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hellboundburrito posted:That being said I think he should be giving you a lot more guidance than it sounds like he is because you're not being set up for success the way you should be. This is exactly how I feel. My thoughts were that I knew nothing and he didn't teach me anything, so I felt like I wasn't getting a solid foundation in anything. He didn't even tell me how all the workpapers I got assigned tie into each other. Hell, the first two days, I reminded him I needed the audit file for the engagement and I still haven't gotten it as of today. We didn't even have a PBC list going until I realized we needed and created one on the 3rd day (he left me alone at the client on the 3rd and 4th day). I'm curious as well whether the things assigned to me are reasonable on the first day: 1) Performing a walk through on entity business processes and update the narrative 2) Fraud and Controls Assessment 3) Implementation/OE Testing of 15 lease cycle controls 4) Implementation/OE Testing of 41 entity level controls 5) Some new workpaper he asked me to create that I'm not sure why because the same information is already in the testing workpaper. hellboundburrito posted:If it goes on like that, you could consider asking to have a conversation about expectations of timing and hours Last Thursday, I actually had to ask if I could leave (it was 8:00pm already) because I didn't know what else to do anymore. I was waiting for client PBCs before I could really do any operating effectiveness testing on controls. He looked surprised, and told me he would find more work for me. Is it possible to voice my concerns to my counselor already to be switched off? I know I am new, but every time I think about whats happened so far I want to smash my head into something.
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Oct 22, 2012 06:11
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Aqualung posted:And I've never seen a junior get poo poo on in a post-engagement debrief for screwing up the budget in their first month on the job. My brother got shat on for both budget-related and audit-related stuff (despite being thrown to the lions without any proper training on what to do) after his first month or so, so I guess your experience may vary...? 
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Oct 22, 2012 13:38
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fuseshock posted:This is exactly how I feel. My thoughts were that I knew nothing and he didn't teach me anything, so I felt like I wasn't getting a solid foundation in anything. He didn't even tell me how all the workpapers I got assigned tie into each other. Hell, the first two days, I reminded him I needed the audit file for the engagement and I still haven't gotten it as of today. We didn't even have a PBC list going until I realized we needed and created one on the 3rd day (he left me alone at the client on the 3rd and 4th day). You could talk to someone to see if this is normal for your group at this time of year, if for no other reason than to just make it known you are working your butt off. However, I wouldn't ask to be taken off the job this early in your career because right or wrong you will potentially get pegged as someone who isn't a team player. Further, if you plan on sticking around for a while you might want to save your "favors" (for lack of a better word) for another time when it's truly unbearable.
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Oct 23, 2012 03:42
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I work with and around several small businesses (5-30 employees) and have a bit of bookkeeping experience years back. More recently, my work has been more along the lines of project management. I'd like to improve my understanding of accounting in order to get more out of working relationships with accountants and be better at using financial reports to improve management decision-making. Could you all recommend any books or material on the web?
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Oct 23, 2012 17:01
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Mark Kidd posted:I'd like to improve my understanding of accounting in order to get more out of working relationships with accountants and be better at using financial reports to improve management decision-making. Sorry to bother, but do you mind clarifying the bolded part? The latter part is fine, but I just want to make sure I'm understanding you correctly...
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Oct 23, 2012 23:09
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ThirdPartyView posted:Sorry to bother, but do you mind clarifying the bolded part? The latter part is fine, but I just want to make sure I'm understanding you correctly... Great question. The organizations I'm working with generally are not necessarily working with an accountant on a weekly basis, it's often once a month to help prepare reports or even less frequently than that. Since my working knowledge of the organization in question is often more detailed than their accountant's, I'd like to be able to help both parties make better use of the time they do have together. Hopefully this isn't too vague. Some of this applies to my own organization, but I'm trying to generalize to include partners I work with and orgs where I serve as a board member or have some other advisory role.
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Oct 24, 2012 00:07
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I have a small book called "The Vest Pocket Controller" which is a pretty decent overview of management-side financial accounting (and managerial accounting) - it basically has a bunch of general overview questions on different topics and explains them pretty well. As for something regarding acting as a business analyst of sorts between the outside accountants and senior management of the firm, that's a bit trickier as most books I've seen tend to focus on the POV of the public accountant (Auditor, Tax preparer, etc) rather than management - it's why a solid amount of companies tend to bring in CPAs (usually with some public accounting experience) as Controllers and/or CFOs into their firms.
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Oct 24, 2012 00:28
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ThirdPartyView posted:most books I've seen tend to focus on the POV of the public accountant (Auditor, Tax preparer, etc) rather than management Care to share? I've been dying to read some accounting books that weren't essentially textbooks.
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Oct 24, 2012 02:15
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abagofcheetos posted:Care to share? I've been dying to read some accounting books that weren't essentially textbooks. Offhand, I don't remember as I generally flip through them at the bookstore to see the format and I pick up the ones for corporate-side stuff (like "The Vest Pocket Controller") since I'm in a controllership function and never did public accounting.
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Oct 24, 2012 03:05
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I had a brief talk with my talent counselor today about getting switched off. Apparently I already have first year stress syndrome. Also I have to talk with my senior manager and partner in order to be switched off. Now that I am already on the radar, is it worth going forth with that conversation?
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Oct 24, 2012 03:32
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fuseshock posted:I had a brief talk with my talent counselor today about getting switched off. Apparently I already have first year stress syndrome. Also I have to talk with my senior manager and partner in order to be switched off. Now that I am already on the radar, is it worth going forth with that conversation? No! Look at the risk/reward. By talking with your senior management about this, you are practically guaranteed to be labelled a baby. By sticking with the deal, you will be coming out of it with a lovely experience, but still far less downside potential. Welcome to the corporate world; the lesser of two evils.
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Oct 24, 2012 06:01
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Nifty posted:No! Look at the risk/reward. By talking with your senior management about this, you are practically guaranteed to be labelled a baby. By sticking with the deal, you will be coming out of it with a lovely experience, but still far less downside potential. Welcome to the corporate world; the lesser of two evils. Yeah, I was already heavily leaning towards no and sticking it out. Luckily I got switched off of my current senior's other engagement and I am beyond ecstatic and grateful that happened. I'll be back to this shithole for a month in busy season though. Apparently as my counselor told me, the client I'm on is extremely sensitive to turnover (which I take it to mean everybody wants off because it's an insane amount of work). fuseshock fucked around with this message at 15:17 on Oct 24, 2012 |
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Oct 24, 2012 15:15
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fuseshock posted:Yeah, I was already heavily leaning towards no and sticking it out. Luckily I got switched off of my current senior's other engagement and I am beyond ecstatic and grateful that happened. I'll be back to this shithole for a month in busy season though. Apparently as my counselor told me, the client I'm on is extremely sensitive to turnover (which I take it to mean everybody wants off because it's an insane amount of work). A lot of clients are sensitive to turnover and to the extent possible, firms will try to keep recurring staff on those engagements. But I agree with the other poster, you don't want to be labeled a baby. While managers, senior manager and partners may sympathize with you, they have all stuck around this long and been in the same position as you (for many years over, most likely) and will not look highly upon a new associate who has been with the firm for less than a year asking to be taken off jobs.
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Oct 25, 2012 02:32
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A smart accounting professor once told me: "You don't get off of clients, you get onto other clients". Make some friends on other clients, then later get them to bat for you and ask to have you on their engagement. That way you get what you want and there's little to no drama. It's definitely the long-game, though.
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Oct 25, 2012 02:58
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Yeah, so I was wondering if there is any point in getting a CMA certification? From what I understand, it's more expensive to maintain than the CFA and CPA and other than being a generic managerial accounting certification thing, is there any real perk to it?
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Oct 27, 2012 21:39
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Limited perspective, but I have never once seen a job listing even say "CMA preferable" and the only person I've ever met that had one was the person over accounting at UH who pretty much had every title known to man (MBA, CPA, CFA, CIA, CFE, and probably some other ones).
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Oct 27, 2012 22:07
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I work in corporate and I finished my CMA a couple of years ago because I thought I would never get the years of public experience required for the CPA. Also, I had an accounting professor that I loved that pushed the CMA, and the corporate path. Having the CMA was better than nothing and it qualified me for my company's Top Talent program and put me in the expat gig that I'm in now. At some point, or alternatively I found out, that in my state a master's degree without experience is good enough for a non-reporting licence. So now I'm studying for the CPA to kill time and a have a goal. I passed BEC easily because I already studied the material for the CMA. I haven't tested the job market since I went abroad, so I don't know what impact the CMA will have me. When I glance through indeed.com I'll plug in CMA and get a couple of hits for MBA or CMA preferred. If you already an MBA or CPA, it can't hurt and it'll be worth doing if your still in the mindset of studying for exams. I'm able to expense my dues and cpe's so my only cost to keep up the CMA is time. Bill Brasky fucked around with this message at 00:27 on Oct 28, 2012 |
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Oct 28, 2012 00:19
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Bill Brasky posted:If you already an MBA or CPA, it can't hurt and it'll be worth doing if your still in the mindset of studying for exams. It's not so much that as it seeming to be basically a second BEC exam (with maybe a bit more detailed material) and I'm not really sure what the benefit it beyond a few fancy letters at the end of your name for a LinkedIn profile/resume/etc. At least with the CPA, MBA (although I personally found it a pretty useless degree besides the few elective courses I took since it was pretty much the same thing as my undergraduate business degree) and the CFA (which I'm working on), I know what exactly the expected benefits are and why it's worth the time studying and then doing CPEs to maintain later. Is there really that much additional stuff for the CMA that you can't learn for the CPA (and by having a Finance degree)?
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Oct 28, 2012 01:09
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ThirdPartyView posted:Is there really that much additional stuff for the CMA that you can't learn for the CPA (and by having a Finance degree)? Yeah, it's 8 more hours of BEC, with heavy emphasis on Cost Accouting. I think that there's a lot of overlap in CPE courses. However, since you already CPA/MBA/CFA, the CMA is likely overkill. Although you might be able to bang it out fairly easily. I want to get my master's next fall going part time and I'm debating between the MSA or MBA at twice the cost. Do you feel like you didn't get enough out of your MBA?
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Oct 28, 2012 02:11
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Bill Brasky posted:I want to get my master's next fall going part time and I'm debating between the MSA or MBA at twice the cost. Do you feel like you didn't get enough out of your MBA? Did you do an undergraduate degree is business? If so, it's probably not worth it as the core classes were virtually the same (maybe a few token differences). Not really worth more money unless it's your first business degree and you're interested in learning the material from those courses, IMO.
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Oct 28, 2012 03:15
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ThirdPartyView posted:Offhand, I don't remember as I generally flip through them at the bookstore to see the format and I pick up the ones for corporate-side stuff (like "The Vest Pocket Controller") since I'm in a controllership function and never did public accounting. I'm curious, what do you do on a day-to-day basis? I understand what auditors & tax advisers do, but I'm mystified as to the distinction between what treasurers and controllers do.
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Oct 28, 2012 04:05
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Vote Republican posted:I'm curious, what do you do on a day-to-day basis? Well treasurers tend to focus on cash management, such as maximize cash and cash equivalent returns and sometimes processing wires/cutting checks (other times it's staff accountants that do it) while controllers (which is my role) focus on the overall accounting function of the firm (compliance with GAAP/IFRS, Sales/Local/State/Federal Tax oversight, etc). Basically, I oversee the work done by the staff accountant at the firm and help prepare budgets and other schedules for the CFO (who tends to focus on the 'big picture' stuff of lining up lines of credit, helping to negotiate deals along with the sales team, etc).
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Oct 28, 2012 05:08
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Vote Republican posted:I'm curious, what do you do on a day-to-day basis? I know there are exceptions to this so I am not trying to generalize, but every "Treasurer" I've encountered at my clients is largely useless.
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Oct 28, 2012 08:14
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Anyone familiar with Deloitte know about their mentor program? Apparently you meet a few times at night over the summer in formal sessions, and are reviewed and possibly given an offer at the end? I don't really know what to make of it.
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Nov 1, 2012 00:04
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I'm going to a student-alumni dinner tonight and I'm not really used to this kind of networking. I'm wondering what I should be doing. I'm obviously not going to walk around handing out resumes and business cards, but should I be specifically asking about jobs, just making small talk, or what?
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Nov 1, 2012 19:53
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Nifty posted:So in other words TCC poster, you chose the right industry to work in If you like amphetamines you're gonna love accounting. Anyone else go for a regional firm instead of B4? I'd recommend it to people who are put-off by the idea of having to always work 12 hour days and electing not to use vacation days because using them makes you look lazy and shiftless. Seriously though, it's a nice change of pace when in the course of a week I'll go back and forth between doing a bank audit, preparing a 990, and doing some individual tax planning. I've only been working a year, but I feel like I have a lot more independence than I would if I had gone the B4 route. I can listen to music/radio in my office and no one gives me poo poo. I can take long lunches if I make up the time later. I only work weekends during tax season, and even then I'm only putting in 55 hour weeks. Today, for example, myself and a co-worker busted rear end at a client's prepping confirms and we were done by 3:30 in the afternoon. And we could just go home. I'm sorry if I'm bragging or rambling, but I really just don't understand how people can regularly put in these grueling 12 hour days and not want to kill themselves. Maybe I just don't have the ambition of some of the folks here. For the people who don't have their lives in the B4 what motivates you though? Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for what you do. I just don't understand it.
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Nov 2, 2012 03:15
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ShakeyDog posted:If you like amphetamines you're gonna love accounting. I'm not doubting the quality of life you describe but just to play devil's advocate I'm going to chime in. Your mileage definitely varies at a Big 4, and it largely depends on the group you are placed in. Aside from working on tax things in addition to audit, my work life sounds pretty similar to yours. I have a lot of independence (I'm a Senior, but I felt this way before too) and pretty much come in and leave when I want unless I'm at a client and have staff with me, in which case it's still my call when to arrive/leave. When I'm in the office I almost always take a long lunch with other coworkers in the office, and although I may be the exception, I've only worked 4 weekend days in almost 4 years. I definitely have times when I work a lot, but even in busy season when 55 hours is the norm, I probably only work about 50 with the exception of 2-3 weeks when I might hit 70-90. My firm is also all about flexibility these days (and if you're in a Big 4 you can probably guess by now which firm I work for) so people also have the option to flex days during the week, or come in late/leave early for things they want to do. Again - mileage varies and I know lots of people in Big 4 have the "traditional" lifestyles you hear about but I'm just saying, it's not all bad.
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Nov 2, 2012 05:15
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I think I need some advice, I'm in Western Canada and am going for the CA designation. I took the first articling job offered to me at a medium sized firm and I'm starting to think this was a real mistake. I started 5 months ago and since then I have been billing a lot of my time to General Admin because there's no work or doing simple compilations and tax returns for small clients. When I talk to people that are further along than I am it looks like its going to be a while before I start getting any assurance hours and it'll be 2+ years before being promoted from a junior. So I am pretty concerned that staying here is going to push me back further before getting the hours for my designation What I am wondering is is it worth looking into other opportunities or are other firms going to be more of the same? Before coming here I worked for 2 years in a bank doing an IFRS transition, so I have a a bit of work experience and have been crushing my CASB modules so far.
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Nov 2, 2012 05:29
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hellboundburrito posted:I'm not doubting the quality of life you describe but just to play devil's advocate I'm going to chime in. Your mileage definitely varies at a Big 4, and it largely depends on the group you are placed in. Aside from working on tax things in addition to audit, my work life sounds pretty similar to yours. I have a lot of independence (I'm a Senior, but I felt this way before too) and pretty much come in and leave when I want unless I'm at a client and have staff with me, in which case it's still my call when to arrive/leave. When I'm in the office I almost always take a long lunch with other coworkers in the office, and although I may be the exception, I've only worked 4 weekend days in almost 4 years. I definitely have times when I work a lot, but even in busy season when 55 hours is the norm, I probably only work about 50 with the exception of 2-3 weeks when I might hit 70-90. My firm is also all about flexibility these days (and if you're in a Big 4 you can probably guess by now which firm I work for) so people also have the option to flex days during the week, or come in late/leave early for things they want to do. Again - mileage varies and I know lots of people in Big 4 have the "traditional" lifestyles you hear about but I'm just saying, it's not all bad. That's very interesting! It's encouraging to hear other people talk about how they've carved out a fulfilling career in public accounting. Now that I think about it, I'm sure there's an element of selection bias here. It seems like when people talk about their B4 jobs they're usually bitching about crazy hours, but that's probably because people are more likely to go to the internet to complain than they are to talk proudly about their work. If they want to do that, they have more immediate outlets.
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Nov 2, 2012 12:57
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Well, looks like after 6 years(Due to prerequisite issues from becoming an accounting major my junior year) I will finally be graduating this spring. Thankfully, it looks like my minor and a couple of courses I had to take to maintain full time status have brought me up to 136 total credits when I graduate. As I need 150 in order to take the CPA exam, I was just wondering what you accounting goons recommend I do. As of right now, I am planning on graduating in the spring and immediately searching for a job, followed by taking part time history courses(I love history) to collect the remaining 14 credits over the next few years. My other option would be to stagger my remaining accounting classes over two semesters to delay my graduation until winter 2013, padding it with the remaining credits needed, and take an internship during this summer. I am worried that my timidness and lack of confidence in myself has probably shot me in the foot. I have not had an internship because every time I would see one offered I wouldn't apply because I didn't feel confident enough in my ability. Of course, now that I do have confidence and know that I shouldn't have felt that way it is too late to take an internship.
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Nov 2, 2012 14:43
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Regardless of which approach you want to do (either one sounds fine), I recommend trying to pass 1-2 parts of the CPA exam (at least) before graduating as you'll probably get swamped with work once you go into public accountancy (pretty much guaranteed) or private industry (depends) - I did it and thought it was one of the better ideas I ever had. 
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Nov 2, 2012 18:40
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The problem is that you need 150 credit hours now in order to take the exam and I will only have 136 upon graduation. I meet all of the other requirements besides the 150. The CPA requirements have changed recently.
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Nov 2, 2012 21:28
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jadebullet posted:The problem is that you need 150 credit hours now in order to take the exam and I will only have 136 upon graduation. I meet all of the other requirements besides the 150. The CPA requirements have changed recently. Ah - in NY they only require one Tax, one Auditing, one Financial Accounting and (I think) one Managerial Accounting class to sit for the exam, but the 150 for the licensure. In that case, I'd just take an extra year if you can afford it, otherwise you're stretching out the time to be seated.
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Nov 2, 2012 21:55
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So with an accounting degree. Did I screw myself badly by not going out for an internship? From an employability standpoint, would it be better for me in the long run to grab that final semester needed to get the 150 and do an internship in the summer, or should I just graduate this spring without the internship and complete the 150 as I go? Financially, I have a bunch of grants, though I have been using them for 6 years, and I am not sure how long I can keep using them before they cut me off. I am also losing a $2000 grant at the end of the Spring semester, and I am, as of right now, going to graduate with $30K in debt. I can pull off another semester financially, but I am not sure if it would be worth it. That being said, that $30K is looking pretty steep if I can't find a job within 6 months. In any case, I am generally ignorant about what life is like after graduating with an accounting degree, so any and all advice is greatly appreciated.
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Nov 2, 2012 22:30
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Not sure how the Big 4 and National firms look at people who are short the 150 credits - I thought they basically required that you finished it before you began working full-time for them (to ensure that you met the educational requirements and so you can focus on passing the CPA exam/doing their grunt work), but maybe they changed their policy in recent years. In private industry you might be able to convince someone to take you on as a Junior/Staff Accountant while tidying up the last few credits.
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Nov 2, 2012 22:34
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You can probably find a job in private, it won't be spectacular though. I was in the same position and took a junior accountant position. It somewhat sucked, but had some benefits to it (35 hour work week while being paid for 40). When I talked to a recruiter for PwC when I was finishing up some credits, he basically told me to come back when I passed an exam.
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Nov 2, 2012 22:50
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Get an internship for next summer (2013). Get a job offer for the following fall (2014) from that internship. Complete your 150 that fall (2013). Work on the CPA exam full time in the spring (2014). That summer (2014) either use the time to fully complete the exam, or do another internship that summer (2014) if money is tight (you would need to plan this early so that you can participate in recruiting season in fall 2013), and possibly get even another job offer. Then start one of them that fall (2014) full time. Is what I would do. But, it is kind of late to be getting an internship for next summer, so you need to explore that immediately. You don't need an internship necessarily to get a job in public, but you would need 150 for them to even finish reading your resume. Private generally don't care about 150, and would usually even help pay for you to finish it out.
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Nov 3, 2012 05:04
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jadebullet posted:So with an accounting degree. Did I screw myself badly by not going out for an internship? I 100% recommend getting your 150 and pursuing an internship. I'm not in recruiting but 90% of the new hires we get previously interned with the Firm, and I'm not sure if I know anyone in the other 10% who didn't have some sort of other internship before. I know it seems terrible to spend more money or go further in debt just for one more year, but if you really are trying to go into public, it'll be worth it. A Big 4 will barely consider you these days if you don't have your 150.
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Nov 3, 2012 07:45
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Hiya all. Just chiming in to say I've got a summer and regular semester (sem 1 2013) to go for my accounting degree, and then I'm done. I've done work experience before (a little over 120 hours in 2.5 weeks), had a fair bit of volunteer work with the tax office (filing individual tax returns, a little over 50 hours during the tax period), and am going to do more admin volunteer work during the summer. Am I headed in the right direction experience wise? I plan to look for work in the tax sector during my final semester, in time for the end of financial year & tax time. Is there anything I should be aware about i.e. the differences when applying for jobs/grad programs mid year compared to end of year? ASIC v Danny Bro fucked around with this message at 12:04 on Nov 7, 2012 |
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Nov 7, 2012 11:31
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Hey all, was hoping one of you could offer a little career advice. As mentioned earlier, I just finished my first year of public accounting and I'm thinking about what areas I want to specialize in. To give you some perspective, here are a few areas that I've developed over the last year: -Bookkeeping -Nonprofit Tax Returns (most significant one was a large land trust) -Individual Tax Returns -Corporate Tax Returns (a couple small banks being the most notable clients I worked with) -Compilations and Reviews (Primarily Non-Profits) -Internal Auditing (banks) -External Audits (mainly banks, but one large retailer) I can see a specialization in non-profits developing here, but I'm wondering if it's really what I should be focusing on (i.e. seeking out new projects). Banking is more challenging, but far more profitable and far more stressful. I like the idea of working for non-profits more than banks, but I'm also young and know that at this point I don't want to limit myself to anything. Plus we have some credit unions, which can actually be kind of fun. And I just like the idea of credit unions. Alternatively, I could take cpe classes and try to work on governmental engagements. While on the one hand, civil service is something that's always interested me, on the other I've heard that some of our jobs are god-awful with really uncooperative people. Enough about me though. Basically, what do you think are some of the more rewarding avenues that a public accountant can seek out? edit: thanks for the advice! I need to think this over some before I respond in earnest but your replies are much appreciated. ShakeyDog fucked around with this message at 02:05 on Nov 14, 2012 |
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Nov 10, 2012 02:11
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