Hiring is the single most consequential decision a CPA firm makes. More consequential than which software platform you use, which niche you serve, or even which clients you retain. Yet year after year, accounting firm leaders confess to making the same costly hiring mistakes and suffering in silence because the industry rarely talks about it openly.
This blog kicks off MYCPE ONE’s 10-part series on smarter hiring for CPA and accounting firms. We’re pulling back the curtain on what bad hiring really costs, why traditional interviews fail accountants specifically, and how a new generation of pre-built assessments is changing the game.
In most industries, a bad hire is painful but recoverable. In accounting, the stakes are fundamentally different. Your people are your product. A staff accountant who misunderstands revenue recognition under ASC 606, or a bookkeeper who cannot reconcile basic debits and credits, doesn’t just underperform, they create compliance risk, reputational damage, and client attrition.
Most firm partners conduct interviews focused on personality, culture, and career goals. These are important but they’re insufficient. Without a structured skills test, you’re essentially guessing whether the candidate actually knows how to do the job. A charismatic candidate who cannot calculate depreciation or reconcile accounts payable is a ticking time bomb.
During busy season, firms need bodies in seats now. The pressure to fill roles fast shortcuts the hiring process. According to LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends 2023, accounting and finance roles have seen a 28% increase in time-to-fill over the past three years creating pressure to accept “good enough” candidates.
Reference checks are largely performative. A 2022 Society for Human Resource Management study found that 87% of references give only positive responses, making them unreliable as a differentiating tool. Firms rely on them anyway because they have nothing better until now.
The firms growing fastest in the current talent market share one characteristic: they have replaced subjective gut-feel hiring with objective, structured pre-employment assessment. They test first, interview second. The result is a dramatic improvement in first-year retention and performance consistency.
MYCPE ONE Assessments was built specifically for this reality. With pre-built tests covering bookkeeping, tax, audit, QuickBooks, and CPA-level competencies, firms can now screen candidates on actual accounting knowledge before wasting valuable partner time on interviews.
Amrit Singh is a business leader with 10+ years of experience in continuing education. Helping accounting, tax, and finance professionals stay compliant with ease, he began his journey as a consultant. Learning across industries before stepping into a leadership role, he is shaped by both successes and failures. Amrit is passionate about problem-solving, building products, exploring technology, and mentoring future leaders. He is dedicated to transform continuing education, making it simpler, smarter, and more meaningful. Through his blogs and talks, he shares insights on accounting careers, CPA compliance, and the future of continuing education.
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