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Well, I just got laid off, so I guess I'll have more time to concentrate on breaking into the industry.
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Dec 31, 2010 01:31
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Hey guys, just dropping in with a question. I'm currently studying accountancy. I'm 6/8ths done in the first year. Will have completed 8 units (1 full time year) in the coming semester - I'm in Australia, so I don't know how different it is to you guys in America. I've noticed that there are cadetships going positions in the big 4, specifically targeting first year accountancy students. What do you have to say about peoples successes with applying for this? Also, apart from vacation programs, how can I improve my chances for being accepted, i.e. public speaking classes, community involvement? Note: Couldn't do vacation work as I needed paying employment for living. I'd really love to get a cadetship, as I enjoy working full time whilst studying part time. Further, if the time spent at work can count towards my hours for the CA, that would be really awesome - but do they allow for this? A bit about myself: GPA: 5.667 out of 7 (credit gpa leaning towards distinction. Would have got a flat 6 if I only got between 3-5% for all of my final exams, dammit!). I don't know how this transfers to the American GPA system, though. Location: Brisbane, Australia. Age: 22 (going on 23) What have I done at Uni?: Joined the accountancy club, worked whilst studying, participated in the business skills program (Entrepreneurship), volunteered for orientation week at university (introducing the new students to the campus, showing them around, doing a presentation), and I have recently joined the Toastmasters public speaking club. Krakened fucked around with this message at 06:15 on Jan 4, 2011 |
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Jan 4, 2011 05:25
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So, after college, is it possible to have a successful career as an accountant without having to work for Big 4 firms? I'm not totally confident my GPA will be high enough when I graduate, and I've heard the hours there are the worst out there. Are there good alternatives or am I just trying to have my cake and eat it too?
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Jan 8, 2011 03:28
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Calcaneus posted:So, after college, is it possible to have a successful career as an accountant without having to work for Big 4 firms? I'm not totally confident my GPA will be high enough when I graduate, and I've heard the hours there are the worst out there. Are there good alternatives or am I just trying to have my cake and eat it too? It's very possible. There are tons of medium and small sized CPA firms out there, that are well respected and pay well. There are tons of industry positions as well. Does any one know where I can find a good outline of the various career paths a CPA can take?
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Jan 8, 2011 05:03
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Does anyone have opinions on the Washington Center internship program? My girlfriend is looking into it for her field, but it sounds appealing for accounting too. Housing is paid for, but I got bills, man! Do those internships also pay? E: A couple searches say negative. drat. As a junior in fall 2011, will there be paid internships available to me locally in the Boston area? VVV. Wait, it pays that or costs that?! Moneyball fucked around with this message at 05:20 on Jan 8, 2011 |
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Jan 8, 2011 05:08
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Moneyball posted:Does anyone have opinions on the Washington Center internship program? My girlfriend is looking into it for her field, but it sounds appealing for accounting too. like ~30k IIRC, but maybe they've made cuts since last time I looked into it.
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Jan 8, 2011 05:14
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Krakened posted:Hey guys, just dropping in with a question. I never did a cadetship but was in a co-op program, which involves working full time for 18 months (3 separate firms) while studying part time and extending the commerce degree from 3 years to 4 years. I was not committed to working for any of the firms upon graduation. Any time spent working full time under a chartered accountant counts towards your CA requirement. The CA requirement is 3 years, and the actual CA course will take you the better part of 2 years. Any experience over 1 year is therefore unnecessary from this point of view. I know 2 people who did cadetships (don't know them well, have never gone into detail). One of them hated it because she was stuck in audit, got paid peanuts, and got treated like a cadet (KPMG). The other agreed that he got paid peanuts and would rather have been in a co-op program, but I don't think he regretted doing it (EY). From my experience these programs generally look at your HSC marks to get an interview (don't think QLD has HSC but the equivalent, 1st year marks may replace it but they'll probably look at HSC too), plus anything that will make you stand out. You can leverage off the fact that you are 22 and have some experience doing something other than going to high school. Also all of your other extracurricular activities, as long as you fit them nicely into your resume/application. I didn't have any extracurriculars, but was 21 and had been in the army. In my interviews I like to convey the following points: - I speak English like an Australian - I don't say anything stupid and come across as both likable and interesting - I am a good candidate because... - I am interested in your business because... - I am interested in a cadetship because... - I am interested in a career in accounting because... I don't have any special tricks for coming across well in an interview. Just be yourself, unless yourself is bad in interviews, in which case be someone else. I would consider the benefits of the cadetship before doing it. If you're paying your way through uni then it seems pretty good, but if you just need summer employment then paid internships at the big 4 aren't impossible to find. Plus you'll probably get stuck in audit which is not something everybody likes. Seriously talk to a grad who does audit before deciding you want to do audit. You will spend a significant amount of time looking at documents and ticking boxes.
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Jan 8, 2011 05:53
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TheChimney posted:Does any one know where I can find a good outline of the various career paths a CPA can take? The AICPA has a lot of useful info on their web site. http://www.aicpa.org/Career/CareerPaths/Pages/CareerPaths.aspx
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Jan 8, 2011 17:53
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Hey everyone, I graduated a couple years ago from UH Manoa with a Management degree but I'm planning to take accounting classes in the summer to complete the requirements for the Hawaii CPA license. They require 18 credits in upper division classes as well as 1,000 hours working under a CPA. My question is, if I take (for example) 9 credits worth of summer accounting classes, would I be okay to work under a CPA for the time being while I complete the remaining classes the year afterwards? Thanks a bunch.
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Jan 9, 2011 12:45
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Nexus, I am not sure about Hawaii but in Indiana you can fill the required two year experience requirement at any time. College internships even count towards the requirement. I think your best option is to check with your state board but I do not see there being any issues of working before you get the classes you need.
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Jan 9, 2011 14:56
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I am graduating this semester with a degree in accounting. I'd like to work in South America (preferably argentina, colombia, or peru)- is there any resources for this? Is it at all possible? Should I get my CPA first?
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Jan 11, 2011 20:43
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40 OZ posted:I am graduating this semester with a degree in accounting. I don't know what credentials they have in South America (I'm assuming there is one, though), but it is likely not the CPA and even if it were, it would be a different process for licensing than in the US. You could look into joining a Big 4 firm in the states and then try to do a tour of duty with one of their offices in South America - I know people who have worked at Big 4 firms in the US and then did a 2-year tour in another country like England, Australia and France.
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Jan 12, 2011 04:33
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Lots of similar questions in this thread recently, so hopefully this isn't a repeat. I have a BA in English. My local college (Canadian here) offers an accounting degree, but they also have this program for people who already have degrees: http://camosun.ca/learn/programs/pacct/index.html Does this look worthwhile? Would I be at a disadvantage if I went this route rather than getting another whole degree? Obviously if I can do this faster, I'd prefer to. Can any Canadian accountants help me out with the difference between CMA, CGA, and CA?
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Jan 14, 2011 06:37
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Count me in as well as someone who worked in one career (culinary arts) for many years, and am finding myself hitting a wall where I know I can do better than what Im doing now. I took a mental health leave from cornell about 8 years ago, in the process of getting back into the hotel school. My plan is to specialize in accounting within the hospitality industry (controllership?).. is this retarded or not so? I figure there has to be a way to parlay at least SOME of the last ten years into usable experience.. even if it's just familiarity with hospitality (hotel and restaurant) operations. The hotel school does have concentrations in finance/accounting and course schedules for people interested specifically in controllership and the like. From reading the thread it seems like all that matters is getting relevant experience and credits for exams, and less so where you go to school. Between my few years at Cornell back in the day and graduating from the CIA, there are many credits that should transfer and I should be able to get a Bachelors in 2, 2.5 years.
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Feb 24, 2011 03:23
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Turkeybone posted:Count me in as well as someone who worked in one career (culinary arts) for many years, and am finding myself hitting a wall where I know I can do better than what Im doing now. I took a mental health leave from cornell about 8 years ago, in the process of getting back into the hotel school. My plan is to specialize in accounting within the hospitality industry (controllership?).. is this retarded or not so? I figure there has to be a way to parlay at least SOME of the last ten years into usable experience.. even if it's just familiarity with hospitality (hotel and restaurant) operations. If you want to work in the hospitality industry, there are of course accounting jobs there. A controller position will likely be out of your reach when you leave school, because you typically need experience in the accounting field (often times for many years) before you are qualified for that type of position. However, you could start as a staff accountant and work your way up. Personally, I think you should just go straight for an accounting degree and then look for jobs in the hospitality industry as opposed to focusing your schooling on hospitality-related accounting, but maybe someone else here has a different opinion on that.
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Feb 24, 2011 04:12
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Right I guess I meant to say that a position like that would be an eventual goal. Looking over the arts and sciences majors in say like, econ, most of the practical courses are within the hotel school (corporate/ multinational finance, tax etc etc). Also while the school is expensive, being able to transfer a lot of pre-reqs will be a big help, and I'll take the quantitative classes out of the arts school.. econ and stats, etc.
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Feb 24, 2011 04:20
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A friend's stepdad asked me to work for him at his small design/architectural firm. He started out being the only employee and doing all his own bookkeeping, but he'll be training me to take it over. The downside is that it's only 5 to 15 hours a week, depending on work load, so I can't quit my current job. I'm thinking of seeking out one or two other similar situations once I have something specific I can offer a company. I constantly see 5-15 hour part time bookkeeping jobs, and while they tend to list having a bachelors as required, I think experience can land me something. I'll be transferring to a four year college for a BS in accounting this fall, and I'll be going nights. I would love to have a couple jobs with flexible schedules relevant to my degree. I've never worked an office job before, I've only taken some accounting courses and one quickbooks course. I'm not all that great with excel, word, or outlook, so I'll have to get familiar with those, but other than that, what should I look into learning?
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Mar 1, 2011 04:24
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Moneyball posted:A friend's stepdad asked me to work for him at his small design/architectural firm. He started out being the only employee and doing all his own bookkeeping, but he'll be training me to take it over. The downside is that it's only 5 to 15 hours a week, depending on work load, so I can't quit my current job. In addition to continuing your coursework at school, definitely increase your proficiency with Excel and canned accounting/bookkeeping software that small businesses use like Quickbooks, Peachtree, etc. If you can demonstrate proficiency with those, I'd think you could get a part-time gig somewhere doing simple to moderate bookkeeping for a small business - just know your limits in terms of how much your skill set will allow you to handle until you have your degree.
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Mar 1, 2011 04:33
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Rockets posted:Lots of similar questions in this thread recently, so hopefully this isn't a repeat. I wouldn't bother with another degree if you want to do a CMA designation. CMA Canada offers an accelerated program that's aimed towards people with little to no background in commerce/business admin/management. You'd start it in September and would be able to sit for the entrance exam in June. Differences between designations: CA is for public accountants that do audit and tax work. CMA's tend to work in industry. However, CMA's can do extra training and become certified to do audits and plenty of CA's do work in industry. In fact, now you don't even need to work at a proper CA firm to get your designation. There's a lot of similarities between CA/CMA. I'm not really familiar with CGA, out here in Atlantic Canada it's kind of looked at as a lesser designation. CA/CMA are more rigorous and have higher entrance standards than the CGA. Edited for disclaimer: I just started the CMA-MBA program.
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Mar 1, 2011 04:47
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Rockets posted:Lots of similar questions in this thread recently, so hopefully this isn't a repeat. I'm working on a BA in English and it's too late to switch to accounting, if I want to graduate anytime soon. However, you can have a degree in any field. But you have to complete 51 credits of accounting pre-reqs if you don't have a Bachelor's of Commerce. At least, that's how they do it in Ontario for Chartered Accountants.
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Mar 2, 2011 03:31
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Would I have to go some top tier state school in order to have a chance at the Big 4? I'd like to go UIC (Illinois) but if I go there I need to get a Masters since they won't let anyone with a Bachelors already enroll in any of their Business degree programs. I am thinking of trying something else like Lewis University or Governor State, but am worried it could negatively effect my prospects.
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Mar 2, 2011 05:56
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Yeah I guess I have the same question -- as heart set as I am to return to my old school (Cornell), University of Baltimore has an accounting program that costs less for four years than one semester at cornell does. So how important is the school?
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Mar 2, 2011 22:02
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It seems to me that the bigger effect lies with whether or not the firms do any recruiting at your school. If a particular firm that you want to work for doesn't recruit at your school, your chances of getting in right out of college are extremely reduced. This goes for the Big 4 as well from what I have seen.
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Mar 2, 2011 22:29
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Walk Away posted:It seems to me that the bigger effect lies with whether or not the firms do any recruiting at your school. If a particular firm that you want to work for doesn't recruit at your school, your chances of getting in right out of college are extremely reduced. This goes for the Big 4 as well from what I have seen. I agree with this. Most of the people in my group at a Big 4 come from 7-8 schools in the Northeast (as our office is in the Northeast) and we not only recruit at those schools, but usually have partners who are alumni. The alumni factor plays a huge role as well - up until a few years ago my firm was the only Big 4 that recruited at my college, mainly because a partner in my office who runs our group nationally graduated from there. For what it's worth, the people who aren't from those few schools come from all different educational backgrounds, from state schools to top tier schools.
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Mar 3, 2011 04:24
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Just adding that my firm has really shrunk the amount of schools it recruits from. The following applies to my firm itmay not apply to others: Also while its important that the school you go to is recruited by a firm it maybe equally as important to find out what offices of that firm recruit at your school. The more well known your school is the easier chance you have of getting anon local office. For instance, say you go to a small school in Missouri and you want to get into the chicago office. Does the Chicago office send people to the school or only st Louis? If it's only st Louis then you may have a harder chance to get into the Chicago office unless you are a super star. Now you'll be able to transfer to chicago but you won't be able to start there. You'll find "regional" offices are usually staffed by students who graduated from local schools while bigger offices usually are more diverse but still usually well known/larger state schools. Unlucky Sven fucked around with this message at 06:14 on Mar 4, 2011 |
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Mar 4, 2011 06:10
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Do any of you guys have experience with governmental accounting jobs? More specifically, auditing state agencies. I had a 2nd interview today for a state auditor gig and since it went really well and there are only a few other candidates, I am thinking I have a really good chance of getting an offer. I love my governmental accounting class I am taking this semester and find the idea of auditing state agencies interesting, so I don't mind taking the pay cut compared to what I would get elsewhere. However, I am a bit concerned that I might be limiting myself to nothing but governmental work if I do it straight out of college without paying my dues at a typical CPA firm first. Would the governmental auditing skills I gain translate to typical business audits? Or are there enough differences where I might be at a disadvantage if I start with governmental first and decide to move elsewhere at a later date? Carlton Banks fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Mar 23, 2011 |
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Mar 23, 2011 03:41
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Carlton Banks posted:However, I am a bit concerned that I might be limiting myself to nothing but governmental work if I do it straight out of college without paying my dues at a typical CPA firm first. You will likely be a little more limited. That said, you're going to have a hell of a lot easier of a time starting out most likely as far as hours worked is concerned. If you start in govt you might as well stick around because the benefits are so solid.
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Mar 23, 2011 07:16
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gmilo posted:You will likely be a little more limited. That said, you're going to have a hell of a lot easier of a time starting out most likely as far as hours worked is concerned. If you start in govt you might as well stick around because the benefits are so solid. Couldn't agree more. I went from banking to government and now back to banking. Like them both and the government gave me some great experience and they have the best benefits around. Wish I still had those kinds of benefits...
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Mar 23, 2011 13:27
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Accountigoons, Help me understand a thing. Bank of America is trying to get (and was denied) approval to increase their dividends: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704050204576218270988958288.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection Yet their 2010 Income Statement declares a loss of $1,244 B: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=71595&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1518487&highlight=financial Can you help me understand where the money for dividends is coming from? I thought that a positive Net Income is required to funnel cash into Retained Earnings and then can it be distributed as Dividends. Is it from here?: Normalized Income After Taxes 372.5 Normalized Inc. Avail to Com. 50.5 http://tinyurl.com/68hrhb6 What is this normalized business? Are they trying to subsidize the dividend using their tax return, with $50M available to "Com"mon Stock?
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Mar 23, 2011 15:14
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If you look at that press release and scroll down to 'capital and liquidity management' they have some more relevant information. The net loss was created by a 2.0 billion goodwill write-off (not a cash expense). They have almost 69 billion in retained earnings on their balance sheet according to Google. So to answer your question, they have plenty of cash and retained earnings to issue the dividend (depending on whether or not you ask the bank or the Feds, obviously.)
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Mar 24, 2011 00:10
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Got it, thank you.
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Mar 24, 2011 14:25
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So I'm basically finished with my 150 credit requirement, will graduate after this upcoming Fall semester. I have no internship or accounting work experience, though I have a few connections to getting into a firm. Two relatives either work for a firm, or a close friend does. Right now I'm interning through New York state, my county to be specific, in the Social Services department. I'm working with people who have zero accounting education basically, just reconciling medicaid and data entry bullshit. It's 20 hours a week required and it's unpaid. Is this a waste of my time? Should I be studying for the CPA and registering while looking for better employment and internship opportunities? I'm also not positive accounting is for me. I feel like tax would fit me better as I enjoy the idea of it, though everybody else seems to hate the idea of it. I made the dean's list last semester taking the most difficult courses supposedly (adv. accting, tax) and did well in tax 2 as well. Will this make a difference when looking for a job?
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Jul 14, 2011 03:59
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knox posted:So I'm basically finished with my 150 credit requirement, will graduate after this upcoming Fall semester. I have no internship or accounting work experience, though I have a few connections to getting into a firm. Two relatives either work for a firm, or a close friend does. Right now I'm interning through New York state, my county to be specific, in the Social Services department. I'm working with people who have zero accounting education basically, just reconciling medicaid and data entry bullshit. It's 20 hours a week required and it's unpaid. Is this a waste of my time? Should I be studying for the CPA and registering while looking for better employment and internship opportunities? If you're interested in tax, public accounting is probably the best place to start. Depending on the size of the firm they might try to designate you as audit staff or tax staff, or you find one that lets you do a little of both. You might like some of the audit stuff more than you think.
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Jul 14, 2011 04:34
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I amassed around 30ish credits from age 19 through 26 at a community college, going to school, leaving, going back, leaving etc. Finally, I'm able to keep the momentum going, and between spring and summer I've completed 37 credits since starting again. I'm motivated, but I don't want to pat myself on the back too much, especially since I respect people who flew through school by 21 a lot more than what I'm doing. Now where to go from here? I transferred to Salem State University, and I'm in the BS Accounting program. I'll have 55 credits until graduation, and I'm leaning towards two options: 1. Take a somewhat relaxed courseload of 15 credits across Fall '11, Spring and Fall '12, and fitting in 10 credits between winter and summer. This will end up costing more, taking longer, but I will probably have a higher GPA 2. Take more classes (including easy community college course I can take online and transfer over) and try to get done by the summer, so I can start work in the fall. If I go option 1, is it realistic to get an internship for summer '12, get hired by the same company in the fall, and finish up my degree going to school at night? I'll be 28 by then and I'm impatient. 
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Jul 14, 2011 09:32
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Hey guys. I'm an accounting grad student about to wrap up my last course at the beginning of August. My GPA, pending the last course, is 3.418 (my middle semester, I had 5 somewhat tough classes and a 5 hour total daily commute--so that hurt). I haven't been hitting the job applications very hard, but I do have my resume out to a few recruiters. If I hold out for a bit and churn through my CPA exams starting the winter quarter (giving myself all fall to study, do Becker for MC and Gleim for sims), is that going to hurt my employment chances or help--assuming I pass the 4 fun sections on the first shot?
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Jul 26, 2011 13:01
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SavesTheLava posted:Hey quick question. So as an undergrad I wasn't a business major, I graduated with a degree in history. As you can imagine the job prospects for history majors were less then none so I took some classes at a local community college in accounting and loved it. So now I'm currently getting my MBA in Accounting at a fairly good business school and was wondering since I don't have a real accounting degree, how would this affect me in my job search when I graduate? I want to work at a public accounting firm, but I'm nervous that because its only a MBA in Accounting I'll be at a disadvantage. So lets say I want to work at one of the big 4 firms, would I even have a chance? I am basically in this exact situation, terrible undergrad degree, taking accounting courses at community college and liking it, planning to go back for accounting degree. I was planning on returning to get an undergrad accounting degree (at the same university I got my first degree at so my original credits could carry over), however I just thought a few days ago about maybe going back to get a masters instead... how would this compare to getting the undergrad degree? Would an accounting undergrad look better than an accounting masters? I feel I would be missing out of a lot of courses and the whole recruiting/internship thing if I went for masters. abagofcheetos fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Jul 27, 2011 |
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Jul 27, 2011 02:00
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Depending on your undergrad degree and where you would be getting certified, you might not have the requirement to sit for the CPA exam if you just got your masters in accounting. You would need additional classes in business.
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Jul 27, 2011 03:05
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Would it look bad on my resume if I had a sparse/non-existent job history right out of school? I was thinking of getting a job with the IRS or do independent book keeping for local businesses, and the book keeping I have been doing to pay for college has not been for anyone reputable enough to put on a resume and hope for employment.
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Jul 27, 2011 03:15
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I don't know if anyone had posted this here, but there is a thread going about the CPA exam specifically. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3372349 There is a lot of good advice in there from people who have already taken the exams or who are currently studying for it. Walk Away fucked around with this message at 02:43 on Jul 28, 2011 |
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Jul 27, 2011 23:19
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numerrik posted:Would it look bad on my resume if I had a sparse/non-existent job history right out of school? I was thinking of getting a job with the IRS or do independent book keeping for local businesses, and the book keeping I have been doing to pay for college has not been for anyone reputable enough to put on a resume and hope for employment. There is demand for campus hires so you'll still have a shot at landing a decent job out of school, but you'll likely be going up against a lot of other candidates who have experience and/or internships. If you graduate with a good degree and have a solid GPA with a demonstrated willingness to study for and take the CPA exam, then I think you would only get passed up for a job because other people look better and not because you look bad.
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Jul 28, 2011 03:12
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