CPA

The Certified Public Accountant, or CPA for short, is an interesting certification. It certifies that you can check beans within a reasonable variance? To become a Certified Public Asshole, sorry, Accountant...one must pass four sections...Financial Accounting , Regulation (Law and Taxes),Business Environment and Concepts (Economics, Cost Accounting) and Audit. Now, I passed it on the first try. Was studying for it painful? I felt the pain towards the end of the fourth exam. The worst part about it was auditing during the day and studying about it at night. That's straight up painful. Now that I have it, what's next? Well, I can't put it on my business card or my email signature because Big 4 firms, or atleast the one I work for, don't allow that. I'm not going to argue against the reasoning because it makes sense. Most clients expect public accountants to have CPAs, so it wouldn't be favorable to the firms to have their employees distinguish themselves from their co-workers. We're all audit robots anyway. But, I digress. Back to the CPA exam.
People study for it in one of two ways mostly - either cds/books or classes where the cds are played. Apparently, classes help because it helps discipline folk who can't study at home. The two most popular cpa prep packages are from Becker and Bisk. I used Becker. Becker has three instructors taking us through the four sections - Rick Duffy, Peter Olinto and Tim Gearty.
Peter Olinto assumes the persona of a slick kid from the bronx. He's actually a good instructor and does his job well. But the other two - jeez. Duffy literally reads from the book faster than the words process in my cerebrum, or cerebellum or whatever that thinking part of the brain is. Gearty can go head with head with counting sheep to make you fall asleep. These three were part of my life for a good six months. And muchos gracias to Starbucks. I pretty much lived there. The baristas didnt even need me to tell them what I needed. Now that's service.
After I took the last exam, i had guarded happiness....happy because I hoped I didnt have to take an accounting exam again. But when I did get my final results though, I was elated. It was more of a relief than anything to be honest. The happiness lasted for a good days.
But then again...now what? Start my own accounting business? Oh heck no. Do taxes for others. Screw that. The way I look at it..it's a fallback. That's all it is. Am I happy I did it? Ask me in a few years and I'll tell you.