Own Your Career & Level Up

Build the career you want through customized development plans, ongoing learning, leadership experiences, and dedicated support to help you reach your professional goals.

Professional Growth & Development

Career Development and Employee Engagement at AAFCPAs

AAFCPAs attracts professionals who have big dreams and goals, and we want to help them make these come true! We offer tools and resources to help our team members own their careers, be challenged, remain inspired, and grow.

Career Development & Engagement Support

Early-career professionals need mentorship and flexible learning experiences to broaden their expertise and build their professional brand. AAFCPAs’ supportive work culture provides all of this and more. Chart your own path with the support and guidance of in-house credentialed Talent Advisors. Work side by side to pinpoint and pursue specializations most rewarding to you. Gain insight and clarity, uncover personal career patterns, and learn ways in which design thinking could help you advance. At AAFCPAs, we help you form a clearer career vision and the backing to support your path.

Professional Advancement & Development (PAD) program

Our one-year, in-house incubator program provides tools to help early career professionals elevate their career management skills, including communication, organization, teamwork, and independence.

Continuing Professional Education (CPE)

At AAFCPAs, we have an in-house Learning and Development department dedicated to the professional growth of our team members. This department focuses on sourcing a catalog of trainings that enhance both technical abilities and non-technical skills essential for success. We prioritize the needs of the learner in our offerings, create tailored learning plans, and assist in fulfilling continuing professional education (CPE) requirements.

Leadership & Communication Training

Gain the training needed to build leadership skills, optimize communication, and motivate others to do their best work. AAFCPAs provides leadership training on communication, feedback, and engagement to ensure our leaders are supporting the needs of a multi-generational, hybrid workforce. This includes customized coaching sessions with a strategic partner skilled in people and culture initiatives to address the needs of specific practice areas. Beyond this, all team members enjoy interactive TypeCoach training sessions that address communication and workstyle differences, so everyone may perform at their peak based on their unique personality type.

Coaching & Professional Development

AAFCPAs invests in our leaders to enhance professional skills, job satisfaction, and long-term success. Experienced professionals may access individualized, confidential coaching delivered by trained and certified experts with educational backgrounds in counseling psychology, career development, and coaching. We also provide Group Coaching on personal and professional development topics, monthly feedback labs training on communication and workstyle differences, coaching on feedback best practices, and other focused sessions as needed to support ongoing learning and development.

Career Growth Opportunities

Build Your Career Through Learning, Leadership, and Innovation

AAFCPAs’ development-focused culture empowers you to steer your own career. This begins with what we call intentional experiences in new areas you’d like to explore. We then support those goals with customized professional development plans, continuous learning, and certified career coaching.

Just as unique to our culture are opportunities to stretch and lead. Make your mark, whether recommending an automation project or joining a new accounting standard task force. Train young professionals in your area of technical expertise or serve as an ambassador of our diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging program. We also encourage team members to think entrepreneurially and propose new areas for adding value and impact.

CPA Career Development

Zip2CPA Program: Support, Coaching, and Resources to Earn Your CPA License

Fasttrack to licensure.

Advance from accountant to CPA with support to balance your personal, professional, and course responsibilities. AAFCPAs’ Zip2CPA program clears barriers that may deter advancement.

This program combines our personalized coaching and mentoring within a manageable schedule that offers an ideal work/life balance. Master academics while gaining real world public accounting experience. Enjoy peer support, enrollment in a leading exam review course, and CPA exams paid for by the firm.

A valuable advantage of AAFCPAs’ Zip2CPA program is our planning and one-on-one coaching sessions from a senior partner—a CPA and former college professor familiar with mentoring students and assisting all learning styles. Get answers, brainstorm solutions, and prepare for what comes next. Once certified, you’ll earn a generous financial bonus.

At AAFCPAs, accountants find the backing and confidence they need to take that next step.

Leadership Insight

Why Personalized CPA Exam Coaching Makes a Difference

“In the past, we have supported structured classes and study programs. These don’t work for everyone. Our Zip2CPA program’s success is driven by one-on-one coaching, tailored to each individual’s needs.”

Jeff Mead
AAFCPAs Audit Partner & Former UMASS Lowell Professor

Jeffrey Mead

Jeffrey Mead

Partner | CPA, CGMA

Career Advancement

Clear Paths for Advancement at AAFCPAs

Let’s grow together.

What does success look like to you? AAFCPAs wants to partner with you and align your vision with a clear plan for advancement.

Hone your direction and gain confidence and peace of mind knowing your performance will be rewarded. Be part of a company where we take a genuine interest in your advancement, presenting attainable expectations and helping you reach your most ambitious goals. Our clearly defined core competencies at every level, coupled with a thorough performance review process and comprehensive level-up training, ensure you always know where you stand and how to take the next step. Let’s engage in honest conversations and seek common denominators that align our shared vision.

At AAFCPAs, you’ll tap into a full breadth of opportunities within your field and do work that motivates you within disciplines that range from audit and tax to outsourced accounting and advisory, business process improvement, wealth management, and IT security.

Let’s move up, collectively. AAFCPAs is a one-of-a-kind firm for one-of-a-kind professionals—like you.

If you want more from your career, you must take action. Contact Amy Quinn to inquire about opportunities to join our team.

Career Support & Coaching

On-Staff Career Advancement and Coaching

Achievement built right in.

Your career should provide recognition, professional pride, and growth. At AAFCPAs, we celebrate your achievement and invest creatively in new training, development, and pathways.

Our on-staff Talent Advisors help you master your current role, build a path to promotion, or transfer into new roles within the organization. Define your concentration, whether that’s tax, audit, corporate accounting, robotic process automation, data analytics, or IT security. Use in-house programs to enhance skills, knowledge, satisfaction, career decision-making, and self-advocacy. Gain continual support to grow your brand plan, leadership, and supervisory skills in tandem with AAFCPAs’ strategic goals and core values.

Certified career counseling and coaching. Individualized guidance helps you explore all your profession has to offer, whether you’re fresh out of college, mid-career, or sitting in a senior- or executive-level role.

Mary-Katharine Hardy

Director of Career Development and Engagement

Mary-Katharine Hardy

Director of Career Development and Engagement

Mary-Kate is an accomplished career development leader who helps individuals navigate their professional paths and gain clarity through thoughtful self-reflection. She describes her role as both partner and guide, coaching professionals as…

Emma Jannsen-Kennedy

Program Manager, Career Development & EngagementMS, SHRM-CP

Emma Jannsen-Kennedy

Program Manager, Career Development & EngagementMS, SHRM-CP

Emma (She/Her) is a career coach and talent advisor committed to driving the professional growth and success of staff-level team members. She leads the design and implementation of strategic initiatives informed by…

Kayla McEwen

Assistant Director, Career Development & Employee Engagement

Kayla McEwen

Assistant Director, Career Development & Employee Engagement

Kayla is Assistant Director in AAFCPAs’ Career Development and Employee Engagement team, where she supports the growth of professionals across the firm through executive coaching, leadership training, and tailored development strategies. Bringing…

Daylene PenaPerez
CPA Journey Spotlight

Building Confidence and Passing the CPA Exam with Support at AAFCPAs

AAFCPAs’ Director, Talent Advancement met with me and changed my perspective on the CPA exam. She said, ‘do not look at this as an exam of four parts that you are obligated to take to be successful in life. Look at it as credentials that will open more opportunities. Schedule one exam, study for it, and go take it. After taking it, reflect on it and see if you can do it three more times.’ I took her advice.

After successfully passing the CPA exam, I realized this exam is more about mental grit than anything else. You just need to put in the time to study and build a support system that will be there for you during those times where you are having second thoughts.

I was lucky enough to be hired by a firm that is full of mentors and coaches…. I cannot wait to see the fruits of my harvest.

Daylene Pena Perez (She/Her)

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