Back in the day, there was really only one CPA exam blogger and it was Jeff at Another71 who chronicled his adventures (read: failures) while amassing a large audience of loyal followers who shared in his triumphs and defeats. Over time, Jeff transformed his humble little website from just a soap box for him to complain to an actual career, blowing off the idea of a day job for the somewhat lucrative but always entertaining world of blogging. By all appearances this has worked out for him and it may be no small coincidence that a storm of CPA exam bloggers have followed in his footsteps, including his own team of CPA exam bloggers writing for him at Another71.
The only other longstanding CPA exam blog we can think of is the New Jersey Society of CPAs’ Exam Cram, which has featured a revolving cast of characters over the years, all of whom share their individual CPA exam stories with NJSCPA members and the Internet at large. Who says blogs are dead?
One CPA exam blogger we haven’t seen in quite some time:
The Cooking Accountant has been at this for awhile now and appears to have allowed a BEC failure to keep her from her blog since June of 2010. Once active in documenting her journey, her last entry reads “It hurts twice as much to learn you have to re-take two parts because you failed one. This is reminiscent of when a little girl riding her bicycle hits a raised chunk of sidewalk and goes flying off her bike, landing on the hard cement. But this time, not only does she scrape and bruise her knee and elbow so bad she can barely get up, but the doll she had in the bike basket is now sitting in the gutter.”
But many other CPA exam bloggers are alive and well and blogging every dirty detail of their lives as CPA exam candidates, at least when it comes to disappointments and annoying coughing girls at Prometric.
My CPA Exam Journey
3 Letters, 1 Day at a Time
Sleep on CPA
No More 74
Mission: Pass CPA Exam
CPA Adventures
The list goes on and on and if I missed any good ones, do let me know.
Here’s my concern: while it’s certainly healthy to form a community of miserable bastards who can share in the joy and misery of the CPA exam experience together, at what point does blogging become a distraction? If you notice, each one of these blogging candidates commit well thought-out, carefully written, decent length posts, something a lot of “other” bloggers don’t always do. So is there an element of procrastination that blogging about the exam allows?
If that’s the case, it’s probably a healthy sort of procrastination. Candidates might be taking a break from the MCQ but they are still focused on their goal of licensure by writing about, thinking about and reading about the CPA exam.
As long as they don’t start using that #twudygroup to talk about movies and their relationship problems, I don’t see the harm.
They do the same thing in Utah. Pretty pathetic – my brother passed the bar and got a huge piece of paper to put in a frame – nice little PDF for Utah CPAs
Man. I got my certificate in the mail, paid like 60 bucks to get it framed, then I was told that it wouldn’t be a good idea to hang it up in my cubicle because it looks “too much like a flex” in front of the other accountants that don’t have their CPA and it might upset them.
There’s 6 CPAs where I work, no one displays their certificate or even uses CPA in their email signature. Like dude, what’s the point then? Sonofabitch.
Tired of this crap man. I’m rather proud of attaining my CPA , and now I have to hide it? What kind of crap is this? Whatever man..