[Kagami_Sama]

Hello Dear CPA Senseis,

I need some help or advice regarding my current position. I’ve been working as medicaid auditor for six months, for a company who has contracted with the state for doing all the medicaid compliance stuff. My daily job includes cost report preparation, desk reviews, and sometimes on-site audit for the children’s hospitals. Our department is also responsible for setting up rates for FQHC/RHC, nursing facilities audit, etc. To me, this is a very specialized kind of accounting work and it’s kinda distant from ordinary accounting/auditing, you know, GAAP, SEC, financial statements, all of that. My concern is, can this kind of work be qualified to fulfill the working experience requirement for the CPA license?

Another problem I’m facing is that my manager is a CIA but not CPA. (make sense if you don’t work for public accounting) His boss was a CPA, but he’s not currently active. (b/c he’s the CFO now he doesn’t need it anymore, I guess?) They are still trying to find someone within the company who is a CPA for me, but I don’t see much chance there. Most of my co-workers are pursuing CIA instead of CPA.

I graduated from one of the top Master Accounting programs in US with decent GPA, and most of my friends went to Big4. I haven’t tired public accounting but from what I heard it’s pretty challenging (absurd). What do you guys think? I’ve scheduled my FAR exam in December and studied very hard (after work). I think I’ll pass all my exams first in a year, then see whether to jump into public accounting or internal auditing? Or I should start looking for new position now, if the working experience is not counted / because supervisor not a CPA?

Any tip or advice is welcomed and appreciated. Thank you so much, and have a wonderful day!