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Accounting - How do I start my career?
4rch3nemy
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Registered User regular
So I'm trying to enhance my financial situation and also get into a career that I could very likely enjoy: chartered accounting! I just don't know where to start whatsoever besides the obvious attending of an accounting program in university or post-secondary institution. It'll be a long, hard road, I know.
I'm going to go to school starting in September, I live in Alberta, Canada, I'm 24 (25 in Nov), live with the parents, and other than my current employment status (EI) have a great life. I'm just really concerned with my age and lack of accounting experience that I won't see any gains from my career choice for a really long time.. unless I do something about it.
I'm okay with reading books, learning myself, temping (sounds scary but I'd do it), volunteering (not preferable as I'm poor), and pretty much anything except sucking cocks behind the Olive Garden just so that I can feel some sort of development in my choice. Can anyone provide some insight? Accountants in the know wanna give me some advice?
Thanks in advance, everyone.
I'm going to go to school starting in September, I live in Alberta, Canada, I'm 24 (25 in Nov), live with the parents, and other than my current employment status (EI) have a great life. I'm just really concerned with my age and lack of accounting experience that I won't see any gains from my career choice for a really long time.. unless I do something about it.
I'm okay with reading books, learning myself, temping (sounds scary but I'd do it), volunteering (not preferable as I'm poor), and pretty much anything except sucking cocks behind the Olive Garden just so that I can feel some sort of development in my choice. Can anyone provide some insight? Accountants in the know wanna give me some advice?
Thanks in advance, everyone.
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In the meantime, I wouldn't worry about job experience unless you specifically know of a position where you will have the opportunity to be the primary accountant. I know my lady friend ended up as an accountant early through sheer luck/desperation on the business's end, but without the degree, the company won't promote her or even officially recognize her as doing the books. This will be the case with most places. She still has a year before she completes her graduate program, and is ticking down the days.
Really, until you have either a BA with four+ years of experience (fairly chancy, especially in this economy) or the Masters degree, your prospects are slim. I'd find something stable to cover your schooling costs and stick with that until you have the paper.
Also, become a notary public. Always a handy skill if you end up doing book-keeping, and looks great on a resume.
You could probably check your local craigslist/want ads for an entry level accounting position. This would alleviate some of your current funding problem and let you realize if accounting is what you want to do. A lot of people think accounting is exceptionally boring, so you better find out if you are one of those folks before you get wrapped up in school.
If you want to work on your skills on your own, buy a text book. Most of the books I see in stores are based off teaching non-accountants how to keep their checkbooks balanced. This will not be enough if you want a career. Snag an old text book off amazon or something. You'll be able to learn the terms, concepts, prepare yourself for school, AND work through a ton of different problems.
Once you get your introductory courses down, there's a lot of bookkeeping type jobs out there. They really don't pay to well ($13ish an hour seems to be the average just from what I've seen...in BC). And then when you're closer to finishing your degree a lot of the bigger accounting firms will start to take you more seriously, and you may even be able to get a job at the CRA (Red Deer has a big CRA office).
You can stop at the degree and not go after the letters, but really that's where the big money is.
I'm just about done my diploma in accounting and will be continuing on. I haven't decided between going for the CMA or CA.
Here's some links:
http://www.cma-canada.org/
http://www.cga-canada.org/
http://www.cica.ca/
Once you have completed your degree I would seek out a firm such as Deloitte & Touche and start getting your experience there. While at a large accounting firm you will accumulate experience and also be able to study for your CPA (or Canadian equivalent) after you pass your CPA the sky is the limit.
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I'm not hugely familiar with the process outside of Florida, but here you absolutely cannot sit for the CPA exam until you have a graduate degree in the field with at least a significant BA minor backing it.
Probably not the case everywhere, and doubly dubious in Canada (America's hat!
California though.
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Actually, as a CPA candidate here in Florida, you CAN sit without a graduate degree. Only requires 150 hours (so a BS, then a 5th year) and 2 law classes and 2 tax classes. I don't have my MAcc and im sitting for my first section in August in Florida. However you do need an undergrad degree in Accounting, just not the masters.
Also, I would suggest going to a 4 year university and major in accounting. Go to as many Career fairs as possible and try and meet the Big 4/5 (Deloitte and Touche, Ernst and Young, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCooper, and Grant Thornton) An internship with one of these firms and a subsequent offer will give you an amazing career in the field of public accounting.
Also try and decide if you want to do more audit or tax related work. Most firms look for a firm decision and do not like poeple who are unsure (at least when it comes to the Big4)
Not sure how it works in Canada...
On a personal note, accounting is very boring. Very Boring. I'm currently working on my MS in Accounting, and I want to gouge my eyes out everyday. I was planning to become a CPA and make $TEXAS but now there isn't enough money in the world to make me want to continue in this career path. YMMV.
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This is probably where I was screwed up on. My lady is working her way towards that from an unrelated bachelors degree. I remember have dozens of conversations about this, and apparently I didn't listen close enough.
I am, probably, an idiot. Apologies. : /
You just need a regular bachelor's business degree and sometime around your last year you take the entrance exam. You can start working right away as an accountant, and firms will hire you as sort of an apprentice, while you attend classes hosted by your association on weekends, do course work in the evenings and receive your designation about two years later.
You'll be a few years away from all of that, but speak to your professors and get advice on courses and career advice for the different designations.
That being said, anyone able to count to 14 and set up a decent spreadsheet can do the work associated with most base level accounting jobs (accounting tech and similar). Most of them are glorified data entry positions, but once you've learned the software packages used by your firm you'll be much more desirable for higher level positions as you'll need much less training.
If you're anywhere near a Cargill location in Alberta, try giving them a call. I worked for them for a few years, and it seemed they were always hiring new folks for their accounting departments. They had a great tuition reimbursement program (100% of your tuition, provided it's job relevant) which would be rather helpful in your situation.