Becoming a CPA After Age 40

[AccountingSavy]

I am thinking of getting a Master of Science in accounting and obtaining my CPA licence because my undergraduate degree in hotel management has gotten me no where. I continue to be stuck in low level customer service jobs.

There is a great bridge program at the state university for people who were business majors during undergrad that I have a pretty good shot at getting into. I took several accounting courses during my undergraduate study. Additionally, I am currently taken a graduate level accounting course online at Wharton through Coursera.org.

I would really love to become an accountant and get my CPA licence. However, I know that the "Big Four" accounting firms will NOT hire anyone over 30 let along some career changer in her 40's. It seems tough to get any kind of entry level job at middle age.

Is it worth it for someone in their mid 40's to get a M.S. in Accounting and CPA licence? Will I be able find gainful employment?

Some honest feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[bigi]

Who cares about "big 4" crap.

Do it.

There are plenty of places that will hire 40+ with CPA.

 

[Lyfer]

Welcome to the Forums. My vote was No.

 

[AccountingSavy]

Welcome to the Forums. My vote was No.

Thank you for your vote. But can you please provide a brief explanation of why you voted no.

 

[santz]

welcome to the forums, Being a finance major myself, I believe that an accounting or finance degree is always better when it comes to getting a good job in the long run with good growth prospects. Also, plenty of other places other than the big 4.

you will have to check the average age of retirement for accounting professionals in your area/city and plan your future net investment of your money and time in getting CPA accordingly. Getting a CPA and an accounting degree itself will take you a a few years , you also have to be generally good at studies and numbers savvy.. An accounting degree and CPA is considerably much harder to get than a hotel management degree.

If doing an accounting degree/CPA, start doing internships or part time jobs at companies with anything related to accounting to be used in your CV. Companies don't like to hire someone be it at age 20, or at age 40 with absolutely no experience.

but don't lose hope and good luck

sorry, lot of grammatical errors, was typing fast

 

[MrColin]

In addition to the absurd cost of an MS, you'll find that you need a one year internship before you can even sit for the exam. During the time that you are wasting on the MS they will move the cheese and you'll need a PhD. Also, you need to be a 22-26 y.o. female with at least a C-cup to even get interviewed for an internship.

It is only worth it if you can get an internship that will pay all or most of your tuition. Nobody should even bother with that profession unless you have the appropriate nepotistic hookups.

 

[Mide]

If you truly like accounting and you think you can deal with the classes then don't let the age thing get you down. A person I know just graduated from a Macc program and she is 30 this year. Interviewed with a few of the big 4 but did get the jobs mainly because of personality probably. But she landed a good job with a nice firm.

The Big 4 is ideal for those younger go-getters who travel a lot...but most stay for a few years, get burned out, then go into industry. Sure the experience is seen as a good thing but you shouldn't do a make/break a career-changing decision based on that alone. There are plenty of smaller firm that do quite well.

If you get the degree, test and pass your 4 CPA-related tests, then work for a few years for the full cert then you'll do much better career-wise AND age totally won't matter if you know your stuff. Even in larger companies (industry work) many of the peeps in the accounting dept don't have CPAs. A lot of the high-ups do though.

I think it's a good career path to go into, whatever the age. Good luck!

 

[dullard]

My Dad got his CPA at about that age. He now is semi-retired. He works hard Feb 1 through April 15 and then has 9.5 months off (save a few day-long refresher training classes each year). It seems like an ideal semi-retirement job working during the crappier months of the year. You could probably do the same and make $20k to $60k in those 2.5 months (depending on how many hours you can stand to put in).

He says that tax preparers are just now becoming a job with great need due to the aging population of CPAs. But, the catch is that you first need to work at about minimum wage for a year to get the experience to be licensed. And like people above said, that first low-paying bottom-of-the-totem-pole job can be hard to find.

 

[Ns1]

Depends what you want to do as a CPA.