I’ve been a CPA for 15 years and a controller for 10.5 and also have a background in public accounting. I feel I am very qualified for a number of roles, but I have spent the past year working exclusively as a fractional controller for NetSuite clients. My current role was changed, so I’m ready to move on. I would love to stay in the NetSuite realm, and more specifically as a consultant. I’ve been looking and looking, but I’m finding that I do not have the minimum experience for what I would like to do, so believe I’m going to have to take somewhat of a step backwards and accept a role that’s not necessarily commensurate with my years of experience as a whole. Wondering how other folks got into the consulting industry…and bonus if you know of anyone who might be hiring for a more junior level role and would be willing to train and provide opportunities for growth.

If you're a CPA with NetSuite experience I am willing to bet a number of firms would find you a great candidate to be a NetSuite consultant - at least for us there's something of a dearth of accounting-knowledgeable people within the NS consulting practice, the ones we do have are somewhat spread thin.

I agree with @al3xicon. most important thing in your position is to be able to tie your CPA/controller knowledge and experience with what NS does and talk to your clients. I would also look into working for NS itself or any partner. I bet you will get great responses to your resume, @Megan Landers

Thank you both @al3xicon and @Karina. I was leaning towards a partner as after going through several implementations with clients who had started using NS implementation teams, I got the sense they were really lacking on the accounting knowledge. Any thoughts on how relevant NetSuite certifications are at landing roles like this? I've read pretty mixed opinions.

Unfortunately, yes.

the fact you have a CPA + accounting experience means more than certifications. As you know there are not many professional tests that compare with the CPA tests (coming from the fellow CPA and former controller). It will take you about a year to get well acquainted with NS insides to pass all five tests. But no one will pass a CPA test after a year LOL. Also, may I ask why partner and not NS itself?

@Karina I did manage to get my CPA in 1 year - 1 section per quarter and passed the first time thank goodness! Re: partner vs NS, I have just heard some horror stories about NS implementations. I personally have worked with some good teams from NS, but the majority of the feedback has been that a partner comes in to do cleanup and costs $$$ more than it should have. I'm sure this is highly dependent on luck of the draw and complexity of implementations (not to mention the client lacking anyone qualified to lead the implementation from a project or accounting standpoint), so I do take it with a grain of salt. When I previously looked at NS roles, I was honestly scratching my head on what role to even apply for. I took another look today and seems like "Principal Consultant" might be the vertical I'd want to look at. Thanks for prompting me to take another look!

@Megan Landers I'd recommend you apply at RSM. We're one of the largest NS partners and the company actually started as an accounting practice.

@Megan Landers I'm just catching up on some of my slack community channels of interest, and would love to connect with you if you're still on the search! Your background is very similar to mine, and the specific void my consulting business fills - CPAs/seasoned controllers/technical accounts/NetSuite experts (we offer certification program incentives, and tbd on role, we require certain certs within first 90 days of onboarding).