Serena is a new NINJA CPA Blogger.

Hey NINJAs!

I am a new blogger here, and hope that by sharing my experiences with you it will keep me motivated and optimistic through the rest of my CPA Exam adventure. For today I will just give you a little background on me, otherwise this will turn out to be much more than a few paragraphs.

I, too, am a “San Diegan” if I’m allowed to call myself one even though I’m not a native, and I also live in North San Diego County. Ha! Regardless, here I am.

Prior to here I lived in Arizona, and before that, born and raised in New Mexico. I have an amazing 6-year-old daughter and a very supportive best friend/fiancé.

Becoming a CPA has been a goal since I entered the Accounting program in college. Through college I worked at a small health food cooperative as the Finance Manager, so I had somewhat of an idea of the possibilities after obtaining a CPA license.

Like most, I regret not sitting for the exams right out of college, but I needed to get my feet wet in the profession first just to be sure that’s what I wanted. I was able to gain a tax season of experience in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, but volunteering a couple hours a day doesn’t compare to working full- (and over-) time for a bunch of paying clients, through and beyond the perceived “tax season.”

If you have worked in the tax practice, you know that tax season doesn’t really end until October. If it even really ends. So immediately after college I moved to Arizona and took a job at a small CPA firm specializing in small business compilations and tax. After surviving another tax season, this time at the firm, I decided to go for it!

Come back next week to hear more about my “CPA Exam Adventure.”

Staying with this week’s theme of “things people say to candidates studying for the CPA exam” I will leave you with something my daughter said last year: “Mom, you said you would be done studying all the time when you graduated college. Why are you still studying?”

Keep studying!
-Serena