NINJA Juggling Act: CPA Exam, Graduate School, and Work

11 Apr 2013

NINJA CPA Review

Mindy is a NINJA CPA Blogger.

Hello all you fellow NINJA test taking studying, no life outside the CPA exam study material.

I have not posted in a few weeks and I feel awful about that, but I would like to give everyone an update as to why and what I have been up to.

Jeff used to say you could one of three types of test takes. I used to be the one that would schedule the test, then study my little self off, but somehow “life” would happen and I was not prepared.

Now, I am taking his advice to be more prepared and not pay for the seat until I am ready. Although, I am not changing my goal.

This window, I still plan REG and AUD before May 31st. The exact dates…to be determined. I know that a few weeks ago there was some discussion on getting the MBA. Well, I actually graduated with my MBA in 2005 and after that is when I have been working the CPA route.

Now, my juggling act: in addition to my recovery issues, I began working on another degree at the beginning of April and in 20 months I will have my Master of Information Systems to add to my education. I am praying for the completion of the CPA exam that has been this dark cloud over me since 2005.

In my ten years of working in the accounting industry in a CPA firm and various corporations, I always find myself working on implementations of accounting software. Then I would teach myself the troubleshooting to operate our accounting system instead of waiting on external support because the lack of knowledge from internal IT support.

Then, my position in the company would be to complete my task, troubleshoot the software, and create new task or reports in the new system. That lead to 80 hours of work a week, which is enough for two people and I would teach IT how to support accounting?

After 4 years of this…I sat back…and said wait a minute. So here I am…juggling the CPA studying and just started seeking my second Masters degree. My goal: to be a CPA and to consult on implementations of accounting software, then follow up with troubleshooting and special projects.

Before I get there, I have to figure out new time management between graduate school, studying, recovering, then finding a new job (but I have a little time to spare), and keeping focused on my goal…Oh…will the snow ever stop and will spring ever begin….Mindy

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