to get some actual certification to give myself more credibility. I also thought it would be a good field to get into that I could do from home when I wanted to have a family.

AUD - 82 Becker
BEC - 75 Becker
REG - 71, 82 Becker
FAR - 66,61,71,74,70 and #6 80!!!! FINALLY DONE!!! 9/20/11
Yaeger and Yaeger CRAM for the final battle!

Posted 9 months ago #
sacredtheory

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Primary reason...job stability and something to call a career

After high-school, I knew I wanted to go to college, but wasn't sure for what. I figured I'd work for a few years, make some money, and figure out what I wanted to do. I took a job working on the warehouse of a biotech company, and before I knew it, 10 years had passed, and I had been promoted several times and ended up in a senior quality role, and it was decent pay as well for someone without a college degree.

But then a few years ago I came to the realization that I didn't consider it a career, and I didn't want to go to college for biology or chemistry. I was always good with math, so chose accounting. Good thing too, because I just graduated earlier this year and found out the company was closing. That's when I quit, with my new degree, and moved to accounting.

I did two public accounting internships (tax) and became worried because I really didn't like it. I ended up taking a position as a portfolio accounting analyst at an investment firm, and that's where I'm currently at. Luckily they have a CPA program where I can gain my work experience in auditing and financial reporting in order to actually get my license.

BEC: Passed
AUD: Passed
REG: 05/12
FAR: 08/12

Jared

Posted 9 months ago #
duker8012

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OK here's my story...once upon a time I was a Criminal Justice major. I had visions of busting the bad guys like Andy Sipowitz on NYPD Blue, it was gonna be great! Then I got a taste of what law enforcement is all about, and it is definitely not like the glorious cop dramas on TV...you could actually get killed out there!!! (Kidding aside...I have the greatest respect for police officers, they have one of the hardest jobs you can imagine) So at that point I decided that I wanted to do something safe and secure...I narrowed it down to accounting or information systems. I chose accounting, but looking at some of my IS friend's salaries I think I chose wrong ;-)

Seriously though...from the first day of Accounting 101 at my community college it just clicked in my head and seemed to come so natural to me. On the advice of my Intermediate Accounting professor, who was a CPA herself, I transferred my CC credits to a four year program and got my Bachelor's in Business Admin/Accounting. At that time my state just changed the eligibility rules to require 150 hours to sit for the exam, so the CPA became something that I'd get to "someday."

So after seven years, a marriage and a daughter "someday" finally came last year. With the blessings of my wife and daughter I went back for my Master's and began taking the exam. I didn't realize how bad I wanted it until I got my first passing score...I realized that it was possible and I could actually do this! That was a year ago, and now I'm just two weeks or so away from knowing if I've finally gotten there...come on 9/19!!! :-D

BEC = 86 (Aug 2010)
REG = 82 (Nov 2010)
AUD = 87 (May 2011)
FAR = 91 (Aug 2011)

Posted 8 months ago #