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Hellblazer187 posted:In the loosest sense of the word, I am a lawyer. I am licesned to practice law, but I do not have a job as an attorney and probably never will. As the Law thread in A/T proper has noted, bar membership and law school admissions grow much much faster than the need for legal services. At my swearing in ceremony, a speaker (proudly) told us that bar membership was up 30% over the last 5 years. https://www.bls.gov tells us that legal services will grow at 16% over the next decade. This is from a Canadian perspective. Basically accounting is divided into 2 parts. Managerial and Financial. Financial is the CPA (CA Canadian) part. Management accounting (CMA) is the managerial portion. Financial accounting firms break down most of their services into 3 categories. Audit, Tax, Advisory. Audit is boring but pretty steady. Tax is less boring. Advisory is pretty fun, but not as stable. Crossover between sections within a firm is easy. Management accountants work moreso inside of a corporation itself. Management accounting focuses on "cost accounting", where you apply and calculate different ratios and profitability statistics for different items, etc. Employment is lower right now because firms are trying to trim their own budgets because they are getting less work and paid less for their work. It will rebound when the economy inevitably starts going up. I won't say what year what quarter, because if I knew I'd be rich. Overall though, employment is pretty secure. There will always be accountants needed. Newer regulations such as SOX (CSOX Canada) and the transition to IFRS (International standards) will drive the demand for accountants even higher. 2011 I beleive is the official crossover date for Canada. America should be close to that if not that actual number. This and the past regulation of SOX/CSOX provide more jobs, and more stability as they are both mandatory for all public companies. An actual day of accounting is working on whatever your assigned project is. Nothing too fancy. Crunch time (tax season) is not enjoyable. But I haven't experienced that yet. Apparently very very long hours for that season, lots of OT is absorbed or banked for days off when things slow down after tax season. As said, the math is not complex whatsoever. The hardest thing you'll likely have to do mathematically is calculate different financial statement ratio's. Even that is dividing x by y. I have never used calculus in accounting and don't ever see when or where I would use calculus in accounting unless I was doing some sort of financial forecasting. In which case, that is more Finance based and less Accounting based anyways. The difficulty in accounting is derived from the rules, format, standards, etc. What to use, where to use. Most higher end questions are on a solution basis. Where you are given inaccurate or incomplete documents or numbers, and you must fill in the blanks using the memorized relationships or additional information, as well as fix or adjust poorly attempted financial statements by the mock owner in the testing material. Again, not too hard, just lots and lots to memorize. Rules are very strict, you will lose points on most exams for very minor details, however they are very important in a real life scenario. Crossover between law and acctg would exist. Mostly based on the fact that in both studies you are memorizing procedures and standards. I haven't taken much law, contract or tort classes though, so my knowledge in crossover is limited. Again, this is from a Canadian perspective. Nipple Drainage fucked around with this message at 12:33 on Nov 14, 2009 |
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Nov 14, 2009 12:29
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19 o'clock posted:A lot of people do the exam while working in public. Some people wait years until they take the test (i.e. - you are not going to get promoted any further unless you pass the exam...). Just to add and elaborate for OP + Readers.. Same for Canada. Have to work in a CA Firm to get your CA designation. As for working for free, I haven't heard about that but it's understandable. Most of our interns are paid pretty low compared to what you can get elsewhere doing easier jobs or labour jobs. But I can understand, as once you get your CA, or CPA if American, you will have a much easier time getting a job, doing your own side work (bookkeeping for smaller local business, etc.) So things will be a lot easier employment wise after you get your CA/CPA. And since you can't get it without firm experience, you have no choice but to get the firm experience wherever and however. The benefits outweigh the costs of poo poo wage for a year or so. Everyone I know and my work at firms, I've talked to clients a little bit. But a lot of work is by yourself or in your team for the project. Interning is vital, basically it's a test run for the firm. They get to test you out with less labour law restrictions on firing you, lower wage, etc. If you test run good, there's a very high chance you'll get hired after you graduate later on. A good internship at any firm (Doesn't have to be big 4) can almost guarantee you a job upon graduation as long as you don't gently caress up.
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Nov 16, 2009 21:44
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Hellblazer187 posted:I got a D- in calculus the first time around (my midterm was on 9/11. I didn't study for it but that was a great excuse). So I have to re-take that. Anyone got any websites that can help me learn algebra in a month? Learning algebra is going to be the least of your problems in CALCULUS.
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Dec 21, 2009 18:42
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Hellblazer187 posted:I don't need to know algebra to be able to do calculus? I thought it built on algebra. It's been a while. Seriously? Good luck hellblazer187, you're going to need it.
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Dec 22, 2009 01:43
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Arcaeris posted:See the lawyer megathread in A/T, and then throw away any dreams of success as a lawyer. Yes, but how many of them have a Masters in Tax or an LLM in Taxation? As well as CA/CPA's? That's the difference. A tax lawyer being hired for extensive work in corporations can charge anywhere from 600-1000/hr. Though I'm sure the nature of the job they are being hired for greatly influences the rate. They can also be held on retainer for low/mid 6 figures. Tax lawyers have a solid decade of classroom education and another 4 years or so of practical learning behind them. The sole purpose of all that education is to save wealthy individuals or corporations money on taxes, answer tax questions, find loopholes, defend re-assessments, etc. Mr. Zour's comment on tax lawyers isn't that big of an exaggeration.
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Jan 17, 2010 00:01
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Buskas posted:That practical learning requires a firm deciding you are worth it. You don't just walk into a job leading to fortunes as a tax attorney. I'm aware. Buskas posted:E: Also, not all tax lawyers have Masters degrees or accounting designations. My father is a tax lawyer and has neither. Which may explain why you aren't posting from a yacht via satellite link-up. You can or cannot have a CPA/CA and you can or cannot have a masters in tax. My post indicated these two, as they put you into what I beleive is the real meaning of Tax Attorney, building on Mr.Zero's post. Just as you can be an accountant, but only have a CGA or CMA. When people generally describe an accountant, I assume they refer to an accountant holding a CPA/CA. Nipple Drainage fucked around with this message at 03:10 on Jan 17, 2010 |
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Jan 17, 2010 03:08
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rockin peanut posted:So it may be harder to come up here after getting a CPA than going down there after getting a CA. Yup. That's about right. Don't know why anyone would come up to Canada to work instead of staying in the USA though, unless for family or marriage reasons.
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Jan 27, 2010 18:16
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Ribsauce posted:I have a couple of questions, I'm not really sure where to ask, here seems ok I guess. Can you perhaps get into a big 4 or more international firm, while still living in your city? And then apply for internal transfer to one of the bigger cities? That'd be one of the safer routes to take if possible. This move doesn't sound like it has to be now so I'd take the most conservative route. I'm not sure how american employers work with calling past employers and such, so no comment there.
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Jan 28, 2010 16:54
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They always talk about IFRS stuff and inventory stories.
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Jan 30, 2010 01:01
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So moving into industry is best done with audit exp? even compared to advisory exp?
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Mar 22, 2010 14:16
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