Mostly a rant....
I spent 5 years in public accounting before moving to industry. I never had the time to study for the twice a year CPA exam due to working 70 hour weeks in the tax department through April 15th and again through October 15th (for extensions). That was always their excuse for crappy raises and little or no bonuses for the time and effort I put into the job.
I moved to a finance department of a company and no longer do debits and credits. I deal with public finance (i.e. bonds) and financing structures, cash flows, etc. However, my employer insisted that I go get my CPA license. So far, I've passed AUD with a 94 and BEC with an
84 and am taking the remaining two sections this month and in February. I don't anticipate any problems passing the remaining two as I've been studying diligently.My beef is this, my current employer is requiring me to get the license, but hasn't stated if there will be a bonus, pay raise, promotion, etc. The CPA license or being a CPA candidate was not a requirement when I took this position. Thus far, I've logged well over
350 hours of preparation for these exams, three hours or more a night and 8 hours on Saturday and another 4 or so on Sunday. Not much of a life other than that. Apparently this method works well. After all is said and done, I will probably have over 500 hours in this certificate, excluding the ethics exam and the remaining hassle of registration, licensure, etc. And apparently all for nothing. Even a crappy $2,000 bonus won't yield much more than $3/hour for my time.In any case, it's caused me to be a little burnt out at work, being miserable most of the time, etc. All for a lousy $50,000 salary. Oh, I have an undergraduate degree and a masters in taxation.
I am willing to work hard, and my current and prior employers knew this (the former employer took too much advantage of this so I left). My current employer thinks highly of me and my efforts (and I get along great with him), but, being a CPA, he is a stingy tightwad asshole when it comes to spreading the wealth.
Deals that we work on (where I typically perform the analysis, review documents, schedules, etc.) generate a bonus for him big enough to pay cash for a new luxury car every time we close a deal. My bonus? Hahahahaha.
In any case, I now have been out of school for 6 years and I'm getting sick of the lousy pay in the accounting finance fields and can't seem to find these magic jobs that pay well. There are people in this company with NO COLLEGE DEGREE (much less a designation such as CPA) who make close to six figures, WITH THE WORK ETHIC OF A WAL-MART GREETER!
WTF? I know this rant is entirely short-sided (seeing as how everyone has been telling me and nagging me to get this stupid license for the past 6 years) and it's supposed to have all of these benefits down the road. Sorry, just can't see that right now. Not after working for CPA after CPA who refuse to promote/pay well no matter how hard you work.
In any case, after I receive my scores and get licensed, if they are not willing to make changes, I will be.
Any suggestions? Are there actually CPA firms that pay well?