Retaining CPAs in the Profession

By John Samore III, CPA

For many years, CPAs have been hearing there are not enough good professionals to meet the demands of the profession and that hiring people is a challenge. I disagree. Hiring is not the issue. The issue is retention and what can we do to keep people in the profession.

Various reports are published each year that tell us there is an increase in the number of people pursuing accounting degrees, as well as an increase in applications to sit for the CPA Exam. As with all written materials that have facts, figures, opinions and comments, we need to read these reports with professional skepticism and ask questions that arise from our professional experience.

For example, we need to account for attrition in students who may start their accounting education and decide to change majors, which would cause a reduction in the universe of potential professionals. With regard to an increase in the number of applicants taking the CPA Exam, it should be noted that this increase is a combination of first-time examinees and those who have to retake the exam. I can attest that not everyone passes the first time.

What do we do when people earn their accounting degree, start an accounting career, pass the exam and then leave their place of employment? Turnover is a part of every organization, and I am OK with that, as long as we can encourage these individuals to stay somewhere within in the profession. Losing these folks to another profession is something all of us need to be concerned about. In the 1980s, many accountants got their MBAs and pursued careers in investment banking. In the ’90s, many left accounting to pursue marketing, sales, IT or nonaccounting functions in the dot-com world. During this decade’s real estate and mortgage lending boom, we lost many people to those professions. I do not know if these trends occurred prior to the ’80s, but I fear that each future decade will have similar results. The common theme is that professionals change careers based on hype and where the pickings are good. Temporarily that may be fine, but for the long term, it is not.

The solution is to educate people entering the profession early in their careers that an established accounting career will yield greater results in the long term. Yes, there are exceptions to that. Seasoned and experienced CPAs need to listen to younger professionals, and younger professions need to listen to those who are more experienced. Our multifaceted profession offers so many opportunities and exciting challenges that there is no need for anyone to look outside for career satisfaction, success or stability.

CPAs and the accounting profession are like coffee: Both are recession proof. Regardless of good or bad times, people will find a way to have their coffee, and in accounting there will always be a need for financial reporting, auditing and tax compliance and strategy. We will always need to provide accounting-related consulting services, such as risk management assessments, internal controls reviews, forensic accounting services and other specialized services that only CPAs can perform. We open the door to all of our young, eager professionals, and we bid them to come on in and stay a while—a long while.

— John Samore III, CPA

This entry was posted on Monday, August 25th, 2008 at 2:22 pm and is filed under President's Message. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.