help with career

  • Creator
    Topic
  • #830806
    Smartcpa
    Participant

    I passed all 4 section of cpa exam. I have been looking for the job within 4 months now and still not getting any job interview. I am living in orange county, CA. I have called/ emailed to partners/ hiring managers in my area but no good news coming up. I am really disappointed and thinking whether CPA designation is a good choice for me. I am really stressful with my current situation. I am thinking should i change my career to another industry (medical likely) so that I can find the job easily. Is there anyone having the same problem with me? how did you do to overcome it?

    Passed all 4 sections within 6 months

    FAR: 4/2016

    BEC: 5/2016

    AUD: 6/2016

    REG: 7/20/16 (exam day), score day (8/4/16)

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 54 total)
  • Author
    Replies
  • #831187
    jombe
    Participant

    same here.

    live in oc.
    passed all 4 of cpa exam at end of july.
    took a week off to travel to S. Korea to visit my sick mother
    (purchased a roaming plan for first time in my life in case i got any call from recruiters while i was traveling, but boy that was the worst $60 I've ever spent in my entire life)
    been actively searching for jobs for a month or so, but no interviews yet.

    AUD - 99
    BEC - 91
    FAR - 94
    REG - 96
    --------------------------------------------
    Done with exam. On with life.

    FAR - 94 (10/4/15), Local Prep Online Lectures, BISK & NINJA MCQ
    AUD - 99 (1/19/16), Local Prep Online Lectures, BISK & NINJA MCQ
    REG - 96 (4/19/16), Local Prep Online Lectures, BISK & NINJA MCQ
    BEC - 91 (7/19/16), Local Prep Online Lectures, BISK & NINJA MCQ

    581 days of listening to lectures, reading texts & 10,000+ MCQs...

    #831295
    Ib
    Participant

    Can't you relocate to another state? Seems like many people struggling in OC to get job.

    AUD - 87
    BEC - 78
    FAR - 79
    REG - 81
    Licensed CPA in MA, OCT 2016

    FAR 79
    AUD 87
    BEC 78
    REG 08/31/2016

    #831337
    jombe
    Participant

    certainly looked into it, but CA's exam sit-in requirement is more “loose” than that of other states & i read on this forum that sometimes the more “restrictive” state board doesn't accept your exam credit from more loose state.

    you can refer to the post below.
    poster took the exams in MO and tried transferring his credits to TX where he landed a big4 job and it didn't work out for him due to different sit-in requirements and only solution he found was to get his license from MO and apply for reciprocity in two+ years.

    Transferring credit/license to Texas is a huge hassle: Read if you plan to move

    AUD - 99
    BEC - 91
    FAR - 94
    REG - 96
    --------------------------------------------
    Done with exam. On with life.

    FAR - 94 (10/4/15), Local Prep Online Lectures, BISK & NINJA MCQ
    AUD - 99 (1/19/16), Local Prep Online Lectures, BISK & NINJA MCQ
    REG - 96 (4/19/16), Local Prep Online Lectures, BISK & NINJA MCQ
    BEC - 91 (7/19/16), Local Prep Online Lectures, BISK & NINJA MCQ

    581 days of listening to lectures, reading texts & 10,000+ MCQs...

    #831565
    Smartcpa
    Participant

    I think we can transfer credit to other states because the exam is uniformed. for licensure requirement, we have to refer to each state board. I knew Texas is now requiring 150+ credit hours to be licensed. I have family here, so moving to another state is difficult for me. my husband is a nurse and he gets the job easily. I think I should star my own practice rather applying for the job in this time. I have a year experience as a staff accountant in private company and part time job in local cpa small firm for a year. Because my current employer is too small to offer me a full time job, I can not earn enough hour for licensing. That is a headache. if anyone in this forum lived in OC, CA, would you please give advice thanks.

    Passed all 4 sections within 6 months

    FAR: 4/2016

    BEC: 5/2016

    AUD: 6/2016

    REG: 7/20/16 (exam day), score day (8/4/16)

    #833491
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Maybe it helps to think of the hiring process from the perspective of the HR recruiter and firm partners. What are you doing to distinguish yourself from the hundreds of other applicants? What makes your resume jump out of the pile?

    #833611
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    If you don't have experience and are fresh out of school, your best bet is to attend the career fairs, that's where most will do their recruiting for the younger people.

    Also joining any accounting groups on campus where they invite the firms and their employees to meet and greet.

    I did this at two different schools during undergrad and masters and interviewed/offered positions each time after going through the process.

    #833629
    Missy
    Participant

    4 months isn't long in the big picture but if you're not getting any calls at all it's time to have someone critique your resume. You need to capture their attention and make them want to learn more about you. Also you need to be getting out 6-10 resumes per day. Apply to jobs you're overqualified for and underqualified for and to companies that don't even have jobs posted. If for nothing else maybe you'll get feedback on your resume.

    Old timer,  A71'er since 2010.

    Finance manager/HR manager

     

     

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

    #834073
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Like IB553 said, there do seem to be a lot of people in OC area having this problem, so if you're able to move, expanding your job-search may yield more results – even just looking outside the OC area (like say looking in northern CA – same requirements, but potentially different job environment). However, if you have a spouse or partner who has a job in the area you live, then it's harder to move if you find a job, because then they're out of a job.

    I would strongly encourage you to have someone look over your resume, as mla suggested. Especially for individuals for whom English is not their 1st language, having someone look over written materials they use for job-searching can be very useful. When someone is reviewing 100 (truly more than that) resumes for a job opening, they don't know if an error is due to someone being lazy/sloppy or due to English being a 2nd language, so they're likely to throw out the resume either way. Having your resume spotless ensures that you get past that first cut.

    Remember, too, that the last 4 months (May – September) are not a big hiring time for accounting. Now is getting into more prime hiring time for big firms, and smaller firms sometime between now and January. Private varies a lot. But, part of the reason you've had trouble over the last 4 months may just be that it's not a heavy hiring time.

    Regarding credit transfer: California is one of the more strict states for license requirements, so I doubt you'd have huge issues transferring out. It's states like Colorado when they allowed you to sit and get licensed with just 120 credits that had more issues transferring out. Texas is extremely strict to transfer into, but most states you could probably transfer to without issue. So, if you wanted to move to – say – Montana, do some research, call the Montana state board, but chances are good that you could move to Montana and take your credits with you.

    #834604
    Track55
    Participant

    I feel your pain. I finished from a Cal-State with a 3.8 accounting GPA and it took me a year to find a job in Orange County. I know people who also took a year.
    Yeah, everyone says do this, do that, do accounting club and use your career center, blah blah. Well so are the other 250 people in your accounting graduating class. Everyone knocks each other out.
    I went on firm and government interviews for a year and didn't get anything. Once I started looking at private industry, I was getting emails left and right. I recommend you put a resume on Indeed as I found it very helpful, way more than the school career center.

    AUD - 99
    BEC - 83
    FAR - 86
    REG - 92
    California - Internal Audit

    CPA since December 2016.

    (took seven tries, 1 year 10 months).

    AUD - 74, 99 !!
    REG - 74, 92
    BEC - 83
    FAR - 73, 86

    Studying for Ethics exam

    California candidate
    Business and Industry

    #834613
    .
    Participant

    You can always get a crappy A/R or A/P job. My former coworker told me about how she hired this one Chinese guy to do AP at her previous job. He had a master's in accounting and had passed the CPA exam but took him a year to get a crappy A/P job. He didn't even need a visa or anything. Had permanent residency I believe.

    I went to the “Meet the Firms” thing at my school. I'm not really good with this whole schmoozing thing but I managed to talk to a few of the recruiters. There was only one big 4 firm at the career fair. OMG!! The line!! I think there were over 200 people in line trying to talk to them. I was like screw that. Didn't matter anyways since I didn't want to stay in California.

    FAR- 88- 6/16- (Ninja Avg. 74%)
    REG- 89- 7/16- (Ninja Avg. 77%)
    AUD- 95- 8/16- (Ninja Avg. 81%)
    BEC- 82- 9/16- (Ninja Avg. 75%)
    [Wiley CPAExcel + Ninja MCQ]

    Finally licensed.

    FAR - June 2016 - 88
    REG - July 2016 - 89
    AUD - Aug 2016 - review phase currently
    BEC - Sep 2016 -

    Wiley CPA Excel & Ninja MCQ

    #835216
    Mayo
    Participant

    Also keep in mind the the big majority of good entry level jobs are filled by recent grads. So if you've been out of school for a few years it can be very difficult, as you're competing with recent grads as well as candidates such as yourself.

    Mayo, BBA, Macc

    #835516
    Smartcpa
    Participant

    I did send my resume to my friend to edit it for me. She is the Accounting Manager of a county in North CA. she was my classmate in Master program and she has valued my knowledge and skills a lot. She helped me edit my resume and prepare the interview answers so that I can ace a job offer if having any interview. I also attended accounting festival in an targeted university in my area (even though I am not the student there) and send my resumes to recruiters. I have tried every single necessary step as you guys advise above, but nothing happened during the last four months.

    Passed all 4 sections within 6 months

    FAR: 4/2016

    BEC: 5/2016

    AUD: 6/2016

    REG: 7/20/16 (exam day), score day (8/4/16)

    #835546
    Missy
    Participant

    IMHO have someone with HR experience look at your resume, your friend knows what an accounting manager wants to see but your resume is screened first by an HR person and may not make it as far as an accounting manager. For example I also do HR, and when I am hiring an engineer I have a specific wish list from a hiring manager. He only sees MAYBE one out of 4 resumes that I receive (he doesn't want or have time to see every single one) so while an applicant may have some impressive credentials, if they're not listing the keywords I am given they get logged, filed and forgotten.

    Also you can't send the same exact cover letter and resume with every application. You need to customize both specific to the company you're applying to and use keywords directly out of their job listing.

    And again, 4 months is really not enough to decide its not working. It can take 6 mos to a year to find a job sometimes. But the first step is getting attention for your resume which is clearly not happening yet.

    Old timer,  A71'er since 2010.

    Finance manager/HR manager

     

     

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

    #835684
    ChristieF
    Participant

    I definitely think you need to have someone from HR look at your resume.. it will definitely take longer than 4 months. My husband has been looking for a job for a year (he's got his degree and everything) and it wasn't until he changed his resume based on what someone in HR and with experience looking at resumes daily told him that he finally got 3 offers. I will say that he tailored his resume for each job he applied to – no not lying, but he changed specific words to match words used in the actual job posting (synonyms of the words already in his resume) so that the words would be more recognized, if that makes sense. It took a lot of work on his behalf, especially since he applied for at least 10 jobs a week, but considering that and watching our kids was all he was doing – he did what it took to get a job. Get your resume fixed up and give it some more time and you'll be successful in finding a job. Good luck.

    FAR - 61, retake 1/22

    AUD - 2022

    REG - 2022

    BEC - 2022

    #835720
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Have you tried temp recruiting agencies like Robert and Half? They really do jump start careers. Despite the bad reputation they have, the low pay and that they dont provide EE benefits; they can give you experience from a Fortune 500 company which in my opinion its priceless for recent graduates.

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 54 total)
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