Career Paths for Accountants and CPAs
Whoa! Did you see this? This is one of the best summations of career paths for accountants and CPAs. You can look up the entire article at:
http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos001.htm
We all know that many senior level and C-level executives (CFO, CEO, etc.) were in accounting, finance, or internal auditing earlier in their careers. But how did they get there? Entry level public accountants, if they are worth their calculators, are usually promoted one to two years after hire. After another few years, these people are promoted into more senior positions. Superstars are:
- promoted into jobs as supervisors, partners, or managers or
- are recruited into executive positions in internal auditing or management accounting in private firms or
- they might open their own firm.
Butterflies were once caterpillars just as managers were once trainees. Here is how this path develops:
Cost accountants, accounting trainees, and junior internal auditors are promoted to being management accountants. Management accountants are promoted to titles such as chief cost accountant, accounting manager, budget director, and manager of internal auditing. These people are promoted to jobs as chief financial officers (CFOs), corporation presidents (CEO), controllers, financial vice presidents, and treasurers.
Is there mobility to shift between disciplines? Yes and no.
- Management accountants, public accountants, and internal auditors have superlative occupational mobility. They can shift between disciplines, taking any position which advances their career or tickles their fancy.
- Management accountants and internal auditors can shift into jobs in each other’s territory.
- Public accountants often move into management accounting or internal auditing.
- But it doesn’t go the other way: it is NOT as common for someone to move from management accounting or internal auditing into public accounting.
- Internal auditors who learn the language of reviewing internal controls of numerous business entities may be promoted into jobs as upper-level managers.
Careers for a CPA in Information Technology ( IT )
A CPA who is as fluent in accounting as they are in information technology (IT) will find that there are no limits on their careers.
Why? If one sector of IT isn’t booming, another sector usually is.
In at least one case, the location evolved into another area of IT employment. When the PASCAL computer language debuted in 1970, the University of California, San Diego (in La Jolla, a seaside community), recruited professors proficient in PASCAL and built a bustling computer sciences department. As a result, corporations which developed in the PASCAL environment clustered in the Golden Triangle area, east of La Jolla. Accountants who flourished in an IT environment were highly employable. As quickly as UCSD produced graduates, the surrounding companies hired them. To locals, this area bounded by the 5, 805 and 8 Freeways was dubbed the “PASCAL Valley.” As with all things computerized, other languages eventually supplanted PASCAL and the companies closed or moved.
As computer sciences waned, the biotech department of UCSD blossomed in the 1990’s. Result? Biotech companies developing everything from heart values to veterinary vaccines moved in to the office space recently vacated by the computer science companies. As the change-over occurred, accountants moved into biotech and remained consistently employable. What had been the PASCAL Valley was now known as the Biotech Triangle, hiring and absorbing every biotechnologist the university minted.
In 2001, when the dotcom bomb hit the computer world from Silicon Valley (CA) to Silicon Alley (NYC) to Silicon Gulch (Austin, TX), the biotech industry continued to boom and is still a major employer in the San Diego market.
Upgrade Your Career Opportunities by Being a Techie
If you keep your technical skills on the cutting edge, you will always be employable. Here are a few examples of how you, as a CPA, fit into an IT world.
Resource Analyst IV: General Dynamics Information Technology describes itself as “a top-tier IT integrator” in the defense industry. On December 2, 2009, there were 39 accounting jobs in the IT sector of General Dynamics in Chantilly, Virginia. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wl/jobs/browse-jobs/k-Accounting/fe-General+Dynamics+Information+Technology). As a Resource Analyst IV, you’ll use your experience in developing and perfecting strategies to obtain accurate information consistently and comprehensively from even the most intractable or unique sources while creating tools to mine, evaluate, and present data culled from corporate repositories. Your ability to lead the directorate in developing a strategic plan for the budget is requisite.
Senior Manager, Tax Provision: Amgen is a biotech leader in developing new therapies to fight illnesses. Your experience in tax provision and planning for global tax provision combined with your ability to develop new processes to improve business will land you this job.
Senior Manager, Corporate Accounting: Microsoft has openings for accounting professionals in nearly every corner of the world, giving you the mobility to move from Redmond, Washington to Singapore. The corporate culture of Microsoft will encourage you to stretch—in this case, covering both the Equity Accounting Department and the Technical Accounting area. In Equity, you will be managing the team which tracks the accounting and reporting of equity, such as share-based compensation, dividends, and share buy-back. In Technical Accounting, you will be responsible for managing the teams that oversee GAAP accounting.
How do you get there from here? To become a CPA in the IT environment, you should be as fluent in technology as you are in accounting. If you are still in college, consider a double major or a merged program such as the Accounting and Computer Information Systems degree at Ferris State in Michigan or the M.S. Computer and Information Sciences from Rensselaer Polytecnic Instittute. If you have graduated with your BA/BS, consider taking courses in IT to bring your total coursework up to the 150 semester hours required by most states before you sit for the CPA Exam.
How do you become a CPA? First, you need a bachelor’s degree with at least some accounting courses. Through CPAexcel’s Exam Planner, you can determine if you meet your state’s requirements and have all the contact information for the testing agency.
Since the national CPA Exam has a failure rate of over half, you may wish to consider a CPA review course. CPAexcel’s students pass at nearly twice the national rate.
By becoming a CPA, you expand your opportunities to move into management and to command the higher salaries which certified public accountants enjoy.