CPA Shortage?

• Position: SpeakOut!

For the past few years I've been reading and hearing of companies complain of the supposed "shortage" of qualified CPAs. Meanwhile, I and many other well-qualified CPAs I know are continually rejected for positions because of various misperceptions, including:

* If you are over a certain age, you are no longer creative or enthusiastic.

* If you stayed with a particular employer more than a certain amount of time, you have no ambition or are not promotion material.

* Public accounting firms require "RECENT public accounting experience," ignoring the fact that many who work in "industry" work for closely held companies, and do much of the tax compliance for the individual (often high net worth) owners.

While certain companies are now benefitting from the glut of former dot-bomb workers, they're still turning their backs on those CPAs who did not jump onto the dot-coin bandwagon, but have solid general accounting and/or tax skills. Companies want employees who are like prepackaged software programs--with a prescribed set of experiences. Employers are unwilling to consider the POTENTIAL of someone whose background may include only 75 percent of those requirements, but has broader general experience, in lieu of someone who has 90 percent of the requirements yet very little general experience. Employers will ignore someone with 10+ years of accounting and/or tax experience just because they have not used a particular accounting software program (one that could be learned by attending a one-day course), despite the strength of their other skill sets...