How do I plan things upon graduation of accountancy? Entry level Jobs and CPA exams considered?
Monday, December 14th, 2009 at
1:04 pm
My goal is to be an external auditor. I live in an area with no jobs, but I will move to the city after graduation. Where should I look for my first accounting job and when do I study for the CPA. What takes priority? Will an auditing firm hire me as a rookie auditor with no experience but a bachelor’s in Accounting.
Tagged with: accounting • auditing firm • bachelor • CPA • external auditor • graduation • job • jobs • priority
Filed under: CPA
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I would start with accounting firms for a position. I hate to send anyone to the government but they also hire accountants. I would start studying for the CPA exam a few months prior to taking the test. Some states require a Master of Accountancy before you can sit for the CPA exam. I don’t know what most accounting firms require when looking for auditors. Each organization makes their own rules. Your career placement office or faculty adviser at your college should be able to provide some guidance. In lieu of their assistance I would start by calling and sending resumes to accounting firms.
CPA is your highest priority as without it you cannot progress. It is extremely hard and will take around 1 year to pass if you do an exam every 3 months. In this current economic climate jobs are very hard to come by but there is always accounting jobs to be had.
My personal advice would be to take any job that gives you accounting experience particularly in the creation of cash flow statements or income statements. I know it sounds strange but at first you don’t want a particularly hard job as you want to be able to dedicate as much time as possible to studying the CPA while the College work is still fresh in your mind, it gets harder the older you get as you forget how to study and become specialized in one area and rusty in others.
The problem with working for an audit firm straight away is that it is a specialized area and you wont get they experience in accounting to make the exam easier, you will also need to check if you it will give you all the required work experience to qualify for a CPA. Again, as it is so specialized, it may be harder to get a job with an auditor than an accountancy firm and the one you do get maybe a rubbish one that gives you very little auditing experience and takes up a lot of your time that you could be using for study.