The CPA Journal

By Rona L. Cherno, CPA

My father’s business had a bookkeeper and an accountant. The CPA filed the payroll taxes and did the corporate tax returns. The bookkeeper tracked work in process with paper tickets. She had a wonderful, noisy ten-key comptometer machine to crunch those numbers. As a youngster, often Dad would bring me payroll records to accumulate and review for the bookkeeper, so that the cost summaries could be prepared for the accountant each period.

But I never envisioned becoming a CPA. It was enough that math was something I knew how to do readily. Along with number skills, I remember paying attention to detail and adhering to strict deadlines. When I was a child in summer camp I was editor of the camp newsletter, and I preferred to write about sports rather than participate, to keep score rather than play in the games. In high school I had a column in the school newspaper’s sports page called “Rona Roars,” where I sounded off about the important issues affecting suburban teenagers. My math skills continued to grow as well; by the end of high school I was the only woman in the advanced math class. In college I was editor of the rule book (at a time when college students had curfews and rules to follow).

I gave up plans for a career in journalism when I was in college. I majored in economics rather than math. After graduation, my first job was with the Conference Board, where I produced a short pamphlet on gold and world monetary problems. I worked to provide members with information for informed business decisions, and wrote for the monthly business magazine.

Soon after college I got married, moved to the suburbs, and started a family. I volunteered in the community and produced the monthly newsletter for the local chapter of the League of Women Voters. In the age before PACs, this grassroots feminist organization was nonpartisan, often effective, and always informative. I enjoyed the voter education activities, and spent a busy year hosting the citizen information hotline phone.

After I became divorced, I reviewed my skills and decided that a mere BA would not suffice for my return to the job market, so I entered an MBA program. At the same time, a childhood friend suggested that since the world always needed CPAs, and since I was good at numbers and paid attention to detail, I should become a CPA. While attending classes at a local university, I worked part-time for a local CPA. I prepared input for tax filings, did write-up work, and imagined setting up my own small practice after graduation.

When I finished graduate school, I went to work at a Big Eight firm, without the encouragement of the placement officer. In those days, women were just beginning to enter the leadership ranks; the entry-level group that started at the firm when I did was only one-third female. I enjoyed the work; the environment was filled with smart people on the staff and at the clients, large and small. Some client assignments reminded me of my father’s old office. I always enjoyed taking inventory and learning about each unique business process. After several years I joined the special projects team, where accountants worked for clients with special reporting and analysis needs. I was a consultant on the audit staff, in a time before the consultants and accountants split up the arena of client services.

Through it all, I was active in the NYSSCPA. I participated on a panel about women in public accounting, and served on the committee for the advancement of women in the accounting profession. I left public accounting for financial services, and then, in the time of downsizing, I switched to a part-time financial position with a not-for-profit. At the same time I also worked part-time as financial principal for a small financial services startup headed by a talented entrepreneur.

It was nice to receive challenging assignments and be rewarded for hard work. I appreciated the flexible work schedules. I liked the variety of assignments amidst the business cycle deadlines. Three years ago I began to plan for early retirement. The not-for-profit needed a full-time controller, who I helped hire and train. And the entrepreneur sold her successful business to a large financial institution.

I stopped working full-time, but have not stopped being a CPA. For eight years I have served on the NYSSCPA Professional Ethics Committee, and last year I became chair. Our mission includes educating the membership, upholding the bylaws, and writing a monthly column on “Ethics in Action” for The Trusted Professional. I find the committee work worthwhile, and relish being among smart, serious, and hardworking people.

This column asks whether, given a chance, we would do it all again. Since I became a CPA after starting a family and without having previously considered an accounting career, the question initially gave me pause. The truth is that I like what I have done and what I do now. I doubt I had the insight years ago to avoid the detours I wound up taking along the way. As a college student in a liberal arts college, I did not want to be a CPA, but I knew and always respected our family CPA. I am glad that a friend encouraged me to study and become a CPA. The choice has proven to be a good one for me.

Rona L. Cherno, CPA, is chair of the NYSSCPA Professional Ethics Committee and was until recently a consultant to a financial services company. She volunteers in a literacy program in the New York City public schools and in a program to guide women back to the workforce and off of public assistance.