End goal of CPA: MAcc vs. MBA + undergrad acct coursework

[mrs.b]

I agree that MAcc is probably the best choice for you, whether you take it at your local school or online. An MBA is not supposed to be for "any old business admin" position, and without some specialist knowledge/experience, it'll be far less useful than an MAcc imo. If you don't want to do accounting, getting a CPA might be overkill though and I still think corporate finance/data analytics/applied stats is generally preferable to accounting as a "second specialty" in business.

Good morning Yanji, and thank you! With my current employer, my Accounting duties are increasing in complexity a bit at a time, and the last time they hired someone for my position at another location, the minimum qualifications were an MAcc or equiv. OR CPA, with preferred qualifications of both, if that gives an idea of what direction we're heading. Similar roles for other employers vary - some are significantly less but so is the payscale, while others are on-par - but I enjoy what I do and plan to stay with it here or somewhere else (I get bored too easily focusing on just one thing all day, every day).

The strange part about the job title/role is specialization is not necessarily encouraged because the knowledge base needs to be fully rounded to cover all possible duties, from data analytics as you mentioned, to sales/customer service, project management, personnel recruiting/hiring/management/termination/legal compliance, AP, AR, purchasing, etc. My current employer is a federal contractor, publicly-traded org, so there are intricate legal compliance regs that dictate people practices and accounting practices. That variety is where I started questioning if an MBA would not be more appropriate (maybe an MBA with focus in Acctg or Finance offered by some schools), then studying up for and taking the CPA separately.

Goodness, I can typically give others advice, but finding my own right path is always a game of second-guessing myself at each turn.