CPA - work in private company without public accounting experience - Do I need public accounting exp?

Public Accounting is a great background but it may not be one that is necessary for your career. I spent the first five years of my career public accounting and got my CPA in the process. I spent the next 35 years in Corporate Accounting where I advanced from Senior Staff Accountant to Accounting Manager to Controller to CFO. My CPA license was inactive during this time. The important thing is to find a good mentor preferably within the workplace and I would suggest looking at CGMA or CMA.

Public Accounting is a great career path and certainly looks good on a resume, especially for someone in the initial phase of their career looking to transition from public to private. The question is, do you want to start over again from scratch? You have a couple of years experience, a CPA license and a position in a company that has already promoted you once. Other than a job change what does 3-5 years at the bottom of the pecking order in public accounting offer you at this point?

On the license question, it would depend on your dedication to maintaining CPE requirements and the cost associated with reactivating your license from inactive to active in MA. You may also, at some point, decide to do some side work preparing taxes or consulting where an active license to practice is required. No right or wrong answer just a matter of preference. I have not practiced public accounting in 25 years yet maintain an active license...the CPE forces me to keep current on emerging issues and guidance changes.

If you are or plan to pursue your career in private industry, a CPA designation does not speak nearly as distinctively as work experience or an MBA. There are few companies that seek a CPA designation for their next accounting hire.

Thank you very much for all the responses above.
Also thanks for the suggestion on CGMA and CMA. An additional question here, it seems the CPE credit of CPA does include some information such as cost accounting, financial analysis.

1. If it’s the case, would studying and get the license of CMA still help?
2. Or I just study those information through my CPE credits enough?

An additional question, I am currently working in a bank as a Corp accountant. Just got promoted as an officer. However, I found my salary is even below some department like client operation. It also below the range of my title when I search information in Glassdoor. (I am not sure how reliable Glassdoor is)

3. Is corp accountant so inferior in compare to other roles at the same level in the other department? Am I underpaid? (currently at about 48K base salary.) But I heard officer start at about 60k.

4. Does every level has a min base salary or promotion will always only do a percentage increase?

Not sure if I ask this question appropriate or if information enough. Please feel free to let me know.

Thank you to you all again.