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CatfishClyde posted:I have been considering this for about a week now, I'd be applying to UNC. Do you find it enjoyable? Was it difficult to get in? My undergrad GPA was not great but my Grad school GPA was pretty good so I figure that would trump undergrad. I didn't think UNC was hard to get into. I had a sub 3.0 GPA and I got in, but I don't know if going there for undergrad helped me with that. I chose to go go Charlotte instead since I felt that it was a better fit for me overall. All night classes, downtown, and I felt it'd be easier to find a job if things went south for me during the fall recruiting season. Really all of the larger cities recruit from the well known schools so you should be fine.
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Feb 18, 2015 14:05
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Are fall internships with big 4/national firms a thing or do they pretty much only recruit for spring and the summer? Im going to be graduating December 2016 and I'm wondering if my only shot at an internship will be during the recruiting season this coming fall.
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Feb 18, 2015 16:49
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I believe they'll be doing recruiting in spring as well.
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Feb 19, 2015 01:12
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Got my CA first-half-year modules last Friday. One of my folders is stuffed though so I need to get a replacement. Still job hunting though - three months with no interviews sort of blows. I really don't want to go back to BAS but at this rate I'll have no choice.
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Feb 23, 2015 00:49
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Butt Soup Barnes posted:Are fall internships with big 4/national firms a thing or do they pretty much only recruit for spring and the summer? Im going to be graduating December 2016 and I'm wondering if my only shot at an internship will be during the recruiting season this coming fall. My impression is that there's two internship seasons - winter and summer. Winter is actual busy season, summer is something like June-August.
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Feb 23, 2015 01:23
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Audax posted:My impression is that there's two internship seasons - winter and summer. Winter is actual busy season, summer is something like June-August. Well after losing most of a nights sleep from f5-ing the site, I found out I passed REG with an 81! I'm halfway to becoming a CPA!
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Feb 24, 2015 14:27
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After 2 1/2 years of half assed studying, and two 74's on BEC, I finally finished off the tests. I have to wait for some packet to come into the mail and then fill out some ethics exam apparently.
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Feb 26, 2015 05:33
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Do any of your firms set clear benchmarks for performance and salary/bonuses? I am working at a firm that has a billable hour goal that no one has ever hit in the years I've been there. The one year I busted my rear end to get close to it I saw a negligible increase in compensation compared to past increases. I am finding it hard to justify working the crazy hours anymore when theres no reward for it and no hammer for being a few hundred under it.
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Feb 26, 2015 07:18
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Dogo posted:Do any of your firms set clear benchmarks for performance and salary/bonuses? I am working at a firm that has a billable hour goal that no one has ever hit in the years I've been there. The one year I busted my rear end to get close to it I saw a negligible increase in compensation compared to past increases. I am finding it hard to justify working the crazy hours anymore when theres no reward for it and no hammer for being a few hundred under it. Ugh. I loving loathe half-assed compensation plans in general. If I ever become an entrepreneur/manager in some business I really, really want to make a compensation system that has a monetary incentive to always bust rear end no matter what.
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Feb 26, 2015 10:37
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How's everyone's busy season going? So far my firm has had two accountants with 7 and 15 years of experience leave the industry and we've had to fire two administrative positions for various reasons. Despite being down four people, we've somehow managed to get more returns out the door while at the same time people are working fewer hours than last year 
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Mar 9, 2015 16:47
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Does anyone happen to have any words of encouragement for a soon-to-be graduate? I'm finishing a double undergrad major in accounting and finance this May at a private college, and have worked harder in school than I ever thought possible in order to get on track to graduate Summa Cum Laude. After being ignored by the Big 4 for two years running as far as internship opportunities go (and ultimately settling for another internship), I finally managed to get my foot in the door at both KPMG and EY. The former says they're still deciding whether they will be hiring for this fall, but I was told by HR to call them the second I get a job offer so that they can expedite the process and hopefully get me in for an interview. As for the latter, my initial phone interview went well, and in February I got a call back to come in for an interview this Friday the 13th. I just got another call from them a few hours ago, and now--two days before the interview--they cancelled to say that they have frozen the interviewing process as they, too, may be done hiring this year, but "thanks for understanding!" I've had my sights set on this since 2010 (thanks thread!), pouring my heart and soul into building up the most attractive resume I could, and hearing that just took the wind out of my sails like I can't begin to describe. It was foolish of me to put all my eggs in the proverbial basket of the Big 4; I guess I've bought way too far into the "work hard and you can do anything you want" mentality. Nothing is final, of course, and all I can do in regard to both firms is to wait things out, but the news I got today about the interview really took a festering after-Denny's poo poo on my otherwise positive outlook on life, and it's hard for me to imagine things ending up any differently than they have in the past years. I know there are a ton of other jobs out there, and I am fully aware that Big 4 jobs are filled with pain and suffering, but this was my goal. I invested myself wholly into it, sacrificed the last 5 years of my life to keep it in my sights, and now I feel like it's been taken from me without having been given a chance. I would like to hear about others out there who have experienced a situation like mine, who can relate to my frustration, who have perhaps discovered that there is indeed a Promised Land out there someplace, that golden ring of professional accounting that could help me to overcome my feelings of loss and to escape this lovely single room life above a bowling alley and below another bowling alley. I'll be spending the rest of this spring as well as all summer studying for the CPA Exam, and it would be nice to have a light at the end of that tunnel, you know?
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Mar 11, 2015 23:37
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Is moving an option? Supposedly the Big 4 in Houston were nearly hiring anyone off the street. If not, I've met several people who went to regional firms then got into big 4 soon after.
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Mar 12, 2015 02:29
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Honestly it seems really really late in the game to get in on big 4 recruiting for the upcoming fall start class. I don't know when winter/spring recruiting starts and ends but that would be way more realistic at this point than fall. At my school most people had their fall offers by November of the previous year and even the firms that had to fill spots after rejected offers finished that round by the end of January. I'm not saying it's impossible but it might be time to shift gears and dedicate yourself fully to a different goal or at least a different time frame. I hope I'm wrong and you get the call you've been hoping for tomorrow but you need to start lining up alternatives now instead of focusing on something that you no longer have control over
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Mar 12, 2015 03:29
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I think fall 2014 recruiting was wrapped up before end of November in PDX in 2013. Did you not go to the meet and greets? That's how all the Big4 people I know got their foot in - if they didn't already know people inside to forward their resumes along for them. I skipped recruiting, I had no interest of working in the Big4 and I had a connection at a finance/insurance company, which has worked out great so far. All my managers and a lot of coworkers came from Big4, after serving 3-8ish years. We have a revolving (one way, though) door with our auditors, it seems.
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Mar 12, 2015 03:47
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Turd Nelson posted:How's everyone's busy season going? So far my firm has had two accountants with 7 and 15 years of experience leave the industry and we've had to fire two administrative positions for various reasons. Despite being down four people, we've somehow managed to get more returns out the door while at the same time people are working fewer hours than last year Stuck in the never ending busy season. Surprisingly light weekly time load but between 9/30 clients, 12/31 clients, and 3/31 clients, motivation is getting hard to come by. Life is suffering.
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Mar 12, 2015 04:03
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HAIL SATAN posted:still deciding whether they will be hiring for this fall... frozen the interviewing process What market are you in? I know many of the big 4 have had some issues with revenue in smaller cities. If you're in a small market like that, a regional firm may be dominating. That may be an option. Don't know if I missed it or not, but what service line are you interested in?
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Mar 12, 2015 12:13
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If you couldn't go Big 4, I would start polishing the resume and hitting up regionals, even locals if need be. There's no shame in getting your CPA at a smaller firm.
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Mar 12, 2015 12:48
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I just received my NASBA payment coupons today, and my authorization to test on Monday. Time to order a test program. After chatting with my coworkers (6 of 8 direct coworkers on my team are CPAs, most passing in the last 0-7yrs)..all programs sound pretty equal, and like everyone here says, lots of practice testing is a good call. Gleim is what I'm currently leaning towards.
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Mar 12, 2015 15:43
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SiGmA_X posted:I just received my NASBA payment coupons today, and my authorization to test on Monday. Time to order a test program. After chatting with my coworkers (6 of 8 direct coworkers on my team are CPAs, most passing in the last 0-7yrs)..all programs sound pretty equal, and like everyone here says, lots of practice testing is a good call. Gleim is what I'm currently leaning towards. That sounds about right. I'm only halfway through all the exams but I passed both on the first try. I definitely would not have passed if I hadn't done thousands of practice questions. I went with Rogers review course and its keeping me motivated to study while working full time. I would keep that in mind while choosing a course, since the review won't do you any good if it can't keep your attention.
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Mar 12, 2015 16:49
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Turd Nelson posted:That sounds about right. I'm only halfway through all the exams but I passed both on the first try. I definitely would not have passed if I hadn't done thousands of practice questions. I went with Rogers review course and its keeping me motivated to study while working full time. I would keep that in mind while choosing a course, since the review won't do you any good if it can't keep your attention.
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Mar 12, 2015 18:00
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SiGmA_X posted:Can you say a few words as to how it's helping you keep motivated? I also work full time, but as an hourly corporate accountant, so I don't work much over 40hr. I am a little concerned about the time commitment, but I really want to get the tests over with and progress my career further. Im planning to study for ~2hr in the morning before my gf gets up, and another 1-2hr after I get to work, before starting work. I'm thinking 3-4hr a weekday and 8hr on one weekend day, for 4-6wks before each test. Im planing to take them in order of FAR, REG, BEC, and AUD. It is motivating in the sense that while quite a lot of the content is dry, Roger presents it in an easy to understand way and throws in a healthy amount of jokes to make sure you don't fall asleep. In all honesty though, the lectures and reading material were not nearly as important to me as the practice test questions. I imagine all study courses are pretty similar in what they offer for that. I work for a small CPA firm and when it's not busy I work around 40 hours. Ive given myself 10 weeks to study for each section and I think I probably could have condensed it into six weeks and done okay. As long as you're disciplined and set aside time to study consistently, you'll be fine.
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Mar 14, 2015 19:28
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Last week I applied to sit for the CPA exam and began studying for FAR (thankfully the firm I'm starting with in August paid for Becker). I'm hoping to take FAR in mid-May, then REG in mid-July. I'm a bit worried because I'm moving from Hawaii to California, and California's new CPA requirements are a lot more strict. I'm not worried about not qualifying in California, but I'm nervous about getting my exam credits for FAR and REG to transfer (if I pass). At least a few of my classmates are in the same boat as me (starting at firms in Cali in the Fall, but taking sections now in Hawaii).
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Mar 17, 2015 13:59
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What jurisdiction did you apply in? Couldn't you just apply in California?
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Mar 17, 2015 16:32
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Anecdotally I've heard that transferring test scores without all 4 completed can be a mess. Are you working in the break between school and your start date? Can you just charge through them? With Becker and no other commitments they can be done in a fairly short amount of time. I moved to another state for my offer so I just took all 4 in the couple of months before moving. It wasn't easy but it got done.
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Mar 18, 2015 05:58
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Hurt Whitey Maybe posted:What jurisdiction did you apply in? Couldn't you just apply in California? I graduate at the beginning of July. Hawaii lets you start taking the exam 120 days before graduation, California doesn't. I figured it would be easier to get some of it out of the way before I start working full time. I Good Citizen posted:Anecdotally I've heard that transferring test scores without all 4 completed can be a mess. Are you working in the break between school and your start date? Can you just charge through them? With Becker and no other commitments they can be done in a fairly short amount of time. I'm also working part time until I move, so I'm not able to finish every section before moving. I guess if it's really hard to transfer only a few sections, I could complete the rest of the exam when I'm in California, but still testing under Hawaii's jurisdiction?
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Mar 18, 2015 11:13
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That makes some sense then. You could finish up in the Hawaii jurisdiction from California and see about transferring then. I'm currently doing the opposite and testing in the jurisdiction I'll be moving to from out of state. I would talk to your academic adviser or the firm hiring you if possible, you aren't the first or last to have this problem by the sound of it.
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Mar 18, 2015 11:49
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Is it hard to transfer your CPA to CA? I thought not based on prior light research, but a classmate and two coworkers think it's horridly hard. Does anyone have personal experience on it?
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Mar 19, 2015 07:15
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Turd Nelson posted:How's everyone's busy season going? So far my firm has had two accountants with 7 and 15 years of experience leave the industry and we've had to fire two administrative positions for various reasons. Despite being down four people, we've somehow managed to get more returns out the door while at the same time people are working fewer hours than last year We have two new staff people, one of whom is good and one of whom is useless, and one new manager who is so stupid I cannot believe he is capable of tying his shoes in the morning. I'm pretty sure all he does in his office all day is watch live streaming cricket matches (?!?!)
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Mar 29, 2015 19:25
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scribe jones posted:We have two new staff people, one of whom is good and one of whom is useless, and one new manager who is so stupid I cannot believe he is capable of tying his shoes in the morning. I'm pretty sure all he does in his office all day is watch live streaming cricket matches (?!?!) To be fair the cricket has been exceptional lately. I've had a couple of off weeks for study with family and a cold that took a while to shake. On the plus side, there's still two weeks to go until the first workshop and I think I've got a pretty handle on stuff so far. Now if I could get a job...
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Apr 1, 2015 03:09
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The majority of my start class and other buddies in the office are currently available/hardly working. They're bored and telling me they're jealous that my charge ability will stay high through spring, but I would trade a week of working on this 3/31 report for a week of their quasi-vacation in a heartbeat.
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Apr 2, 2015 07:28
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I'm going back to school for a degree in Accounting Information Systems. Career-wise, what I've been seeing is a lot of openings for IT Audit positions after graduation. However, I'm more interested in the technical side of AIS. How would I go about getting into the technical side of AIS? Speaking with a Big 4 recruiter, it seems they want you to go into Risk Assurance (IT audit) at first and they promote from within to SAP consulting. Are there any other alternative career paths? Also, what are the best resources for learning more about the technical aspect of AIS? I'm trying to get into SAP stuff but the amount of acronyms and SAP-specific terms is dizzying. Also, is getting a CITP viable if I want to get into this field? Thanks
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Apr 2, 2015 10:20
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I really hope I passed Audit. I really don't want to do that test again it was awful (to me at least).
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Apr 6, 2015 19:22
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SarutosZero posted:I really hope I passed Audit. I really don't want to do that test again it was awful (to me at least). What's the audit test like? Lot's of number crunching? Haven't done the audit one for CA/CPA, only did a unit of it at uni. Speaking of numbers, I'm taking the mgmt. accounting unit in the CA this September. Joy.
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Apr 10, 2015 09:59
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It's not too much number crunching, it's transactions cycles, controls and audit reports.
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Apr 10, 2015 11:53
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ASIC v Danny Bro posted:What's the audit test like? Lot's of number crunching? Haven't done the audit one for CA/CPA, only did a unit of it at uni. Not really numbers, I think I only had 2-3 questions that had numbers at all and nothing that needed a calculator. In addition to what hurt whitey maybe said there was plenty of questiosn on audit rules/regulations and questions on how would an auditor do X?
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Apr 10, 2015 13:59
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I remember a good amount of my AUD questions being carbon copies of the questions I went through while doing Becker, and I was done in an hour. YMMV.
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Apr 10, 2015 17:27
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Holy f, all the upper level accounting and business courses required for my state's cpa (minus having the bach) can be done at the CC level for so little money. Wish I knew about this years ago.
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Apr 13, 2015 23:32
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N.N. Ashe posted:Holy f, all the upper level accounting and business courses required for my state's cpa (minus having the bach) can be done at the CC level for so little money. Wish I knew about this years ago.
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Apr 14, 2015 01:33
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Happy 4/15! Already have an interview ready! Hopefully goodbye public forever!!!
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Apr 16, 2015 01:44
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SarutosZero posted:Not really numbers, I think I only had 2-3 questions that had numbers at all and nothing that needed a calculator. In addition to what hurt whitey maybe said there was plenty of questiosn on audit rules/regulations and questions on how would an auditor do X? Oddly enough I was talking to a mate of mine who works in the same organisation as me, and she recently did CPA - I believe it was an audit module. She said it wasn't too bad, but the practice quizzes were challenging (though I suppose they'd have to be). She did the final exam now worries, though. Man, the start of my CA is coming close. I'll be registering for the September semester, and enrolling in the program in the new financial year. Good thing my work offers great study leave, otherwise I'd be in a bit of a pickle I reckon. Any pointers and tips on studying the Management Accounting unit in the CA? Cost accounting wasn't my strong suit at Uni, but I've managed to find a good mentor (so I can pick his brain).
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Apr 20, 2015 09:09
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