lelik wrote: Nan, it sounds like a solid plan. CFE is pretty easy, though. My experience has been so far that it's semi-difficult to find any job in the forensic accounting. Have you ever thought about working for the government? FBI, DOJ, and OIG (Offices of Inspector General of different agencies) tend to like CPAs. After 2-3 years of employment, the salary is around $75k (depend on a location, though) for 37.5h work week. Auditing and forensic accounting sound interesting, but there is a lot of routine involved. :-) I have to say that the auditing is more exciting than accounting, but nevertheless it's nothing like the theory. :-) At this point, I would advise you to start studying data mining (if nothing else, Access is not bad for that). I believe this skill would be more useful for you than the CFE.

Amen to that.  It is hard to find forensic work.  I worked for a year and a half as an associate in a forensic accounting firm, and I couldn't find a job in forensics after the firm closed up and laid everyone off during the market crash.  I've had to leave the accounting field and go back into computers just to keep making a decent living. (I think I'd be looking at a minimum $12,000/year pay cut if I became a regular audit associate.)  Since I think not having my CPA is a barrier to me getting back into forensics, I'm not really even bothering with a job search in the accounting field until I complete my licensing this year. 

And yes, database skills really do help.  I should know.  I know how to work with Access, MS SQL Server, and Oracle databases, and I was constantly in demand for projects because of those skills.  We had the CFE materials available to us at my former firm (as people were encouraged to add it to their resume), but having reviewed it, it's mostly common sense stuff and IMO kind of a B.S. designation.