Yes, it's true. Start Here Go Places is the recruiting tool for the under 18 set and This Way to CPA will help you on your way to licensure but now there's a new AICPA community that is supposed to give all you young CPAs a place to be yourselves among your own people from the safety of your own Internet-connected devices.
The American Institute of CPAs has created an online community to help young CPAs establish connections with their peers, exchange ideas and grow their careers.
The Young CPA Network online community, launched today, has engaging content designed to empower and guide young CPAs along their professional journey. The community, hosted on aicpa.org, allows AICPA members who have passed the CPA Examination and are between the ages of 22-36 to create customized profiles and interact with their peers.
“Connecting with their peers is one of the best opportunities young professionals have to grow their careers,” said Donna Salter, AICPA senior manager, young member initiatives. “The AICPA created the Young CPA Network online community to help increase the level of engagement and facilitate idea exchanges and peer mentoring among our younger members directly through the AICPA website.”
The community contains an interactive discussion forum, a blog section and a calendar of important events, as well as thought-provoking articles about the profession.
As most current CPA exam candidates know, there are plenty of venues available to connect with your fellow candidates and share horror stories, motivation and tips among yourselves. But the AICPA wanted to build something that's slightly more, er, friendly on their own turf that includes young professionals beyond the usual CPA exam boards we all know. “We created this community because we found that our young members desire connectivity with peers beyond traditional social media platforms," Donna told me. "We hope to inspire a sense of belonging – by nurturing their loyalty to the world of accounting and the AICPA as their profession home – while also appealing to those Young CPAs who desire a closed forum discussion.”
Aren't some of you guys always begging us for a forum? Go over there and poke around (if you are between the ages of 22 – 36, a member of the AICPA and have passed the CPA exam, of course). But be nice, the point of this is not to have yet another Internet free-for-all but a resource for young CPAs to come together, share their goals and inspire each other.
Or, if you'd rather just sit in the GC comment section and complain about your job, you can do that too but there are plenty of great, inspiring, young CPAs out there doing good things, wouldn't you rather hang out with them than anonymous washed up GC trolls who left public accounting before most of us were born?
