MACPA's Tom Hood and Rebekah Brown share the important issues facing the profession locally and nationally. More importantly, they will also provide insight to what you can be doing NOW as a student to prepare for your future professional success.

2. @RJBrownCPA
Linkedin.com/in/Rebekah-Brown-CPA
Slideshare.net/RJBrownCPA
@TomHood
Linkedin.com/in/TomHood
Slideshare.net/THoodCPA

3. http://macpa.cnf.io
Ask Questions
Session: MACPA Orientation to the Profession
Respond to Poll

4. Download today’s slides at
www.slideshare.net/RJBrownCPA

5. Main Street
Owner begins to
delegate
“Focus on growth”
Bu26 Million U.S. Small Businesses
Mid-Market
Delegation: departments
“System thinking”
.6M
businesses
24 million
employees
3.2 million businesses
26 million employees
22 million businesses
27 million employees
Personal Businesses
Consumer & Business
0-5 Employees
Wall Street
Public Companies
Total 15,000
Listed 5,008
Public Accounting
Business, Industry,
Government & NFP
44,000 Firms – 250,000 CPAs
250,000 CPAs
Big Four
Top 100 > 70 CPAs
400 > 22 CPAs
800 > 10 CPAs
10,000 > 2 CPAs
33,000 Sole CPAs
CFOs, Controllers,
Analysts
Business Landscape

6. A profession has 3 major attributes:
• A distinct and evolving body of knowledge
• A commitment to the public interest – licensed by
the government
• A code of conduct and ethics
State of Maryland
CPA License

7. How to become a
Certified Public Accountant
The four E’s (State of Maryland Example)
1. Education – (150 hours) Bachelor’s degree + 30 credit
hours
2. Examination – Pass the Uniform CPA Exam
3. Ethics – Maryland requires a separate ethics course
and examination
4. Experience – 1 year of experience working with a CPA
And CPE – 80 hours of Continuing Professional Education reported
every two (2) years, including four (4) hours of ethics training
cpaguide.macpa.org

8. The CPA profession is part of the bigger infrastructure
that supports the US free market system. Like the pipes under urban
streets, it is often invisible until it breaks.
A useful framework to understand the
CPA profession

9. The CPA Career

10. 91% of all firms forecasting that hiring of accounting graduates will
be the same or greater in the upcoming year.
33% of all firms expect their number of licensed
CPAs on staff to be greater next year than the
previous year.

11. High Demand
Employers: CPA - most desired credential
Solid salary growth – 4.7% predicted
increase in 2016
Entry-level demand strong
Robert Half 2016 Salary Guide
Top Financial Positions in Demand
Fastest Growing Industries

13. The CPA Brand

14. Manager – CohnReznick
Favorite Part – being in a completely walkable environment,
working on different types of engagements, frequent team events
and happy hours, 37 hour work weeks, being able to work
independently as well as in groups, some occasional travel to help
mix up my days and the flexibility I have for basically being able to
choose my own schedule.
Typical Day - A typical day outside of tax season consists of me
waking up and take a nice 10 minute walk to work around 9am and
usually head home at 4:30. Recently I’ve been working on nonprofits
like a theater downtown, a writing center in Bethesda and a foster
care placement organization in Columbia.
Least Favorite Part – excessive hours of tax
season and having to record everything I do during the day
in 6 minute increments
Member Profile: Mike Manalac, CPA

15. Member Profile: Kelly Jennings, CPA
Favorite Part - It’s a tie between the variety of clients I
serve and making a difference with my clients. The fact that
I’ve served over 30 clients in 5 years all in this area, and the
fact that I put networking high on my priority list means that
if I don’t know how to solve my client’s problem, I know
someone that can.
Typical Day - often I put in a full day at the client. At least
once a week I’m out meeting with someone in my network for
a drink after work, or attending a networking event.
Least Favorite Part - when I’ve got too much
of a workload and that takes over my weekends
Owner – Quincy CFO

16. Member Profile: Tim Samuel, CPA
CFO – Bridgeway Community Church
Favorite Part – Creating future opportunities
and changing lives
Typical Day There’s no typical day. I've visited Facebook
headquarters and had breakfast with POTUS. I've spoke at a
prison and in front of thousands of people. I have written
checks and transformed an entire accounting system
Least Favorite Part – Since we don't have a
billion dollars, it's hard to say no to funding people
who want to change the world

17. Member Profile: Harry Sturgis, CPA
Favorite Part – always get to work on different things. No two
engagements are the same and I learn something new everyday.
Typical Day- No typical day. One day I could be working on a
business valuation for a divorce or an economic damages
calculation for a shareholder dispute. The next day I could be
working on asset tracing or forensic analysis. When I’m not
crunching numbers, I spend time writing narrative reports and
helping develop questions to use in trial. I also research legal
issues, economic data, industry data and financial data related to
public companies.
Least Favorite Part – unpredictable schedule. We don’t have
a defined busy season like tax or audit, but we do get busy at
times and we never know exactly when that will be.
Senior Financial Analyst, Forensic and Valuation Services
Weyrich, Cronin & Sorra

18. Member Profile: Katy Koza, CPA
Favorite Part – working with a lot of different people – every
couple weeks I’m working with a different team on a different client in
a new place. This creates a lot learning because of the exposure to so
many different industries, businesses, and work styles.
Typical Day - I supervise associates and review work, I
determine how long we need to work on certain sections of the
audit and who should be staffed on the engagement and when, I
manage communications with the client and manage their
expectations, and I keep the manager and partner up to date about
the progress of the engagement and also areas in which they need
to be involved.
Least Favorite Part - Because of the variety, I am rarely doing
the same task so there are not many slow / easy days at work.
Senior Associated, Audit - Grant Thornton

19. Member Profile: Barrett Young, CPA
Favorite Part – Talking with my customers without
bureaucracy & timesheets. I freakin love that I get to talk to
entrepreneurs every day.
Typical Day - Wake up, make breakfast listening to
podcasts. Think through creative issues in business and
maybe write. Mid-morning, host video calls with customers
and team or strategic partners. After lunch, technical
accounting work. Go to the gym at 3:30. Dinner and relax
time with my kids in the evening. Late night, record
podcast or catch up on some work.
Least Favorite Part – Getting fired or firing bad
customers. This is a relational profession, and it sucks
when the relationship fails or doesn't click.
Founder – The Green Abacus

20. Member Profile: Dr. Jan Williams, CPA
Favorite Part – Student success!!! The ability to
transform lives by promoting life-long learning and
preparing accounting students for careers in a
dynamic profession
Typical Day - No day is the same. I'm in the classroom
teaching a couple days a week. The remaining days I focus on
other aspects of being an accounting professor – mentoring
students, advising Beta Alpha Psi, working on scholarly
research to publish.
Least Favorite Part – Grading papers!
Professor & Director of the Accounting Honors Program
University of Baltimore

21. Member Profile: Don Meyers, CPA
Favorite Part – I have always enjoyed meeting and
working with people. Much of this was cultivated while
working in public accounting for 27 years. Creating a
vision for the company and working with dynamic staff
to execute the plan to realize the vision is also exciting.
It also helps to love the products we sell too.
Typical Day I primarily focus on providing and
managing resources for our business. This includes
managing external partners such as our bank, vendors
and Harley-Davidson Motor Company. Our future plans
and financing are my strong points due to my training as
a CPA.
Least Favorite Part – management of external
uncontrollable circumstances.
CEO – Harley Davidson-Baltimore

22. Member Profile: Avonette Blanding, CPA
Favorite Part – The opportunities for growth –
every day is different and I’m constantly learning.
Typical Day - constant communication with various
internal and external parties and completing various financial
tasks (payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable,
reporting, etc.). Since the company is a government
contractor, I also spend a portion of my day on contract
management.
Least Favorite Part – Waiting for a contract
award!
CFO - Maritime Applied Physics Corporation

23. Member Profile: Ken Kelly, CPA, CGMA
Favorite Part – The people!
Typical Day - Making sure we have the right finance
talent in the company globally by recruiting, developing
& assessing talent. Reviewing SEC filings, monthly f/s,
potential acquisitions. Making sure we have robust
financial analysis, forecasting & budgeting.
Least Favorite Part – Documentation needed
under SOX. I like to make sure we have the right
controls but the documentation required by PCAOB and
auditors can be tedious.
Retired, Former VP & Controller of McCormick

24. Member Profile: Anoop Mehta, CPA, CGMA
Favorite Part – Meeting with customers and employees. We
have a very talented group of people that do extremely meaningful
work in science that lead to studying our home planet. Our
customers (and some of our employees) are renowned scientists and
engineers interacting with them is the thing I cherish and enjoy the
most.
Least Favorite Part – the ever changing Government
bureaucracy and regulations. This hinders my ability to focus
on long term strategies.
President – Science Systems and Applications, Inc.
Typical Day - There are really no typical days Many of my meetings
involve my staff briefing me on issues, from HR, contracts, business
development, programs status, etc. I try to keep the afternoon open to
attend to reviewing documents, one on-one conversations with staff &
responding to emails. I usually walk around the office few times a day.
This allows me to engage with the staff in a less formal way.

25. It’s Your Career. Take Control.
Knowing Yourself
Continuous LearningNetworking
http://cpa.tc/career
http://cpa.tc/student

26. MACPA Student Resources
macpa.org/tcpa

27. cpaguide.macpa.org

28. macpa.org/StudentAcademy

29. Students can register for any MACPA
conference for only $30 using the code
youngpro15
The Lookout Post - monthly video update on what’s
happening right now in the profession
macpa.tv
CPA Conversations- profession’s leading voices discuss
the trends that are affecting CPAs today and in the future.
And more!

30. celebrate.macpa.org

32. Q&A with MACPA
Questions and answers from our presentation

33. Do I need a masters degree to be a CPA?
Nope. In Maryland you can sit for the exam with a bachelors degree (120 credits). To
be licensed you must complete an additional 30 credits. These credits can be in
anything and do not need to be part of a degree. You can take extra credits as an
undergrad, double major or minor to get the credits. But think about what you want
to do and try to use your additional credits to learn more about that. If you want to
do tax, consider a masters in tax, if you’re interested in international business,
perhaps take a foreign language. It is really up to you. I got my additional credits by
double majoring in Accounting and Sports Management, for example.
Check out cpaguide.macpa.org to help you navigate the licensure process.

34. What blogs, news sources or sites do you
recommend for keeping update on the industry?
CPA Success – Business Learning Institute’s blog, www.blionline.org/blog
MACPA Blog – www.macpa.org/blog
AICPA’s Journal of Accountancy - www.journalofaccountancy.com
AICPA’s Young CPA Network – cpa.tc/young
AccountingWeb – www.accountingweb.com
Accounting Today – www.accountingtoday.com
Use social media to “power follow” – LinkedIn, Twitter etc. Follow @MACPA, @TomHood
@BillSheridan and @RJBrownCPA and see who we are following.

35. I heard the CPA exam might change in 2017,
is this true?
Yes. There are proposed changes out now for the CPA exam. Any changes will be made
public ahead of time and CPA review providers are already preparing their materials. You
can learn more here: http://cpa.tc/exam
Any good books I should be reading?
Of course! Check out some of these: http://cpa.tc/read
More questions? Ask us!

36. @RJBrownCPA
Linkedin.com/in/RebekahBrown
Slideshare.net/RJBrownCPA
@TomHood
Linkedin.com/in/TomHood
Slideshare.net/THoodCPA