CPA Exam and new career - I see the light at the end

[Tyjenks]

I have spent months studying and taking 3 of the 4 parts of the CPA Exam. I have one more to take in February, but I do not know how much success I will have as work is crazy busy as evidenced by my 2 weeks in Wisconsin.

Got my third passing grade back today. 75 is passing. I have scored:

76 Tax
75 Business and Economics
99 Audit (which is what I have been doing as my job for the last 2 years)

Looks like my trip back to school and choice of a new career may just have been the right one. It has been 3 years since I quit my fucking job which I spent 7 years of hell at. Crazy debt, baby about to turn two and a bout with Breast Cancer.

It can be done, but it sure as holy fuck is not easy.

[Thomas Wilde]

Congratulations! Good luck on the fourth exam.

[Houngan]

Good for you. Gives us drones hope.

H.

[SpoofyChop]

You're awesome :)

a bout with Breast Cancer.


Incidentally was it you or your wife that had breast cancer?

[Tyjenks]

Wife. Clean bill ' health now tho.

Thanks all. Just waned to share my story of hope and inspiration and tell Gordon to keep at it.

[Hawkeye Fierce]

Wow. Congrats, that's really inspiring.

*reviews his career change plans*

[Athryn]

Does that mean you'll be coming back to wow soon? :P

[Skipper]

Ty my father was a CPA for 37 years and loved his job. And he was about 75% tax and 25% audit. Stick with it bud, there is light, and financial freedom, at the end of the tunnel.

[MyNameIsWill]

Keep up the good work dude.

[Peter Frazier]

Well done! I've reconciled myself with my job and I'm happy with it but it's always good to see people make late-career choices that end up good.

[Flowers]

I give you six weeks until you want to become a lion tamer.

[SergioBAM]

Mmmm, lion.

[Tyjenks]

Does that mean you'll be coming back to wow soon? :P

Lord, I hope so. I would have never thought I could stop cold turkey, but so far so good. Hate we have to wait, but glad WotLK doesn't come out soon. Feb. 23rd I take the last part and after the 2 day hangover, I plan on returning.

Thanks again all.

[Qessinge]

Good job Tyjenks. Good to see a fellow CPA on this board...

[Qenan]

Very cool. It's good to see the message get out that you can change your career (although as you say it isn't easy, mostly because of prior obligations).

[SlyFrog]

Dude, I'm not changing my career (now at least), but this is one of the cooler and more hope inspiring posts I've read around here. Great work!

[Acid]

Sincerely, I'm damn happy for you. My wife entered school to become an x-ray tech at age 33. She finishes up her associate's in May. She could completely relate to how difficult it is to change careers, with young children (but not the breast cancer part, and I knock on wood 'cuz it runs in her family and she has huge knockers).

Way to go. You're an inspiration.

[Tyjenks]

While I am excited and probably border on deserving the attention whore pic, I do want people to know that if they can find something they are good at, it can work. I mean, I don't cream my shorts over accounting, but it is something I can do well and feel a sense of accomplishment once a job is finished. Never had that before. Now, if my debt can be extinguished and my marriage can survive, in 3 to 5 years maybe my want to kill random passers-by who are breathing my air will go away, too.

Now, what all is involved in becoming a lion tamer.

I will say thanks for the third time since as random strangers go, you all seem to be good people and the congrats are appreciated.

[Athryn]

You don't deserve the attention whore pic. :P

[VegasRobb]

Congrats Tyler!

[Tyjenks]

One more thing, as a frame of reference for anyone else considering the change, I was 35 with one kid, a wife and a mortgage when I quit and went back to school.

Word.

[Old Man Gravy]

Yeah, dig it. Sorry to be late to the party here.

Conditioning three parts is a HUGE accomplishment, Ty. Doing it with a ton of family obligations and a medical crisis is downright Herculean. Do you have to try to finish it in February? Tax season just seems like a bad time of year to take something else that big on.

Anyway, it's grueling as hell, but a fantastic career choice. Getting those letters behind your name will open up just about any avenue you might want to take on the business side of just about any industry. Keep at it, homey. Let us know when you put the last bullet in this bitch.

[Tyjenks]

Thanks for the kind words Gravy!!!

I scheduled the last 3 parts in like August of last year not knowing how much responsibility I would have come tax season in 2008 as last year I only worked about 50 hours a week. Having them already scheduled and paid for forces you to study. I could not have pushed the last one back as I would have lost my $200 fee. Turns out I was given manager responsibilities over multiple audits that have run back to back since January.

So no, probably not a good time as my study time was crippled. In fact, last Sunday was the first day since the 1st of January I have not worked or studied. Granted some of those Sundays were only 4 hours, but it has been a load.

Turns out, I made a 72 on this last part. I knew I was unprepared and had done poorly when I left the exam. Just found out this week and got drunk as fuck Wed. night and then went back into the Catholic Diocese the next morning where I am auditing. I want to retake it immediately, but my busy season will not be over until the middle of May. Not offered in June, so I must wait until July. They say something like 20% of folks pass all 4 the first time, but that is little comfort when you were so close to being done and now you have another 6-8 weeks of studying the same material.

Moral: Good job = hard work

Still worth it however as I like the work for the most part.


Those who have indulged me once again in my ramblings get a funny story:

I was in a bar last weekend and some semi drunk chick sat beside me.

Female: So what's your story?

ME: Excuse me? (Really, who says that anymore)

Female: What do you do?

ME: I am an accountant

Female: Are you gay?

ME: Um, no.

Female: Watcha doin' here?

ME: Waiting on some friends.

Female: Well, it looks like they are not going to show, why don't you buy us a round of shots?

ME: How 'bout we wait? Check back with me in about an hour. I think they'll be here soon.


1] I don't really think I look especially gay (which is all she could have based the assumption on) and I have never heard of anyone connecting accountancy with homosexuality in any sort of stereotype.

2] She must not converse regularly with anyone smarter than her pet fish at home, so maybe she thinks a smart guy alone in a bar must be gay? That is all I can figure.

3] What kind of dumbass makes a comment like that and then angles for the free drinks?

She was not very attractive so my pride is still intact.

[Disclaimer: This is in no way meant as an insult to those who are gay. I was not insulted only a bit shocked as it is just not something you generally hear as an opener when a woman sits next to you at a straight bar while drinking a beer and watching basketball. If I had been at the bar where the 50-ish male lawyer hit on me and bought me a beer at 2:30am after the cross-dressing fashion show, that would have been a different story.]

[SlyFrog]

I was in a bar last weekend and some semi drunk chick sat beside me.

Female: So what's your story?

ME: Excuse me? (Really, who says that anymore)

Female: What do you do?

ME: I am an accountant

Female: Are you gay?

ME: Um, no.

Female: Watcha doin' here?

ME: Waiting on some friends.

Female: Well, it looks like they are not going to show, why don't you buy us a round of shots?

ME: How 'bout we wait? Check back with me in about an hour. I think they'll be here soon.


1] I don't really think I look especially gay (which is all she could have based the assumption on) and I have never heard of anyone connecting accountancy with homosexuality in any sort of stereotype.


I'm going to give her one shot (though you were there, and obviously have a better feel from the context).

Is it possible that the "gay" line had next to nothing to do with your being an accountant? Consider if it possibly could have been a complete nonsequitor; she was half in the bag, and considering coming on to you even more strongly (e.g. ending the night banging your brains out), and basically just didn't want to waste her time if you were gay.

Kind of a crude way of getting around to it, but not really that different than, "Are you married?"

[Old Man Gravy]

That's actually better than the usual, which you'll get in phone conversations:

"So, what's your story?"

"I'm a CPA."

"Oh, are you fat?"

[Old Man Gravy]

By the way, the only person I've ever met who passed all four parts of the exam on the first go was a housewife (also making a mid-life career switch) who was able to study for at least 40 hours per week for about three months leading up to the big days. That was about 10 years ago, when we still had to wait six months between sittings.

Interesting that you mention your engagement at the Diocese... do you mind if I ask - did the FAS promulgate any new principles or tech bulletins for disclosing potential multimillion dollar liabilities due to the abuse lawsuits? It seems like a weird one to me - people crawling out of the woodwork with legit horror stories from 50 years ago. How does management reasonably estimate and disclose that?

[Tyjenks]

Not that I know of. All we rely on in any engagements is attorney's letters and their disclosure of any existing allegations or lawsuits known to them. That along with inquiry of the client's management.

Also, AFAIK, they like to stick to their terminology of whether a negative result is likely to occur and an amount can be reasonably estimated. If results are unknown amd/or when it is too early to determine as to the eventual outcome, then no contingent liability need be recorded. Then there are, of course, different requirements for disclosure ongoing issues without the recording of any liability if a negative outcome is predicted with no estimate possible.

Didn't know how much of that you already knew or if you wanted a simple, "Nope, nothing new." :)


Slyfrog: I don't know, it was like the immediate response after I said the word accountant. No pause nothing. I had not thought that maybe that was just her second in a series of probing questions.

1. Do you make money?
2. Are you gay?
3. Buy me shots?
4. Let's go ______.

Actually, now that I think about it that way, didn't that movie 27 Dresses feature one of the characters in a bar asking a guy if he was gay just as a general question after asking if he had a job?

SHe did not play it off like a joke, but maybe she had had too many to carry off the subtlety of a movie reference joke.

[SlyFrog]

Slyfrog: I don't know, it was like the immediate response after I said the word accountant. No pause nothing. I had not thought that maybe that was just her second in a series of probing questions.

1. Do you make money?
2. Are you gay?
3. Buy me shots?
4. Let's go ______.


Heh, that's a very good summary of the scenario I had constructed based on what you said.