<p>Will I be frowned upon by firms being as though I’ve went from a private uni my freshman year, transferred to my local cc my sophomore (for money reasons), and will most likely be going to temple my junior and senior years.?</p>
<p>I’m writing my statement of purpose for Masters of Accounting right now can some of you guys look over it plz?</p>
<p>Hi I am currently a sophomore majoring in accounting. I just got an interview for a midsize accounting firm for a tax internship (think Parentebeard, EisnerAmper, Crowe Horwath). I have some interviewing experience since I am currently holding a tax internship in the private sector. I was wondering if you guys can share some interviewing experience with mid size or big 4 public accounting firms. How are the interviews run?</p>
<p>Don’t most people go to be CFOs after a few years out after leaving big 4, I’m really at that disadvantage since I’m older?</p>
<p>Lol, pays the bills? What does that mean? no splurge, tight budget type deal?</p>
<p>@ Jekyl
From what I know MBAs with a CFA comprise most of the CFO and CEO world, I could be wrong but from my research its the finance majors that get those jobs.</p>
<p>I would like to see statistics that provide evidence for your claim. CFO’s come from a variety of backgrounds but I don’t think you can generalize. However big 4 experience is almost a mandatory requirement to get a higher level job in industry at the manger through executive level.</p>
<p>Big 4 background is pretty common for CFOs, if that is your cup of tea. </p>
<p>Jekyl: Nah you will have a pretty nice budget coming out of Big 4, however the work is easy and dull tho.</p>
<p>Tax question:</p>
<p>Background: I’ll be graduating in May 2013. Beginning Jan 2013, I’ll be interning at a tax firm that I will, ideally, continue with full-time after graduation. </p>
<p>My question is regarding becoming a CPA as a Tax Accountant. I know that the on-the-job experience is less helpful than Audit for the Exam, and it is sometimes less expected that a Tax person will get their CPA designation as quickly as an Audit person would, if at all. I am 100% certain that I will take the CPA exam in California, but my reasons for doing so has come down to prestige, and having the opportunity to open my own shop much later in life. </p>
<p>What reasons are you aware of that explain why a Tax Accountant becomes a CPA instead of just being a registered tax preparer? Essentially, if someone asked you/me, “Why do you want to be” or “why did you become a CPA as a Tax Accountant”, what do you tell them?</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>Does a background in accounting will help me analyze financial information? </p>
<p>Do you discuss things like form 4? or am I better off taking finance? </p>
<p>Which is better in helping me understand a company’s health, accounting or finance?</p>
<p>re: jdnely</p>
<p>FWIW I sat for the exam in 2007, with 10+ years of tax experience and zero years of audit experience, and got the same score on both REG and AUD. I do think that audit experience might have helped with FAR, but BEC doesn’t really pertain to either one.</p>
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<p>If you intend to go into public accounting, you pretty much have to sit in the state you plan to practice in. You can get reciprocity in most states after 5-10 years, so long-term concerns ought not be the driver here.</p>
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<p>Bwahaha. My degree isn’t in accounting, and I became a tax person through nepotism. I became an Enrolled Agent (a better option than being an RTRP, IMHO) in 1998. In 2005 or so I went back to school to pick up the accounting hours I needed to sit for the CPA exam. Why? Because I could not get my clients to stop referring to me as their CPA. Seriously, it was easier to get the hours and pass the exam than to convince people I wasn’t a CPA, and it aggravated me to have to correct them over and over.</p>
<p>In a non-nepotism situation, you’re going to be paid less and have fewer promotion opportunities as a non-CPA in a CPA firm. If you go out on your own, it’ll be harder to get bigger / more complex clients as a non-CPA. As a non-CPA, you’re subject to Gramm-Leach-Bliley, and you don’t avoid being subject to Circular 230. You do avoid some Board of Accountancy hassles (which can be hasslesome, depending on your state, but are mostly annoying and expensive) by not being a CPA, and the AICPA’s SSTS don’t apply to non-CPAs (but do to non-AICPA-member CPAs, in practice even if not in theory). </p>
<p>Our sole practioners’ group discussed the topic of “should the non-CPA staff person who wants to take over my practice become a CPA as part of the succession plan,” and the table was split pretty evenly between the yeses and the not-necessarilies.</p>
<p>jdnely,</p>
<p>I think that it is just a matter of prestige, and the fact that you can represent clients in court, if you are a CPA. BTW, Enrolled Agents are far more knowledgeable about tax than CPAs, and they have more tax privileges, so you may consider that as well.</p>
<p>The average EA knows more tax than the average CPA. The average tax-only CPA knows more tax than the average EA. Pretty much any practitioner knows more about the area they work in most than does any other practitioner who doesn’t work in that area. </p>
<p>There are no federal tax-related privileges available to EAs that are not available to CPAs, although there are state-related restrictions which may make it difficult for a CPA in State A to perform tax or non-tax services in State B, which restrictions generally do not apply to EAs. Neither EAs nor CPAs can represent clients in court, other than in Tax Court proceedings where the practitioner has passed the Tax Court Exam - and you don’t have to be an EA or a CPA to take that exam. Both EAs and CPAs may represent clients in practice before the IRS.</p>
<p>Do you guys have any advice for someone who would do accounting without an accounting/business degree? I was thinking about majoring in industrial engineering at my school while fulfilling the accounting courses required for MAcc programs and CPA sit in and I was just wondering if going such a nontraditional route puts me at a disadvantage or if it doesn’t really matter.</p>
<p>What is the work life balance like after you leave the big 4? What are the pros and cons of going into big 4, regional firm, or government accounting?</p>
<p>Also, is there room in the accounting career to make investments in real estate and side businesses like possibly opening a small restaurant and live a more than comfortable lifestyle or will the hours and demands of a higher salary compleletely limit this?</p>
<p>^Just skimming this thread but I’d like to know more on that as well</p>
<p>The accountants I know generally don’t get into real estate and restaurant deals, not for lack of time, but because they see the financial outcome of those investments. If you can get a carried profits interest (which takes minimal time and has no financial downside), go for it. But opening a small restaurant is not something you do on the side because accounting is insufficiently lucrative.</p>
<p>It is obscenely rare for an EA or a CPA to represent a client in tax court and it is not possible for over 99% of them. To date there are only around 7000 non attorneys that can practice in US tax court and being an EA or a CPA does not authorize law practice. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.taxcourtexam.com/THE_TAX_COURT_EXAM.pdf[/url]”>http://www.taxcourtexam.com/THE_TAX_COURT_EXAM.pdf</a></p>
<p>As a CPA you do compliance,representation during audits and planning. Litigation is strictly an attorney thing.</p>
<p>Hi, </p>
<p>I’m a new user looking up about accounting career info, i browsed through a part of this thread and other sites, but i’d like to know about what user jekyldream asked about exit opportunities after the big 4 and also what to expect with work life balance and investments with a field like accounting? </p>
<p>Wouldn’t the accounting knowledge be useful in starting new businesses?</p>
<p>ValleyAccountant,</p>
<p>“dammit child tosh quit making a fool out of yourself”</p>
<p>“As a CPA you do compliance,representation during audits and planning. Litigation is strictly an attorney thing.”</p>
<p>It seems that you are childish enough to assume that I don’t know that. I did not say anywhere that CPAs or EAs can substitute attorneys in a court. However, I feel honored that you keep track of what I say, and wait for an opportunity to correct me.</p>
<p>jdnely,</p>
<p>“I think that it is just a matter of prestige, and the fact that you can represent clients in court, if you are a CPA. BTW, Enrolled Agents are far more knowledgeable about tax than CPAs, and they have more tax privileges, so you may consider that as well.”
CPA’s</p>
<p>The CPA and EA designation does not allow one to represent in court… therefore you are spreading misinformation on this forum.</p>