Its in my thought processes among many other ideas.

i was considering doing what u have mentioned...but at this moment i am off the boat, am not really sure what i want as a backup.

i wasn't expecting all this reply when i started this thread :)

I'll be a CPA in about 3 months - I cannot believe it. As to what I do after that, who knows? But, its been quite an intensive journey so far. I've sort of become numb to all the studying. I've never studied so much in my life! With the aviation tests, you get the EXACT questions in practice form that you'll see on the test. With the CPA, what you get on the exam is a crap shoot.

Bryris,

If I recall correctly, you said before you already have a degree in accounting. Just out of curiousity, did you try applying to accounting firms or other companies before studying for the CPA?

Did any of them tell you that it was a requirement to have, or that you would be more competitive with, a CPA?

Are you trying to avoid having to study while working at the same time?

I do have a degree in accounting. I purposely avoided applying to any jobs in order to focus on this CPA. I am the type of person that does best with concentrated efforts. Diluting my ability to take 30 credit hours of classes and to study for the CPA exam at the same time with work just didn't seem the best choice for me.

I worked at a CPA firm for just about two years and didn't like it much. The work wasn't bad, just a bad corporate culture. But more than anything I was sitting at that desk longing to fly professionally - having only the dream and no real world experience with it. I had about 400 hours total time with no CFI credentials at all during that time.

I geared up to change my life because I knew the status quo wasn't working for me. I gained my CFI credentials and resigned from the accounting job with no other jobs lined up - I don't mind risks sometimes.

I lucked out and got a CFI job. Long story short, I did that for about 6 months, got onto a regional and flew for about 18 months until I was about to be displaced and furloughed shortly after. The company was a POS, so I decided to cut my losses in the face of the impending furlough (had my notice in my hand) and go back to school.

When I left the accounting desk before, I thought I was changing my life for the better. Flying turned out not to be quite what I thought it was and I had contemplated on many occasions the prospect of resigning. However, the thought of merely going back to what I was doing before just didn't satisfy me. I had set out to make a change and I needed to see something else through.

In the accounting field, having a degree without the CPA cert is like doing everything you need for the PPL, but never taking the check ride. Putting those initials after your name puts you into a separate category and sort of turns you into a "real" accountant, at least in the eyes of the public. To many a "CPA" is an accountant - they are one in the same.

When it looked like the flying gig was going to come to end whether I wanted it to or not (and I sort of did in a way), I viewed it as an opportunity (planets aligning if you will) to go full time and knock it out in 13 months (after all, I wouldn't ever resign from a "good" job to do it). Trying to do it while working would have muddied up the waters, burnt me out WAY more than I already am (working all day, studying all night, etc) and it would have stretched out the pain over probably 3 years instead of 1. Plus, you are required to pass all 4 exams in a rolling 18 month period. I've heard too many stories about people passing a section and then having some of their credits expire due to being too busy to wrap all four sections within the time period.

As it stands, I am basically done with school, have taken 2 sections, and will be taking the 3rd in two weeks, with the final exam sometime early Feb.

Then, when I go back to accounting, I can say I did some incredible things since last time and am better off from the hiatus.

Getting the cert has been something on my life list anyway. Had I stayed in flying, I would have figured out a way to do it (it would have been tough though) part time. I always felt it was the necessary "cherry on top" required of me to sort of round out my accounting education.

As to money, my wife earns enough for us to break even with no discretionary spending. There is a definite financial opportunity cost to doing it this way, but my sanity thanks me and I have no regrets. I view it as an opportunity that many others don't get.