certification, grad school or ???

I need the shortest easiest route to improve my situation. The CPA exam
is hard and takes a long time to study for. EAs often only work during
tax season. CMAs are becoming obsolete as we move towards a
service-orientated economy. The CFA exam is way too hard. I don't know
what to think of the CFP. Should I be trying to get into graduate
school?

Here's my situation:

I worked for five years as a bookkeeper while working on my bachelor's
degree, which took me a long time to complete. Two of the jobs I stayed
at for 2 years apiece, the second 9 months and the last for 3 months. I
didn't take the positions seriously, as I was a student and felt I
would do a lot better after I graduated.

After graduating, I worked 6 months in a CPA firm during tax season and
was laid off. I was unemployed for about a year and for the last six
months, I've been working as a cashier in a gas station.

I've got two big gaps on my resume and three short jobs. The first gap
was due to me just going to school full-time after my last bookkeeping
job and the last was not being able to find a job. I think this
situation may be permanent.

Even if certification isn't the answer at least it will keep my mind
from turning to mush as I count change.

Anyone with any advice?

 

i reccomend a phd in accounting. it is free and you can just study
part time. when you graduate, as a phd, you qualify for high paying
jobs on wall street for phds.

 

The first gap really isn't a gap, as you can show that you were going to
school full-time. The second, well everyone has a gap after getting laid
off... some longer than others.

Sounds like you have 5 years bookkeeping experience along with a
Bachelor's degree. Is that 5 solid years or part-time experience?

It is somewhat problematic that you didn't stay with any one employer
for very long, future employers will ask you why that happened. There
has to be a reason other than you not taking the positions seriously.

Tax work is seasonal unless you are high up on the feeding chain. As
well, you can break down a difficult task (achieving a designation) into
small chunks that make it more manageable.

View it one step at a time, one day at a time. If you were in Canada I'd
suggest starting down the path for a CGA, particulary since you already
have the degree requirement accomplished.

 

CMA -- Certified Management Accountant? Don't managers in
service-oriented businesses need to collect and interpret
financial information, too?

 

You can't go wrong with a CPA. A graduate degree (MBA??) would only make
sense once you've made some progress in your career. CMAs are worthless.
CFA and CFP; not before you're CPA. Note, however, that most states have
experience requirements so you'll not be a CPA just because you pass the
exam. There are states that have no experience requirements, and will
simply certify you upon passing the exam, but you have to take the exam in
their state. I believe Delaware is one of them.

 

i recommend a law degree, JD.

 

This guy has a Bachelors, five years of experience, and worked in an
accounting firm for 6 months and all he can find after a year of
unemployemtn is work as a gas station cashier?

That tells more about the accounting field than it does about this
person. Having a CPA will not make your more employable. That's a
fallacy.

Get out of the accounting field. It's dying and has been for years.
Don't listen to the Greg Hanson's and Paul Thomases of the world. These
assholes don't know anything about the field as a whole, and will only
give you stupid advice based on their own narrow-minded situation.

 

Actually, it says more about the individual seeking employment than it
does about the accounting field.

 

"Actually, it says more about the individual seeking employment than it

does about the accounting field."


Bullshit! I'd say this dude working at the gas station has more insight
on what the accouting field is 'really' like than people like Paul
Thomas, Greg Hanson do. Or than that other motherfucker from Finland,
Timo Salmi. All that guy has ever done is work in academia.

 

I respectfully disagree.

 

I gave advice?

 

You are being dragged into the thread.

 

it is true accounting is a dying field. accountants are maggots just
like lawyers and bankers. the only reason people criticize lawyers and
bankers more is because those guys make more. accountants make too
little to pay attention to, but they are maggots just the same.

in the information age, companies will switch over to IT systems that
collect and distribute financial information, and outsource the
programming to India. there will be very little need for accountants
-- maybe just one or two per large company. the rest of the staff will
be fired because there is no more need for guys to sit around tabbing
up numbers on spreadsheets.

 

I think that "dying" is a bit of an extreme description. It isn't
anywhere near as good as it used to be and it is very difficult to get
placed, but it is not dead. Demand appears to have been fairly level
over the last decade after a decline from its 1965, or so, peak. I
can't see anything on the horizon over the next decade that will
return it to a shortage situation save maybe the end of the Pell
grants and other subsidies.

 

disagree with "dying," only agree with supply in excess of demand in a
professional field where adequate non professional substitutes have
been found for the bottom of the market, turbotax, quickbooks,
etc.....

disagree with that description. there are a significant number but no
where near as high a proportion as politicians, lawyers, doctors,
teachers, mechanics, bankers, insurance salesmen, brokers, etc. I
would say that the profession has a greater portion of ethical and
moral men that large group I can think of, including priests, pastors,
and rabbis.

I agree they make more, but doesn't the condition of people who go
around criticizing others because they make more money than them say
more about the people doing the criticism. doesn't it seem like there
is something seriously wrong with them?

It may go to India but I don't think anyone who really knows the IT
story thinks it will ever solve any problems. IT has been the biggest
oversold bundle of malarky in the history of mankind. tens of billions
of dollars squanderer with a negative net return. the only reason it
is isn't worse is because the accountants insisted that the IT people
produce things that would work and wouldn't pay them until it did.

Dream on. The accountants are the most critical and necessary
department of any enterprise. Without good accountants monitoring,
measuring and reporting on your enterprise, you die.

 

people who go around criticizing others because they make more money than them -- doesn't it seem like there is something seriously wrong with them?

you are criticizing people who criticize people who make more money.
does this mean there is something wrong with you?

 

I'm leaning towards grad school, a MBA with a concentration in
Accounting. I haven't seen many schools which offer a MS in Accounting.
Even though a MBA is supposed to be for managers, when you look at the
curriculum of most schools, they don't contain many management courses.
They usually offer a year of general business and a year of
concentration courses.

I figure, with a year of advanced accounting under my belt. I won't
even have to study for the CPA exam. The MBA should prove that I know a
lot about accounting. Plus, I might be able to attribute some of my
unemployment to time in spent in school and just say I took extra
classes or something. Also, I'm making so little money now, that I
might be able to get more money from financial aid than I can earn now.

I don't really think I have the self-discipline to study for the CPA
exam. I've tried to study for it, but haven't been able to push myself.
I thought I lost my ability to study, until I started taking a tax
course and have been doing fine. It is a lot easier to study x amount
of material when you have a test on Friday, than study x^9 for a test 6
months from now. How long does it take most people to study for the
exam anyway?

With all that said, I'm still hoping to find a faster and easier way.

As far as there being something wrong with me and that being the root
of my problems, this may be true. I often hear in interviews that I
have the right skill set, or that my skills are a perfect match for the
position but I don't quite fit in, or something similar. I blame HR
which I believe is a sham based on pseudo-science and I doubt there is
any credible evidence which links personality to job performance
anyway. Of course, this doesn't help me much, as I still have to get
those people on my side.

 

My error, I meant 1975.

 

You think an MBA with a concentration in accounting might be the
answer? An MBA degree is a joke! Probably the most overrated business
degree outside of a degree in management.

You will find that your MBA will be you "less" employable, not more.

 

prove it, buddy. the *average* MBA from harvard or stanford B school
earnings $250,000/yr
4 years after the MBA degree. you can view these stats at the school
web site.