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ForceSaberz
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Joined: 31 Aug 2009
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Posted: 04 Sep 2009 at 11:03 \| IP Logged

I’ve recently become interested in finding out more about forensic accounting careers. Has anyone here worked in a forensic accounting role? From what I’ve understood you can work as one in a public, private, or governmental capacity.

I ask because I’ve always loved business law and regulations and researching cases of violations of these laws. I’ve considered going to law school before, but being a lawyer would be miserable for me because corporate lawyers are basically contract lawyers. I could never sit there all day and write/edit contracts or examine the contracts. I am more interested in the numbers portion of law and regulation violation. I’d love to support litigation, I just want to do so from a business law/financial function. Unlike a lot of you on this board I actually enjoyed studying for the business law section of REG. The stuff interests me for some reason (dork alert! Lol!)

Anyways, I was hoping to find out more about the profession from you guys. What is the work like, where are the best places to work (ie. Private, public firm, etc) and what are the hours like (never want a job forcing me to work 70 hrs all the time – I can imagine with litigation it could happen sometimes, but that’be fine). What types of certifications would I need? I’m about done with my CPA and am working on getting my 150 hrs right now (I think I just passed my final portion – it felt like a pass) and may do a CFE in the future.

Any advice would be excellent! Thanks!

__________________
BEC: 89 (4/20/08)
~Yr Long Break from stdying ~
AUD: 86 (5/20/2009)
FAR: 90 (7/30/2009)
REG: 88 (8/31/2009)

Passed all sections on first sitting using BECKER

cflas08
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Posted: 04 Sep 2009 at 13:59 \| IP Logged

ForceSaberz wrote:

See if you can sign up to become a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

ForceSaberz wrote:

I ask because I’ve always loved business law and regulations and researching cases of violations of these laws. I’ve considered going to law school before, but being a lawyer would be miserable for me because corporate lawyers are basically contract lawyers. I could never sit there all day and write/edit contracts or examine the contracts. I am more interested in the numbers portion of law and regulation violation. I’d love to support litigation, I just want to do so from a business law/financial function. Unlike a lot of you on this board I actually enjoyed studying for the business law section of REG. The stuff interests me for some reason (dork alert! Lol!)

Yeah I enjoy law too. I actually tried to get a job with the IRS Criminal Investigations Division years back but I was not ready for such a feat. That's a good place to start though if you want to get your feet wet in investigating financial crimes. You will have to go to the Federal Law Enforcement Training Camp in Glynco, GA though for I believe 12-14 weeks if I'm remembering that correctly. After you spend some time working for the IRS, you may be able to get a job with the FBI. Or instead of starting at the IRS, you may want to try the Secret Service. Afterwards, you may want to try your hand at working for the DEA.

There are so many things you can do as a forensic accountant/fraud examiner. It's amazing.

There is an accounting firm here in Orlando that has its office exclusively dedicated to forensic accounting. Its offices outside of Florida takes care of every thing else.

The working hours aren't too bad. You'll most likely work a typical 40-hr workweek. This is particularly true in government unless you have to travel domestically.

I think you should go for it but make sure you get a background in criminal justice if you can. You can just take those classes for your own educational purpose, even take them online. I minored in Criminal Justice as an undergraduate and enjoyed it. I was too exhausted to go for the entire major.

Good luck.

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ForceSaberz
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Posted: 04 Sep 2009 at 14:15 \| IP Logged

Good idea about the criminal justice courses... I still have 18 credits to get to 150 anyways and currently I work for a University so I can take classes for free.

Currently I only have 1 year of public under my belt and am planning on likely going back to a firm for a year or 2 to obtain my experience. I've always considered a CPA license to not be worth much if you dont have the public background to back it up. Although I'm not a big fan of obtaining the CPA experience by working in a gov or private industry (under a CPA), I know that is an option.

As far as forensic accounting how important would public experience be? I'd imagine it would be more useful then private b/c you are training to look for irregularities. Thoughts?

__________________
BEC: 89 (4/20/08)
~Yr Long Break from stdying ~
AUD: 86 (5/20/2009)
FAR: 90 (7/30/2009)
REG: 88 (8/31/2009)

Passed all sections on first sitting using BECKER

cflas08
Major Contributor

Joined: 04 Apr 2009
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 941

Posted: 04 Sep 2009 at 17:56 \| IP Logged

ForceSaberz wrote:

Good idea about the criminal justice courses... I still have 18 credits to get to 150 anyways and currently I work for a University so I can take classes for free.

As far as forensic accounting how important would public experience be? I'd imagine it would be more useful then private b/c you are training to look for irregularities. Thoughts?

Actually public accounting audit experience is quite important for forensic accounting. Or even if you work in private and you participated in the internal audit department, that will work as well. Forensic accounting firms usually want you to have at least 2 years audit experience and you may even find firms that will take 1 year experience, I've seen them.

__________________
Gleim Prep CD,Yaeger,Wiley
FAR - 7/2/10(75)
Florida

Big4Noob
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Joined: 02 Sep 2009
Location: United States
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Posts: 22

Posted: 05 Sep 2009 at 14:48 \| IP Logged

I am a recent accounting grad and am also interested in
forensic accounting/ fraud-related career. I actually
interviewed with KPMG for a full time position in
Forensic Services.

Ideally, I would want to work for the IRS CI division or
some kind of government Special Agent job that required
fraud investigations, but there are also many
Investigation jobs at accounting firms. I'm sure that all
of the Big 4's have some kind of variation of forensics,
they just name it something else. The forensic services
positions in an accounting firm seem great. They require
a TON of travel though. Also, the firm explained to me
that when you first start out in forensics, you spend a
great deal of time doing tedious tasks such as reading
through HUNDREDS of emails and flagging them for further
review. I actually thought this was really interesting
but it seemed like they dreaded it.

With that said, I got waitlisted for a position (due to
the economy most likely) and took something else. Even
though forensics are really needed right now, many
companies just can't afford the services and firms are
cutting back in those areas.

Also, keep in mind that there are a TON of different
government jobs that have something to do with fraud
investigations - you just have to look for them.
Basically every large gov't department has some kind of
Special Agent job. Some more notable ones are the Secret
Service (money laundering), FBI (they have unique
security clearance requirements though), IRS, Government
Accountability Office, US Postal Inspectors (mail fraud
plus a TON more) and so many more. Search it out.

Also, I have read that when these jobs come around, apply
for them. Don't even think about it. Because it can take
MONTHS for the process to be complete and once it's over,
they may not hire for a really long time. Also, there is
an age limit to many Special Agent and Criminal
Investigations jobs.

__________________
AUD: 8/26/09 waiting
FAR: October
REG: Not scheduled
BEC: Not scheduled

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