Passed the Certified Public Accountant exam? Congrats! The rewards? A lifetime of continuing expert education! Welcome to the wonderful world of CPE for CPAs, in which accountants keep up-to-date with the newest developments in the field. Dislike books?
Too bad! This is accounting – a profession, so this means (that is, “meant,” past tense) something done outside of remunerative considerations, so presumably such a job was embarked on out of a love of books and numbers!
And a lot of reading and computations is what’s up for grabs for the newly minted CPA, taking up the drudgery that a firm’s partners and more senior members avoid. That, and a whole lot of CPA CPE courses! Luckily, unlike work on the job, such self-study is frequently pursued at one’s own pace, with no deadlines to concern yourself with. And thanks to the power of the worldwide web, it’s easier than ever before!
Merely log on and a wealth of CPA CPE courses are available, many of them even free! That’s right; free! Yes, it’s something they never told you about in class, but there is such a thing as a free accounting course, even if there is something of a catch. Yes, a catch! But only vaguely, and quite fairly, even: only make sure to actually finish the course and provide responses. See, most of these offerings are but pilot courses and it is in substitution for providing such helpful observations to the course designers that you are in a position to get involved for free.
So, yes, look on the bright side – at least you weren’t required to pay for it, onerous as it was! However, as mentioned previously, it’s unlikely that anyone would make a career of accounting without finding something of interest about it, such that continuing education should not show to be so miserable!
