Different factors motivate CPA candidates to choose their specializations in CPA PEP. Regardless of your motivation, it is important to give this decision serious consideration to ensure your choice aligns with your short- and long-term career goals. In this blog post, four recent successful writers—Kunal Gupta CPA, Parker Ali, Kamille Español, and Sarah Carver CPA—share their motivations for choosing their roles. If you haven’t read Part 1, click here.
Kunal Gupta CPA, Financial Reporting Accountant, PanGlobal Training Systems Ltd.
Elective: Performance Management and Finance
Role: Finance
For the last 10 years, most of my experience has been in Finance and Management Accounting. In CPA PEP, I could easily connect many of the technical topics in Finance to my work and this helped me better understand the logic. For these reasons, I was more confident in Finance than other subjects.
Additionally, my exposure to taxation and auditing was very limited, which meant I was not confident choosing either of those as my elective. My love for numbers was a bonus; I am more comfortable working with numbers than with words, and my depth of knowledge in Finance enables me to enjoy this passion.
Parker Ali, Income Tax Auditor, Canada Revenue Agency
Electives: Tax and Assurance
Role: Assurance
I chose Assurance because I felt that it could provide me with more career opportunities. It was also an area of interest for me; I wanted more insight into the audit fundamentals I learned in the core modules.
I already had substantial exposure to Tax at work and I wanted to focus on my interest in Assurance. The history of our existing regulatory framework and the mechanisms that work to standardize and course-correct the assurance industry have long been of interest to me.
Kamille Español, Financial Reporting Accountant, Ovintiv
Electives: Tax and Performance Management
Role: Tax
I chose Tax as my role because it was my favourite course in university. I also like how in this elective, you can learn about topics you can easily apply in your everyday life, such as how to legally minimize or defer taxes when buying or selling a house or a personal investment; the tax implications of a divorce or saving for retirement; and so on.
Personally, I am using my knowledge from this elective to be tax effective in everything I do with my personal investments and employment benefits.
Sarah Carver CPA, Financial Controller, C-West Custom Fixtures Inc.
Electives: Performance Management and Assurance
Role: Performance Management
I chose Performance Management because I love hands-on involvement in all aspects of a project. A big part of this is tied to the work I do. At C-West Custom Fixtures, my knowledge allows me to work on strategy development and formulation in all levels of the organization. I get exposure to so many different areas—I handle a lot of tax and efficiency issues, variances, budgeting, and audits. For example, I was very involved in planning and managing how to get through the COVID-19 pandemic as a company, and I learned a lot in the process. Performance Management provides a strong foundation for managing all these different areas. I am also incredibly passionate about the subject, so it was the best choice for me.
To sum it up, Kamille Español offers this tip to CPA candidates: “If you’re not sure which elective to take, I recommend taking the elective you find most interesting. It’s so much easier to study when you’re interested in what you’re learning.”
The views expressed in this post are those of the guest writers—Kunal Gupta CPA, Parker Ali, Kamille Español, and Sarah Carver CPA. Please refer to cpawsb.ca for the latest guidelines from the CPA Western School of Business.
