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My cousin has a felony from ten years ago when she was younger (about 18-20 yrs old), now she is 30, served her time and ready to start her career.
Her felony is from robbing someone. She wants to attend college for Accountant degree now. However, she is afraid no company will hire her as an Accountant with CPA after she graduate.
I told her speak to the accountant counselor at the university and just pursue the degree and worry on the job part after graduation.
What is your advice to her? I think she should just pursue the degree.
It will be a real problem as far as getting the CPA license, but from what I can tell they look at each case individually. She will absolutely have to tell them, because most if not all states do a fingerprint and a background check with the FBI/DOJ so they will definitely find out about it.
There are a lot of jobs in accounting that do not involve being a CPA, although I think most of those would want to know about her background--but by the time she gets out of school it will be over a decade in the past so that may help. The nature of the crime is going to be a problem for her--most of the cases I've heard of where a criminal record was overlooked involved stuff like drug charges or DUIs. Anything involving stealing/robbery is going to be a lot more difficult.
It will be a real problem as far as getting the CPA license, but from what I can tell they look at each case individually. She will absolutely have to tell them, because most if not all states do a fingerprint and a background check with the FBI/DOJ so they will definitely find out about it.
There are a lot of jobs in accounting that do not involve being a CPA, although I think most of those would want to know about her background--but by the time she gets out of school it will be over a decade in the past so that may help. The nature of the crime is going to be a problem for her--most of the cases I've heard of where a criminal record was overlooked involved stuff like drug charges or DUIs. Anything involving stealing/robbery is going to be a lot more difficult.
Thank you, she mainly is concerned with wasting time pursing the degree and not having a job afterwards. Currently she cant find no job with that felony. But I told her the college is important for right now.
My cousin has a felony from ten years ago when she was younger (about 18-20 yrs old), now she is 30, served her time and ready to start her career.
Her felony is from robbing someone. She wants to attend college for Accountant degree now. However, she is afraid no company will hire her as an Accountant with CPA after she graduate.
I told her speak to the accountant counselor at the university and just pursue the degree and worry on the job part after graduation.
What is your advice to her? I think she should just pursue the degree.
Thanks,
I always find it strange that people continue to punish felons even after they paid their dues. Your cousin is going to find it incredibly difficult to get hired with a convicted felony especially since this felony has to do with theft and violence. Also most of her competitors probably don't have a felony which will make it harder for her to get a job as well. She has nothing to lose right now by going to college but she should realize that she is locked out of a lot of companies especially financial companies, especially if it requires her to be bonded.
While college may be important, it is a foolish waste of time and money to pursue a degree/career field that you can't get licensed in. She is 100% correct to worry about this now instead of later.
Depending on the nature of the felony, she may be able to get it expunged, so she needs to check into that.
She also needs to check with the licensing body to see if she can even be licensed at all.
i think she will really struggle to get a job in a field where she could potentially have access to other peoples' books/funds. perhaps her best bet would be to start her own small business.
i think she will really struggle to get a job in a field where she could potentially have access to other peoples' books/funds. perhaps her best bet would be to start her own small business.
But she still has to be licensed. Each state sets their own rules (which is why she needs to check with her state licensing board), but in Ohio a CPA candidate has to certify that they have "never" been convicted of a felony. So, if you can't get licensed as a CPA, you can't set up your own CPA business.
I was poking around online and apparently the licensing bodies are hesitant to tell someone yes or no when they inquire, they take each case under advisement, but I would guess it would be a very tough sell.
However, as I mentioned, you don't have to get a CPA to work in accounting. Most people who are staff accountants or accounting clerks for companies don't have a CPA. The difficulty is going to be finding an employer that will hire a person who has a felony record for robbery in a field where any type of theft, fraud etc., tends to be a deal breaker for employment.
There are non-CPA companies that handle bookkeeping, for example, but the real issue with starting a business in accounting [or probably any other field] is that you need solid experience to have what it takes to provide those type of services to clients.
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