Thinking about the accounting industry after reading the post and comments: Many accountants have non-accounting degrees, are self-taught, work without a licen

Thinking about the accounting industry after reading the post and comments: Many accountants have non-accounting degrees, are self-taught, work without a license, etc. but a license is required to “hold out as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA)” and perform some regulated services. The CPA license provides the skills/knowledge floor that other comments have mentioned so being a CPA offers signaling even if a role doesn’t require the license. There aren’t any buildings falling or patients dying but all CPAs have annual continuing education requirements (including ethics classes) and the Code of Professional Conduct has a strong focus on maintaining public trust in the profession. There’s a lot of professional judgment involved but most of the Code boils down to: keep the public interest in mind, act with integrity, be competent, do things your professional peers would deem reasonable.