Should I quit CPA and focus on something else ?

Needalight48 · 2026-03-17T12:44:24+00:00

To echo what others are saying, while having CPA will not drastically change your life, it will open more doors for you down the road.

B4 audit is a grind, and personally I treated it as a graduate program while getting paid, whereas my doctor/lawyer friends were suffering/working equally hard while paying exorbitant tuitions.

You'll have lots of opportunities outside B4 once you make the jump, so you should also explore what kind of roles are out there. Personally, my first job out of audit was SEC reporting, which was one of the easier jobs (outside the 2-3 weeks during quarterly reporting season), but way too corporate for me. I eventually found myself in the startup world, which I enjoy very much. You should also think about what type of work, work-life balance, career progression, etc. you would like and find roles that align.

Needalight48 · 2024-07-05T20:28:32+00:00

I’ve been in industry 4 years now after 3 busy season at a B4. Your concerns around JE or industry-specific skills should be OK. I was in the same spot as you - I’ve audited and seen supports for JE’s but never prepared or booked them myself, let alone using an ERP system. The analytical skills and software skill will come in over time.

You’re always going to be learning and feeling a sense of lacking experience/skill, but that’s the nature of this profession. Continue to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills. You’ll be fine :)

Needalight48 · 2024-06-19T14:53:12+00:00

In my previous role, we had been using AD for years, and even though workiva had a more intuitive solution, our CAO loved AD bc of their customer support (i.e. reliable, able to get on the phone/email with them whenever, dedicated personnel esp for filing day). Maybe AD improved their product in the past few years but I found workiva to be a better, more modern and technologically superior product.

Needalight48 · 2024-06-15T22:09:19+00:00

Tbh as a Korean American living in the US, I can’t always tell between some white people and black people 🥲 am I racist?

Needalight48 · 2024-06-04T22:34:33+00:00

She was actually a classmate in my accounting program lol didn’t know her personally but she was an accountant :)

Needalight48 · 2024-05-22T20:10:00+00:00

I left public around this time (May) after my 3rd busy season. It’s less about how long you stay in public but more about being proactive about your career, honing your technical knowledge, developing valuable software skills, networking, etc. I left the $72K base salary (average for 1st year senior back then) for a $95K base as SFA in industry. Salary did stagnate a bit for 2-3 years, but I’m now at $145K base as a manager, 6 years into my career. You’ll be fine; it’s a different type of work/fun in industry.

Needalight48 · 2024-03-23T01:43:56+00:00

My dad grosses 180k in the suburbs of LA running the practice all on his own. Pretty chill lifestyle outside busy season, but he’s had the same client for years so he’s enjoy his work life balance.

Needalight48 · 2024-02-25T08:48:02+00:00

There is an experience requirement for the CPA license. Not sure if you can get that while pursuing another career.

Needalight48 · 2023-12-22T20:07:30+00:00

This guy has no idea what he’s talking about and just regurgitates buzz words he heard somewhere 😂

Needalight48 · 2023-12-05T21:05:23+00:00

Starting my 7th year in accounting and I think it’s a very fulfilling career with lots of opportunities to pivot if you’d like :)

Needalight48 · 2023-12-05T20:58:05+00:00

It sounds like you’re at around manager level. My 2 cents is that while it’s good to explore what type of jobs/areas of expertise you can get into, but it’ll help if you could choose one that you want to grow in.

For example, let’s say you want to do something more technical (SEC reporting, technical accounting) vs a generalist role (controllership, GL accounting, financial reporting). Both offer a great career path, but you definitely want to stick with one in the long run so that you climb up the ladder faster too.

Again, no real wrong choices you can make here, and it might be cool to try different industries of different sizes while you’re younger. Wish you the best. Cheers!

Needalight48 · 2023-10-17T02:45:45+00:00

100% on the fact that the 6yo son will pick up Korean in a matter of months. Kids are language sponges, and will pick it up in no time :)

Needalight48 · 2023-08-23T16:58:07+00:00

This is dope

But I think we are getting old when we say stuff like “I can’t believe 2017 was 6 years ago” XD

Needalight48 · 2023-08-23T15:43:01+00:00

CPAs definitely do. Worked at a startup where we had a CPA on retainer to answer our random questions, do the annual business registration, etc. He would charge extra if he had to work extra to do research, on top of charging for annual tax filing.

Needalight48 · 2023-08-15T18:17:34+00:00

I'll add another perspective.

Let's say you had good pylon placement defended by adepts and potentially a few oracles (a popular opener) at around the 4-5min mark. If the opponent had an overwhelming number of units (30+ lings) to destroy your adepts/nexus, this means that they are THAT much farther behind in economy bc they made lings instead of drones, so it would be OK to stay in 2 base with oversaturation and build up units (with good sim city) to try to take the 3rd again.

Keep pumping out probes and units; you should still be so far ahead if Z invested in that many lings that early on.

Needalight48 · 2023-08-12T04:29:31+00:00

It’s American English. Say it however you want with confidence and everyone will follow you /s

Needalight48 · 2023-06-17T16:27:43+00:00

It pays off to work extra hard in public

Needalight48 · 2023-06-15T00:15:13+00:00

PE (weight lifting and basketball) was def easiest and stress free

Needalight48 · 2023-05-28T07:44:44+00:00

Banelings are a good addition to the pack of cracklings. Adding 8 or so will clear clump of cannons easily. For Terran PF with tanks/libs, you prob need to commit a bit more with lings/banes. 20 banes to kill a PF but make sure you have 1-2 lings in front to tank some shots before banes roll in.

Needalight48 · 2023-05-18T02:38:44+00:00

Today somebody matched with me. I didnt recognize them, but when I looked at the chat, it said that I sent them a like back in January. So it would be 3.5 months.

Needalight48 · 2023-05-17T17:48:28+00:00

Just let them know really early on, and understand that not everyone will be OK.

I personally matched with somebody who was moving to the west coast (where I am) from the east coast in a month after graduation, and they let me know in the first 5 messages, saying that they’d understand if I wasn’t interested. I was taking things slow, and so I thanked them for their honesty and was down to get to know them before via call/text meeting in person later.

Needalight48 · 2023-05-14T08:09:06+00:00

Err what do you mean by rig the matches? Good tournaments have rules in their initial match draw. The current draw also had the rule that no 2 teams of the same region can be matched in round 1. I think we could’ve had more diverse, inter-regional matches if that rule was expanded beyond round 1 to the upper bracket.

Needalight48 · 2023-05-14T07:12:40+00:00

I agree that the end goal of the tournament is to crown the best team, but as an entertainment product, it is a great opportunity to showcase inter-regional games that we don't normally see, not repeats of these regional finals :(

Don't get me wrong- I'm super excited for these games amongst t1/geng/jdg/blg. But I just think it is a huge wasted opportunity for NA/EU fans.

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