In the May 2015 issue of The Trusted Professional, we asked managing partners about the advantages and challenges of hiring a newly licensed CPA who chose accounting as a second career. Here, we speak to career changers themselves about what it’s like to take a more circuitous route to the profession.

When the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released its proposed road map for International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2008, then Chair Christopher Cox described the move toward a “true lingua franca for accounting,” that would be used in capital markets everywhere, as a near inevitability. Since then, however, the SEC’s discourse on IFRS and its relationship with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) has shifted dramatically. 

“War Stories” are drawn from the claims files of Camico, a CPA-directed insurer and risk management program for accountants, and illustrate some of the dangers in the accounting profession. All names have been changed.

Why do you think they asked you to run? This was the question my father posed, the evening I called to tell him that I had been approached about running for president of our Society. I didn’t know how to respond. I recall muttering, ‘I guess they think I’ll do a good job...?’ We talked for a bit longer and, before we ended the call, he congratulated me, told me that he was sure I’d do a great job, and wished me good luck. The matter was closed—for him.