Canada Accounting after MBA and CFA level one

[ATUL]

I’m a MBA student at a provincial level university in Canada. Program is so cheap that it doesn’t have brand value at all.
I have computer science engineering degree from India and 3.5 years of work experience in Software development at a big firm in India. I have passed CFA Level 1 recently and now I have decided not to continue for next levels until I get relevant work experience.

CPA is on my radar now as I feel that instead of going after retail banking career I should prefer accounting career. I have two semesters to graduate but I have started networking from now on. I met couple of professionals mostly alumni and found mix of review about retail banking. Professor at my school have good network so I’m reaching out to them if they can introduce me to someone. I have also been adding professionals to my LinkedIn network and got few good responses. This is very small city (St. John's NL) so Industry isn’t that big here. I would finally need to move to Toronto or other city after graduation to find CPA student jobs.

Anyone who has gone to CPA route after CFA level one? I would really appreciate if you can share networking tips or your experience about how did you manage to find first accounting job. In terms of role, I'm aspiring to be financial analyst after few years of work experience and I do like finance reporting.

One more thing I couldn’t figure out that BIG 4 don’t post there jobs but hire through campus placement. I’ve been doing networking from last few months and met few partners but they were not from big4. I’m not sure if big4 is the right way or working in a medium size firm would give more exposure. I do have profs who knows partners in these firms.

Which city do you think would be the most feasible? Not worried about the salary because I’m an international student and will take job even in range of $45-50K.

Background: Current age:28, Undergrad in Computer sci. Eng. and 3.5 years of work experience in billing and invoicing softwares development at a large IT company. Planning to enroll in CPA Prep program next semester( last semester). I have received 7 exemptions in program which I think will make it faster to finish prep.

Any suggestions would be welcome..

 

[jwmca.com]

Hi Atul, I can tell you are a hard working and intelligent individual.

What city do you currently live in? You shouldn't have a problem finding a job in Vancouver Lower Mainland area.

Networking tips; just be yourself and focus on organic relationship growth. Be forward and honest with your intentions.

As for the big four; your either in the heard or you aren't. You aren't. Big four hiring is done primarily through the universities with co-op placements and newly grads, they scoop up all the A students right away. If your not in that lane of human cattle your in another herd.

Based on my experience my best advice for you would be to focus on making money entrepreneurial instead of going for more education. At best an education gets you a $100K $CAD job which is $6,600 a month after tax. To become a CA/CPA it costed me about $100K and 8 years of my life. It was worth the investment but now knowing what I know I would have continued focusing on generating entrepreneurial revenue online in $USD currency.