Any accountants on SF ? Looking for advice

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post #1 of 3

2/4/13 at 7:50am

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Piffy

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Joined: 8/2010
Location: Atlantic Canada
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I'm currently looking at pursuing a professional accounting designation in Canada.

I was wondering if there were any any SFers that had either a CA, CGA or CMA title.

I'm trying to figure out which title would be best for me (does it really make a difference given the looming CPA unification process ?) and what kind of salary I could expect once finished.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks

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post #2 of 3

2/5/13 at 2:14pm

imschatz

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Joined: 4/2010
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Most job postings I see .. are looking for CA/CMAs. If any of the designation's is left out, it's always CGA.

Salary is heavily dependent on location and industry. If you can get out to St. John's and find work in the offshore oil industry .. you can make a pretty penny. If you are in Saint John .. well, no level of education will get you far (intended burn on Saint John, I have a good friend from there).

Like most business education .. starting salary is heavily dependent on work experience, internships, personal network, and industry. I met with a headhunter in Calgary (who placed mostly accountants) when I finished school. She said $50k/year starting (no real job experience, just summer internships) is probably reasonable. $100k with 3-5 years experience depending how good you are at climbing the ladder (doing Econ/Financial Analysis in Calgary for big oil)

With all that said .. you're tackling the problem wrong. Starting salary is pretty irrelevant as it is pretty uniform across the board, with the exception of good Engineer's.

post #3 of 3

2/5/13 at 3:07pm

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Piffy

Posts: 24
Joined: 8/2010
Location: Atlantic Canada
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I've been looking at job postings and I agree that CGA is the designation that's most often left out. Most CGAs I know for for government.

I'm currently in NB and would rather go west than east. Unfortunately, to work in oil & gas in NB means that you have to go Saint John and that's not a city I'd like to live in. An acquaintance of mine worked for Irving in Saint John for a few years and would travel back home to Moncton every single weekend.

I do have some basic accounting work experience (accounts payable/receivable, contracts, etc.) so I'm not a complete newbie.

Anyways, thanks for the reply. I sent in my university transcript to CMA today for an evaluation.

I'd love to hear anybody else's opinion.

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