Attracting Young People To Be CPAs Continues To Challenge
Mass. CPAs pushes marketing campaign aimed at high schoolers
Perhaps saying, "I'm an accountant," doesn't have the same ring to it as saying, "I'm an engineer," or, "I'm in marketing," or, "I'm in IT."
The Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants knows this, and as students pass on public accounting for other professions, or higher-paying accounting gigs at private companies, the society is organizing a blitz of high schools and colleges in order to convince students that accounting, especially public accounting, is rewarding and worth consideration when it comes time to choose a major and a career.
The society is also trying to reverse the effects of requiring, until recently, that prospective CPAs complete 150 hours of college course work before being permitted to sit for the CPA certification exam. That requirement was ratcheted back down to 120 hours this year, but local accounting firms still report concerns about finding enough CPAs.
Ted Flynn, executive director of the Massachusetts Society of CPAs.Market Trends
CPAs in Central Massachusetts say that while the society's efforts are good, they may be missing the point, which is educating the public about what CPAs do.
If the public knew that a good CPA does more than fill in the blanks on a couple of forms in April, CPAs might be able to charge higher fees and pay their employees more, and thus attract more young people to the profession, said Paul E. Daoust, a Charlton CPA who's been in the profession for more than 40 years.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average, entry-level accountant in Massachusetts makes $40,980.
John Graham of Graham, Huckins & Shepherd in Worcester, said the MSCPAs "really shot itself in the foot with the five-year requirement. Now, you can sit for the exam after 120 hours, but you still have to get to 150 to get the license."
According to Ted Flynn, the society's executive director, "recruiting and retention is the single largest issue facing the profession." The society has begun recruiting in high schools to get students to think about majoring in accounting, and to consider going into public accounting.
Flynn said the number of accounting majors at colleges and universities across the country has increased by about 19 percent in recent years. "The issue is we're not getting them into public accounting."
So, the society has published a DVD distributed to every high school in the state. The DVD features young CPAs and interview with finance executives with the New England Patriots and Boston Red Sox. "It's sort-of hip," Flynn said. "Every major business requires accounting staff, so they will make very lucrative offers. The DVD is to try to say public accounting is the way to go for a career. Even if you go into industry, you get certified first."
"Personally, I think that if somebody is going to spend a lot of money on an education, and they can go out into the field and make $15,000 or $20,000 more a year, they are going to consider that," Daoust said. And the prospect of being an underpaid CPA during tax season may not hold much appeal for the young.
"I'm not sure young people want to put in all those hours," Daoust said, "and I can't say I blame them. They're making salary, so they're working for a little bit of comp time or something like that." And young people don't just become aware of that once they're on the job in a CPA firm. They find out about it while they're sorting out their college major and deciding on a career.
Those students will pass over accounting for "some other type of profession where the opportunities seem a little greater and the rewards are a little more," Daoust said.
Numbers Game
Not to mention the investment of time and money to get to be a CPA. The society learned how much prospective CPAs were willing to endure on the path to certification when the number of credit hours required to sit for the certification exam was upped from 120 to 150. The exam carries a $190 application fee, and to take the audit, financial, regulation and business sections costs a total of $931.91. After piling on the requirement for the extra 30 hours of course work, the number of prospective CPAs passing the exam dropped from 500 per year to 200, Flynn said.
So, as of 2007, the credit requirement is back to 120 hours and the number of students sitting for the exam is up to 350, Flynn said. And in addition to a scholarship program, the society has started a "lottery program" by which prospective CPAs can win a seat for the exam at the society's expense.
Graham said most firms will pay for the exam once. "Everyone seems to want to stretch education requirements. I don't think that necessarily makes a better person. Either you've got it, or you don't." He said the public perception of accounting "is one of drudgery, but there are a lot of fascinating aspects, and I wouldn't say starting pay is shabby. It's in the mid-40s with a lot of benefits, and you're paying mid-40s to people who are book smart but common sense dumb."
Daoust said the society's efforts to recruit more people to public accounting were a step in the right direction, and the "not easy, but easier" course credit requirements would help, especially accountants working for firms that pay for employees to take the exam.
"But there are other things outside of education that they could do, and I don't think they're attacking it in a way that's beneficial to the small practitioner," Daoust said.
He said it would be easier to recruit people to become CPAs if CPAs made more money, but when the general public sees CPAs simply as people who fill out tax forms and send them off to the IRS, not part of the financial services industry, the prospects for higher fees and therefore, higher pay, seem weak.
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