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CPA Qualified- what next?

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  • 26-07-2018 12:31am
    #1
    sunnyclare
    Registered Users Posts: 18 ✭


    Hi Board members,

    What would you suggest the next logical step be?
    ACA or ACCA or CTA with AITI?

    After CPA is there any need to go for ACA or ACCA?

    Any other course which will add value to the qualification?

    Thanks
    Sunnyclare
    Tagged:


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    #2
    Jim2007
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 10,229 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jim2007


    sunnyclare wrote: »
    Hi Board members,

    What would you suggest the next logical step be?
    ACA or ACCA or CTA with AITI?

    After CPA is there any need to go for ACA or ACCA?

    Any other course which will add value to the qualification?

    Thanks
    Sunnyclare

    It entirely depends on what you want to do in your life. An MBA might be useful for industry, some kind of graduate degree in finance would be useful in banking and insurance or perhaps an LLM if you were looking at tax or insolvency and so on.


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    #3
    sunnyclare
    Registered Users Posts: 18 ✭sunnyclare


    Thank you Jim.
    I appreciate your views.
    I have Bcomm and MBA under my belt.


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    #4
    CassieManson
    Registered Users Posts: 704 ✭✭✭CassieManson


    sunnyclare wrote:
    After CPA is there any need to go for ACA or ACCA?

    Only a month ago you were trying to decide between acca and cai and now you're CPA qualified?


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    #5
    ACADasltiv
    Registered Users Posts: 79 ✭✭ACADasltiv


    CassieManson wrote: »
    Only a month ago you were trying to decide between acca and cai and now you're CPA qualified?

    They did mention that they have exemptions for all of the F papers for ACCA and similar for ACA (I'm assuming Cap 1 & Cap 2 exemptions?). Since there's no exemptions given for the P papers in ACCA or FAE's in ACA, they may well now be CPA qualified and looking to change body.

    OP if you're CPA qualified then you're a member of an accountancy body. If you're looking to switch bodies then by all means take the exams for ACA or ACCA, but I wouldn't see it adding a whole lot other than perhaps better recognition with one of the other bodies due to the larger numbers they have.

    You've said you already have a BComm and MBA - I'd decide what path you want to go down before choosing more qualifications. I've seen a lot of accountants who go on about being members of most of the accountancy bodies in Ireland along with being a barrister, QFA etc. even though they've only ever practiced accountancy. I work in insolvency which is a very specialised area where it would be far better to be a member of just one accountancy body and spend your time doing courses that will have a real impact on the area you're in e.g. instead of doing the P exams for ACCA so that you can have dual membership, do the diploma in personal insolvency and become a PIP and after that continue on to do the diploma in forensic accounting or insolvency.

    The more specialised you become the more you can charge - my advice would be to decide what you want to do first and take it from there.


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    #6
    sunnyclare
    Registered Users Posts: 18 ✭sunnyclare


    Thank You ACADASLTIV,
    Cassie, hope that clarifies your questions.
    I do appreciate that we have people like you in the board which promotes the quality of the contents here.

    ACA dasltiv, you said it, I was speaking to recruitment agency in dublin this morning and they said the same.
    CPA Ireland is a very good qualification and there is no need for doing another Accounting professional qualification and rather gain more experience and then go for the diplomas as you said. This is a timely advice which reinforces the opinion I got, I really appreciate that.

    Diploma in personal insolvency, could you please give me more information on this. Is there flexible option, how long does it take to complete, Fee structure, job opportunity.

    Thank you very much for your time.
    Sunnyclare


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    #7
    ACADasltiv
    Registered Users Posts: 79 ✭✭ACADasltiv


    I can't offer much assistance as the website seems to be down at the minute, but Chartered Accountants Ireland offer a wide range of different diplomas and the details are available through its website here.


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    #8
    Jim2007
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 10,229 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jim2007


    sunnyclare wrote: »
    Thank you Jim.
    I appreciate your views.
    I have Bcomm and MBA under my belt.

    Fine, but what do you want to actually do with your life, where do you want to be in five years time? You probably have enough business qualifications at this stage and if I were you I'd consider a language. The Irish economy is very much export based, so being able to conduct business in another language might give you an advantage.

    In my day at a big four, I worked mainly on Germanic client accounts because I was able to speak German. In the end though while I enjoyed accounting as an academic subject, I decided it was not what I wanted to spend my life doing, so I resigned the day I qualified and never practiced since.


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    #9
    sunnyclare
    Registered Users Posts: 18 ✭sunnyclare


    Jim2007 wrote: »
    Fine, but what do you want to actually do with your life, where do you want to be in five years time? You probably have enough business qualifications at this stage and if I were you I'd consider a language. The Irish economy is very much export based, so being able to conduct business in another language might give you an advantage.

    In my day at a big four, I worked mainly on Germanic client accounts because I was able to speak German. In the end though while I enjoyed accounting as an academic subject, I decided it was not what I wanted to spend my life doing, so I resigned the day I qualified and never practiced since.

    Hi Jim,

    Would you believe that my partner is from Germany and managed to learn intermediate level of German!:)

    May be I should improve my German language skills to grade up to Business level.
    What about SAP FICO end user course? Any suggestion on that?Advanced Excel? Hopefully these can be done in 3 months time I guess..


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    #10
    Humour Me
    Registered Users Posts: 360 ✭✭Humour Me


    Can I ask what role are you in now and where do you want end up? I don’t see a point signing up for different qualifications if they aren’t relevant to the job you want.


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    #11
    sunnyclare
    Registered Users Posts: 18 ✭sunnyclare


    Humour Me wrote: »
    Can I ask what role are you in now and where do you want end up? I don’t see a point signing up for different qualifications if they aren’t relevant to the job you want.
    Hi Humour Me,
    I work for a small practice, l am trying to find an opening with the Big 10 firms.
    Any suggestions? Any specific qualification?


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    #12
    Humour Me
    Registered Users Posts: 360 ✭✭Humour Me


    It really depends on what you actually want to do. Saying you want to work in the top 10 is too general. What area do you want to work in? What areas do you have experience of?

    You’re a qualified accountant, that is your qualification, it’s your experience that will get you the job. Top 10 want someone who can hit the ground running. Do you have an audit cert? If not your probably not looking at audit role. Do you have experience in tax, corporate finance, insolvency, internal audit?

    Time to think strategically about your career path and where you want to end up. Take a look at the roles currently advertised on the top 10 website and see what they are looking for.


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    #13
    sunnyclare
    Registered Users Posts: 18 ✭sunnyclare


    Humour Me wrote: »
    It really depends on what you actually want to do. Saying you want to work in the top 10 is too general. What area do you want to work in? What areas do you have experience of?

    You’re a qualified accountant, that is your qualification, it’s your experience that will get you the job. Top 10 want someone who can hit the ground running. Do you have an audit cert? If not your probably not looking at audit role. Do you have experience in tax, corporate finance, insolvency, internal audit?

    Time to think strategically about your career path and where you want to end up. Take a look at the roles currently advertised on the top 10 website and see what they are looking for.

    Thank you for that.
    Yes, "experience for good job" and "good job for experience" and I am caught in between..
    I have experience in preparation of financial statements and Vat. I will be looking for more exposure in to Auditing and any additional qualification in the mean time. I will doing only part time courses.


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