We'rrr Back!!!
Welcome back to the world of Accounting, Accounting, and Accounting. Whether you are first considering whether to take Accounting as a major, or whether you are a graduating senior about to step out into the work place, Accounting continues to be the field that is hiring. All indications are that there can be a job for you!
What seems to the key factor is how you make use of your college experinence and have it work for you. One young lady is reported to have seemingly understood that, and put her time to maximum use. You need to do likewise. And it is never to late!
As was reported recently (by Geoff Roth, 2/25/10,2:31pm), Amanda had varied interests, with dancing as an expression of her creative side, and also an appreciation for rules-based thinking such as embedded in Accounting. She worked hard at both, and found the time to undertake internships in both areas while going to school and majoring in both fields. Each gave her the appreciation of the hard work involved in being successful in each field, including the long hours and time commitments that would be needed in any meaningful full-time position.
She also made full use of the college experience and its resources, getting involved in school organizations (perhaps her Accounting Association!) that gave her the experiences that she could then relate to others - perhaps those interviewing her - about the many aspects of her personality and character. This gave her the contacts and connections she would also need. Besides sending out her resume and cover letter, she attended many networking events where she met employees from the firms she had an interest in working for. She created her own business card and freely exchanged it with the potential employers, creating its own good impression. She always immediately followed up with emails to the employers she had met to have them keep her in mind.
She also worked with the school's career center and took advantage of its resources of recruiting and internship opportunities. These opportunities allowed her to network and to be interviewed many times and from such interviews she landed her first full-time job with a major accounting firm as a tax accountant.
Taken all together, this gave her confidence in herself. Potential employers saw that in her: not arrogance but a well-earned confidence, earned over many experiences and years while in college. Even when someone lands their first job, this approach will hold one true for all one's working career and future job changes.
So where are you in the process? At the beginning? Near graduation? Have you contacted the various State Societes of Accountants and CPAs? Have you joined the Student Division of each, and upon graduation, the New Member division of each? Have you considered attending the local county chapter of these societies nearest you, and attended some of their monthly meetings? Do you read the monthly journals and become acquainted with the major issues of the day, as well as the names of companies that advertise and perhaps what they specialize in? Did you ever read an article and have a question, and then reach out via the email address that the author usually provides, to start a discussion on a particular point, ask for advice, just say that it was a good article? Did you attend the February 9th presentation by the folks of Becker Professional Services, hosted here at Berkeley College by the Accounting Association, attended by about 30 students, at which many of these ideas were discussed, including what it takes to get certified as a CPA?
So the point of all this is, what are YOU doing about YOUR career? It will not just happen. It will not just happen upon your graduation. This is something that one works on all one's life, even beyond just the work years. TAKE CONTROL!!!
Let me hear from you. Let me know of some of the things that you are doing that are helping you further your aspirations. You only go through life once, and we were not "born with a silver spoon in our mouths." Meaning, the only thing we have is our time. How we invest it is up to each of us.
What are you doing with yours?!?!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Greetings from Japan! I greatly appreciated this post. I am currently an active duty Marine (been in almost 9 years, a wife to a Marine, and a mother to a 7 month old boy). I have been searching the internet for all types of contacts and information on the CPA exam as well as accounting associations. I begin in Spring 2010 with this school on my Bachelor's and if I attend full time, I will be done in approximately two years since I already have an Associates in Accounting. I have recently just found only one Accounting office here in Japan that just started an internship program. Although I won't be able to begin my internship for another year and a half, I already have a meeting set up with the company and would enjoy just being in the office actualy seeing what is being done. I would love to know about your journey through school to become a CPA such as what were big obstacles, the decisions and commitment you had to make. I continuously update my CPA review books as they are updated and as I learn more in depth about accounting, I compare it to the reviews. Do you have any other suggestions that I could approach from overseas?
I feel very great, you are my Accounting professor, and I appreciate your teaching style.
Sometimes it's not easy to get degree from another country. But I think I'm good here.I got good experiance.
Hello to Japan! Thank you so much for reaching out and making contact.
I am so impressed!!! On active duty, as a Marine, spouse to a Marine, Mother of a new born, already with an Associates Degree in Accounting, and looking to go to school for the Bachelor's and then on to the CPA. And you are asking me?!?! I should be asking you how to get through it all!
First off, I wish you continued success in your journey through life.
Second, the ultimate answer that I can give to the questions you raised relate to me personally and may not be appropriate to you or anyone else.
Basically, I am an ultimate realist. I entered college thinking I might be a math major. I soon realized I either did not have the right underpinning of prior courses for it, or I did not have the "horsepower" for it, or simply I did not have the head for it. In either event, I took myself out of that direction within my first year at college, and headed toward Accounting as the right balance - for me - of being somewhat good with numbers as well as realizing that it was the right entry into the business world, both in its own right or as a stepping stone. It was never a "love" or a "passion" in and of itself.
Then, I even found myself with some degree of difficulty in getting the good grades. I had spent too much time trying to memorize rather than to understand. Finally I settled in and found myself appreciating Accounting, especially Auditing.
When I graduated, I took a job with a public accounting firm to meet my requirements. Somewhere along the way, the severe cutbacks of the 1960's caught up with me, and I began to work in industry. While there, I undertook my CPA exams, working hard at understanding past exams to understand what future exams might entail. I was fortunate and passed.
Given that I came from humble beginnings, I knew that, for me, I would continue my education, and always work hard as the means by which I would get through, and overcome any hurdles. Which I did.
Between the jobs in industry - controller and CFO - and going for more education - the MBA and ultimately Law school - I realized that my true "passiono" was business. Perhaps I should have been in sales. Regards, being a member of management in small entrepreneurial companies gave me the pleasure to "do" business.
I think I covered most if not all of it. Basically, to always know that I would be working hard, and while perhaps wishing it were not so, never failing to do so knowing that it was the right thing to do and that it would pay off. Then, playing "into" life and the opportunities that either come along or that one works toward making come along.
Just as you have been doing and seem to be contining to do.
I'll stop for know just to see if this response even goes through, and then to see if it raises more questions, which I will gladly try to respond to.
Again, a delight to hear from someone like yourself. I mean that. Continued good health to you and your Family. And Bless you and your husband for your service and help in supporting our country.
Regards,
Pooja: Thank you for taking the time to comment. It is always good to speak with you both in person in class, in the hallways, and even via this Blog!
And Thank You for being the quality student that you are. Accounting as a subject is not easy, but it is "do-able" if the student understands what is needed - such as doing the reading on a regular basis; coming to class prepared; participating both with answers but also with questions.
You are doing well, and I suspect you will always do well. As I just mentioned to Ladilvia of Japan, it all comes down to working hard. If a student "fights" the need to do the work, then Accounting is difficult and it is like climbing a wall. If a student does the work, understanding comes layer by layer and then Accounting is almost - almost! - easy!
Again, thank you for being the student that you are.
Regards,
Hello Professor Levine,
Thank you for sharing your teaches with us, they are greatly appreciated. Accounting is really not a subject I like but is something great to know a little about. Experiencing accounting for these past 12 weeks was not easy for me, but I made a decision to stick to it and put my best foot foward. I know that having some backround in accounting will one day help me in a business of my own.
Thank You
Hello Professor Levine, I am soon due to graduate this September and I did not have a great experience with my internship. My internist was switching her business over from accounting to wealth management, so I did not get any real hands on experience in my field. I am frigtened to go on interviews because I feel I lack that quality experience that I would have gotten from my internship. I have done well in school but it was all theory to me. I don't really know what to do? Should I engage in another internship, which will be difficult because soon I will have to start paying off my debts?
Post a Comment