CPA here. Started in audit at a big four. In less than four years, I landed an internal audit position that put me into the six figure range. That's pretty normal if you can last 3-7 years in public. The sky is the limit with an audit background, you can go several directions.
So do you reccomend taking the CPA while in college? How was the job process? Did you go to a school that the big four hired from and was then offered a job before graduation?
And do you reccomend going back to get a masters? And how was the career progression? During this 3-7 year time span were you also looking at other positions or did one day another company offer you a job?
If you are going into accounting, you absolutely should become a CPA. The career progression and opportunity for those that are CPAs is tremendous, whereas those who are not CPAs have a much harder time. Personally, I've found that those that cannot pass the CPA Exam are the lower performing people anyways.
I went to a Cal State University, and had an internship lined up for my last summer which resulted in a full-time job offer. So I basically had my job 3.5 semesters before graduating. If you want to do accounting, you must do public accounting (preferably big four) to start your career. Because of that, it doesn't matter where you went to college. You will get paid the same if you are from an Ivy or any other college. The key is to make sure that your school has a good enough accounting program that the big four actively recruit from there.
I don't know the Birmingham market, but I don't think I met anyone from there during my national trainings, which leads me to believe it may be a smaller market. It is much harder to get a job in a smaller market as the positions are competitive, whereas in a bigger market (think New York, SF, Silicon Valley) you can get a job if you are a good candidate.
That's why you need to know the area you want to be in. If you want to start in Birmingham, make sure you know what schools they recruit from and attend one of those schools. You will be able to join Beta Alpha Psi which allows you to interact with the professionals frequently and will lead to an internship/job.
Otherwise, you are applying blindly for the job and it takes more work to get hired.
Career progression at public accounting = 2/3 years as staff, 3 years as senior, 2 years as manager, then senior manager until you quit or make partner. The raises (in percentage terms) are good. Personally, the hours were not too bad for me. I did have to travel up to half the year, and that got old. Recruits always say how they will enjoy travelling, I just laughed every time. There is nobody that enjoys driving 5 hours on their Sunday to Bakersfield, to work 50+ hour weeks to return late on Friday and do this for 4-6 weeks straight.
I do have my MBA, I got it right after my undergrad for all the wrong reasons. On paper, it looks great to everyone. Did I learn anything from it? No.
Get into public accounting, make it at least through your first busy season as a senior (maybe even a second) and go from there. Once I became a CPA, I was getting 3-4 job inquiries a week. I was planning to stay until manager, but I had an amazing opportunity to go to a company where I'm expecting to take over as director of internal audit in a few years plus he job requires no travel, a normal 8-5 schedule, and a 50% pay bump (into the six figures). I did not need the MBA to get the position at all.
I would only recommend MBAs to non-business undergrads, or someone wanting to go to a very prestigious MBA program for the network you get out of it. Otherwise, you are just getting the MBA to have something on paper that may impress some people.
Somewhere between 4-8 years is the ideal time to leave, if you do not want to be partner. I have found that my friends who went into tax are much more specialized, whereas those with an audit background seem to be more desirable for positions after public accounting.