Business and finance

Accountant or Auditor in the United States

138 postings read · sampled 2026-09-01 · source ats

What employers actually ask for

Credentials named in the 138 postings we read, ranked by how many mentioned each one.

CPAAICPA / State Boards of Accountancy
47%
65 of 138 postings$1,500 exam · fee checked 2026-08~400 hrs prepAICPA / State Boards of Accountancy →
Bachelor's DegreeAccredited institution
19%
26 of 138 postingsAccredited institution →

What it costs

Exam and application fees plus typical self-study hours. Almost nobody needs every credential on this list — start with the top line.

Most-asked-for, on its own

$1,500CPA · ~400 hrs

asked for in 65 of 138 postings — 47%

If you earned all 1 of them

$1,500

fees checked 2026-08

400 hrs

400 hours — about 40 weeks at 10 hrs/wk

Not in the total: Bachelor's Degree — cost varies by institution.

Lower signal for this role

Credentials that barely appeared in this sample. That is not a claim they are worthless — plenty are valuable for a different job, a different city, or a promotion later. It is a claim that employers here mostly did not ask.

CFA Level ICFA Institute
1%
1 of 138 postings$1,290 exam · fee checked 2026-08~300 hrs prepCFA Institute →
CISAISACA
1%
2 of 138 postings$760 exam · fee checked 2026-08~200 hrs prepISACA →
CISMISACA
1%
2 of 138 postings$760 exam · fee checked 2026-08~200 hrs prepISACA →
CISSPISC2
1%
2 of 138 postings$749 exam · fee checked 2026-08~300 hrs prepISC2 →
Master's DegreeAccredited institution
4%
6 of 138 postingsAccredited institution →

What the official taxonomy says

O*NET surveys people already doing this job. That describes who got hired over a long window, not what employers are asking for now — where it disagrees with the counts above, the counts are the more current answer.

Education reported by people doing this job

69%reported bachelor’s degree

Bachelor’s degree69%
Associate’s degree or other 2-year degree7%
Post-baccalaureate certificate7%

Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed. Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

O*NET 13-2011.00 · pulled 2026-09-01 · percentages are of surveyed workers, each rounded separately, so they need not total 100

What it pays

BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. A different survey from the postings above, so the two do not share a sample.

$56,020

10th percentile

$83,680

median

$144,090

90th percentile

Every credential above costs $1,500 — about 5 days' pay at the median.

Who was hiring

Employers with at least one matching posting in this sample.

Current · 360 IT Professionals · SpaceX · Anduril Industries · City of New York · Infojini Inc · Integrated Resources Inc · Latitude Inc · NielsenIQ · Comprehensive Mobile Care · Datadog · HelloFresh · Lucid Motors · Bosch · Coinbase · Collabera · Divergent Technologies · Fanatics Commerce · Fivetran · PSI CRO · Rocket Lab · Specialty1 Partners · Tomra · Trucordia · Twilio · vTech Solution · Westgate Resorts · Agility Robotics · Artech Information System · Astranis · Atlas Energy Solutions · Betterment · Blink Health · Boulder Care · Braze · Carta · Circle Logistics · Cloudflare · Cogent Talent Solutions · Cognition · Culture Amp · Databricks · Decagon · DN Tanks (DN LLC) · Equinox · Ethos Life · Figma · Focus Financial Partners · Formic · Foundation Risk Partners · GitLab · Gusto · Harvey · Hinge Health · Hut 8 · Included Health · Ingram Barge Company · Instawork · IonQ · J&J Snack Foods · Mach Industries · MAT Holdings · Mercury · Morgan & Morgan · Natera · Notion · Oscar Health · Pioneer Data · Range · Samsara · Scale AI · Scout Motors · SingerLewak · Skild AI · SpawGlass · Stripe · Tomo · Ursa Major Technologies · USM · Vercel · W3R Consulting

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