Hi all,

 I am working in a small private business as a bookkeeper for 4 years. I am currently taking CPA exam and would like to quiet my current job. I am just in doubt if my bookkeeping experence will be enough to enter into a public accounting firm. I would really want to do audit, taxation, and financial statements work but not bookkeeping.

Could any one suggest what will be the best thing to do?

 Thanks!!!

Never say never. I'm in corporate accounting but all I had was bookkeeping experience and my CPA candidancy when I was hired here as a Controller 3 weeks ago. Now for public accounting, it may be different. I don't see why that won't help you though because usually being a bookkeeper first will help you when you become a staff accountant.

cflas08, congrats finding a good job in this bad economy. May I ask if you work for a medium or large corporation? and how long did it take you to find your controller job?

Thanks. I will go as far to say that the size of my company is between small and medium if that makes any sense. We are prepping to go public so I guess it will become quite large at some point.

It actually only took a few days. I applied on Careerbuilder the same day the job was posted and I got a call for an interview 3 days later. I went in for the interview that same day and the President liked me immediately and basically hired me on the spot.

In my opinion, getting a job is a matter of timing. My advice is to just be patient. I had been operating my own bookkeeping business for about 15 months before I started working here. That wasn't going well and I was bored so I decided to go back to work and I don't regret it. Hang around on Monster and Careerbuilder and apply for jobs even if you don't think you qualify. In a normal setting, I wouldn't have qualified for a Controller position. I was able to convince them that I have what it takes and the necessary knowledge and skills to do the job even though I hadn't been given that opportunity as a bookkeeper. Just because you're a bookkeeper does not mean you don't know your stuff and can't go up against those who have way more experience than you do. I was chosen from hundreds of applicants so I'm blessed but I went through hell in my career and college to get to this point though. It wasn't smooth sailing.

Oh and make sure you have a slammin' resume. Most people think their resumes are great but many times the person reviewing it doesn't think so and that can keep you from getting an interview. I had my resume professionally altered before I applied for this job and it made a difference.