u/Question-Throwaway7

Hi all, just wondering if I can expect to be competitive enough to potentially land a role in a big4 entry level position in Late 2027 with what my experience will be by then.

Coming from a Bachelor of Arts in Business Communications, My CPA Ontario PREP GPA is listed as a 75.33%, and should be 76% by the time I’m done Prep. By August 2027, I’ll also have Core 1, Core 2, and both electives finished in PEP. At this point, I’d be transitioning into whatever the new CPA Pep pathway designates for me.

I also will have about 4 years of AR Clerk experience at this point working for my (small) family business. I’m aiming for a late 2027-Jan 2028 start, at which point I’d be near done if not done PEP depending on how transitioning works. Would all this be enough to be competitive and land an entry-level, PERT qualified role in Toronto/Vaughan?

Thanks for the help!

Am I Competitive Enough for a B4 Entry-Level Role (Toronto)?

Coming from an untraditional background. My degree is a Bachelor of Arts in Business Communications, my CPA Prep cumulative grade is about a 75% however. I have 3 years of AR Clerk experience in my family’s business, and by the time I’m applying for entry level roles (September 2027), I’ll have CPA Pep Core 1,2, and both electives done and will be about to write the CFE if anything goes according to schedule.

My goal is to land a Big 4 entry-level role in Audit, and build out my resume there for 4-5 years before being able to move to industry for WLB. Given my non-traditional background, what are my chances at landing a B4 role?

I am a Penguins fan, so let’s get that out of the way. But I’m also a huge Sharks truther and love what’s being built in San Jose. Firstly, I think Nurse and Trouba are fantastic additions at just the right time and with the right length in salary. Neither are top-pairing defenceman, but neither are AHL-level either. Both are incredibly solid top-four defenceman with years of veteran experience on different teams and with different degrees of success. I think having both (like Toffoli) will pay dividends in ensuring the team isn’t having a Hawks like rebuild where Celebrini and co have to learn everything on their own.

The cap situation has been a big point of contention, but I don’t see how this situation could get out of hand due to the insane rising cap. Currently, the Sharks have 14m in cap with Graf to sign. Assuming he like 4 mil, let’s assume 10m this year and therefore a projected 49m(!) next July 1st.

Let’s say Celebrini and Smith get a combined 25m, Cagnoni breaks out a bit and gets similar to Jordan Spence at 4m, and Askarov establishes himself as a starter-ish and gets 6m, that’s 35m taken up. 14m in cap space to fill out the roster.

Then the year after that, that would still leave about 38m two summers from now. Assuming Misa gets 12, Toffoli takes 4, Cherny breaks out and takes 7, and Dickinson breaks out and gets 10, you’re still left with about 5m in cap space to fill out a roster without any further moves being made. The *only* potential issue is Stenberg in 3 years (This is only assuming he signs an ELC this year and plays the next three years), but you can always move out one or two of Marchment, Wennberg or Sherwood if needed.

Lin and Verhoeff aren’t going to be playing this fall, so 1 + 3 ELC years takes both of them up to their first RFA contract the exact same summer both Trouba and Nurse come off the books.

TLDR: The Sharks are still well within an acceptable spending rate that will allow them to keep their young stars without having to move out vets except for one crucial point *if* needed. In the meanwhile, young superstars like Celebrini, Smith, Misa and Dickinson will get to learn from veterans like Marchment, Sherwood, Trouba and Nurse.

I’m in about week 4 of “quitting” (still expect to get high once a month or occasionally), and I’m experiencing some pretty bad brain fog and more importantly, motivation issues. I’ve been in a program working towards my CPA for a year now, this is semester four (each semester is about 2 months with an exam at the end).

During the first three semesters, I was smoking a DHV, nighttime only, usually after midnight ish, studying in the day time. I did well on the exams, with each semester my marks increasing.

A couple weeks into this fourth semester, about 4 weeks ago, I decided to quit weed, with my exams in 4 days, I’ve found myself having ZERO motivation or ability to concentrate on studying for some reason. Usually, I’d get up, have a weed hang over I’d have to shake off, and get to reviewing, this week, I’m finding myself avoiding reviewing at all. (I am also in a cut to be fair but idk how much that’s contributing).

Has anyone dealt with this? Super brain fog and concentration/motivation issues AFTER quitting?

Stats out of the way first. I’m 5’5-5’6, 156lbs for at least the last two weeks (about June 3rd), 26yo male.

Diet wise, I have a 320cal snack wrap from McDonald’s before the gym. My dinner which I turn into 2-3 meals during the day is a meal prepped pasta and extra lean beef combo. I measure out every ingredient, and it usually comes out to about 700-800 calories per dinner. Dessert is a ninja Creami, 2 scoops of protein powder, 125 cals each, with unsweetened almond milk (30cals for 250ml) and a handful of sprinkles (40 ish cals at most). On the high end, that’s 1450 calories a day each of these days with zero snacking.

I also weight train for about an hour in a 3 days on, one day off cycle. I’ve also been walking 90 minutes to hit 10k steps at about a 3.2-3.3mph pace for 11 ish days as well.

All this to say I’m in at least a normal deficit if not an aggressive deficit. Yet I’ve been stuck at 156, with a temp jump to 157 and temp drop to 155 for two weeks. I don’t get it, am I just burning fat and gaining muscle (lol) or is my metabolism somehow so fucked up that it’s not a deficit?

Thanks for any and all advice.

Edit: Some more information, before this two week period, I had “reined in” my diet somewhat and went from 162 down to 156-157 in three weeks which my normal weight training. The last two weeks specifically are where I’ve introduced 10k steps a day, along with strictly tracking my diet which has led to the stall I’m confused about.

Hey all, I graduated with a business communications degree from BrockU a few years ago. I’ve been taking CPA Prep courses with CPA Ontario, should be done PREP in October and starting Core 1 and 2 (hopefully together) late in the year. I expect to be done PEP by late 2027, at which point I’d be looking for an entry level role to start building up hours.

In addition to my degree, I also have a few years of Quickbooks experience as an AR clerk for my parents company, and will be trying this summer to expand my roles into billing and some strategy/projections as well.
Through the 5 PREP courses I’ve taken, my GPA is a 74.96, and I aim to push it close to 80. (Not sure if it’s that or PEP grades that get taken more into account).

It’s looking like I’ll either go into Tax or as a Junior Financial Analyst.

Thanks!