CPA Does NOT Equal Quality Accounting

A recent study found that having a CPA does nothing to improve the quality of an accountant (see attached study below)…let's discuss.

In the CeFi world I have an unpopular opinion. CPA's are not equivalent to better talent without a CPA.

In the DeFi world things are a little more blurry.

If I sound bitter, maybe I am, just a little. I am a CPA candidate, meaning I've earned the required 150 hours in college via a double major in Accounting and Computer Information Science (graduating with honors no less) to be allowed to sit for the exam. And, to add salt to that wound, I have sit for it...exactly 4 times.

My final attempt, I had passed all but my last exam, which I missed by 1 painful point. The way the exam works, you have an 18 month rolling window to pass each of the 4 exams (totaling 16 hours of testing), and if one 'falls-off' before you pass them all you have to retake it. My rolling period was situated so that I would lose all my passes before I could retake that last test. Yeah, that cut deep!

You might be thinking to yourself right now, "Man how dumb is this lady?!", but the CPA exam isn't really about knowledge, and this is where my personal vendetta with the CPA designation comes in. It's not so much about sour grapes or your incorrectly placed idea that I might not be smart enough. The CPA exam and passing comes down to a singular thing...time.

At the time I took the exam I was a single parent of a toddler, my father was actively dying of terminal cancer and I was his caretaker, and I was working 2 full time jobs to keep afloat. All of that left very little time (typically of the 12am-2am variety) for me to devote to study. Most CPA candidates will take the summer off between college and any internships to literally dedicate 40+ hours a week while living with their parents in order to get it passed. This isn't unusual, it's standard.

I'm not saying its impossible to do it when you don't fit that standard mold, but its an obstacle against non-standard students. And I was very non-standard.

To pass the CPA exam the key is cramming in the smartest manner possible, and anyone with any time-in-job as an actual accountant who has exposure to both public and corporate accounting will tell you that real-life, hands on experience is a far cry from the study variety we get for our degrees and the exam.

I'm not belittling those who have managed to pass that revered exam, in fact I'm blindingly jealous because they have a leg-up, but I am making the argument (with backing by this study) that myself and others who have been frequently passed-over for opportunity because we didn't jump through a bureaucratic hoop aren't lesser candidates, and possibly we're better candidates.

For me, my day-to-day means overseeing significant clients and teams. This could mean everything, quite literally. On any given day I help them with strategic finance (FP&A and modelling), filing 409a's and managing their CAP table, HR matters such as payroll and employee policy, financials for the month, investor decks, fundraising, KPI's, understanding and navigating decisions around tech stacks, managing millions upon millions of investor funds, all while also helping oversee and manage my own team, hopping on sales calls for potential new clients, and the list goes on. To say myself and my peers wear the hats of CFO, COO, and CAO for multiple clients is an understatement, and yet I have seen equally qualified and experienced peers passed over for roles they are largely qualified for because they lack 3 letters after their names.

DeFi is an interesting space because many founders followed their dreams rather than finishing college, and/or they got into Web3 because they believe in the foundation of transparency and access for all that block-chain was built-upon. This opens up new possibilities outside of the CeFi space for those who are a force and do their jobs with pride. The biggest obstacles in the DeFi space for accounting and strategic finance are going to be hiring qualified talent and retaining them with appropriate salaries. Specialized skills require specialized pay.

If you've read this far, I'm curious, what are your thoughts on this debate? Have you seen this occur to qualified candidates? And more importantly what is your thought on the importance and value of the CPA designation in today's volatile financial market?