I am graduated bachelor degree in general management and master degree in information technology, both of them from Thailand. I moved here to New York more than 10 years ago with my wife and have been working in Thai restaurant ever since. Right now I get paid about 60K a year after tax.
Now we have 18 months old son and restaurant work take so much time away from my family. I’m thinking that I need to change to some other career that meaningful to me and my family not just working in the restaurant for my whole life.
I am good at number and very organized, and I use to study some part of accounting back in my bachelor degree, which I did great. That why I think accounting work would fit me and if possible I would aiming for CPA.
But the problem is I’m not sure how to get start on this, I know that I need to go study about accounting more but which school would fit me. I’m thinking to study online because I still have to work to support my family in the same time.
And how is work life for entry level accounting at age 37 and also where is the best place to get start? Also about income, How much is it around? I’m the only source of income for my family.
If anyone could give me some advise I will be very appreciate. Thank you in advance.
From what I’ve been told: Accounting work life doesn’t matter if your 37 or 20 if you are entry level. If you start out, you’ll be starting out at the bottom regardless of age. So you’ll be working the same slave hours as the just out of school folk. I don’t imagine accounting starting out would be materially different from what you make, except for the fact that you’ll probably pay taxes on all of it (if you are getting tips and stuff now)
It actually seems like a good plan. First, visit this page http://ipassthecpaexam.com/cpa-exam-requirements/ to figure out which U.S. state’s requirements most closely match your existing education and experience etc. Then visit www.nasba.org to begin the process of getting an education evaluation for the state you’ve chosen, so you can figure out just how short you are. The easiest way to meet the 150-hour education requirements might be to do a masters in accounting… I found this link via google… http://www.bestvalueschools.com/cheap/online/masters-in-accounting-degree-programs/ Also, check out www.another71.com for CPA-specific discussion.
Accounting is broad, what are you interested in? Tax, FP&A, journal entries, internal controls?
The more traditional manual accounting stuff is being offshored to low cost location or automated so I would focus more on the FP&A side of ‘what does it mean to the C-Suite’.