Discussion:6th best job in America?
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Walking Spanish (talk|edits) said: | 20 October 2009 |
| Money Magazine recently rated CPA as the 6th best job in America.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bestjobs/2009/ Thoughts? | |
| 20 October 2009 | |
| do note that they are referring to those with actual jobs and benefits, and not to those who are in business for themselves.
I said: "You're right, and it doesn't matter which 12 hours I pick." | |
| 20 October 2009 | |
| also I find the stats interesting: 189,000 current CPAs, only 33,000 of which are in the independent tax preparation business. Doesn't sound right to me. Makes you wonder if the research is wrong then the conclusions might also be suspect, doesn't it? | |
| 20 October 2009 | |
| Even Wikipedia lists the AICPA's membership at 330,000, and we do know that all CPAs don't belong to the AICPA. | |
| 20 October 2009 | |
| Kevin, I wasn't sure which number you were questioning or was it both. I looked at the California BOA where they say they license more than any other state at 80,000 with no detail on PAs and inactive. New York BOA says 39,000 CPAs. More than 25% of the New York CPAs use an address outside of New York. Those numbers make the 189,000 believable. I wonder where the AICPA is getting its members? 150,000 plus international members? A nominal fee for students?
What is their definition for independent to get the 33,000? Sole practitioners or CPAs in public practice including the big firms? | |
| 20 October 2009 | |
| I am questioning both of the Money magazine numbers. First, it would seem that there are more than 189,000 total CPAs in America. That's only 3,780 per state for each of the 50 states. Then the 33,000 in private tax practice would only be 660 per state. There are dozens in my yellow pages alone. If other small and mid size cities have a similar number, that wouldn't leave many for the big cities like Charlotte.
And just by checking the two large states of California and NY, you have already identified 119,000 out of the '189,000 total CPAs' - that's 63% for 2 states alone, with the other 70,000 divided by the remaining 48 states that only leaves 1,458 CPAs per state other than CA and NY. | |
| 20 October 2009 | |
| Like so many articles on websites today, this article is probably a hack piece by some 25 year old kid with a media or journalism major. I mean, the mere fact the they list Intelligence Analyst as a viable job is just ridiculous. Sure, it might be a great job, but it's meaningless in terms of numbers, and the national economy. It's a dumb article.
I would imagine that the attest part of accounting is growing the fastest, but it's just a guess, and you have all the Enron created jobs. Oh, and you have to include all the stimulated government jobs. Finally, Kevin is right, only 33,000 independent tax preparation CPA's sounds mighty low. | |
| 20 October 2009 | |
| thanks, CrowJD, I'm glad to finally be right about something! | |
Walking Spanish (talk|edits) said: | 20 October 2009 |
| Here's how the list was compiled: | |
| 20 October 2009 | |
| I guess it is as reliable as their common '10 best mutual funds for the next decade' articles. Which they seem to run every year, and which seem to never have more than about a 25% overlap of funds from one year to the next. And which seem to have a higher correlation to the number of advertising pages from those very same mutual fund companies in the 6 months prior and 12 months post article. In other words - their research is extremely faulty and biased. Therefore their conclusions are worthless. | |
| 20 October 2009 | |
| I did not know Charlotte was a big city. I ran a list of CPAs in Charlotte at the NC BOA and was quite surprised at the long list.
Based on my faulty interpretation of these numbers, I will cancel my plans to become an Intelligence Analyst. | |
| 20 October 2009 | |
| lol. Spanish, look at your Emails to return, or your waiting room, that will tell you something, and I hope it's good.
As far as investment advice, I couldn't agree more. These various talking heads and writers are a joke for the most part (I do like Jim Jubak at MSN). I remember Kudlow over at CNBC trying to keep all the retail investors in the market for as long as possible after the crash so the wealthy could unload their shares on the suckers. Of course, that's what happened. We're in a traders' market now, amateurs should strictly avoid, it's worse than gambling. Recently, some talking heads were talking about the reawakening of the residential real estate market. <gag> Little blip came up today...woops. It goes on and on. | |
| October 22, 2009 | |
| I don't think you can really use those numbers (33,000 and 189,000) for much. The 33,000 seems to be just CPAs that work for themselves doing tax work. That does not appear to include CPAs who work with others in firms and happen to do tax work.
As far as the 189,000 goes, who know what that covers? It could mean CPAs who work in industry rather than public accounting. Another growth area for CPAs is forensic accounting and fraud examination. | |
Southparkcpa (talk|edits) said: | 24 October 2009 |
| Well I do not know how many CPA's there are but I can tell you it seems like RECENT history that this was a miserable profession. One I would NEVER recommend to a young aspiring college kid.
When I started (mid 80's), you needed to be in the top 5 percent of your class to get a job with "The Big 8" which entitled you to 55 to 65 hour work weeks, lower pay than your college buddies and stress beyong your imagination. The tables have turned and I can tell you I almost left the profession in 1995 when I moved to Charlotte. I am so glad I didn't. It isn't playing center field for the Yankees but I like what I do, make a very nice living, enjoy 95 percent of my clients and not to mention the fun we have on TA! I now recommend this profession to young kids. | |
| 24 October 2009 | |
| I'll guess that he didn't get picked in the Yankees draft. | |
