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jaymm posted:What would you like to know? Well, I'm currently a big 4 first year in our investment management group doing audit, and I pretty much already want to leave, so I'm just trying to hear about what my options would be. I love the industry, I really like the work, I hate literally every thing else about the experience. The fact you still work long hours is probably half the reason I want to leave, so that doesn't sound too encouraging :\ I sort of wonder what internal audit would be like at a big fund complex, and how different/similar it is to external audit.
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May 19, 2015 03:50
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To be honest, don't leave yet. I stayed until senior and it was 100% worth it. However, if you truly can't take it, then it may be time to look and there is definitely opportunity out there. Just be prepared to answer the question to why you want to leave so early (I hope your reviews are decent and you can just say that you want to be involved with a fund and doing the day to day because it's more value add). Everything else is entirely fund specific. I work a ton but that's just my fund, my friends are out by 6 every day. In entirely my opinion, I would recommend against internal audit. The work will be similar to what you're currently doing now, just for a different company (the fund). As a caveat, I don't interact much with our internal audit since they work for the parent company and not my fund itself. Fund accounting itself is fairly dull but definitely more interesting that you would normally find at say a global company. For example, I sit on the trading floor so just being able to hear their conversations and opinions on things is incredibly interesting. If you want more information about it, please feel free to pm me. If you are based in NYC, there is plenty of opportunity out there and I have a couple recruiters I could recommend.
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May 20, 2015 00:45
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Does anybody have any experience with flashcards for the Audit section? I'd prefer physical flashcards over ones from an app. I'd like to just make my own but I don't really have the time. Thanks.
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May 20, 2015 01:49
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I'm sure there's a market for secondhand flash cards from Becker or the other CPA courses.
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May 20, 2015 06:55
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Democratic Pirate posted:I'm sure there's a market for secondhand flash cards from Becker or the other CPA courses. I more meant does anyone have any experience actually using them and did they feel helpful. But I didn't think to check for secondhand cards so thanks.
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May 20, 2015 18:55
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I have used flashcards for accounting generally, and I feel like you'll have a better time just plowing through MCQs. That's what the exam is, and especially with audit you can conceivably see every single fact pattern possible.
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May 20, 2015 19:11
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Hurt Whitey Maybe posted:I have used flashcards for accounting generally, and I feel like you'll have a better time just plowing through MCQs. That's what the exam is, and especially with audit you can conceivably see every single fact pattern possible. Alright thanks for the feedback. Ill probably just make a few for trouble topics and do more MCQs for everything else.
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May 20, 2015 19:12
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SarutosZero posted:Alright thanks for the feedback. Ill probably just make a few for trouble topics and do more MCQs for everything else. Yeah like if there are certain diagrams or mnemonics you find useful, consider writing those down so you can stare at them pretest.
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May 20, 2015 19:26
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Used Becker flash cards for FAR. Did not find them useful; had better success writing down my own things that I did not know/comprehend. I basically rewrote all of Becker's books by hand.
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May 21, 2015 03:46
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SarutosZero posted:I more meant does anyone have any experience actually using them and did they feel helpful. But I didn't think to check for secondhand cards so thanks. I see. I used them as tertiary support when I was burnt out doing MCQs, but they were really only helpful for mnemonics or stuff like the COSO cube. I made the mistake of trying to go through all the flashcards for BEC for the first time the night before my test and thoroughly freaked myself out.
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May 22, 2015 05:03
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jaymm posted:advice Its funny, I have a very very good shot of getting a 2 for my year, which sort of makes me wonder if i would be the first first year to quit big 4 with a 2 rating  I think i was just venting because I was/am still in the middle of a total shitshow engagement (fortunately I was never at the office at 2am on a Sunday night, but others were), so i probably won't actually leave my first year... but if summer isn't at least somewhat relaxing I am going be to extremely tempted, and may indeed be hitting you up for more info.
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May 22, 2015 23:28
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Aw shucks I made a 71 on AUD. Where the hell do these sims come from??
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May 28, 2015 05:50
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Spartan421 posted:Aw shucks I made a 71 on AUD. Where the hell do these sims come from?? Sorry  . The sims got me really bad too. One of mine was asking me really subjective stuff and I doubt I got any of it right.
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May 28, 2015 16:11
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This question may be more appropriate here, since this thread is for accounting specifically. I'm a year away from getting my bachelor's degree in accounting. So far, the academic stuff has gone well - straight As, got just about every honour my school has, etc. On the flip side, I have squat for experience, as the hundreds of applications I've sent out have yielded all of one reply, which was done in error. I've taken my application package to HR experts, Big 4 reps, career services - none of them have anything for me other than bewilderment that I'm having so much trouble finding work. This degree will be my second undergrad, and I'm beginning to think that referring to my first degree (in journalism, by the way - great idea!) may be holding me back in some way, as employers may be seeing me as too old to be applying for "student" positions. Has anyone else done accounting as a second degree, and if so, did you refer to the first one when trying to gain experience?
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May 30, 2015 19:22
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I did accounting as a second degree. I definitely left my first degree off my resume. It may be something to mention in an interview but not on your resume. At least that is my very much novice opinion. Do you know anyone in a firm or corporate accounting? Having someone inside pass your resume along is a very good idea.
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May 30, 2015 20:36
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Internships or perish
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May 31, 2015 01:15
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N.N. Ashe posted:Internships or perish Agreed
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May 31, 2015 05:05
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My first undergrad was in history and it didn't hold me back. If you still have a year left maybe you can get into something like Beta Alpha Psi? I did that and pretty much all of us in BAP had internships by the time we graduated.
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May 31, 2015 15:52
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SiGmA_X posted:I did accounting as a second degree. I definitely left my first degree off my resume. It may be something to mention in an interview but not on your resume. At least that is my very much novice opinion. Not really. Most of the non-co-op students I know are having much the same problem as I am. They say that summer's the worst time to try for an internship in accounting, and the fact that I live in an economically depressed, mostly blue-collar area without many jobs for which to apply in the first place doesn't help either - out of the hundreds of applications I've made, I believe that two of them were in my home city. At the end of the day, though, even somewhat-legitimate excuses aren't going to matter in a year's time when employers see my resume without any experience on it and toss it in the trash without a second thought. Spartan421 posted:My first undergrad was in history and it didn't hold me back. If you still have a year left maybe you can get into something like Beta Alpha Psi? I did that and pretty much all of us in BAP had internships by the time we graduated. I don't think they have a chapter at my school, or at any school in Canada. I'm being inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma next week, if that's worth anything. (Off-topic: Is your avatar the short guy from Air Supply, or does he just look remarkably like him?) N.N. Ashe posted:Internships or perish I'm fully aware of that, hence the desperation. The last thing I need is to have two degrees - and two degrees' worth of student loan debt - and be working retail for minimum wage when I'm 30. Unfortunately, in that regard, I'm sensing that the train is coming and I'm tied to the tracks. I might just wipe everything I did before starting this degree off my resume altogether and give that a shot for a while. Might even ax the job experience I do have to get it down to one page - all I've ever done is various levels of retail, and I can't see how that's going to help me. The worst that can happen is the status quo.
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Jun 1, 2015 17:31
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Check out Robert Half. They'll find a job probably doing book keeping or something for like $15 an hour but it will be accounting related and perfectly fine as a resume builder.
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Jun 1, 2015 17:44
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Also check non-profit organizations/ volunteer groups. They don't always pay and its not the same kind of work as a corporate internship but its certainly better than nothing. They're not usually as picky about resumes either in my experience.
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Jun 1, 2015 17:53
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I'm unemployed right now and it sucks. I've got 6 years experience in accounting doing various auditing/accounting/bookkeeping jobs and whatnot, and right now I've got 3 staffing agencies (including Robert Half) pulling for me to try and find me work in addition to the job apps I'm doing on my own. Ideally, I want to find a career with a company I can stick with for more than a couple years at a time, and I'm really looking for stability with my job. I thought I had that with my last two jobs, and then they opted to outsource my job to India both times and now I'm unemployed. I've been unemployed for about a month, and the staffing agencies have been doing a pretty solid job of getting me out there for interviews and permanent job opportunities although none have panned out yet. I have the opportunity to do temp work through Accountemps (the temp work division of Robert Half) just so I have income, but I'm concerned that doing that will gently caress up my chances to find an actual permanent job. The last thing I want to do is drift aimlessly from one temp job to another, without knowing if I've got steady employment lined up for the future. Accountemps insists that taking temp work won't stop Robert Half from looking for permanent work for me, but I can't tell if Accountemps is blowing smoke up my rear end and I don't want to miss out on a good permanent opportunity because I take a temp assignment just to have income right this second. Robert Half also contacted me about an opportunity to become a "salaried contractor", where I'd basically be a Robert Half employee (with appropriate benefits) and be a salaried contractor, where I work on non-permanent assignments (like a temp) but I'd get a salaried paycheck even when I'm not working (like a permanent employee). This seems more stable than being a temp, but I'm still not sure how it would benefit me career-wise in the long-term if I'm trying to get in with a company I can stay with for a while. What am I going to do, list a dozen month-long contract jobs on my resume? Should I take the temp work, or even entertain the "salaried contractor" idea, just so I have some income right now while unemployed? Or should I tell them "thanks but no thanks" and hope one of the permanent opportunities pans out, all the while getting next to nothing from unemployment? I'm pretty stressed about all this, and maybe I'm overthinking it. Xenomrph fucked around with this message at 06:58 on Jun 4, 2015 |
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Jun 4, 2015 06:52
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Here is another crazy alternate big 4 career idea: Has anyone ever worked for the big 4 as an independent contractor, or know anyone that has? How did it go? edit: not that I could actually do this, I'm just curious how it works. abagofcheetos fucked around with this message at 13:56 on Jun 12, 2015 |
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Jun 12, 2015 00:24
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Hey, Y'all. I work with a lot of Japanese immigrants and there's a guy coming over who's been in accounting for well over a decade but has no familiarity with the American system. Do you know of any good resources that just focus on practices and regulations in American field? Particularly he's unfamiliar with CPA and legal regulations.
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Jun 14, 2015 20:01
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Took part one of the CMA exam today - pretty sure I passed by a good margin. Time to get drunk for a few weekends and then get studying for part 2 in October. Xenomrph posted:I'm unemployed right now and it sucks. I've got 6 years experience in accounting doing various auditing/accounting/bookkeeping jobs and whatnot, and right now I've got 3 staffing agencies (including Robert Half) pulling for me to try and find me work in addition to the job apps I'm doing on my own. It's worth seeing what they'll pay you to be a salaried temp or whatever. You don't have to put it on your resume if you think it'll look bad, but once too much time passes anything will look better than a hole. If you have a hole people just assume you got fired from somewhere for fraud or sexual harassment. Also I had a great experience using this goon in SA mart for resume services. They also do mock interviews as well. I don't mean to trash your style or anything, but if you're getting interviews but no offers it's worth having someone else audit the things you're saying. EDIT: As a controller who has hired someone through Robert Half, I'd way prefer someone who's been a temp through Robert Half for a year over someone who's been unemployed for a year. If you do the temp thing you can play up the positives of bouncing around to different companies and learning different positions and how different businesses and industries work. Use temp jobs that were similar in size/culture/industry to the job you're interviewing for and just chat a bit about what made that job different from other jobs and what you liked about it. A GIANT PARSNIP fucked around with this message at 01:09 on Jun 26, 2015 |
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Jun 26, 2015 01:02
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Yay for new audit tools that don't loving work resulting in me staying extra late and still billing half my time to tech codes. Goodbye any chance of a weekend
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Jul 15, 2015 20:55
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Well, the enrolment for my first CA unit (Management Accounting) opens up in three and a half hours. I've always wanted to do my CA, but now that I'm getting to this point I have a feeling of trepidation and anxiety... Feels like University all over again! I've been re-reading my uni notes (well, the most recent ones I grabbed off the 2015 blackboard site) for a quick brush up. My mentor says it's okay, but don't go in too deep - just a quick brush up. Anything else I should do to help me succeed? I've got enough hours in the bank to take a day off a week just for study (the conditions here at work are ridiculously good), and I feel like I'm settled in enough to be successful. But what about all these things I hear about critical files? Are they just notes that you compile during the semester for the final?
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Jul 26, 2015 11:57
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Your critical file is a well indexed set of notes that you will bring into the exam with you. It doesn't contain the answers (your head contains the answers) but it contains worked examples, lists or formulas that you don't feel that you can easily memorise, etc. The key to a good critical file is that you know exactly what it contains, and you know where to find everything quickly (I.e create an index). You can base it on an indexed set of course notes, or you can write it from scratch. You'll be fine, don't overthink it.
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Aug 1, 2015 23:12
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Wait you can bring notes to the CA exam? Like whatever notes you want?
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Aug 2, 2015 00:22
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Screwed up an assessment for my CA workshops. drat.
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Aug 2, 2015 04:53
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In Australia the CA exam is (was?) open book, meaning you can (could? I sat the exam 4 years ago) bring in anything you want as long as its on a piece of paper. The questions are about problem solving, not rote memorisation, so I guess it works. Pass rate is between 60% and 80% from memory. Edit: and by pass rate I mean the percentage of people who passed, to avoid confusion
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Aug 3, 2015 01:48
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Other than just cruising Indeed are there any good sites that throw out salary ranges for Internal Audit positions, specifically for credit unions? My credit union went through a merger and while the new place has to keep and maintain a certain salary level they threw a pretty poo poo offer my way, just looking for ammo.
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Aug 3, 2015 04:01
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Texibus posted:Other than just cruising Indeed are there any good sites that throw out salary ranges for Internal Audit positions, specifically for credit unions? My credit union went through a merger and while the new place has to keep and maintain a certain salary level they threw a pretty poo poo offer my way, just looking for ammo. Have you checked glassdoor.com?
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Aug 3, 2015 18:27
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Internal audit is such a catch all title I'd look for a more specific position title.
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Aug 3, 2015 19:16
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I just sat for my first CPA section today: FAR. I'm pretty sure my testlets went medium-hard-hard, so that's reassuring, but I hate that now I have to wait almost an entire month (until September 10th) to get my results. The MCQs weren't terrible, but those simulations, man. I'm moving onto REG next, which I'm a little more worried about since I'm not as strong in tax as I am GAAP. Also starting in B4 audit next week 
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Aug 17, 2015 12:34
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Euphoriaphone posted:I just sat for my first CPA section today: FAR. I'm pretty sure my testlets went medium-hard-hard, so that's reassuring, but I hate that now I have to wait almost an entire month (until September 10th) to get my results. The MCQs weren't terrible, but those simulations, man. I'm moving onto REG next, which I'm a little more worried about since I'm not as strong in tax as I am GAAP. Also starting in B4 audit next week I've been taking my tests right near the end of the score release cutoffs so I only have to wait two weeks or so instead of 4-6 weeks. The longer waits were just too stressful. I just started REG last week and so far I think its much easier than FAR.
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Aug 17, 2015 13:09
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I'm taking FAR on monday and i'm pretty nervous about it. I've already got BEC and REG under my belt though, so I know that i must be doing something right.
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Aug 23, 2015 01:42
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Turd Nelson posted:I'm taking FAR on monday and i'm pretty nervous about it. I've already got BEC and REG under my belt though, so I know that i must be doing something right. If I can pass FAR I guarantee you can too.
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Aug 23, 2015 19:55
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Ok gals and guys, my long term goal is to be a CPA I think maybe - I want to have my own set of clients (personal and small business) whose finances I take care of basically entirely, so I can work from home forever without coworkers except maybe a couple employees down the road if I need them. That is the gist of it all, right? I hope so. I'm currently in a bookkeeping position at a University, so I don't really ~do~ any accounting other than bookkeeping (it's a lot of bookkeeping though), but I took an intro accounting class because it was free and it was very easy and pretty fun, I like making the numbers look right it tickles my OCD needs, and I could see myself going deeper into the number hole. My understanding is that, to become a CPA, I need to a. pass the test which I'll be doing later down the road, b. have a degree (bachelor's or master's) in accounting, and c. have some experience or something (this is vague in everything I've read) - so I have to questions: 1. Generally, do I have any misconceptions that I've revealed above? Please set me straight, I just want to fiddle with spreadsheets and do lots of arithmetic in sweatpants with my cats as a career. 2. I have a BA in English, so I'm either about to start applying for a second bachelor's, or for a master's program - a second bachelor's would take less time since I already have the general education I need, plus I will probably have an easier time getting in; is there a reason I should try for a master's instead? Also taking any unsolicited advice w/r/t anything above, or even a more detailed layout of what I need to do starting now to get a CPA as quickly as possible. Thanks!
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Aug 24, 2015 16:33
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Check your state requirements. You'll find they have a defined credit count for accounting and business courses, etc. You'll need to, in most states, work under a CPA for 12 months FT while doing things (somewhat documented) that meet the core competencies. And you must pass the uniform CPA exams + state ethic exam.
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Aug 24, 2015 17:26
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