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Subject Topic: MACC or no MACC? (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post ReplyPost New Topic
  
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Antiguan
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Posted: 16 Mar 2010 at 09:10 | IP Logged  

U should be able to get into the field without having big 4 experience.. The amount of persons who go into accounting in places like caymen are not as high as finance (which is very competitive there).. Have u applied to any jobs there yet? I have a friend that works for PWC there and he got in before he even went to university (again because he would be eligable for his acca) and they ended up paying for his undergrad and mba.. U should really try applying especially as ur eligable for ur cpa..
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allegro-cpa
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Posted: 16 Mar 2010 at 09:25 | IP Logged  

Antiguan wrote:
U should be able to get into the field without having big 4 experience.. The amount of persons who go into accounting in places like caymen are not as high as finance (which is very competitive there).. Have u applied to any jobs there yet? I have a friend that works for PWC there and he got in before he even went to university (again because he would be eligable for his acca) and they ended up paying for his undergrad and mba.. U should really try applying especially as ur eligable for ur cpa..


Antiguan, I know exactly what your talking about.  And its for sure non US residents that do this, and in the US school system we don't study it.  The ACCA guys are from like South Africa/Africa/ the UK, etc or British areas and they go to school there, then find jobs on the Islands.  They seem to pass something called the CA or ACCA exams, sometimes those guys even take the CFA exam for some reason also.  The only thing is that the CPA is for the U.S. and it does not seem like an offshore thing, or could be useful, but maybe it is.  My current work experience is very related (on the finance side, not accounting) and I would be able to jump into the job immediately.  I bet your friend from PWC is a non US citizen and grew up over in Europe or something, just a guess/hunch.  Career fairs for European firms probably recruit these guys vs Career fairs in the U.S.  I will give it shot like you said, I was just skeptical because the trend seemed to be and from job ads is, work in the US for 2 years or so, then switch offices offshore.  Grand Cayman, Bermuda and British virgin islands and channel islands seems to be the main locations.

There seems to be some, but not a lot of CPA + ACCA persons in the US, just when your in the US college system, you never hear about ACCA, this also might give you some IFRS exposure and value there.
 
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Antiguan
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Posted: 16 Mar 2010 at 09:40 | IP Logged  

Actually my friend is from the Caribbean and he is non-US...I actually find that these firms recruit in the US more from the Miami area since its so close.... but yes most persons in the Caribbean have the ACCA (the british version of the CPA) or the CA (Chartered Accountant, which is the licensing boards for every other country besides the US and Britain)... I know alot of person in the Caribbean write the ACCA due to the fact that you actually dont need a Bachelors or University level courses to take the exam (however if you have a bachelors in accounting, you can get waived some of the ACCA exams)... I think Cayman Islands have an equal amount of CPAs and CAs than ACCA....my friend is actually taking his CPA..... it all depends on what type of clients you will be auditing.... outside of the US the CPA designation is only really relevant to SEC clients... while the ACCA and CA test more IFRS, therefore persons with these designations are assumed to have a better knowledge of IFRS....which is still not taught in every university in the U.S... not even sure if its taught in most yet... I can try asking my friend for you what he would think is the best route for you to go in getting an accounting job in Cayman...
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allegro-cpa
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Posted: 16 Mar 2010 at 09:51 | IP Logged  

Antiguan wrote:
Actually my friend is from the Caribbean and he is non-US...I actually find that these firms recruit in the US more from the Miami area since its so close.... but yes most persons in the Caribbean have the ACCA (the british version of the CPA) or the CA (Chartered Accountant, which is the licensing boards for every other country besides the US and Britain)... I know alot of person in the Caribbean write the ACCA due to the fact that you actually dont need a Bachelors or University level courses to take the exam (however if you have a bachelors in accounting, you can get waived some of the ACCA exams)... I think Cayman Islands have an equal amount of CPAs and CAs than ACCA....my friend is actually taking his CPA..... it all depends on what type of clients you will be auditing.... outside of the US the CPA designation is only really relevant to SEC clients... while the ACCA and CA test more IFRS, therefore persons with these designations are assumed to have a better knowledge of IFRS....which is still not taught in every university in the U.S... not even sure if its taught in most yet... I can try asking my friend for you what he would think is the best route for you to go in getting an accounting job in Cayman...


Antiguan, that would be great if you could get back to me about what he says! Maybe go to miami and the career fairs there. From research, the ACCA exam looks like a harder exam than  CPA, but like you said recognized more in other countries.  And the ACCA covers a lot of both financial management and accounting (same things on the cpa exam).  The reason I talked about all this and knew about it is because at my current job I talk to a lot of people that have their Limited Partnerships domiciled there, but also in the US.  Maybe the CPA and ACCA combination would be a good idea and if your friend has a recommendation/opinion that would be great to hear it, since he works directly in it.  Again, yeah, I knew they hired a lot from British/UK area.  The US classes touches on IFRS, but its light right now.  I really think this knowledge is going to be really important in the long run.   From my work experiences, I have seen a large amount of mixtures of these SEC clients/IFRS clients working interchangeably or have some related business, its really interesting.
 
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