I am a frugal person by nature, so when I set out to pursue the CPA designation back in the Fall of 2011, I intended to devise an exam preparation strategy that would allow me to pass each section of the CPA Exam on the first attempt and do so at the lowest cost possible. At the time, I was two years removed from obtaining my college degree and like many of you reading this, I had no idea where to start. [Read more…]
How to Transition from Accountant to Advisor (Friendzone to Endzone)
A new intern recently reached out to me to ask some questions about my career path. One of the organizations we work with (LEAD Program) was hoping to have testimonials from people in the accounting field. Specifically, they wanted to increase exposure to the youth about how attractive the profession can be.
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you know that LEAD was the reason I pursued accounting in the first place (I talked about that briefly here).
The email I got asked a couple questions and was looking for just a short blurb, but one thing inspired me to expand on my initial thoughts. He asked how I transitioned from accountant to advisor. While I didn’t see the two as different things before, the question made me reconsider my position. You can read what I concluded here:
Accounting Is The Language of Business and Every Entrepreneur Needs to Learn to Speak It
I live in the San Francisco bay area, land of the start-up, the place where people quit full-time jobs to chase the dream of being bought out by Facebook and never working again. Who can blame these budding entrepreneurs? Every time you turn your tv on, Facebook is either buying or trying to buy some young, unproven company for billions of dollars. Consistently seeing such a lack of buyer’s discretion from cash-heavy potential suitors just makes the dream seem all the more plausible.
So where do you start on this journey to Escape From Cubicle Nation
?
First, you need to understand it takes more than just a good idea to run a successful business. No matter what kind of entrepreneur you are, there are some basic accounting things you or someone you hire needs to know to keep your business from imploding.
Will More Restrictions Attract More Minority CPAs?
Of course not. It felt ridiculous just typing the question but the AICPA has such a claim published on their site stating they expect minority CPA candidates to increase as more requirements to become a licensed CPA are required. I found this while reading through FAQs related to the 150 hour education requirement adopted by most states (you can read my thoughts about that here). and had to read it multiple times before being sure I read it correctly.
I really do hate to call people out who are making an honest effort…but the effort on AICPA’s part here is questionable so here we go.
A few months ago I wrote a post titled Why Are There Still So Few Black CPAs which generated some great discussion here on the blog and in other professional groups/communities I belong to, but it seems that discussion was unnecessary. As it turns out, I went over to the AICPA website to get some information on the 150 requirement in California and stumbled across the unimaginable. I found myself face to face with the answer so many have been searching for, and it was buried on the AICPA site this whole time. As you can see in the image above, students who wanted to pursue a masters will now find accounting more attractive because it requires the equivalent of a masters degree.
Who knows when this information was last updated since there’s no timestamp on the FAQs but I’m fairly sure adding requirements hasn’t and isn’t making accounting more attractive to people of color. I’m thinking maybe the problem is the bar wasn’t set high enough. Using the logic of whoever wrote the answer to that question, if the requirement to become a licensed CPA was a PhD in accounting then we’d be sure to see minorities flocking to the accounting profession.
If only it were that simple. Oh and since when and in what place is taking out 100k in debt not a barrier? I appreciate their attempt to be bold on the FAQ answer here, but that’s not even close to reality. This just goes to show the people doing the messaging for the AICPA are out of touch with the potential minority CPA audience they claim they want to reach.
What was your first reaction when reading the answer to the question? Let me know in the comments!
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The Secret Reason CPAs Take So Long to File Their Own Taxes
You need change…so do I.
That’s why in this post I decided to try my hand at a bit of poetry to answer the question “why do CPAs take so long to file their own taxes?”
Good question but I have to warn you the answer won’t be what you think. There’s no secret hidden tax benefit which only the CPAs qualify to receive. As awesome as that would be, no such luck for us noble number crunchers. The secret answer is actually much simpler than that.
I know you’re thinking right now this secret would be nice to have but you REALLY only kept reading for the poetry, and I’m not one to let the people down, so here you go.
What do you think? Does this apply to you or someone you know? Do I have a shot at another career? Let me know in the comments!
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