Benefits of Becoming a Certified Public Accountant (CPA)

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When deciding what you want to be when you “grow-up” one should consider becoming a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). A CPA is an Accountant trained in industry, the public service, or in the offices of practicing accountants and is also a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (Certified Public Accountant, 2007). Public accountants can offer services in the fields of accounting, auditing, taxes and consulting (Institute for Career, 2006). Accounting professionals should become a CPA because it helps with career security, career development and an increase in pay.
CPAs will always be in demand. As long as there are businesses there will always be a need for a CPA (Institute for Career, 2006). This is in big part to the high profile fraud schemes that have happened in past decade such as the Ponzi scheme and Enron. Because of these schemes CPAs are needed to enforce higher standards of public corporate accounting (NASBA, 2013). A big part of a CPAs job is making sure that fraud is not being committed and helping to find ways to prevent fraud from being able to occur. CPAs are currently in short supply so more strain is being placed on CPAs and because of this more fraudulent acts can pass by undetected.
In the ninety’s when the internet became popular the number of students going to school to become accountants decreased and IT and online marketing jobs increased (NASBA, 2013). Another factor that has also caused the shortage in CPAs is that the baby boomer generation coming to the age of retirement leaving more position available then there are qualified applicants. This is good for CPAs who are looking for a job; there are many positions available so finding a job will never be an issue.
When an em...

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...ublic Accountant. (2007). Bloomsbury Business Library - Business & Management Dictionary, 1453. Taken November 12, 2013, from http://ehis.ebscohost.com.lib.kaplan.edu/eds/detail?sid=49627df8-45b3-4a2a-a8cd-004e495dfb58%40sessionmgr10&vid=10&hid=107&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#db=bth&AN=26739296
Institute for Career, R. (2006). Career As a Certified Public Accountant: CPA: Crunching the Numbers and Advising Businesses and Individuals on How to Manage Their Financial Affairs. Retrieved October 26, 2013, from http://ehis.ebscohost.com.lib.kaplan.edu/eds/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzE0NzI2MV9fQU41?sid=d20bedc8-3f41-4fd6-80f5-3ff650789a5b@sessionmgr114&vid=2&format=EB&ppid=pp_2
NASBA (2013). Five Popular Reasons for Becoming a CPA. Retrieved October 26, 2013, from http://nasba.org/licensure/gettingacpalicense/whygetlicensed/five-popular-reasons-for-earning-a-cpa-license/

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