Starting career as CPA....
I recently graduated non-ivy top 4 yr university with bachelor degrees in Chemical Engineering and Economics.
Since I do not have bachelor in finance or business, I am thinking of starting my career as CPA and working in finance-related accounting position and move into finance field to be an asset manager. ( I am currently studying for CPA and will take CFA®
FA right after, hoping that having CPA will give me an edge over those who don't, and having CFA®
mitigate the fact that I don't have bachleor degree in finance)
Is this gonna work?
After doing some research I realized that
1) entry finance position requires bachelor in finance
2) entry finance position has dried up during recession
Is there any better way for non-business(I have econ degree) person to be an asset manager?
Thanks
Are you in the US? I don't think you'll be able to get your CPA with that education background in the United States unless you get a MAcc.
I was thinking the same thing.
Yes Im in california and the board requires bachelor degrees (does not have to be accounting), 24 sem units of accounting courses and 24 sem units of business-related courses to take the exam. SInce I majored in economics, i just have to satisfy 24 units of accounting, which I am doing right now. (I verified this with the board) Although they don't require 150 credit hour requirement in CA, I have over 150 credit hour.
So you're taking essentially an extra year of courses to become CPA eligible? (Just want to be clear this is what you're doing).
Getting in to finance with work experience in other fields has been discussed on here before, so you'll want to do a search for that. In general, CPAs are often pushed into back-office/accounting and product control roles so you'll have to work to overcome that stereotype.
Studying for CPA is not just to get 3 letter designation next to my name, but its more for me to get to know about the field and to have wide view on the finance field. I took courses in accounting and finance, but I do not have solid idea what's going on in the actual field. In fact, I will never know I will like to be an accountant or a financial analyst until I actually work in that field. This is why I am going for CPA right now. Working as CPA, I might really like the job and might never leave the field. But, I am asking question in this thread to have more options in the future. There are many fields in accounting, and some of them will give me better position when I want to transfer into finance area.
God I wish someone would have said this to me - you won't like the work. The work f'ing sucks dude. It is super tedious. I wouldn't bank on thinking you just might like the work. I thought the same damn thing. The only reason I have stuck it out in this profession is the stupid shitty economy and the hope that the end justifies the means - and my ends are hopefully MBA to something better. But god help me if I stay in accounting much longer....
As a CPA I have a few thoughts on this.
First, I would think about the entry level finance related accounting position that you would most likely get. Usually this is a GL Jockey. The work you could be doing could involve the following: GL entries, month end recs, reporting (SEC and investor), controls and any other tedious crap that we do. You would also get to help prepare financial analysis' but then hand them off to the guys that get to actually make the fun decisions. And if all you do is accounting that's all you get better at and that's all your resume and people say you can do. Basically, you could be trying to work your way from the BO into something better, and I'm not sure how that would play out. Obviously there are exceptions to this. I am just saying that if you do get CPA, think about three moves ahead on what job you initially choose.
On the bright side, a CPA will give you a great safety net! Also, a CPA would get you into Big 4. And with your undergrad degrees you should be able to go into a non-audit service line. Thinking M&A, transaction services (maybe), I think they have Asset Management lines, or any other crazy service line they offer. Depending on the service line, you could potential make the jump to asset management (but that gets debated on here a lot whether that's possible and really doesn't seem to be unless you know some dude) or you could go back for an MBA and take it from there. CPA should help for an MBA I think (and hope).
If I was you (and funny enough I often wish I would have done engineering or econ) I would use my dual degree to go to consulting. They love the engineering or econ background. I audit a small PE firm and one of their analyst was undergrad engineering and went to big 3 consulting . From there he landed his PE gig (not really sure how). Now he sources investments does a lot of the valuations, leaves at 5:30 everyday (not sure how this works). I am sure they would give me a job too - but I would be counting the cash (not making it) and cleaning up after the party...
Anyone else have thoughts on this?
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