WatsItLike

If you’re studying for the CPA exam and you’re questioning whether you’re on the right path, read this.

As I sit in McDonald’s writing this post, I think back to the nights when I would sit here past midnight, after working all day, and put on Farhat videos, and just break down and cry sometimes. Picture a grown man alone at a table covered in hamburger wrappers and coffee cups and textbooks, in the back next to a homeless guy. I gained roughly 30 pounds during my CPA journey. But hey, McDonald’s was open 24 hours, had free wifi, and I made friends.  

I kept journals during the years 2016 to 2022, as I progressed from spontaneously enrolling in an accounting class to becoming a CPA.  Below are quotes pulled directly from those journals.  

Entry date: January 2016

“I may have made a terrible mistake. I chose a tax accounting class over a writing class.” 

Comment: The class was a 3.5 hour evening class. I was standing at the base of an evil mountain I didn’t know existed. 

Entry date: May 2017

“It’s either dedicate twenty hours per week on accounting or the same time writing. Do I want to be a writer or an accountant?”  

Entry date: June 2017

“I just won’t take accounting this semester.”  

Comment: So I didn’t.  I spent most of that semester intending to write, but mostly criticizing my employers and anyone else in my life I perceived as more successful than I.  My awesome dad was there to offer wisdom and listen to my unhinged rants.  

Entry date: February 2018

“I work regularly until nine o’clock studying accounting. I use my PTO to study accounting.” 

Comment: This was when s**t got real.

Entry date: April 2018

“The challenge does seem interesting. But do I really want to be doing this for thirty years? Do I want to be doing accounting?”

Comment: I was considering pursuing a CPA license. 

Entry date: May 2018

“My accounting class just finished, and I feel a tremendous load off my back.”

 Comment: That was Intermediate Accounting II, which was a beast of a class. 

Entry date: October 2018

“I woke up this morning with a realization….I need to work really hard at accounting, though I don’t want to.”

 Comment: C’est la vie.

Entry date: December 2018

“Accounting might be me.” 

Comment:  We incorrectly let our career choices define our identities.  Accounting was something I was learning; it was not me.

Entry date: January 2019

“I don’t need a CPA.”  

Comment: Denial.

Entry date: April 2019

“If I can make it 4 more months, I will have finished Governmental and Not-For-Profit Accounting and Cost Accounting at Montgomery College. I will be able to put CPA-eligible on my resume.”

Comment: Being CPA-eligible meant I could sit for the CPA exam.

Entry date: June 2019

“Accounting is not me.” 

Comment: It still isn’t.  

Entry date: August 2019

“I’m the equivalent of a 24-year-old accounting grad.”

 Comment: I was 33 when I met the 150 credit hour requirement for the CPA exam.  I was about 10 years behind some of my peers. 

Entry date: October 2019

“I’m never getting a CPA on my own without public accounting experience. I’m too old to be a big 4 auditor.”

Comment: I needed to meet the practical work experience requirement.  But there was no way I was getting highered by one of the big four firms as a junior at my age.   

Entry date: February 2020

“I wasted many years writing…. I will be 35 by the time I get my CPA.”

 Comment: It’s never too late to start anything.

Entry date: July 2021

“Accounting is terrible. It’s as boring as they say.”

 Comment: Tell me how you really feel, Andy.

Entry date: August 2021

“I straight up dislike accounting.”

Comment: 👿

Entry date: October 2021

“Accounting is not for me. I need to find a new career.”

Entry date: November 2021

 “But what are my options in accounting?” … “I need to leverage accounting, not completely switch careers.” 

Comment: [Insert motivational speech by a family friend to not give up.] Never surrender!

Entry date: December 2021

“Public accounting is all-consuming.”

Comment: I got a job at a small public accounting firm, where I was working long hours during the day and studying at night. 

Entry date: February 2022

“Why did I even start down the CPA path?”

Entry date: March 2022

“I’m tired of the stupid f*****g CPA exam. I hate that I failed FAR.” 

Comment: I failed by two points.

Entry date: April 2022

“I wish I wish I wish I never started this CPA journey.”   

 Comment: This was after I failed FAR a second time.

Entry date: May 2022

“I am going to start an accounting or bookkeeping business.”

Entry date: September 2022

“I started my business today: Crux Accounting LLC.”

Comment: I was awarded my CPA license this month. 

Entry date: October 2022

“Accounting was a good choice… There is limitless opportunity.”

Comment: I was 36 years old when I earned my CPA license.  I was 37 when I started this accounting blog, which blends accounting with writing. Your path is not everyone’s and it’s not mine. For me, the CPA journey turned me into a stronger person; and that was the payoff, the character-building more so than the doors it opened to my career; although, it did open doors.  More importantly, I discovered I could do much more than I thought I was capable.  

What raised the difficulty of earning the license were the petty hoops to jump through and red-tape.  Things like doing a word-problem till my eyes bled but not getting a sufficient explanation of the correct answer from the software or textbook, being frisked by Prometric staff like I was entering prison each time I sat for the exam, waiting forever for the Department of Labor to process my application for licensure, et cetera. Those things taught me patience and humility. You begin to understand not everyone is fortunate enough to be in a position to take this exam, so I should feel kind of privileged.

So my words of wisdom would be to not take lightly the decision to pursue accounting or any profession for that matter. If you decide to embark upon the grueling CPA journey, give it everything you’ve got. Anybody can become a CPA with enough grit.