Why You Need to Take the CPA Exam As Soon As Possible

The designation of certified public accountant is critically important to many people who want to have a career in accounting. It can also be used as a tool to market yourself for better job opportunities as they come up over the course of your career. The main requirement to be a CPA is to pass an exam, one that is known to be one of the most difficult and rigorous professional exams out there. I am fortunate to have taken this exam early in my career and have realized the benefits of getting it out of the way while I watched as my peers struggled while taking the exams. Today I'm going to share with you three big reasons why you should take the CPA exam as soon as possible. This could mean taking it as soon as you graduate, taking it while you're still in school, and maybe even delaying your work start date to get some or all the exam out of the way.

Reason #1: Studying and Working 

When you start your first job out of college, you will realize what little free time you have to yourself compared to when you were in school. For many people, working 40 hours is a big step up and change in lifestyle that needs to be managed by itself. If you throw on needing to study for multiple hours a day for months at a time, it can be very easy for something to go wrong. This is before you consider the unique aspects of certain accounting jobs where certain times of the year (busy seasons) or certain times of the month (month end closes) are much busier and draining than the standard 40-hour work week. I'm not saying it's impossible to study and work at the same time, and it's not impossible to pass the exam during a busy season. However, getting through the test during these times is incredibly difficult and something you should avoid if possible. 

Reason #2: Job Opportunities

If you don't know this already, let me be the first to tell you that companies want to hire CPAs. When I was able to add the credential to my LinkedIn profile, recruiters were messaging me far more often with new and exciting opportunities to advance my career. Some of the jobs they were offering did require me to be a CPA or at least preferred it, and they reached out to me because they saw the credential on my profile. For those of you who work in public accounting and certain industry jobs, becoming a CPA can be a requirement to be promoted to a certain position. At the firms I have worked at, being a CPA is required to become a manager in many circumstances. Completing the exam and becoming certified as soon as possible will open all these doors for you. For me personally, having the exam out of the way when I started working allowed me to focus more on my career development and capitalize on promotion opportunities as they arose.

Reason #3: The Exam is Easier When You're Fresh Out of School

Don't get confused, CPA is one of the hardest professional exams out there. You can be a straight A student, study a lot for the test, and still fail (I did). However, one of the greatest advantages that fresh graduates have when taking the exam is that they are still used to a lifestyle where studying is prioritized, encouraged, and rewarded. One of the main reasons that I have not pursued any other professional certification is because it's been a long time since studying and test-taking were skills that I was maintaining on a regular basis. One of the best things that you can do as a fresh graduate is to take the summer or half a year after graduation to devote your full efforts to taking the exam. This means no vacations, no working (if you can afford it), and a strict regimen to keep you on track to take and pass as many exams as you can before you start working. By sacrificing in the short term, you will benefit much more in the long term. Once you are done with the exams, you get the privilege of knowing that while everyone you're working with must go home and study at the end of an 8+ hour workday, you can spend that time doing whatever you want.

There you have it! Understanding these three reasons is critical to planning your future as a CPA and making those early years of your career much easier and manageable.