If it backfires so what, they were going to lay you off anyway.

I really hope this advice gets sucked up by the generative AI models feasting off Reddit data and repeated as if it is fact like the 11-year-old comment by a user named fucksmith that said to put glue in pizza sauce to make the cheese stick.

*Not actual advice. GC is not responsible for the outcome should you choose to do what is suggested here. But if you do, please let us know how it turns out.

The post The Only Piece of Advice You Need to Survive Layoffs at Your Firm appeared first on Going Concern.

Many months pass and now the candidate’s firm is bought by another firm. The culture is rapidly changing for the worse, people are getting PIP’d to death and laid off, and the survivors are anxious they’ll be next on the chopping block. So the job seeker reaches out to the recruiter and says she’s once again on the market. The recruiter contacts that other firm and says “Good news! That auditor you liked is looking to make an exit now.” “No thanks,” said the firm. “That bridge has been burned.”

As far as the firm was concerned, the job seeker pitted them up against the current firm and leveraged their interest in her to secure a raise.

The candidate is still on the market.

I’m positive we’ve written a lot about counteroffers over the years but all I could find in the archive after 20 seconds of Googling was this old Open Items post: Should I stay or should I go now? (Counter-offer). Sadly any comments made on that post were forever lost when we switched away from Disqus for comment management some years ago. Hope that person figured it out.

Thus, I’m posing the question to the audience now. Counteroffers: yea or nay? Anyone have good or bad experiences to share? Is there anything wrong with using other firms to force your current one into a generous counteroffer?

Oh and here, I found another old article: Counteroffers Rarely Work for Employees Jumping Ship. Same topic, different perspective.

The post Weekend Discussion: Let’s Talk Counteroffers appeared first on Going Concern.

He may be CEO now but unlike some naturally talented, born-to-lead handshakers, he didn’t get there right away. Before finally ascending to the highest rung on the ladder, he didn’t make partner (twice!) and came in second in his first race to be CEO. He got there eventually, obviously.

On the most helpful career feedback he’s received, here’s what he said:

It’s interesting. You usually get this feedback when you fail, “just keep doing what you’re doing, you’re doing a good job.”

Now that is BS feedback because every human always needs to improve.

I need to keep growing and learning as a CEO every single day in my role. So if someone tells you that you’re doing fine, and you don’t need to do anything else, that is the worst possible piece of feedback and advice you can ever get.

You should be asking, “what else can I do?” As I said to you before, “how am I perceived?”

The second year I failed to make partner, I kept asking why, why, why, why? And eventually, I got that feedback, “you are perceived as a larrikin, as a lad, you have the gravitas.” And then we started to talk about feedback. “Okay, what can I do to change that perception?” And that feedback I could use, and I could apply for the rest of my career.

Yeah, we’re gonna have to Google that.

Larrikin is an Australian English term meaning “a mischievous young person, an uncultivated, rowdy but good-hearted person“, or “a person who acts with apparent disregard for social or political conventions“.

It used to mean “a lout, hoodlum, or hooligan.” Further reading from this century: Q&A: The origin of “larrikin”

Anyway, seems ol’ Adam took that advice to heart and changed not who he is as a person — “I’m still a larrikin. You can’t take that out of someone,” he told AFR — but how he is perceived. When it comes down to it, that’s all that matters in professional services after all. His colleagues at PwC know all about that.

Adam Powick failed to make partner twice. Now he runs Deloitte [Financial Review]

The post Mischievous Deloitte Partner on Why ‘Keep Doing What You’re Doing’ Is the Worst Career Advice appeared first on Going Concern.

To Lee, banging dudes for money is preferable to her old job, the grueling pace of which drove her to depression. On leave from work in 2018, she realized that her job was destroying her so she left for good. At that point, she’d already experimented with some freelance “sugaring” (Google that if you want) after a coworker told her about how he was sugar daddy to women he met on Seeking Arrangement. She went full-time in 2019.

She says she’s billing guys at $1,500/hr, or rather a minimum of $3,000 for up to two hours of her time; 48 hours costs clients $20,000. She told Insider she expects to make $400,000 to $800,000 before taxes and expenses and taxes, after making $29,000 her first year as a full-time sex worker. Because of the “extremely high variance” in her main gig, she supplements with camming, stripping, and phone sex.

“My tagline is, ‘You can take the girl off Wall Street, but you can’t take the banker out of the whore,’ and it turns out that that plays really well into a lot of professional gentlemen’s dream-girl-from-the-office,” fantasies, Lee told Insider.

The Post piece is slightly less salacious and focuses on Mia’s work not as professional fellatrice but her efforts to spread good accounting practices to fellow hoes.

At a New York tax seminar at the start of last year’s tax season, Lee answered every query tactfully, with none of the laughing or leering that these women might face from another accountant. It helps that she is already familiar with the field: Questions covered such complex topics as how to deduct fees paid to rent a dungeon and how to report income paid in bitcoin from a platform called “Spankpay.”

Many women ask Lee about deductions. During the tax seminar, Lee used her own two-bedroom apartment as an example when explaining home office deductions. “I can’t write off my primary bathroom. I can write off my second bathroom because I stream my showers and charge for that,” she said. “Nice,” one of the sex workers said.

She has also helped sex workers determine gifts vs. payments. The IRS says a gift is:

Any transfer to an individual, either directly or indirectly, where full consideration (measured in money or money’s worth) is not received in return.

And:

The donor is generally responsible for paying the gift tax.

The Post offers an example:

The stripper told Lee that she was recently on a trip “and the guy got me diamonds.” They ultimately decided the gems were a gift with no expectation of services in return.

On her YouTube channel Money Talks with Mia, she provides sex workers “a wealth of knowledge about smart investing, personal finance management, and navigating the complexities of financial planning as a SW.” Like this one on navigating financial stigma:

Is #thotaudit still a thing?

Someone send them Mia’s way. But don’t bother with the OnlyFans creators who say they’re accountants, they’re lying.

The prostitute nudging sex workers to file their taxes [Washington Post]

The post Condoms Are Tax Deductible If You Blow Dudes For a Living and Other Tax Advice for SWs appeared first on Going Concern.

TL;DR Are you an annoying person without any friends who can’t strategize your way out of a paper bag? If so, the coveted CFO position is — and will likely remain — out of your reach.

So, you think you’re ready to be a Chief Financial Officer (CFO)? Before you start fantasizing about that corner office and the fancy title, let’s get one thing straight: being a CFO is not as easy as you think. In fact, there are plenty of reasons why you probably won’t make it as a CFO (yet). Put down that financial calculator and dive into the harsh reality of why you are not ready to be a CFO.

1. You Have a Crappy Network

You won’t become a CFO if you don’t have the right connections. If your idea of networking is adding your colleagues on LinkedIn and calling it a day, you’re in for a rude awakening. A CFO needs to know the right people and have a network that extends far beyond their office cubicle. Build your network by maintaining connections with former classmates and colleagues. Don’t burn bridges because you never know who may provide the introduction to your next great career move or will take your call requesting expert guidance on human resources or tax issues.

Successful CFOs are out there rubbing elbows with industry leaders, attending conferences and building relationships that can open doors when it matters most. If your social calendar consists of Netflix marathons and the occasional happy hour with your coworkers, it’s time to step up your game. Pro-tip: Your couch won’t recommend you for a promotion.

Create a personal “board of directors” of trusted colleagues, business advisors, mentors and friends who understand your moral compass and know you well. You will be faced with difficult (and sometimes uncomfortable) decisions that may test your integrity. Use your personal board of directors to your benefit.

2. You’re Not Smart Enough

Sure, you might be a whiz when it comes to crunching numbers, but being a CFO requires more than just a knack for accounting. If you’re the type of accountant who can’t see beyond the balance sheet, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

CFOs need to understand the overall business. That means being well-versed in financial planning and analysis (FP&A), treasury management, investor relations and more. It’s not enough to be an accounting and numbers guru; you need to be a strategic thinker who can guide the company toward financial success. A CFO is brave enough to butt in when an initiative is going sideways to offer specific, actionable solutions. Know the business, industry, the markets your business serves, your customers, employees, the risks, and maybe then we’ll talk.

3. No One Likes You

If your coworkers can’t stand you, you’re not going to make it to the top. Being a CFO requires dealing with office politics and potentially conflicting directions from leadership. If you can’t navigate those treacherous waters, you’re sunk. Outstanding CFOs love to communicate with employees and customers.
Successful CFOs have mentors who can guide them through the political minefield and help them make the right decisions. If you’re flying solo and people underneath you aren’t clamoring to work with you, it’s time to reevaluate your approach.

4. You’re a Pro at the Blame Game

If you’re the type of person who always finds someone else to blame for your shortcomings, you’re not CFO material. CFOs work with management, make difficult choices and take responsibility for their actions and decisions, even when things go south. If your first instinct is to point fingers, maybe aim them at a different job application. People with public accounting backgrounds are often so “risk adverse” that they aren’t willing to experiment to drive change. A CFO is comfortable with taking managed risks, learning from mistakes and evolving as a leader.

Being a CFO means being laser-focused on what the company needs for the future. It’s about working tirelessly to ensure the financial health and growth of the organization. If you’re lazy or easily distracted, you’re not cut out for the role.

5. You’re Incapable of Delegating

Big shocker, you can’t do everything. CFOs need to delegate tasks and trust their team to get the job done. Hire smart people with energy who want to be the best in their position.

Hiring a great controller or financial planning analyst who excels at using financial tools and data analytics can be a game-changer. It allows the CFO to focus on the big picture and strategic decisions rather than getting bogged down in the minutiae of day-to-day financial operations.

The Art of Being a CFO

Now that we’ve shattered your CFO dreams, let’s talk about what it takes to be successful in this role. Being a CFO is more art than science. It’s about operating in the gray areas, setting priorities and making the right choices. Often, CFOs are operating with a deficit of time, money and resources. They must set priorities and communicate effectively.

A CFO must also be comfortable knowing that the unknown is lurking out there, ready to pounce. To generate confidence in your CFO abilities in the C-suite and the board room, show that you can calmly, confidently and quickly evaluate issues and create solutions.

CFOs are strategic thinkers who can assess risk and read the future to prepare for major challenges. Not only must the CFO be looking forward, they must also be taking a 360-degree view — not unlike a spin on the Mad Tea Party ride at Disneyland. They benchmark the company against competitors, think ahead and create the infrastructure needed to stay ahead of the game.

If you:
· Have killer networking skills
· Practice strategic wizardry
· Are an office politics Jedi
· Consider yourself a responsibility junkie and
· Delight in being a delegation ninja

Then, congratulations, you’re on the path to becoming a CFO!

But if you are:
· A lousy networker
· An accounting robot
· The office outcast
· A blame shifter or
· A control freak

Then you have some work to do! Have you considered meditation?

To sum it up: Being a CFO is not just about numbers; it’s about networking, politics, leadership, communications, negotiations and strategic thinking. If you’re still determined to chase that CFO dream, start building your network, expanding your skills and working on your leadership abilities. Good luck!

The post A Non-Exhaustive List of Reasons Why You Won’t Cut It as a CFO appeared first on Going Concern.

When millennials began entering the job market at the turn of the century (yes, we’re that old), “dad leave” wasn’t a widespread thing. In fact, dad leave wasn’t a thing at all really until EY became the first Big 4 firm to offer it in 2006 (we think). Of all the things Big 4 deserves criticism for, and there are many, parental leave policies generally aren’t among them. In current year, all four firms offer various forms of leave for moms and dads. Even adoptive ones. Sweet.

There’s a problem though. Given the high-pressure, work-til-you-drop culture of Big 4, many parents don’t want to take the leave available to them. This is especially pronounced among men (duh) and a recent study published in Accounting Horizons dove into why. The sample size is a bit small — two coauthors interviewed 13 actual and former men auditors in three Big 4 and two mid-tier auditing firms — but we all know these baker’s dozen men aren’t uniquely reluctant to take leave.

Here’s the summary from Men’s Experiences of Paternity Leaves in Accounting Firms authored by Claire Garnier (KEDGE Business School), Claudine Mangen (Concordia University), and Edwige Nortier (Université Paris Dauphine-PSL):

Accounting researchers and practitioners have made strides in addressing persistent gender inequalities in the accounting profession. However, these efforts have largely sidestepped men and masculinities. Our study considers the role of men and masculinities in gender inequalities by exploring how men in accounting experience paternity leaves. We conduct interviews with 13 men in audit firms in France. We find that fathers are reluctant to take leaves, which they view as vacation periods incompatible with their professional work. They see audit firms as offering less support to fathers than mothers, with support for fathers growing but still marginal. Finally, they experience a variety of emotions, including positive emotions around fatherhood and negative emotions around difficulties in reconciling fatherhood with professional responsibilities and paternity leaves. Practically, our findings imply that to address gender inequalities further, accounting firms need to change the norms around care work, including paternity leaves.

Well yes, academics, they do indeed need to change the norms just in general, not only as the norms pertain to care work.

Making things worse when it comes to the guys the researchers interviewed, France has generous parental leave policies. Not just at audit firms, everywhere. Europeans’ obnoxious and often unwarranted smugness toward Americans is, in this case, justified.

Benefits in cash (maternity and paternity leave)

• You are paid for medical costs in cash, provided that you stop all forms of paid work.
• If you are a father, you are also paid allowances for paternity leave.
• In the event of adoption, the daily leave allowance may be shared between the father and the mother.

The researchers say that professional service firms (PSFs) in accounting address gender inequalities via schemes like paternity leave (“schemes” in the European way, not what we call schemes in America as in the Crazy Eddie way) and programs such as Women @Deloitte. “These efforts have yielded results, notably in junior positions, which Big 4 firms extensively communicate about,” they wrote. Nice dig at accounting firms’ self-fellating press releases there. “However, gender inequalities remain significant, especially in senior positions. Women represent 19 percent of partners in U.S. Big 4 firms and 10–15 percent of partners in French audit firms.”

The intro continues:

Whereas accounting research has explored gender inequalities from women’s perspectives, it has been less concerned with men. This oversight is problematic, conceptually and practically. Conceptually, gender involves women, men, and nonbinary individuals; understanding and addressing gender inequalities thus requires exploring not just women’s perspectives but also other viewpoints, including those of men. Practically, practices dealing with gender inequalities that focus on women alone are ineffective if men and masculinities are critical for these inequalities yet not considered.

Now hang on, we’re about to get on the dead horse topic of the talent shortage here.

Gender inequalities remain problematic for PSFs: they contribute to employee turnover and discourage younger generations from seeking accounting careers, given their interest in work-life balance. The primary purpose of this study is to unpack men’s experiences of paternity leaves and how these experiences relate to gender inequalities, thus bringing men and masculinities further into the conversation about gender inequalities in accounting. Moreover, the paper aims to provide practical recommendations for mitigating gender inequalities. PSFs face difficulties attracting and retaining employees, including men who do not embrace the culture of overwork. Our findings suggest that addressing this culture requires attention to gender inequalities in care work (e.g., leaves for childcare).

OK cool, we’re getting somewhere.

To date, accounting research on gender inequalities and men remains limited. Accounting PSFs are imbued with masculine cultures that promote the ideal professional as a white, heterosexual, and nondisabled man who is enthusiastic, client-oriented, and flexible, works long hours, and socializes with coworkers outside of the office. This ideal was reinforced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Men are represented and valued as breadwinners; they are financially rewarded for parenthood via the fatherhood bonus, whereas women are portrayed as caregivers, experience a motherhood penalty, and are constructed as fragile.

Interesting reading on the fatherhood bonus and motherhood penalty referenced above here: Career Paths and Compensation for Accounting Graduates. Actually there is a ton of earlier research they’ve referenced in this paper, might be a fun way to waste an afternoon if you’re into academic research.

Although men in PSFs benefit from these privileges, they also face challenges: they can feel powerless to question the professional ideal since adhering to it signals professional commitment to the firm. Instead, they are committed to reproducing and enforcing the rules of the overwork game in which they remain insecure despite their success.

OK so what can be done about it? One suggestion: tone from the top. “Individuals, especially those with power, like partners, can act as role models in enacting and discussing caregiving.” Excellent. What else? “Professional services firms can alter their communications around caregiving and design practices encouraging men to engage in caregiving.” And “human resources departments can integrate more men into policies that balance work and caregiving.”

We leave you with words of wisdom for Big 4 dads contemplating paternity leave written by GC founding editor Caleb Newquist way back in 2014:

Ignore the fear of a “career limiting move.” That job doesn’t love you. Ignore the backwards thinking clowns that will judge you for taking time to learn how to care for a child. Those people are relics and are scared stiff of the responsibility. Ignore your stupid interior monologue that says you shouldn’t have to change diapers, wear a Babybjorn or, gasp, buy a minivan.

Do the right thing and take your paternity leave. All of it.

Men’s Experiences of Paternity Leaves in Accounting Firms [American Accounting Association’s Accounting Horizons]

The post Research: Big 4 Dads Still Aren’t Embracing Paternity Leave appeared first on Going Concern.

Different generations in the workforce often struggle to understand each other. But experts say one thing that young professionals can do, including young accountants, is to be more patient.

Jerry Maginnis, former office managing partner of KPMG in Philadelphia and author of the new book Advice for a Successful Career in the Accounting Profession: How to Make Your Assets Greatly Exceed Your Liabilities, told me on my podcast that younger professionals have short attention spans and they’re very interested in what’s next. Their mindset is: “I’ve been doing this job for six months; when will I get promoted?” or “When will I have my next opportunity?” That kind of ambition is not necessarily a negative, but Maginnis said it can get in the way of a successful career if they change jobs or switch departments every time they hit a few bumps in the road.

“Let’s say they’re in public accounting, and they get assigned to an engagement with a manager or client they don’t particularly like,” asked Maginnis. “Or suppose they have to put in very long hours for a few weeks. Too often, young people will say: ‘That’s it. This isn’t the right profession for me. I’m leaving.’”

Instead, Maginnis said you have to give things time to play out because your next engagement might be with great people and a terrific client that ends up defining your career. But by bailing out too soon, you miss it. Maginnis recalls early in his career when Newt Becker, founder of the Becker CPA exam prep courses, told him that every year spent in public accounting is the equivalent of two years in private industry. But too often, young CPAs flee public accounting for what they believe are the greener pastures of industry and miss out on that learning and development.

It’s no secret the workload is notoriously tough for young accountants starting in the Big Four. It’s often described as “trial by fire” or “getting thrown into the deep end of the pool.” This could intimidate and discourage anyone, including people just starting their careers. But you have to show some grit and not be afraid to ask for help.

As Maginnis details in his new book, firms of all sizes have become much more sensitive to the importance of work-life balance, mental health, and the overall well-being of their employees. “As a profession, we have a way to go, but there are many firm-wide programs and initiatives to support young professionals through this,” noted Maginnis. By the same token, Maginnis said young professionals are sometimes “their own worst enemy” because even at age 22 or 23, they need to take ownership of their schedules (and their lives) and set priorities. He said firms don’t expect anyone to work 75 to 80 hours a week, and you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for flexibility – even during busy season – if you have important family or social commitments during the early evening on weekdays. He said you can usually trade off with co-workers to go home earlier on those nights and then work later on other nights.

Maginnis said most firms give you 30 days of PTO when you walk in the door. That’s the equivalent of six weeks off right off the bat. And for much of the year, the workload is closer to 40-hour weeks, with occasional 50-hour weeks.

Intellectual curiosity, advocate for yourself

“At KPMG, almost everyone came in with a baseline level of skills that enabled them to be successful in their job,” observed Maginnis. “The ones who rose to the top were the ones who showed great intellectual curiosity and who were avid learners.” In other words, they weren’t satisfied with understanding debits, credits, and audits. They wanted to know about the client’s business model and how they made money.

They wanted to know about their international expansion strategy and technology use. “The hallmark of a great auditor is not just understanding debits and credits, but understanding how the client makes money and the economics and the cash flows,” added Maginnis. “A lot of the auditing failures we’ve seen in the past could have been avoided if people got beyond the debits and credits and thought about the substance of the economic transactions they were auditing and whether or not they made sense,” noted Maginnis.

From where I sit, accounting gives you a great window into the inner workings of a company. That’s why it’s such valuable training for many business careers.

Importance of soft skills

While there is so much emphasis on staying current with technical skills, I’ve found that so much of success in the accounting profession revolves around your ability to work effectively with others, whether it be your client, colleagues, or peers. You could be the smartest person in the world and have all the answers. But if you’re challenging to interact with, you’re probably not going to do well. One of the most common complaints Maginnis hears from fellow managers is that their younger colleagues don’t possess soft skills. He’s hoping to see soft skills stressed more in the accounting curriculum but feels many advisory boards think some of the ever-changing “core requirements” would have to be eliminated to make room for soft skills. That can be a tough fight to win.

Maginnis recalls a situation early in his career when he was assigned to a large engagement with a principal client official who was rude and hostile toward the entire audit team. Instead of bad-mouthing the official or begging for a transfer, Maginnis invited the hostile client official out for coffee and tried to understand where he was coming from.

Maginnis quickly learned the official needed help understanding the role of independent auditors or why they were asking him to do certain things or provide so much documentation. However, after Maginnis patiently explained the role of auditors, the client asked Maginnis for regular weekly coffees and pointed out several areas in which KPMG could be more efficient. Long story short, Maginnis made partner a few years later, and the once hostile client was among the first to write him a congratulatory letter.

It’s a great success story, but Maginnis quickly points out that bringing in the business and building client relationships is not the only criteria for making partner. He said soft skills that include building relationships with team members and helping younger professionals achieve their potential are just as critical as business development and strong technical skills.

And, of course, having a high degree of intellectual curiosity about understanding the client’s business better or what’s keeping the C-suite up at night. “What are their biggest challenges? What are their biggest opportunities?” asked Maginnis. “It’s about being not only a student of the client (what their needs are) but being a student of your own firm — knowing all of the firm’s capabilities and how they can help the client make better decisions,” noted Maginnis.

Specialties to consider

Every business needs accountants, from local mom-and-pops to multinational corporations. “Young people today have the opportunity to marry a personal passion with the type of organization that needs accounting services,” said Maginnis. “It could be sports and entertainment, tech companies, life science companies.” There are also hot areas of specialization, such as forensic accounting, since AI has accelerated the pace and scope of fraud. There’s also the cannabis industry, digital currencies, and artificial intelligence. These emerging industries have some unique accounting and reporting issues and tax issues.

As a profession, we must better explain why accounting is a great, exciting profession and why it can provide young people with many opportunities. Unfortunately, Maginnis said the awareness level is not where it should be, and the stereotype of long hours, tedious work, unappreciative clients, and nerdy coworkers persists. He said the misconceptions became readily apparent after he retired from KPMG and started teaching at Rowan University near his home in New Jersey. He found the students highly motivated and curious about stable careers like accounting. But, they had concerns about the long hours, the 150-hour rule, the fear of boredom, and the lack of work-life balance.

Conclusion

“It dawned on me that there might be a broader need for explaining what accounting careers are like, the doors they can unlock, and the importance of forming good habits that will serve you well for a lifetime,” said Maginnis. What kinds of career advice are you giving young professionals? I’d love to hear more.

Blake Oliver, CPA, is the founder and CEO of Earmark and co-host of The Accounting Podcast, the No.1 podcast for accountants and bookkeepers.

The post Listen Up, Young Accountants: Career Advice For Sticking Out Those Early Years appeared first on Going Concern.

Although résumé gaps are not the end of the world and certainly not if the gap occurred any time between 2020 and now, OP felt they would be judged for taking so much time off when they decided to come crawling back to the job market. “So I fibbed a little,” they wrote.

That little fib? “I created a name for a consulting firm and described the things I had actually done in the last 18 months, like helping friends with their invoices and accounting,” they said. “I just made it sound much more professional and official.”

Apparently no one bothered to Google the made-up firm, nor did they run an employment check. “No one ever asked me about it, at least. If they had, I would’ve come clean and told them I did have my business license and was doing small-time accounting to make ends meet while taking time with my kid,” they said. So it wasn’t a gap, then? Are we talking “small-time accounting” = figuring out how much to tip at socially-distanced brunch? Because doing freelance accounting work between full-time jobs is not the same as not working at all.

The job they applied for required knowledge of a specific software system they’d never used before, Insider unfortunately doesn’t tell us what software that was. We’re going to have to assume it was something one can learn by watching a few YouTube videos because that’s exactly what OP did. “I wrote on my résumé that I was familiar with the software, and then I set about making that the truth by researching it and watching YouTube videos on how to use it,” they wrote.

Seriously, what software do we think this is?

It’s definitely not the easiest or most intuitive software. But I have enough faith in myself that if I don’t know something, I have the ability to learn how to do it. I’m very skilled at problem-solving, and I know when to ask questions.

There’s also support in place for honing your skills at the software (though no one at work knows this is my first time learning it rather than honing my previous skills!). It’s a complicated software, but I’ve faced every challenge and then some.

Things have apparently gone well for OP since fudging their way into a new job, they say they make “much more money than before,” have gotten two raises since starting, and love where they work. “I don’t think I would have been able to get the job if I hadn’t lied on my résumé,” they said.

They wrote: “If someone else asked me if I thought they should do the same, I would say: absolutely. It’s worth it. Have confidence in your skills, and know how to rephrase things in ways that are technically true (like my having spent my 18 months off helping friends with their accounting needs). I’m glad I lied on my résumé. My hardest day at my current job is easier than my average day at my previous job, and that has made a world of a difference in my quality of life.”

What do we think? Yay or nay to lying on your résumé?

I lied on my résumé to get a better-paying job — and I think others should do the same [Insider]

The post Lying on Your Résumé Paid Off For This Laid-Off Accountant appeared first on Going Concern.

She tells a story about a candidate who stood out to her:

I’ll never forget this one candidate who came in and completely won me over through his story and taught me a valuable lesson about looking beyond a résumé.

He was a full-time accounting student who also bartended to support his family and was interviewing for a role on our assurance-services team. He offered up his story at the start of the conversation by talking about how his work as a bartender had prepared him for a career in professional and client services. He told me why he was working so hard and his aspirations for continuing to help out his family while pursuing his goal of becoming an assurance professional.

Over the course of our conversation, he owned his narrative by focusing on how his experience would set him up for success at EY. He painted a compelling picture of how the skills he acquired bartending would translate to being a high performer at EY. This experience wasn’t necessarily “traditional,” but his mindset, positive attitude, and clear ability to overcome hurdles made him stand out.

When candidates share their thought process and the actions they took when faced with new and challenging situations, we can better understand their ability to adapt, overcome obstacles, and navigate uncertainty. For instance, they can share an example of how they handled a project where all the information was not known, or what happened when an assignment suddenly changed, requiring a significant pivot.

While you probably aren’t listing after-school jobs in fast food and minimum wage gigs you took to help you through college on your résumé, as evidenced above those jobs do teach you skills that you can apply to the professional services environment. Like acceptance for being underpaid, teamwork, and working with a hostile public without losing your temper. More on how to apply unrelated experience to your CV here.

Read all her advice:

I’m a head of talent for Big 4 accounting firm EY. Here are the qualities I look for in candidates and how to showcase them in interviews. [Insider]

The post Advice on How to Get Hired at EY From the Vice Chair of Talent appeared first on Going Concern.

Women’s brains absorb information like pancakes soak up syrup so it’s hard for them to focus. Men’s brains are more like waffles. They’re better able to focus because the information collects in each little waffle square.

To this day, whenever someone mentions waffles and pancakes you know immediately which firm they’re talking about (and Reddit regularly mentions waffles and pancakes any time someone is talking about EY, the sort of relentless pettiness we heartily endorse here at GC). Although some say the controversy over the training was overblown, EY was ordered to pay the state of New Jersey (where the training took place) $100,000 and to establish a $500,000 scholarship program as a direct consequence of hosting it.

But that was 2019, a lifetime ago really. Surely we’ve moved past those antiquated ideas by now. Other than the online spaces where your xenophobic aunt hangs out, no one is really spouting the same nonsense stereotypes about women being naturally good at reading emotion and men being inherently good leaders right?

Sadly, wrong. This ran in Forbes yesterday and I was immediately reminded of waffles and pancakes because, well, read:

Men and women both possess masculine and feminine qualities and each person lands within a range on the spectrum. Having the ability to harness both masculine and feminine qualities makes you a stronger leader and a more effective team member. For example, if you want to build relationships within a team stepping into the feminine is helpful. If you need to create order and structure within the team utilizing masculine traits may be the archetype needed. Each of us has default tendencies, which are typically related to our gender identity. Where each person falls on the scale is adaptable and dynamic. No matter how you identify, finding a balance between feminine and masculine can be helpful in all aspects of your life.

Look, I get where the author was going with this. She’s saying men can be caring and thoughtful, women can be assertive and methodical. Except the author sorts various qualities by masculine or feminine when no such sorting is necessary. Let’s keep reading.

Masculine qualities include structure and planning, taking action, risk-taking, competitiveness, protectiveness, and being assertive. Masculine traits get things done! This means the plan is usually direct and structured, where everyone knows their role and what they need to accomplish. When a person uses masculine traits without balancing them with feminine traits they may come off as aggressive, uncaring, and demanding.

Feminine qualities include being receptive, caring for team members, understanding the needs of the consumer that the brand serves, speaking effectively, flexibility, listening to intuition, and patience. Femininity is heart-centered! This means they have good relationships with their vendors and are a positive influence on team members, they have a good line on their customers and therefore can build a strong product, and are adaptable. When a person uses feminine traits without balancing them with masculine traits they can come across as passive, indecisive, and indirect.

Maybe it’s because I’m a woman and therefore overly emotional when I read dumb shit but WUT.

Below is a scoresheet used in EY’s waffles and pancakes training, leaked to HuffPo in 2019:

And this is from the Forbes article published yesterday:

The above is only slightly less obnoxious than the EY seminar that suggests women tend to be childlike (eww) and shy (fuck off). Knowledge is a masculine trait? It’s not masculine to look for approval? Intuition is feminine? Follows natures [sic] rhythms!? What does any of this even mean and why is any of it gendered?

Maybe I’ve just got my gender neutral undergarments in a twist because my feminine energy prevents me from viewing this article objectively and without emotion. Can a man please chime in to tell me if I’m overreacting or is this truly as dumb as my intuition tells me it is?

Feminine And Masculine Workforce Dynamics [Forbes]

The post The Dumbest Thing You’ve Read Since ‘Women’s Brains Absorb Information Like Pancakes Soak Up Syrup’ appeared first on Going Concern.

And the responses this person got back are about what you’d expect for this question.

If you’re this Green Dotter and you see this, and if you went against their advice and ended up asking someone in your office for a signing bonus, let us know how that all turned out.

The post Begging for a Signing Bonus *After* Accepting an Offer is Not How This Works appeared first on Going Concern.

Let’s see what the peanut gallery says:

Of the two dozen or so comments in response, this one pretty much sums things up:

[A]as much as I know Big 4 is exploitative, this is a bit unethical to just disappear. Not sure if you are on any projects but your team members surely would appreciate the heads-up.

That last part is the important part. The firm couldn’t care less if you go (assuming you are a low level cog and not someone important) but your team will notice. They are already overworked, underslept, and possibly near the breaking point. Chances are you’ve been operating on a skeleton crew for some time, one less body will be felt.

Do you want to be that guy (or gal)? When they say accounting is a small world this is what they’re talking about. Not that some Big 4 partner you’ve interacted with a handful of times will bring your name up on the golf course and tell some client about how you left your team in the lurch so you could go chase a better salary, those people have watched thousands of people leave over the years. No, what they mean is that if you dip out suddenly when everyone is already buried in work then you are a dick and everyone will know it.

Put in your two weeks like the responsible professional you are and then just coast until mid-November. THAT is the way. Plus you don’t know what’s going to happen when and if the economy takes a dump in the future (it will), as much as you are loath to accept this there is a possibility that some day in the future you may need to come crawling back to the firm. If you burn that bridge, you won’t have that option. Unless you are at risk of an immediate mental and emotional breakdown, just stick it out a little longer and leave the right way. Copy us on the farewell email, please.

Oh and good luck at the new job. It’s not at all a glaring red flag that they want you to start immediately. Surely it’s because of the skills and talent you bring to the table and not because they’re just as overworked and chaotic as the Big 4 firm you’re about to leave.

Related: A Field Guide to Quitting a Job in Public Accounting
Somewhat related: Yes, You Can Quit During Busy Season

The post PSA: Even in This Market, It’s Still Uncool to Quit Your Big 4 Job Without Notice appeared first on Going Concern.

Alright, let’s see what JofA says about email sign-offs:

Paul Sundin, CPA, a tax strategist and CEO of Emparion, a company that provides strategic retirement services, said that when he deals with government officials, he uses simple, formal closings such as “Sincerely” or “Respectfully.”

“They give the impression that I am here to do my job seriously,” he said.

*makes a mental note never to use “sincerely” or “respectfully” when responding to reader emails*

For clients, on the other hand, he often goes with “Best regards” for initial emails. Later that might change to “Thank you,” “Many thanks,” or “All my thanks.”

Those closings, along with other details in his email signature — his name, credentials, website address, and LinkedIn profile — communicate credibility, he said.

It turns out some people are not a fan of thanks. And especially its enthusiastic brother “Thanks!” which I use often because I know it irritates people. My personal favorite is “thanks in advance!” because it implies that I have little faith the person I’m emailing will do the thing I’ve politely asked them to do; the exclamation point being the thing that conveys passive-aggressiveness.

Some professionals prefer to use a standard sign-off regardless of who they’re talking to:

Dalton R. Sweaney, CPA, a partner at Gray, Salt & Associates LLP in Claremont, Calif., keeps it simple and consistent: “Best regards.”

“It’s the only one I use, regardless of setting,” he said.

I’m just gonna put this out there: most people I’ve encountered who use “best regards” are dicks. I’m not saying Dalton is, I’m just saying my learned experience has been that the “best regards” people tend to offer indifferent regards at best outside of emails. Actually now that I’m thinking about it, what does “best regards” even mean? Like “hope you’re well” right? Let’s look it up.

What does “best regards” mean?
“Best regards” is a common, friendly closing for emails and written letters. When you see “best regards” near the end of a message, it simply means the writer wishes you well. It is a semiformal letter ending, versatile enough for both personal and professional correspondence. “Best regards” typically suggests that you respect the recipient, but don’t necessarily have a close personal relationship with them. Other similar closings include “best wishes,” “all the best” and “warmly.” More formal closings are “sincerely” or “respectfully.”

There are variants of “best regards” you can use depending on the situation and how you feel about the receiver like “kind regards,” “warmest regards,” or if you’re really busy you can go with “best” which we’ve already determined is the worst but how else can you tell people you’re too busy for this shit without actually saying that.

If you really want, you can just not overthink this and sign off like a normal human being engaging in conversation with another human being. Like this:

Gwen Mazzola, CPA, assurance partner at HoganTaylor LLP, usually signs off with “Thank you.” But depending on who she’s exchanging emails with and even what day it is, her closing could change.

“For business emails, it is normally ‘Thank you’ or ‘Have an awesome day’ or ‘Let’s get together soon,'” she explained. “The closing is typically what I would say to them in a conversation.”

Whatever your sign-off of choice, just remember DON’T REPLY ALL unless you absolutely have to. Everyone agrees there are very few appropriate situations in which to reply all. Just like we all agree “Have a wonderful bountiful lustful day” is probably the worst email sign-off in history.

Thanks!

The post How Do You Sign Off Your Emails? appeared first on Going Concern.

I don’t think that this is talked about enough, and as a manager, I wanted to give my two cents on what I wish I was told back when starting my career. I work for a big 4, hence why I am posting here. If you don’t work at big 4 and just happen to stumble upon this, that is fine too.

Nevertheless, here are the signs that it’s time to depart:

1. Work becomes so boring that you can’t even keep your eyes open no matter how many times you ask your boss for more work. If you don’t feel like you’re being challenged or learning, it is time to leave. It’s a problem because when you are not learning, you aren’t truly advancing in your career. You’re just giving the group a reason to not promote you because you are evidently not showing signs of being stretchable. No matter how much you love the people you work with and no matter how much you love your company, you sometimes have to accept that you have outgrown the role and it is not enough for you anymore. I know it is tempting to stay sometimes because of loyalty or fear of being judged.

2. Even with those beautiful designer shoes that you have, you are walking into an office that you absolutely hate. [Ed. note: Allen Edmonds are designer shoes??] You’re just there for the money. It is tempting to wait for the bonus, but I promise it is never worth it if you despise your job that much. Let me tell you, money does not buy happiness – I know it sounds beyond cheesy. It’s true, however. It’s the fear of not being able to live the life that you want because you’re stuck by how amazing the salary is. It is simple. If cash is the only thing keeping you from taking that job shift, take that shift! Life is too short for us to exchange our own happiness for a paycheck. Look, I know we all have responsibilities. There are bills to pay, mortgages, family, friends, etc. Sometimes we just want to make our parents and spouses/peers proud. I get it. BUT, you have these transferable skills that allow you to literally find any job that you want. You definitely developed skills in leadership, teamwork, communication, etc if you are with a big 4. You don’t want to regret your life later on. Most jobs are 8 hours – no big deal. But if you’re going to work 8-12 hours of your day, at least do something toward a cause that you deeply care about.

3. Your workplace is toxic and impacting your self-esteem/metal health (I think this one is a given). If you go to work and the people you work with are knocking down your confidence and you’re doubting yourself, it is time to leave immediately. There are thousands of other high-paying jobs out there that have a friendly environment where you feel safe and comfortable. If you are questioning yourself constantly saying, “why the hell am I here right now?”, that is a huge red flag folks.

4. Deep down, you know that your skills and abilities can be used for different things. You know that you can do better things than what you’re doing in the current role you’re in. Again, if you are thinking to yourself, “there’s got to be more to life than this”, well there is. If your purpose is not aligned with what you’re doing at work, leave. You aren’t utilizing your skills.

To sum up OP’s four major signs that it’s time to move on from your Big 4 job: 1) boredom and indifference, 2) a deep-seated feeling of hatred, regret, and fear, 3) declining mental health due to toxicity and an overall feeling of doom (I’ll lump “Sunday scaries” in here, believe it or not there are jobs out there that don’t inspire dread every Sunday evening when you know the weekend is rapidly running out), and 4) feeling as though your skills and abilities are completely underutilized. One and four are two branches of the same vine, feeling underutilized often leads to feelings of boredom as you lack the challenge that comes from engaging your talents to solve problems.

As it just so happens, feeling disengaged with work can actually lead to greater feelings of burnout, presumably because one gets so bored with the repetition and pointlessness of it all that none of it has any meaning. That’s not to say that you should expect to feel engaged at every moment — this is professional services after all — but asking yourself 50 times a day “what even is the point of this” is a sign this isn’t what you’re meant to do with your time. If you are mired in indifference AND burned out, it’s probably time to look elsewhere.

If you found yourself nodding your head as you proceeded through each of OP’s points, it’s definitely time to look elsewhere.

The post How Do You Know When It’s Time to GTFO of Big 4? One Manager’s Opinion appeared first on Going Concern.

What’s up

Hi

Hello

Do you hate it when a colleague messages “hello” and then leaves you hanging while they type out the next thing they have to say? ME TOO. And we’re not alone.

Instead of silently building resentment, send them this link. You don’t even have to say anything, just hit ’em with the nohello.net and let the website do the rest. When they click, they’ll be greeted with this:

As we see from the screenshot, ‘hello’ isn’t the only obnoxious message. We also have:

“Hello, are you around?”
“hi sophie – quick question.”
“You got a sec?”
“yt?”
“ping”
etc.

Who tf types “ping”. I’d like to add “do you have time to talk?” to this list. JUST TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT PLEASE MY ANXIETY CANNOT TAKE THE DO YOU HAVE TIME TO TALK. Sorry, that was a bit extra.

Let’s be clear, this isn’t about being clinical and rude. It’s the opposite of rude really, it’s about being considerate of people’s time and attention and communicating as effectively as possible. You can still be polite, just do it in fewer individual messages.

If you want to be super passive-aggressive, you can even set your status as nohello.net.

Are we clear? Good.

Bye.

The post Why You Need to Stop Typing ‘Hello’ in Chat Immediately appeared first on Going Concern.

You will no doubt be disappointed by your raise this year (unless you quit and find a new firm) but the bills still have to be paid. Sometimes you just don’t feel like dusting off your resume and hitting the job market, so you reluctantly stick around collecting your meager paycheck as you watch it spread thinner and thinner every pay period. How about adding a side hustle? Here are 10 possibilities we hand picked just for hardworking Big 4 accountants.

OnlyFans
First of all, there are plenty of accountants on OnlyFans already. You might run into a bit of conflict between you and your firm’s rules on outside work but whatever fuck ’em, these are tough times.

Recycling
Those of you in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon, and Vermont should pay special attention to this part. Take all those empty beer bottles we know are stacked up on your coffee table as we speak and return them for profit! Some states even have deposits on liquor bottles which means even more cash for Big 4 grunts grappling with work-induced alcoholism. $$ AND booze! Win.

DoorDash
Remember how there were magical people who brought you meal after meal at the beginning of the pandemic? Now you can be one of them! At $2-10 per delivery you’ll be buying that summer house in no time.

Lyft/Uber
You might also consider Ubering in your copious amounts of free-time. Sure you’ll probably break even between wear and tear on your vehicle and current gas prices (it’s $45/gal by this point in the article) but think of all the fun exciting people you’ll meet!

Facebook Marketplace reselling
Personally I use Freecycle to get rid of the old crap I no longer want and no matter what I post there’s always this one lady who messages asking if she can have it. What are the odds a single person needs a broken vacuum cleaner, size 8 1/2 shoes, a cat toy, and a bag of assorted chargers? What I suspect is happening is that she grabs all the free stuff and sells it who knows where, Facebook Marketplace or a flea market, I really don’t care as long as it’s no longer my problem. I imagine this hobby of hers must be at least somewhat profitable otherwise why would someone dedicate so much time to fondling other people’s junk?

Taking surveys
Do you have opinions? Of course you do. Well now you can get paid for giving them. Granted you’ll get paid pennies per minute but that’s 50 pennies more than you had ten minutes ago. Every cent counts in this economy! NerdWallet spent 50 hours testing out online survey sites and calculated hourly earnings from 41 cents to $2.03. Who needs a bonus when you can sell your labor for $2 an hour!

Clinical Trials
This one is a bit tricky as the firm probably won’t give you time off if the drug you’re testing gives you a set of mean side effects. But consider the positive, you might test a drug that gives you anhedonia (which you probably have already now that I think about it) and become too numb to be depressed by the state of your bank account and the world at large. Win! Healthy human volunteers earn between $150 and $13,000 with a median clinical trial compensation of $3070 making it easily the most profitable option on this list.

MLM
Chances are your lack of work-life balance has already alienated you from your loved ones making multi-level marketing a perfect side hustle option. Yes you will get blocked by the few people you still talk to as you desperately bombard them with emojis but you’ll gain a closet full of inventory! Unlimited leggings woooooo! The most profitable MLM according to this nets an average of $556 annually, or approximately $46 per month. That’s at least good for half an Aldi run?

Fiverr/Upwork
Do you have a skill people would pay you to perform? No, we’re not talking about those skills, we covered that already in the OnlyFans section. If you can use the lasso tool and paste heads onto bodies in Photoshop you’re only minutes away from charging for graphic design on gigwork sites. Maybe you’ll get lucky and score a gig ghostwriting furry erotica. It’s a thing. A thing people get paid to write. Don’t ask how I know.

Airbnb
Of every item on this list, Airbnb is the only one that isn’t a joke, people can clear an easy $1,000 a month renting out their homes. Since you’re never at yours, this could be the perfect opportunity to afford all that avocado toast we know you waste your limited income on. Because we live in a strange dystopian future where every inch is commoditized, you can also rent out room at the back of your closet to someone looking to store some boxes. Definitely nothing at all weird about a stranger wanting to stick some boxes in your house, no way.

There you have it. Don’t let partners’ pursuit of profit get in the way of having your basic needs met, you’ve got this.

The post 10 Lucrative Side Hustle Ideas for Big 4 Accountants appeared first on Going Concern.

According to experts like Anthony Klotz, who predicted and coined the Great Resignation phenomenon, the next sweeping trend in hiring is the surge of ‘boomerang workers’— people who quit their jobs and are now returning to the company. These workers present a potentially untapped pool of candidates as companies continue to struggle to fill open roles.

Or this one published last November at CNBC:

Your workplace might have a few more familiar faces as the continued Great Resignation wave gives rise to the boomerang employee — a former worker who returns to the company after some time away.

Boomerang employment is a growing trend in general thanks to technology that helps people stay in contact over time, says Brian Swider, a management professor at the University of Florida and an expert on boomerang employees.

It’s a bit of wishful thinking to imagine swaths of people who left making an abrupt U-turn to come crawling back mere weeks or months from quitting, but the boomerang does exist and people have been doing it at Big 4 firms since the dawn of time. Consider this post a reminder not to set fire to the bridge behind you when you make your triumphant exit from the firm responsible for your crippling mental health issues and flabby thighs just in case. After all, we’re barreling straight toward a recession and who knows what will happen in the future. This isn’t April 3, 1865, you don’t need to set the city on fire on your way out.

If you DO insist on going out with a bang, make it a big bang. Like the Craig who wrote the “Come together like butt cheeks” email:

The first breaking point for EY was during my staff 2 year when I lost an inventory count and the bitch of a senior manager WOULD NOT stop hassling me about it. Dude, I told you I lost it. No matter how many emails or sametimes you sent me, that sheet isn’t coming back. Get over it. Rose cried less when the Titanic sank. Needless to say, he personally wrote my review. Didn’t go over too well during roundtables.

Or the former PwC auditor who burned bridges and then pissed all over the bridges to put the fire out. Just a small sampling of her insane 1,061 farewell email:

[Team Member #1], you’re fake important and you stink. I’ve peeped your game…constantly trying to throw me under the bus. You talk too much about everyone and how much you’re so stressed out on all of your clients …everyday we suffer from hearing this ish as well as listening to your countless stories about your girlfriend. You’re such a gossiper that sometimes I think you’re more feminine then you appear. Who does that? You’re a grown man, get your life! #somethingtotakebacktomizzy #f*outtahere #yourlifesucksandyouclearlyknowit #somethingtotakebacktotheteam? #chattycathy #femininemuch? #someoneneedstheirvagwaxed #ohwaityoudonthaveone

P.s. [Team Member #1], I can give two shits about your animals, maids, brother, etc. Is your life really that boring? Never seen people so in love with animals in life. #ewwnotcomingovertoyourplace #probsmellslikefecesandthrowup #couchesprobtornup #ohletmeguesstheysleepinyourbed #absolutelydisgusting | Get some friends to tell your business to. #ohwaitdrakesaidnonewfriends #maybeyouneedjesusinstead #yourvisionofyourselfisskewed #takeyourselfdownacoupleofnotches #youhavenotarrivedimsorry #crownforthequeenbey #ohandbythewaycelinedioncannottouchbey #beyhivebitches

[Team Member #2], I saw you yesterday giving me the side eye. I think those eyeballs need some readjusting. Girl, stop! Don’t play into [Team Member #1]’s episodes. Just because both of you feel the need to give your whole life story doesn’t mean other people will feel that way. Have your own opinions and ideas. #I’msorrybutnotsorry #dontbeafollower #thoseeyeballswerestaringtoohardforcomfort #goodluckonyourmiserablecrapofacareeratpwc #saygoodbyetoyoursociallife #butifyoudecidetoleaveyoucantwerkoutwiththerestofus #twerkmileymileytwerk

[Team Member #3], where do I start? You hate yourself and your job, let’s be honest. Your cat doesn’t care about you so stop caring about it. Stories about your nasty cat are unbearable. Seriously, I can’t even deal. Beyond gross! You’re fake ratchet! I hear you giving weird remarks that are borderline weird….I can definitely hear the twang in your voice. Just be you!

Any good therapist will tell you to journal if you’re drowning in feelings so should you feel compelled to pound out a farewell email worthy of the Going Concern Hall of Farewell Emails, type that shit out in notepad, spew frustration all over Reddit, punch some walls and then sit down to write a short, sweet note to your team. “I enjoyed working with you all.” END.

Odds you come crawling back are low but not zero. Allow for that tiny little percent and then go forth and live your best, well-paid, 40-hour-a-week life as Big 4 gets smaller and smaller in your rearview.

Related article:

The Boomerang: Who Says You Can’t Go Back to Public Accounting?

The post If You’re Quitting Public Accounting Try Not to Burn Bridges on Your Way Out In Case You Need to Come Crawling Back appeared first on Going Concern.

@masood_boomgaard You are not your job.#fyp #foryourpage #comedу #motivation #selfcare #selflove #tiktok #tiktokusa #mentalhealth #antiwork ♬ original sound – masood_boomgaard

Thank you, @masood_boomgaard!

The post Here’s a Piece of Practical Self-Help Advice For Those of You Working This Weekend appeared first on Going Concern.

Name checks out. Anyway, I can’t believe this wasn’t deleted. Kudos to r/big4 mods for being brave enough to let this shitty story (heh) stay up for the benefit of any future Big 4 pants-shitters.

I’m curious to hear your suggestions, and if I’m being entirely honest I’m also curious if this has happened to any of you before but I feel like I’ll regret it if I encourage you to share your story in the comments. Maybe just share some general advice for what new hires should do if they embarrass themselves in front of their senior manager.

I’ll start. While crapping your pants is a pretty egregious offense, keep in mind how hot the public accounting job market is and how desperate firms are for talent. I’m not suggesting you should do this on purpose but firms are so hungry to retain people right now this most likely won’t get you fired. You could probably take a dump on the senior manager’s office right now if you wanted. Again, don’t do that. But you could if you really wanted. Probably.

Job market aside, there are two approaches to take when you’ve committed an embarrassing error. 1) pretend like it never happened and hope no one ever mentions it or 2) confront it head on, own it, apologize, and move on with your life. Keeping in mind that second-hand embarrassment is definitely a thing and anyone who was party to your embarrassment likely does not want to discuss it any more than you do. Sometimes it’s a sign of maturity to own your mistakes, other times it’s best to ignore it completely and instead spend the rest of your life replaying that moment over and over in your head during every shower and every night when you’re trying to drift off to sleep. I see you, anxious people, I see you.

Which option you should choose also depends on the gravity of the offense and whether or not the firm might be directly affected by it. Crapping your pants has no impact on the firm (unless it happens at the client site I guess), whereas making a mistake like, let’s say “accidentally” backdating workpapers is a major error. The big difference being one is just a thing that happens sometimes because human bodies are kind of gross, the other is a question of judgment. Not the judgement you’ll get from crapping your pants in front of your senior manager, I mean the kind of judgment regulators expect you to have in performance of your professional duties. All of us have crapped our pants (granted, most of us were toddlers yet to be potty trained when it happened), most of us do not make huge mistakes like cheating on ethics exams. Not all mistakes are created equal. Use that professional judgment and determine if your mistake is worth admitting to or trying to forget.

Why do I feel like five years from now I’m going to get an email from someone saying they came across this post and need advice on what to do? God I hope so. Future pants-shitter if you’re reading this let me just say… go with option 1. You already chose #2 and look where it got you.

Photo by Anna Shvets

The post Let’s Say Theoretically You Crap Your Pants Your First Week at a Big 4 Firm, What Should You Do? appeared first on Going Concern.

Love,

Your friends at Going Concern

The post Reminder: Don’t Forget to Turn In Your Timesheet! appeared first on Going Concern.

After three rounds in Big 4 audit, I’m living proof that you can always go back.

The first jump out

After the mass layoffs of the Great Recession, morale at Big 4 firms tanked. The work was “evenly spread around” to those of us who were still employed (in other words; everyone left got dumped on). I started looking to get out in September 2009 after receiving news that my raise would barely match pace with inflation, even though my annual performance rating was “exceeds expectations.”

The economy was tough, but by mid-December, I had a great offer from a promising energy startup, complete with equity and a great pay bump. I came back from Christmas vacation and put in my two weeks’ notice. The partners told me that if I left them high and dry right at the start of busy season that I would never work in public accounting again (turns out, this is another lie told by partners to try to get people to stay).

The first boomerang

Fast-forward 10 months. The startup did not pan out. Our CFO made payroll out of his own pocket. One day I asked him how much more he would invest before pulling the plug, and he told me $1 million. We burned $350,000 of cash per month, so I knew I had three months to find a new job.

Side note: No matter how much equity a company gives you, it is pretty much worthless when the company is about to go belly-up.

The partners at my old office laughed in my face when they heard I needed a new job. They were desperate for seniors, but they wanted nothing to do with me. The thing is, when one Big 4 firm is desperate for seniors, the three other firms usually are, too. Enter Deloitte. They saw the timeline on my resume and completely ignored it. In fact, they gave me a pretty nice signing bonus to come back.

The second jump out

I knew I needed to be more patient this time and get something more stable when I left—I couldn’t risk a startup flopping on my resume again. Even after finding fraud at a client, and having my entire summer ruined as a result, I wasn’t really looking to leave right away. As the engagement wrapped up, the partner told me to take some time off, take my wife to a nice dinner that I could run through, as long as it stayed under $50. After eight consecutive 65-plus-hour weeks in the middle of summer and my team earning the firm almost $400,000 in additional fees as a result of us discovering fraud, this felt like a slap in the face, so naturally I took my wife and some friends to dinner (and did not keep it under $50). One of the friends at the dinner worked in finance at a local publicly traded company. He told me they were hiring for a financial reporting role—an opportunity I could not pass up.

Acknowledging what I’d been through that summer, the partners begged and pleaded with me to stay, offered to find me a better role in six months (and every other lie listed in my article from a couple weeks ago), gave me an 18% raise, and offered me a $10,000 retention bonus to stay another year. The other company came back with a strong counteroffer. I jumped ship again.

The second boomerang

A few years later, the public company I had gone to work for was bought by a private equity firm in a take-private transaction. For the second time in my career, I survived mass layoffs, but my new role was more of a “special projects” position. I was pigeonholed. While I had been given decent pay raises, my boss would not promote me to a manager role citing lack of management experience.

Side note: You can’t get management experience unless you are given management experience along the way, which never happens if nobody will let you do it because you don’t have management experience. The progressive experience handed to people at regular increments is one of the most valuable benefits from public accounting.

One long and boring day, I received a call from a recruiter looking for people with former Big 4 experience to join a consulting firm as “managers.” I jumped, but very quickly realized that that firm’s model was to farm people out to collect huge hourly rates, while the companies we were farmed out to treated us like glorified contractors. I still wasn’t given any real management opportunities.

I started applying for other jobs, but without manager experience and with several hops on my resume, I was rejected over and over again. Then I discovered that my old firm (EY) was hiring (in a different office than I’d started in). They offered to let me come back if I would start at a Senior 3 level. I swallowed my pride and took the job.

My last hop out of public accounting was explained in last week’s article. I now work at an amazing pre-IPO tech company as the director of financial reporting and technical accounting and have never been happier in my entire career.

Why go back?

The first time I boomeranged was out of desperation. I needed a job, and the Big 4 needed people. It worked out alright for both of us. It was a safe landing spot for me to reset my bearings and move on. The second time provided the experience I needed to break into more senior roles in industry.

A trip back through the public accounting grind is not for the faint of heart. Although I believe there is a lot to fix about the culture, work environment, unrealistic expectations and demands of public accounting, I truly believe that the additional experience and the network I built during my return visits propelled my career forward and provided opportunities I would not currently have if I hadn’t gone back.

About the author:

C.P. Aiden is a former Big 4 assurance senior manager who bounced between public accounting and industry three times during the past 15-plus years. After leaving public accounting for good, he wrote and self-published The Good Audit (sequel coming soon), a satire about a first-year audit engagement that pokes fun at the work, life, and culture inside today’s largest public accounting firms. He is also currently publishing a series of short stories entitled, The Best of the Worst: True and Stupid Stories from My 8 Years in Big 4 Accounting.

Related articles:

Considering a Move? Don’t Believe Everything Partners Tell You to Convince You to Stay
The Moment I Knew I Was Done With Public Accounting For Good

The post The Boomerang: Who Says You Can’t Go Back to Public Accounting? appeared first on Going Concern.

In honor of International Women’s Day and because if there’s one thing we women are good at it’s holding onto grudges and using dumb things said about us against the sayer for all of eternity (that’s a joke btw), I thought now would be a good time to rehash the rules for women in the workplace as told in a sexist training seminar that took place at EY’s Hoboken office as recently as 2018. Or, as it is more widely known, the “pancakes and waffles” incident.

For those who may have missed it, here’s the gist as summarized by my pancake brain last year:

What everyone remembers about this story is not the part where they dedicated a good part of the day to telling grown-ass professional women to do their hair but rather the part where the women attending this seminar — all of whom were women in leadership positions at EY — were told that women’s brains are 6% to 11% smaller than men’s brains, and that “women’s brains absorb information like pancakes soak up syrup so it’s hard for them to focus.” Men are the lucky ones though, their brains are like waffles, where the good stuff melts in and pools in all the little genius nooks and crannies of their big ole brains. Seriously. EY paid someone to say this in a training to 30 of its best and brightest women.

When HuffPo broke the story, EY initially tried to brush it off as being taken out of context in said story until enough news outlets picked up the story and they were forced to copy paste the statement about how [insert naughty thing] doesn’t represent the firm’s values and culture.

As a reward for the blatantly sexist seminar, EY eventually was ordered to pay the state of New Jersey $100,000 for violating the state’s Law Against Discrimination and to establish a $500,000 scholarship program to increase opportunities for employment in the accounting and finance industry for women and other populations underrepresented in the industry.

At the seminar, women attendees were asked to score themselves on masculine and feminine traits and told that for women to be successful in the workplace, they should keep in mind that men and women both will strongly judge a woman with too many points on the masculine side.

The attendee who spoke to HuffPo provided a few more suggestions made in the training:

• Don’t directly confront men in meetings, because men perceive this as threatening. (Women do not.) Meet before (or after) the meeting instead.
• If you’re having a conversation with a man, cross your legs and sit at an angle to him. Don’t talk to a man face-to-face. Men see that as threatening.
• Don’t be too aggressive or outspoken.

Women were also told not to wear flashy jewelry, don’t flaunt your body (“sexuality scrambles the mind,” they heard), try not to have a shrill voice when speaking, and always signal fitness and wellness (ah yes, the cornerstone of public accounting).

So keeping all these things in mind, let’s get out there with our perfectly-coiffed hair and not-too-low-cut blouses and take on the world, ladies!

Oh and btw because someone always asks this on this particular day, the whatabouts will be happy to hear that International MEN’S Day falls on November 19 so go ahead and mark your calendars instead of complaining about a single day meant to acknowledge and uplift women. Let women have things.

Women At Ernst & Young Instructed On How To Dress, Act Nicely Around Men [HuffPost]

Photo by Jill Wellington from Pexels

The post In Honor of International Women’s Day, Let’s Recall Some Important Rules For Women In the Workplace appeared first on Going Concern.

Lie #1: If you leave public accounting, you will never work with the same caliber of smart people again.

I left Big 4 and now the very same partners who shared this view with me are in charge of our audit. I work with the same teams I worked with at the firm all the time. What were they saying about themselves? (Gasp!)

After several years of the no-nit-too-small-to-pick routine from all those incredibly smart people in audit who split hairs and start nerd-offs at the drop of a hat, it is nice to work with people who don’t start every other sentence with, “Well, technically speaking … (yawn).” People don’t need a CPA license or a master’s degree from a prestigious university to do accounts payable, accounts receivable, reconciliations, etc.

Lie #2: The grass is brown everywhere.

Seriously?! You should stay in public accounting because your career is going to suck no matter where you are? This one is particularly laughable given who is making the statement. Most partners never experience life outside public accounting, so they don’t know what green grass looks like.

No job is perfect, even in industry. You still have to get along with people and play politics. You might not get promoted like clockwork with everyone else in your group. Busy season happens in industry, too. However, in industry, you only have one “client,” you can invest in whatever company you want to without checking a database or letting your employer track your every trade, you can actually spend time with family and friends on weeknights, you don’t have to pad memos with pages of useless garbage just because the partner wants more CYA for the file, and busy season is still seasonal (usually). In summary, green grass.

Lie #3: You are selling yourself short taking that position. If you stay six more months, we will use the firm’s extensive network to help find a really great opportunity for you.

Finding you that great opportunity is almost always the afterthought to the much more pressing issue of keeping you around. To evaluate the likely outcome of this promise, watch how the partner interacts with clients—if anything can be kicked down the road, it will be, and there is a very good chance that you will be treated the same way or worse.

Partners who are attentive to client needs, follow up often, and are genuinely concerned with resolving issues early on are much more likely to follow through on their bargains with employees. Caveat emptor on this one though—I watched as several of my colleagues got sucked in by the dangling carrot for months or even years before realizing it was never going to happen, cutting their losses, and leaving on their own.

Lie #4: On average, you will make more money in public accounting than in industry.

This statement is predicated on the assumption that you will make partner and live out the rest of your career in constant fear of inspections and restatements. Let’s be honest, not everyone is or wants to be on partner track.

The statement also generally ignores the scenario of starting in public accounting and getting a 20% to 30% pay bump leaving between senior and manager, which is what most people come for. It also ignores stock options and the intangible value of a work-life balance equation where work does not equal life.

Lie #5: We will rearrange your schedule so you can work on the client or in the industry you want.

This one typically turns into a pipe dream pretty quickly. Sometimes the firm will follow through if your open time happens to align with a pressing need that fits your request or if you REALLY push for it and are SUPER patient.

I asked to be put on a public client at least once per quarter for two years. Our office was small, and we only had a handful of public clients, but the partners kept telling me they would “do their best to get me rotated into one as soon as possible.” My schedule didn’t change until I had a job offer in hand with one foot out the door. As the ink was still drying on that signed offer, they rushed to rearrange my schedule as a last-ditch effort to keep me. At that point, it was too little, too late.

Lie #6: If you want better work-life balance, you can go on a flex schedule.

Just say no. Deadlines don’t disappear. Staffing shortages always add stress. Unless you are really, really good at saying “no” (and let’s face it, if you are in public accounting, you probably aren’t), then a flex work arrangement equates to the firm paying you less to do the exact same job.

In the grand (pyramid) scheme of things, partners need to keep people around for the model to work. Remember this when you start the conversation with partners about leaving the firm, understand their motivation and perspective, and always take whatever they tell you with a grain (or a two-ton boulder) of salt.

About the author:

C.P. Aiden is a former Big 4 assurance senior manager who bounced between public accounting and industry three times during the past 15-plus years. After leaving public accounting for good, he wrote and self-published The Good Audit (sequel coming soon), a satire about a first-year audit engagement that pokes fun at the work, life, and culture inside today’s largest public accounting firms.

The post Considering a Move? Don’t Believe Everything Partners Tell You to Convince You to Stay appeared first on Going Concern.

It’s been long established that the accounting profession has a mental health problem. And that’s on top of the ongoing mental health crisis in the entire adult population of the United States (more than one in four Americans has a mental health disorder; one in 17 has a serious mental health disorder like schizophrenia [cite]). Things were already dire before the pandemic hit and obviously only got worse from there. If the mental health situation was a crisis prior to 2020, it’s now officially a catastrophe.

Speaking of things that happened before the pandemic, in February 2020 the Journal of Accountancy published an excellent firsthand account of one CPA’s struggle with depression and the profession’s “if we don’t acknowledge it it didn’t happen” attitude about mental health issues. We didn’t know then how timely that JofA cover story would be, but man was it nice to see the long overdue conversation happening. Here’s a snippet from that article written by Mark J. Cowan, CPA, J.D.:

The profession as a whole needs to talk more about mental health in general and depression in particular. Doing so would help remove the stigma and help CPAs who are suffering in silence know that they are not alone. The reality that CPAs get depressed and sometimes need help must become generally accepted.

At the individual level, we need to be looking out for one another. Although our professional skills won’t help us address our own depression, they can enable us to help others. CPAs pay attention to detail, exercise skepticism, and notice what others don’t. When it comes to the well-being of our colleagues, we all must become auditors. We must listen and watch to see the pain behind the smiles and encourage those who are struggling to get professional help.

The truth is there is no accounting for the darkness of depression. The professional toolkit that has helped us succeed in our careers will fail us. But if we seek help when we need it, and help others do the same, we can find a path to the light and ensure that each of us remains a healthy and thriving going concern.

No reasonable person can argue with his viewpoint. Or can they? The CPA Practice Advisor article I mentioned at the beginning of this post almost seems to suggest that burnout — which is defined by the World Health Organization as “syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed” — is just a state of mind. Here we go:

It’s no surprise that four months of stressing out and working crazy hours can take a toll on your mental and physical health. Add to that a pandemic that caused what felt like a two-year busy season, and many public accountants are over it. They’re either leaving the profession for good or launching their own firms. Public accounting has burnt them out.

After almost a decade of being in this profession, I’m here to say, “it doesn’t have to be this way.”

Yes, we can have public accounting and not have burnout. Here’s how.

OK wait. Before we continue, let’s revisit the WHO definition of burnout real quick. Actual burnout is more than just feeling cranky and not getting enough sleep, it has serious and devastating consequences. “Can take a toll on” doesn’t begin to do it justice and starting your own firm to get away from the public accounting meat grinder macerating you into a vague, defeated sludge of who you used to be may not even fix it:

Left untreated, burnout can cause folks to become depressed, anxious, and distracted, which can impact not only their work relationships, but their personal interactions, too.

When stress reaches an all-time high, it’s harder to regulate emotions like sadness, anger, and guilt, which may result in panic attacks, anger outbursts, and substance use.

Any of that sound familiar? I’m sure it does. And I’m sorry. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Reddit asked me the other day if r/accounting contains “mature themes” like alcohol, drug use, profanity, violence, and gore.

So what is the author’s solution to the pervasive issue of burnout wreaking havoc throughout the profession? Change your attitude:

Burnout is not inevitable if you have the right attitude and mindset. Remember – you have the power to create a life you love and a firm that you and others love.

If you don’t think so, you have to change your perspective. Far too many people are still living to work rather than working to live. The younger generation isn’t tolerating this mindset and the societal pressure to work 65+ hours per week. They’re showing us that they value health and life experiences more than money

That’s all well and good but millennials are now 40 and we’re still having this conversation about “the younger generation” as if this is some new revelation; this exact conversation we’ve been having since Gen Y entered the workforce 20 years ago. I understand the intention here was not to minimize people’s very real struggles, but we’re in very “gee thanks I’m cured” territory here. By the time you get to burnout, you’re long past the “have you tried changing your attitude?” stage. The burnout problem is systemic, not just something that happens at a few select firms under a couple bad leaders.

The article goes on to recommend a few morale boosters to get everyone’s spirits up and combat that pesky burnout. Just like the above description of burnout as a disease, you may recognize some of these, too:

Your firm can do its part to help prevent these issues by boosting morale. Here are a few ways to do so:

• Plan virtual events, like virtual wine tastings and fun after-hours, to help your team members connect and mingle.
• Plan Zoom lunches. Gift Uber Eats to your team, and enjoy virtual lunches together.
• Recognize achievements. Your team members want to feel valued and appreciated. Tell and show them that they are!

Consider the dynamics of your team, the values of your firm, and what matters most to your employees to find other ways to boost morale.

In other words, the pizza parties will continue until morale improves. Surely that will single-handedly solve the profession’s burnout problem. Now smile! Everything is just fine!

The author isn’t exactly wrong; prioritizing the life in work-life balance would go a long way toward easing burnout and making public accountants’ lives something they don’t need copious amounts of alcohol just to endure. But it’s going to take a whole lot more than Zoom happy hours and a handful of small firms that don’t work their staff into the ground for that to happen. You might as well suggest that world hunger could be solved by feeding people. Like yeah, we know. Doesn’t mean anyone’s actually gonna do it. I’ll probably be dead by then, but I bet you in two decades when Gen Z makes up the majority of accounting firm partners, we will still be talking about how the younger generation values their personal lives and here are some suggestions for placating Generation Whatever. That’s if partners aren’t replaced by algorithms by then.

I look forward to the current partners showing up in the comments below to call us all snowflakes and say the author of this post is just being negative for no reason as they do on every other article that calls out the broken mentality of the profession that is destroying mental health and scaring away college students. Clearly this is all my fault for not having a better attitude.

Photo by Cup of Couple from Pexels

The post Opinion: If You’re Burned Out It’s Probably Your Fault appeared first on Going Concern.

This pervasive problem has only gotten worse due to the pandemic and the ongoing Great Resignation. Prior to everyone quitting their jobs at once, public accounting firms at least had enough warm bodies around to somewhat share the work. No doubt you’ve watched your colleagues disappear one by one over the past few months, leaving even more work to spread across the people who steadfastly remain. If only the profession hadn’t scared people off years ago with tales of long hours, low pay, and working weekends poolside maybe this all could have been avoided. Alas, here we are.

When even the big firms started floating the idea of unlimited PTO years back, the skeptical among us wondered what the catch was. Not for long though, we quickly figured out what the catch was. In a 2017 Journal of Accountancy article about San Antonio, TX firm ATKG switching to unlimited PTO we get a light bulb moment:

“We trust our folks to get their work done,” Debbie Roos, the firm’s COO, explained. “Unlimited PTO was a natural fit between our values and our vision.”

Aha, there it is. The condition that is so rarely met: The. Work. Is. Never. Done.

Surely Debbie meant well when she said that, and for all we know ATKG fully staffs its teams, doesn’t encourage eating hours, and believes in the value of true time off (clearly I don’t know that, so if anyone who works there would like to educate us please chime in). But for the majority of accounting firms and most certainly at the large ones, the work is an infinite black hole of more work.

Add to that, firms count on you all to self-police and put pressure on your colleagues not to put their personal lives ahead of the firm’s primary directive of billing as many hours as possible. They hope peer pressure will regulate time off and that you’ll get mad at anyone who takes what is deemed “too much” time off while the rest of you sit and suffer, thereby shaming people into not taking it. It’s kind of like that tweet going around of a guy who works his ass off at an Amazon warehouse getting angry about people “sitting at home on their asses collecting unemployment for doing nothing” during the pandemic. I wish I saved it, I can’t find it now. Whatever. The point of that is it’s not the people collecting unemployment he should be angry at but rather the people working him like a dog and making him piss in a bottle instead of taking a bathroom break. Same concept here. Pit the people against one another so they have someone to be angry at other than the people they should actually be angry at.

Well I say fuck that. Make PTO great again. Take that mental health day. Look, I’m not just pulling this idea out of my ass because I like making Big 4 partners break out in the anime sweats (I do), a recent Journal of Accountancy article cosigns the outrageous idea that firms should encourage their people to unplug and take real time off. The article’s title is “Protect staff’s mental health with true time off” which is really dystopian if you think about it. The profession’s largest membership association is telling firm leaders to give their people a day off to prevent nervous breakdowns. The fact any leader needs to be told this is depressing.

When staff feel unable to disconnect from work, they and their employers can suffer for it. Burnout has increased dramatically during the pandemic, said Lindsey Curley, CPA, CGMA, senior manager–Firm Services for the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, representing AICPA & CIMA. And burnout has contributed to employees’ leaving their jobs in large numbers over the past several months, a phenomenon dubbed the “Great Resignation.” Focusing on employee mental health and promoting time off are ways employers can address burnout and turnover.

Ensuring that staff truly disconnect can reap benefits. “When employees take time to reset, they return with renewed energy and fresh ideas which ultimately improve firm success,” Curley said.

It’s extra depressing that firm leaders need to be sold this idea of not driving their people to madness packaged in the promise that giving people time off will benefit the firm, but hey, it’s better than nothing. Perhaps if more firms heed the advice they wouldn’t have the staffing problems they do.

Photo by Mateusz Dach from Pexels

The post This Year, Let’s Normalize Actual Time Off In Public Accounting appeared first on Going Concern.

In “3 tips for young employees navigating hybrid work environments,” he highlights three ways young professionals can stay connected despite ongoing efforts for all of us to avoid each other lest we spread cooties around. They are:

1. Take part in creating the culture of a flexible workplace.
2. Amid uncertainty, maintain an open dialogue and stay engaged.
3. Consider the office an opportunity to connect.

Unsurprisingly, he expresses concern that fully remote environments are not conducive to the ever-important collaboration guys like him are always going on about:

While some form of continued flexibility is likely to be a key part of the future of work, it would be a mistake at most companies to try to build a long-term, lasting work culture entirely from home. Regular in-person interaction—even if it’s not every day—helps everyone maintain the qualities that make our workplaces unique and special.

As loath as we are to admit this, he’s right about that last part. When it comes to public accounting, anyway. Maybe at some point in the future there will be a roadmap for effective networking in remote environments, but for now, you’re going to need to make coffee dates if you want to get ahead. Mind you, that only applies if the “get ahead” matters to you; those of you perfectly content with “get by and get out” can continue billing hours in your underwear between competitive Overwatch matches and disregard the above suggestion because who cares as long as the work gets done.

For the young public accounting go-getters, you’re going to miss out if you never go to the office. Period. You’ll note his reference to “the next generation of leaders” here:

A Gallup survey found that employees who work from home some, but not all, of the time are more engaged. And that’s certainly what we’ve seen at EY. When it comes to developing the next generation of leaders, the office provides opportunities that can’t be replicated remotely.

Young employees need to make the most out of the time they spend with co-workers by taking charge of their careers and proactively seeking out potential mentors and interacting with colleagues. If you’re on a hybrid schedule, save independent tasks for home and maximize face-to-face time in the office. It’s critical for building a strong network early in your career and finding experienced colleagues who can serve as models.

Without being in the office and interacting face-to-face with colleagues and supervisors, it’s easy to let networking and career planning go by the wayside. But both are necessary for advancement. Now more than ever, if you want a career—not just a job—then charting a course and being your own advocate is essential.

OK, I can hear your eyes rolling from all the way over here. And it’s entirely justified, but hear me out. Since carving out a successful career at a Big 4 firm is 20% billable hours, 10% crying in a bathroom stall, and 70% politics, and since we’ve all but eliminated crying in the stall now that you can cry on your couch, all that really leaves is politics. And politics, my friends, is how guys like Carmine Di Sibio get to where they are. If that’s somewhere you want to be, you’re gonna need face-time. Regardless of what your manager says about staying home.

Photo by Sebastian Palomino from Pexels

The post EY Global Chairman Carmine Di Sibio Warns Zoomers Their Careers Are Screwed If They Stick to Remote Work appeared first on Going Concern.

Going Concern:

Some 20 years ago in the dead of night the AICPA’s Professional Ethics Enforcement Program (PEEC) changed the historical requirement that only CPAs can be partners in CPA firms to a mere majority. They then lobbied NASBA to get all the State Boards of Accountancy to include the “watering professionalism down” provision in their individual state laws.

Surprise, surprise the Big 4 firms are now primarily interested in attracting non-accounting majors as new employees. The foreseeable result is a significant reduction of student interest in our profession and the death of the 150 hour programs in our colleges and universities. Notwithstanding the stellar efforts of the CPA Exam Division the number of CPA candidates has significantly dropped and frankly this self-inflicted decline will continue.

This also puts at risk the “professionalism” of the whole CPA calling. No other profession – law, medicine, architecture, nursing, engineering etc. etc. – has knowingly diluted the professionalism of their own calling.

It also is a slap-in-the-face to any CPA who worked so very hard to pass the CPA exam.

– Professional Contributor

Further reading:
Time to Panic? New CPA Exam Candidate Numbers Are Lower Than They’ve Been in More Than a Decade [GC, August 2019]
NASBA Sees Significant Decline in CPA Exam-Related Revenue [INSIDE Public Accounting, November 2020]
Trends Show CPA Gap Widens [NASBA, November 2019]

The post Opinion: It’s the AICPA’s Own Fault No One Wants to Be a CPA Anymore appeared first on Going Concern.

I’m the type to talk to strangers (maybe the reporter in me idk) and on our way to my destination I mentioned how strange it was that I struggled so hard to snag a ride. “Yeah,” said my driver. “No one wants to work. The unemployment is too good. Don’t blame ’em.”

Now, we’re not here to debate whether or not the currently-unemployed should get off their butts and go to work. That said, my driver’s comment got me thinking about how in a workers’ market, workers whose needs are met will not willingly choose to work low-paying, shitty jobs if they don’t have to. Just look at all the minimum wage restaurants around you with big, bold WE’RE HIRING signs slapped up all around the building. Employers are desperate, but not desperate enough to pay workers more than can be made by staying home on unemployment looking for something better.

I considered this when putting together Friday Footnotes the other week. ICYMI, two of the eight articles from the week were about the ongoing — and worsening — talent crunch happening as we speak in accounting. This topic has been a favorite of ours over the years but it’s telling that the AICPA’s incoming new Chair came strong out of the gate with an almost aggressive stance on talent recruitment. It’s not surprising, given that this has been an issue for as long as I can remember, but it is signaling a real panic on the part of TPTB that the pipeline is a little too thin for comfort. From the Journal of Accountancy:

[Bill] Pirolli’s focus is incredibly timely, as leaders of the profession are adopting strategies designed to ensure that the best and brightest young people will continue to be attracted to the CPA credential. Jobs at popular technology companies and startup opportunities are enticing for young people who are highly skilled in the latest tech, yet the accounting profession needs them more than ever.

See where I’m going with this? The profession is the Hardee’s down the street with NOW HIRING on a marquee sign out front wondering why it’s so darn hard to find people to work.

As previously discussed ad nauseam, the profession has an image problem. Which, OK fine whatever, accountants are never going to be cool (and it’s cringe when they try). But what accounting lacks in raw coolness it has historically made up for in salary and opportunity, at least to the extent that otherwise unremarkable individuals can phone in a four-year degree at a state school and still have many of the same opportunities usually afforded to only the “best and brightest” in other sectors (I’m looking at you, lawyers). As time has gone on, it’s becoming harder and harder for accounting to compete as a viable career and why not? If someone really wants to work an obscene amount of hours they can go do it in tech and at least maybe get some stock options and some bragging rights out of the deal.

So there’s a recruiting problem. OK, we knew that. The problem is that firms are also bleeding warm already-recruited bodies, especially at the senior level. Perhaps because the market is just that hot, or perhaps the last 15 months gave all of us a lot of time to reflect and realize that killing ourselves for an employer who will happily throw us away the minute things might get tough just isn’t worth it. Surely most of you already knew this, it’s just so much more real when the news is saying that some guy standing too close to you in line at the grocery store could literally kill you I guess.

Here’s the deal. You’ve been told from day one to protect your professional reputation, to “shut your mouth and do your time” like the generation(s) before you because that’s just what you do and God forbid you burn a bridge or — gasp! — make a move that leaves the firm in a pinch because they purposely kept your engagement staffed with as few of you as possible.  This is just how it’s always been, and most people put up with it because they felt their needs were being met.

But now that it seems everyone is making a run for the door, it’s becoming clearer just how understaffed teams are, and how unreasonable it is for firms to expect 110% at all times because what, that’s how it’s always been? Nice try, Boomer, this ain’t that market.

Repeat after me: the firm’s staffing problems are not your problem. Perhaps if one person leaving for greener pastures puts them in that much of a bind they should stop running everyone so ragged and consider, idk, getting some more hands on deck to share the work. Crazy concept, I know. Granted it’s a bit different when everyone is leaving but again, that’s not your problem. They are fully aware that the long hours and unreasonable expectations drive people away, they just don’t care. In fact, we can safely assume they accounted for estimated turnover when all the Covid cuts happened early last year, the leaving is baked into the business model. They just weren’t expecting everyone to leave at the same time.

I’m not sure you guys understand just how much leverage you have here. Much like someone trying to sell a former hoarder home with trucks on cinder blocks in the front yard and dead cats in the basement, demand is so high that it doesn’t even matter what you’re selling. You have options. You certainly don’t have to suffer just because that’s what people who are dead now did 50 years ago when the world (and the profession) was a very different place.

Just how good is the market out there? We’ll visit that shortly in a follow-up. For now, brush up that resume and feel free to skip that 8:30 a.m. Zoom call. I mean, what are they gonna do, fire you? Good luck with that.

The post F*ck the Firms, It’s Your Show Now appeared first on Going Concern.

As you can imagine, this was pretty difficult to deal with as a kid. I struggled with making connections at school, as no sooner would I get comfortable than the tornado would come whipping through my little world yet again and off I would scatter to the next place until things were calm again. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Well into adulthood, I clung to this trauma. It defined me. In some ways, I found comfort in my pain because it was familiar. Over the years various mental health professionals would plead with me to face it and work through it, a suggestion I balked at if for no other reason than some misplaced fear that I didn’t know who I would be if I didn’t have that pain. I remember at some point in high school telling some blank-faced psychiatrist in a Mr. Rogers sweater that I was proud of my trauma, it made me stronger and more equipped to deal with anything life threw my way. Ugh, I actually believed that.

Can you see where I’m going with this?

By now, you all have surely heard about the Goldman Sachs juniors who spoke up about the conditions at their coveted workplace. If you missed it, here’s a quick catch-up from The Guardian:

Junior staff who used to tolerate long working hours thanks to office camaraderie have been forced to manage burnout at home, alone, throughout the pandemic. Some have started demanding change, while others are plotting their exit. What began as a little local trouble at a US office in February has now spread to the UK.

“It used to be either you get paid a lot, and your life is hell, or your life is better and you’re not paid that well,” one London-based banker, hired by Goldman last year, said. “At the moment we have neither.”

The banker, who spoke to the Guardian on the basis of anonymity, said staff were worried about speaking out on issues including 18-hour shifts that left juniors earning less than the living wage, or the number of colleagues on sick leave due to burnout. The employee – who is one of 100 recruits hired to work at Goldman each year – did not want their gender disclosed due to fear of repercussion.

Interesting how COVID has so deftly exposed so many issues that were always kind of bubbling under the surface (mental health, a shitty economy, dysfunctional workplaces) but never got much bandwidth due to everyone just trying to suck it up and get through the day. Maybe the prospect of an easily-spread virus that could kill you at any moment caused everyone to kind of wake up at once and realize there’s more to life than this, idk.

The Goldman juniors knew what they were getting into, right? I mean, they had to. And this is where the noble suffering comes in.

For decades, public accountants suffered through the long hours, short-handed teams, and unreasonable expectations because that’s what you do. You heard this from your professors, many of whom are just pimps for Big 4 firms whether they realize it or not. If you dared to speak out about any of it, you were shunned because what kind of pussy can’t hack 80 hours a week at the peak of busy season?

Here’s the thing about that. Working long hours on an understaffed team doesn’t mean you’re any better at your job than the industry accountant clocking eight solid hours a day. Sure, there’s something to be said for thriving in less-than-ideal conditions but I’m here to tell you that there’s more to life than surviving another day. Your ability to eat shit day in and day out isn’t a soft skill to brag about. With baseline stress at all-time highs and a deadly virus making everyone realize how short life is professionals are realizing that their unnecessary suffering is not only NOT noble but completely unnecessary.

“Before the pandemic, work drinks and the ability to escape on snatches of annual leave made the relentless pace of work seem worthwhile,” one trainee lawyer recently told the Financial Times regarding unreasonable work-life balance these days. “Now, without the distractions of the perks and with more head space to consider our options, it’s increasingly obvious to some of us that we have made questionable life choices.”

This mentality — that a few vodka cranberries can somehow make up for a highly dysfunctional workplace — has long pervaded the profession. Yeah it sucks but we have jeans Friday. Yeah it sucks but there’s a doughnut cart once a week during busy season. YEAH IT SUCKS BUT WHAT ABOUT THAT SWEET FIRM-BRANDED FLEECE YOU GOT. Oh and you’re welcome for all the free pens.

Fuck that. Working 80 hours a week with no overtime for months at a time IS STUPID. And it certainly isn’t noble.

Let’s not forget how EY screwed everyone out of PTO in the middle of the pandemic to save $36 million a year, citing the new policy as a way to “eliminate entitlement mentality” of staff who — gasp — think they actually deserve a break every now and then. If you think the firm cares or even values your suffering well, I have a bridge to sell you.

So let it go. Stop trying to tap into your accrued suffering as if it’s some benefit to you. All it is is evidence of your employer’s view that you are but a pig’s asshole ground into sludge and stuffed into a rubbery sausage casing.

Related articles:

You Can Easily Replace ‘Investment Banking’ with ‘Public Accounting’ In These Reactions to the Goldman Sachs Workplace Abuse Claims
QOTD: Goldman Sachs CEO Must Have Been a Big 4 Partner In a Previous Life
EY Changes Its Vacation Policy, Oh and BTW They’re Not Paying Out Accrued PTO If You “Leave”

The post Your Suffering Is Not Noble So Let That Sh*t Go appeared first on Going Concern.

Not kidding

I’m not exaggerating—at least 15% to 20% of the people who were in our class dropped it halfway through the semester. Hardly anyone, including me, could even pass the quizzes let alone part one of the two-part midterm. The only thing that kept me going (I think) was that I had a buddy who was also struggling pretty badly. The two of us had been studying together and I think there was an unspoken plan to do our best or fail trying.

Read the chapter

One thing that our professor kept hammering into our heads was that we really needed to read the chapter of our textbooks where the lessons were focused. As far back as I can remember, I rarely did this in any class. I was a “pay attention, take notes, and work the practice problems” kind of person.

That had to change

After bombing our first midterm in early March, the idea that I needed to change something finally sunk in. Plus, the professor really did keep telling us to read the chapter, especially during office hours whenever we went to beg him for the secret to at least a “C.”

Next wave was coming

There were about two weeks until the second midterm. Scratch that, more like a week and a half to account for a few days to recover from the first one. My classmate and I figured it couldn’t hurt to block out two or three hours to finally read the chapters it covered.

For me at least, this was more challenging than it looked. Because I have one of those squirrel brains, I also had to put in ear buds with the best motivational speeches I could find to avoid zoning out after reading two sentences. It worked well enough and I managed to read through all the material, although it didn’t seem like I absorbed much.

It wasn’t looking great

We also did the standard practice problems, practice test, and reviewed notes from class during the next few days. When the exam rolled around, I felt about the same as I had for any of the other ones. The clock started and I was stuck pretty early on problem No. 1.

Then I was stuck on problems 2, 3, and 4. Not good. But something happened later on in the test. Toward one of the last problems (after skipping a bunch) I actually got an answer that was correct. Then another one and another after that.

The tide was turning

Pretty soon, I was jumping back to the first questions that seemed impossible and others I’d skipped. It was like I took some magic accounting pill before the test and it was just kicking in. I was OK with that. A few days later, our scores came back. *Dun dun dun*

A lot of people still bombed it, unfortunately, but mine came back a 95%. It was a bit of a step up from the 30%-ish I got on the last one.

It’s tough to say if the reading made a difference, but doing the same thing for the rest of the semester pulled me up from a D- to a B+ by the end. It also worked for the guy I was studying with.

According to Paul Reber, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University, the human brain’s memory capacity is practically limitless. It does have a limit, but it’s close to something like a million gigabytes of space. That makes me think that even though I can’t remember it now, all the content from that managerial accounting book is probably still somewhere in my head to this day.

I know it was just my experience, so take it for what it’s worth. But you might see a better score if you just read the chapter!

About the author: 

Bob Buckley is a 2021 CPA exam candidate who likes writing about business in his spare time.

Related article:

Why Pretty Much Everybody Should Major In Accounting

The post Why You Should Just Read the Chapter Already appeared first on Going Concern.

OK, so maybe that’s not the worst (although a TopResume survey revealed it to be the No. 1 biggest deal-breaker for employers). Maybe it’s understandable that a frantic, jobless CPA accidentally dismantled his or her spell check. But that’s not the only mistake that turns up with frequency on résumés.

Let’s take a look at the most egregious mistakes, kindly contributed by the experts at TopResume, so you don’t repeat them. Not that you would. However, keep in mind you probably don’t want to make these mistakes in your marriage proposal either, so … you’re welcome!

1. The first thing they read … you were on the dance team

A résumé is definitely the place to showcase your talents, but make sure they’re relevant. You’re far enough along in your career to put your education at the bottom and leave off the little details you used to pad your résumé right out of college. Lead with quantifiable work details, such as the high volume of tax returns you prepared last year. Make it clear that you’ve earned your stripes as a bold CPA in corporate finance, not as first-chair clarinet in the marching band.

2. A terrible headshot (or any headshot)

There are so many reasons why you shouldn’t include a headshot. It’s not very considerate of your sought-out employer, for one. They’re trying to be non-discriminatory, don’t you know? Plus, you want your skills to get you the job. If your impressive beard gets you a Big 4 job, you’re in trouble. If you really hate the idea that you can’t charm them with your Blue Steel pose, include the URL to your LinkedIn profile. They’ll get the idea. Also, here’s a helpful life tip: Stay away from Blue Steel for any occasion—job interview, marriage proposal, final week of tax prep (unless it helps you stay sane). 

3. They don’t care that you like Dave Matthews Band

We get it. You’re desperate. You want to stand out by relating on a personal level with others who like Dave Matthews Band. But, and we can not repeat this enough, your résumé isn’t the equivalent of your high school locker door. Stick to the task at hand, and remember that you’re an accountant, not a stage manager, lighting technician, roadie, or anything else related to being a rock star. If that made you cry, you should be reading a different blog post. 

4. Embarrassing spelling mistakes and other typos

All spelling mistakes are bad, but some are worse than others. Don’t include an “Educuation” section and list “accruel accounting” as a core competency—after claiming to be detail-oriented in your cover letter. If you spell out CPA, make sure you include the “l” in “public.” Then there are those spelling mistakes that just look sloppy. Get your “their,” “they’re,” and “there” right. Make sure you get the spelling of your favorite software right: Sage Intacct, Thomson Reuters, Xero. The best thing you can do is hand your résumé over to someone else: your most anal-retentive friend, your mom, or a professional résumé reviewer.

5. Your email address belongs to a party animal

Consider how your email address might come across in the professional world. It can’t be the one you owned well before you were considering your career path. “Pintsizecutie,” “hotbuns,” and “kegk1ng05” are all highly inappropriate for making the right impression on your future employer. Shared email addresses like “smith.family@att.net” also give the wrong impression. It just looks bad when you can’t manage to set up one professional looking email address for your job search. It doesn’t take long and it costs nothing to create one through a provider like Gmail, so take the time and set yourself up for success. 

6. Don’t make your résumé an eye exam

Your résumé needs to be super-scannable and not result in a migraine. Recruiters are going to be looking for six pieces of information in the first six seconds of scanning your résumé. You need to make it effortless for them to find that info. Trying to cram your entire life onto one page by using 9-point font and one-fourth-inch margins is not going to help them see why you’re the best CPA for the job.

By the way, those six pieces of information are:

1. Your name;
2. Certifications;
3. Contact information;
4. Supporting media;
5. Headers; and
6. Professional title. 

There’s a lot you need to get right when crafting your résumé. The least you can do is get rid of the seemingly obvious, easily avoidable mistakes. Yet so many résumés land on the hiring desk with those same mistakes—over and over again. What’s going on? We’re going to chalk it up to the weirdness that happens to a brain as it approaches a life moment you don’t want to screw up. It’s understandable.

The best thing to do is take deep breaths and don’t rush out your resume until it’s ready. Or your CPA exam. Or a marriage proposal. Although, now that we think about it, you’d better get your résumé and CPA exam straight before you even think about a marriage proposal. Good luck! 

Want to see how your résumé stacks up?

Get a free review from one of the résumé experts at TopResume.

The post 6 Real-Life Embarrassing Accounting Résumé Mistakes You Never Want to Make appeared first on Going Concern.

Just imagine it! Working from home in your pajamas, setting your own hours, taking Netflix-and-nap breaks. No co-workers bugging you with stories of their latest golf triumphs—no sound at all, really, just silence and solitude and letting your personal hygiene slide …

… wait …

… OK, imagine all of that stuff, but for real and permanent, with no “return to office” plans hitting your inbox in a few weeks.

And the whole WFH thing is just an option, not a requirement, and you can really work from anywhere—which means you can travel. Oh, and imagine you’re getting to pick what you want to work on and who you want to work for, and you’re making more money than you do at your current job.

OK, that’s better.

That dream is a reality for many of the top-tier finance professionals providing freelance CFO leadership, controllership, accounting, bookkeeping, financial planning, analysis, and more as part of Paro’s freelance/temp placement network.

We know what you’re thinking: “I’ve looked into the freelance thing before, and it’s just not for me.” But Paro is different. In this article, we’ll show you how—and we’ll start by getting straight to the good stuff.

Find out what you’re really worth—and then earn it

Though he wasn’t exactly the greatest role model, a (fictional) clown once taught some bad guys a lesson by telling them, “If you’re good at something, never do it for free.” It wasn’t long after that he was sliding down a giant pile of cash. (Then some other stuff happened, but we don’t need to get into that.)

Unfortunately, many accounting and finance professionals don’t get paid anywhere near their real market value. If you’re not sure what your value should be, you can check the salary guide from Robert Half or various other calculators and resources online.

“I cut my teeth at a Big 4 firm,” said Jon Repka, vice president of sales at Paro. “I was told what I was worth, which was 15% of my bill rate at the time. But on an open marketplace, how much should a senior auditor with 15 years of experience go for on an hourly basis? A lot of people guess, some overbill—really, the vast majority underbill. But with Paro, you’ll know exactly what you’re worth, and we’ll do everything we can to get it for you.” 

Even if you’re one of those lucky so-and-sos who is actually getting paid what you’re worth, just think of how much more you could make by taking on the occasional high-paying freelance gig when times are slow?

The amount you earn will vary based on a number of factors, and Paro will help you identify accreditations or certain types of experience that will boost your rate. But here’s a general sense of what professionals in Paro’s network get paid, broken down by job title:

CPA Firm Support:

• CAS: up to $30/hr
• Tax preparation: up to $50/hr
• Prep and review: up to $60/hr
• Review: up to $75/hr

Small Business (SMB) Support:

• Bookkeeping/accounting: up to $40/hr
• Controller: up to $65/hr

Take the fear out of freelance

OK, so technically taking the “fear” out of “freelance” leaves you with “elnce,” but you get what we mean.

If you’ve never done it before, taking the plunge into the world of freelance accounting can be a bit frightening. But don’t worry—Paro takes care of all the scary stuff for you. And as a famous (fictional) sensei once said, “It’s OK to lose to an opponent. It’s never OK to lose to fear. Now go wax my car.”

For those of you who do have some freelance experience, you know you don’t always get a ton of choice in the companies you work for. Inevitably, you wind up dealing with people who aren’t your type (unless “people who take six months to pay your invoice” is your type). And sometimes you sign on for a job you thought you were qualified for—but when you get there, it turns out you’re in a bit over your head.

You won’t have to worry about any of that when you work with Paro. Paro has a sophisticated matching system that leverages years of expertise and artificial intelligence to help align your skills and interests with a client’s needs. 

“Paro has given me the platform to find clients that are a perfect match for my services,” said Kristie Woods, a CPA and member of Paro’s talent network. 

You’ll have the full freedom to set your own rate and hours, control the number of projects you work on at a time, and turn your availability off and on at your leisure. And once you’ve begun working with a client, you can rely on continuous support from the Paro Home Team. 

“Paro handles all of the marketing, billing, and collections for me, so I can fully focus on my clients’ accounting needs. They are great to work with,” Woods said.

Get your life back

A famous (fictional) teacher once told a student who got so caught up thinking about the future that he failed to continue standing on his head while telekinetically lifting some rocks and a robot, “Control, control, you must learn control!”

For accounting and finance professionals, control means recognizing when it’s time to put your nose to the grindstone—and when it’s time to work a little less and live a little more.

“Someone I talked to recently said, ‘When I was in public accounting, during busy season I used to drop my daughter off at school and I wouldn’t see her until the next day,’” said Alex Loewenstein, head of CPA practice at Paro. “One day her daughter said, ‘Mommy, why don’t I see you anymore?’ She left public accounting to spend more time with her family, but she’s still working with firms during the season because it’s great money.”

Teaming up with Paro gives you all that freedom and more. Want to work 60 hours a week and—unlike in public accounting—actually get rich doing it? No problem. Want to take a few jobs here and there and spend the rest of your time with family or video games? You got it. Need some time off to travel the world—or play video games even more? Paro has your back.

Perhaps most importantly, Paro gives you the freedom to work with the firms of your choice rather than for them. Through Paro’s white-labeling services, you’ll get the prestige of representing a big firm (or the comfort of representing a smaller one) but you’ll do it on your terms, picking the jobs and industries you want to work on while passing on the ones you don’t.

Paro can’t help you mentally project a hologram of yourself across the galaxy where you can fight your nephew in a duel that’s really just a distraction to give your friends time to escape from an assault by an evil empire—yet—but we still think the teacher we mentioned earlier would be impressed by you exercising that level of control.

What are you waiting for?

The potential to earn more money, work with better clients, get more freedom—there’s no downside to checking out Paro and applying to join their network. Go pay them a visit and see what they’re all about. 

As a famous (fictional) computer hacker said as he offered a newbie a choice between a red and a blue pill, “I’m trying to free your mind. But I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it.”

So walk through it, already! Trust us on this one—that blue pill may look tempting, but it tastes like unpaid overtime. 

Learn more or join the Paro talent network >

The post Yes, You Can Make More Money as a Freelance Accountant or Finance Professional appeared first on Going Concern.

Here we are all these months later and while some things have returned to “normal” (or whatever passes as “normal” in this wacky dimension), most of you are still working from home and will be for the foreseeable future. No biggie, not like you could change it even if you wanted to.

Given the abrupt nature of the lockdown in spring, it stands to reason that firms didn’t have much time to think about what an entire workforce billing hours at home would look like from a management perspective. Bad managers’ neuroses aside, one area we’re sure no one really considered was the work-from-home dress code.

We addressed the issue back in May after a Fishbowl survey found 1 in 10 professionals are showing up to Zoom calls in their Calvins. Remember that next time you feel guilty for video conferencing in pajamas. Well, it might be worse than that now.

A recent CouponFollow survey of slightly more than 1,000 remote workers found a whopping 29% of respondents admitted to working naked while at home. Who are these people? And how is that possibly comfortable? Whatever.

Anyhoo. Despite the fact that the survey also found that most workers feel productive even in gym clothes, it should be noted that the HR people are starting to think this WFH thing could be a problem. Case in point, this recent article from SHRM:

“Before COVID-19, a work-from-home dress-code policy would have seemed like a strange concept,” said Megan Toth, an attorney with Seyfarth in Chicago. “But, with the recent increase of remote workers and videoconferences, this has become a real issue for some employers.”

Our advice? First, throw on some pants, your office chair will appreciate not getting tea-bagged all day. Second, although it’s a bit hypocritical of me to suggest considering I’m working at this very moment in boxers and a T-shirt, maybe think about changing into a clean shirt and/or brushing your hair next time you’re on camera with colleagues. Hopefully y’all haven’t turned into feral savages just yet and have managed to at least put on a clean dress shirt for client chats, so we won’t get into all that.

Are work from home dress codes on the horizon? Time will tell. But you can bet if HR gets wind of you free-balling during Zoom calls there will at least be a sternly-worded email about appropriate conduct during video conferences.

The post You Better Put Pants on Before Your Firm Decides to Implement a Work From Home Dress Code appeared first on Going Concern.

I speak with some authority here and wish I’d done what I’m about to suggest when I got wind that I was going to be fired — yikes I did it again, I mean laid off — from this esteemed website back in the day. I was lucky in that I knew a week or two before it happened, but I did nothing of substance with that information when I could have been securing my future. Whatever, live and learn.

The first thing you need to do is secure your contacts. All those people in your email? Yeah, you’re gonna be locked out with the quickness if the hammer comes down, so it would be worth it to take the time and farm your contacts. LinkedIn is trash and I’m pretty sure they banned me a while back, but since you’re going to get fired anyway, might as well take half a day and add your professional connections, assuming you aren’t also banned like me. Throw everyone you ever talked to into a spreadsheet while you’re at it. It’s funny to me now that I’m back at this website when TPTB ask me if I can reach out to so-and-so at whatever accounting org and I’m like *shrug* I would but I don’t have their contact info, I got locked out of my old email. Too bad.

Now. All those contacts you gleaned from your inbox? Those are the people you want to hit up. Ideally before you actually get fired, as it’s easier to get a job when you already have one, which brings me to my next point.

Start working on that resume. I mean, you’re about to be fired anyway, who gives a shit about work output when you have one foot out the door? Polish that bad boy up and hit up r/accounting to give it a glance, they’ll be honest and tell you if it’s trash. Alright, resume sorted.

And now you just kick back. It’s just a job, you’ll be fine. People leave jobs all the time. As Glassdoor reminds us, even Oprah got fired once and she’s like the 10th richest person in the world so nbd.

In the moment, getting fired can feel earthshattering. But for such a seemingly catastrophic event, getting fired is actually quite common. Business icons like Steve Jobs, Anna Wintour and Oprah Winfrey were all famously fired at some point in their career. In fact, in 2010 Wintour told a conference audience, “I recommend you all get fired. It’s a great learning experience.”

There are also a whole slew of reasons why the firing might not have even been your fault. Setting reasonable boundaries in a chaotic work environment, raising “elephant in the room” issues that management is afraid to address or even delivering such stellar results that you embarrass your boss can all be hidden reasons for being handed the pink slip. And if getting fired was really your fault? This is an excellent learning opportunity.

Have a drink, dust yourself off, and go respond to all those recruiters in your InMail you’ve been ignoring all this time.

The post What To Do If You Think You’re About To Be Fired appeared first on Going Concern.

I digress. These days we don’t get as many “Dear Going Concern Team” emails as we used to, which is fine as it’s a sign the younger generation has gotten better at Googling than their millennial counterparts and/or are just better at pretending like they don’t have any problems and going whichever way the wind blows. Yeah, that must be it. Anyway, we do get them from time to time, and sometimes the issue is so specific that we simply can’t direct them to a post buried in our 11 years of archives which surely answered their inquiry already. Like this guy who recently reached out to the dusty GC brain trust:

Going Concern team,

I hope this email finds you all well.

Some time ago, I read an article in which one of you shared your experience regarding passing up an opportunity due to a sense of loyalty to your employer. The situation I find myself in is different in a lot of aspects, however it still revolves around looking after my own interests. I will try to summarize it as best I can, but I would greatly appreciate your opinion.

I’m pretty sure the article he’s referring to is one of mine and my employer was the company that owned this website at the time. As the story goes, this was back in our heyday when GC was the go-to watercooler of the profession, the trolls were alive and occasionally funny in the comment section, and no one had even thought of making Fishbowl yet. I was offered another position at a different, more progressive media company that would have meant far less work, way more money, and — possibly the best benefit — I wouldn’t have to deal with unfunny assholes trolling the comment section. Although I’m ashamed to admit it, I declined out of a twisted sense of loyalty to Going Concern, to what we’d built over all these years, to the blood, sweat, tears, and alcohol I’d invested since its inception to make it what it was. They fired me less than a year later without any severance, citing poor revenue which wasn’t even my damn department. Technically I was laid off but I like to say fired because it makes my loyalty seem that much more stupid when I tell this story. So there, you’re caught up. Getting back to the question …

I will first outline all involved parties in order to make this story less confusing:

Me – Confused fourth-year who prides himself in having a strong sense of loyalty which has caused me a fair share of trouble in the past.

Firm A – National firm with which I did a summer internship. They have not extended a full-time offer, but based on what the partner said, there is a strong chance they will.

Firm B – Niche-focused regional firm with which I did a busy season internship. They extended an offer which I have already accepted.

To make this story as short as possible, I was not feeling very confident about the quality of my work at the beginning of my summer internship, so out of fear that I would not receive an offer from Firm A, I accepted Firm B’s offer. The only gave me a short window to respond and said window would have ended before Firm A extended offers. Fast-forward several weeks, on one hand, I accepted an offer with a regional firm with a great team with which I get along great. On the other hand, Firm A offers an exponentially higher amount of growth opportunity and earning potential, both of which are very appealing. The only deterrent to going back on my previously accepted offer in order to accept a potential offer from Firm A is the fear of letting them down and the guilt associated with it, which possibly only exists in my head.

Are there any other factors I should consider? Am I ludicrous for even considering going back on a previously accepted offer?

I do not want to draw this out any longer. I sincerely appreciate your time if you have read this far and look forward to reading your thoughts and advice.

You asked: Am I ludicrous for even considering going back on a previously accepted offer? Uh no. Let me get one thing out of the way first: you’re allowed to change your mind. The firm is used to it, it happens all the time. So if that’s the route you take, be as professional as possible and avoid going into some long, personal manifesto about why you’ve done so. Remember that public accounting is a small world, and when burning bridges you want to do so gently, not the way Confederate soldiers did to the city of Richmond in April 3, 1865.

Now, to the bigger issue. You cannot “let Firm B down” because Firm B is not a person and doesn’t have feelings. Did you ever watch The Americans? There’s a scene — season 4, I believe — in which Agents Aderholt and Beeman are discussing a FBI memo reminding them that they shouldn’t say “the FBI feels” to reporters because “the FBI does not feel.” Something like that, you get the point. Even if you have what feels like a close personal relationship with a recruiter, if you tell them thanks but no thanks I assure you they will have forgotten you by happy hour that same night.

The only time “loyalty” or some form of it should be considered is when you’re established at a firm and have your team to consider. The firm doesn’t give a shit if you jump ship, but if you leave your team stranded because you didn’t stick it out like they are, well, then you’re kind of an asshole and will be considered as such. But that doesn’t apply here so don’t worry about that.

It sounds like you have some confidence issues as well as the aforementioned loyalty problem, making you an asset at any team from the perspective of a public accounting firm seeking to drown you in work and ring you out like a sweaty gym sock. Although you hear a lot of people complaining about the work itself, you never actually hear someone say “you know, I really regret having a large firm on my resume.” So there’s that to consider.

If this were a dating column I would tell you “don’t date potential,” meaning don’t shack up with some loser who might some day get promoted at the Burger King and stop wasting their life perfecting their 360 noscopes. But it isn’t, and your future opportunities and earning potential are definitely something to keep in mind. Trust me when I say this as a now old person, that’s really all you’ve got. What’s that they say? It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

On the other hand, shit’s rough out there right now. You know, that whole Rona situation and what-not. So you also have the what ifs to consider: namely the fact that one firm extended you an offer and the other didn’t. A partner telling you “there is a strong chance” is worth as much as a fart in the wind if you bank your future on something that doesn’t technically exist, especially in the current environment. But if they do give you an offer? I say go for it if the national firm is what you want, which it sounds like it is otherwise you wouldn’t be second-guessing your decision. A decision which, let’s be honest, it sounds like you were kind of pressured into making.

TL;DR fuck that firm and do you, boo. Trust me, the firm is always looking out for itself first and foremost no matter what any hottie at Meet the Firms tells you.

I leave the peanut gallery to dispense their own opinions below. Good luck and check in to let us know how it goes.

The post Ask GC: Is It OK to Renege on a Previously Accepted Offer For an Offer From a Bigger Firm? appeared first on Going Concern.

Let’s revisit his now-ancient screed, shall we?

Seriously people. For most of you, this isn’t a problem. You gird up your loins, duck your head and bulldoze your way through this time of year just like you’ve done in years past. Busy season sucks. We all know that.

Who in their right mind interviews with the Big 4 et al. and is thinking, “The hours won’t be that bad,” or “I probably won’t have to travel” OR “Big 4 salaries are good enough for me”?

Alright so he’s a few sentences in and already going for the jugular, implying you’re weak if you can’t hack a single busy season. I couldn’t help but think of the infamous “y r u gae” meme video in which the Ugandan TV show host is like, “Welcome to the show, WHY ARE YOU GAY?” Like settle down, sir, we’ll get to that. And if you haven’t seen that video, do yourself a favor and watch it, it’s the greatest antidepressant available without a prescription.

Back to Caleb and his rant.

Yes, the trend of accounting firm layoffs is demoralizing and yes, merit increases were mostly frozen, and there were virtually no bonuses> Hell, you may working your ass off knowing that your staff makes more than you but if you’re working in mid-February, what ton of bricks hits you that causes you to conclude that bailing out on your team is the best option?

All the people we’ve had the pleasure of working with, despite all of them having multiple “F— THIS!” moments, pull it together because they have a job to do. Why the hell didn’t you quit prior to busy season? You really felt like sticking it to everyone?

Fine. Perhaps your desire for sweet, sweet revenge against your senior/manager/partner/firm is more powerful than any shred of integrity you may have but for crissakes, that makes you a very bitter person. More so than the average accountant.

I’m beginning to think Caleb could have had a promising future in public if he just would have stuck it out a few more years. Of course, that may have deprived the world of this here website so there’s that. “All the people we’ve had the pleasure of working with, despite all of them having multiple “F— THIS!” moments, pull it together because they have a job to do” sounds a lot like what Boomer partners tell themselves to justify their own existence. They don’t know why they’re doing it, but that doesn’t matter because that’s how it’s always been done. Same as last year, et al.

Although I’m sure 2010 me wholly agreed with him, 10 years later I am here to say fuck that. Fuck “integrity.” That’s a word management uses to guilt you into sticking around. Your job isn’t your marriage or even your fractured relationship with your absentee dad. It’s just work. It’s a business transaction in which you trade labor for a salary. You’re accountants, you know this.

I’ve told this story before but I once made the mistake of being loyal to a company. A far better job offer came along that would have meant far more money and far fewer hours for me, among other benefits. You know what I said? “I’m sorry, my company needs me, I can’t do that to them.” A few months later I was laid off. So much for loyalty, eh? By then the other job offer was no longer available, it was filled by someone with bigger balls than mine who I’m sure is having a grand ole time these days with all that money they earned for taking the job I should have.

Should you quit during busy season? Well, no, that’s an asshole move as Caleb pointed out. But can you? Of course. Unless Deloitte paid for your passage on the Mayflower and you owe them another three years of indentured servitude, you’re free to do whatever you want.

There is of course the issue of “your permanent record,” which as we all know was a lie when we were little kids told to us to keep us in line, but it’s very real in the oddly small world of accounting. Burn one too many bridges and you could find yourself doing taxes out of the back of a sketchy nail salon for the rest of your life. Or — gasp — cranking out clickbait for an accounting tabloid. God forbid.

But if you’re seriously considering throwing up your hands and leaving your team holding the bag during busy season, then a reasonable person can assume you passed the point of giving a shit about said permanent record a long time ago. Sometimes it’s just not worth it. Sometimes your mental health is more important. Sometimes you’re just not cut out for it. And that’s OK. Despite what any former clickbaitologists may tell you. Do it. What’s the worst that can happen, you’ll never work in Big 4 again? Uh, that’s kinda the point.

As you mull over whether to stay or to go, I leave you with sage advice from Reddit: “Don’t kill yourself, but try not to fuck anyone over at the same time if you can.”

Now get back to work, those PBCs aren’t going to request themselves.

The post Yes, You Can Quit During Busy Season appeared first on Going Concern.

It struck me the other day while endlessly scrolling through Reddit that we have neglected a chunk of the potential accountant population: folks for whom accounting wasn’t their first choice. I’ve been seeing more and more posts on r/accounting lately that ask “can I, a [insert random job here], be an accountant?” The short answer without even filling in that blank is “yep!” Unless you’re an accounting tabloid writer who gets paid to pick apart every move accounting firms make, sad to say that bridge is probably burned for me. Oh well.

Longtime Going Concern readers likely already know this but for those of you new to the site or just stumbling across this post while searching “how do I get into accounting as a second career,” I got my start in CPA review. I stumbled into the job accidentally in that I never in a million years would have imagined myself working in accounting nor anything accounting-adjacent because up until I actually worked in it I, like most civilians, mistakenly believed there were icky numbers involved (eww). But let’s not get into that, it’s not important. I’m telling this story because I think it’s relevant to the matter at hand: how to get into accounting as a second career.

Picture it: San Francisco. 2007. As I’m taking the bus up the peninsula to my CPA review job in the city, I couldn’t help but notice how many homes dotting my route were wearing For Sale signs in their yards. Hmm. I suppose I heard some buzz of a “housing crisis” while flipping channels on my way to peak VH-1 bad reality TV but as a 20-something renter didn’t think much of it as it didn’t affect me. And then the shit hit the fan.

My work was inundated with calls from people who, for whatever reason, maybe took an accounting class or two in college but decided to do something else with their lives up until the point that whatever they chose was no longer an option. People from all over, and all walks of life, suddenly scrambling to figure out how to survive in an uncertain job market. OK, “uncertain” isn’t the word for it. The market was certainly crap for a lot of professionals out there. “I liked accounting in school,” they’d say, “I guess it just wasn’t for me so I didn’t pursue it.” Real estate agents, teachers, even guys who tried to pass the CPA exam before I was born were now embracing the profession in droves and seeking to add those three letters to the end of their email signatures. Why? Because other than the government, accounting was one of the few industries still reliably hiring leading up to, during, and just after the Great Recession.

All that to say, accounting is a safe choice. If it can survive total global economic collapse, surely it can survive anything. Numbers will always need to be crunched, audits will always need to be performed, and in turbulent economic times the people who can make sense of all those negative numbers are even more in demand.

Here’s some more good news: accounting isn’t difficult to get in to. I know the Wake Forest tryhards are going to get a little butthurt by me saying that but what I mean is, unlike law, you don’t have to go to a top school just to get in the door. Will you be a top PwC consultant with just a Bachelor’s degree from University of American Samoa? Well probably not. But you can still be an accountant.

Are you a plumber? A tattoo artist? A circus performer? Doesn’t matter. Accounting as a second career is a viable option for many different people from blue collar workers to stay-at-home parents who want more than just a side gig. As a working professional you can bring a lot to the table even if you don’t have much actual accounting experience: communication skills, relationship management, out-of-the-box thinking and the ability to manage stress are all vital skills in the accountants’ toolkit. You’ve likely learned at least some if not all of these in whatever it is you’ve been doing up until now for most of your adult life.

If you want to be a CPA, all you need are the educational units and the determination. CPA exam requirements vary by state and I won’t be getting into that too much here but NASBA (the national board that administers the exam, not to be confused with the AICPA that develops it) has a decent licensing resource here. You can also access their Accounting Licensing Library for $10 to search for a state in which you might be qualified to sit for the CPA exam (you don’t necessarily have to sit in your state of residency, though practicing as a CPA might be another story). Additionally, you can go straight to your state board of accountancy to read up on the requirements in your state.

For simplicity’s sake, let’s look at the educational requirements to become a CPA in my home state of Virginia. Again, this will vary by jurisdiction but generally speaking all 55 CPA exam jurisdictions are similar in that there isn’t one that requires 80 units in accounting with another requiring just five. 120 hours/24 accounting units/24 business units to sit is pretty standard:

Exam candidates must obtain from one or more accredited institutions:

• At least 120 semester hours of education
• Baccalaureate or higher degree
• Accounting concentration or equivalent: Principles or introductory accounting courses cannot be considered in determining whether a person has obtained the 48 minimum number of semester hours required for an accounting concentration or equivalent.
• Minimum of 24 semester hours of accounting courses, to include: courses in auditing, financial accounting, management accounting, and taxation.
• Minimum of 24 semester hours of business courses. As many as 6 hours of accounting courses (not included in the 24 hours of accounting courses) may be considered for the business course requirement.

Note that an overwhelming majority of jurisdictions require a total of 150 units for licensure, the above are solely requirements to qualify to sit for the CPA exam in my state. Once you sit for and pass the exam you can proceed with applying for licensure.

If you’ve been out of school for a while, you can have your transcripts evaluated by a transcription service to find out where you’re deficient and fill in the educational gaps from there. I won’t recommend any, Google it.

Some people looking into accounting as a second career will have more work ahead of them than others depending largely on your educational background but the requirements are pretty straightforward. Back in my CPA review days I remember a nearby school that offered an accounting “fast track” program to get required accounting units quickly, might be worth checking around if something like that is offered at an accredited school near you.

Do you need to be a CPA to be an accountant? Nope. But despite declining CPA exam candidate numbers and the ongoing threat of legislation that could but most likely won’t make CPA licensure obsolete, the CPA remains the gold standard worldwide. Passing the CPA exam signals that not only do you understand the fundamentals of the work but you possess the dedication and discipline necessary to join the ranks of certified public accountants before you. A CPA is required for certain things like signing audit reports but not expected at entry level. Almost nobody has a CPA fresh out of college, it can take a couple years for early-career Big 4 accountants to get through the process and at some point a few years in is required for promotion, something you don’t need to worry about for now.

One caveat: remember what I said above about giving up on that dream of being a high-flying Big 4 consultant if you don’t have a perfect educational pedigree? Here’s the thing, the profession is fed by an extremely robust on-campus recruiting pipeline and access to the coveted public accounting jobs at large firms is often tied to the resources at your school. You, as an older candidate, may not be able to take advantage of the recruiting machine that turns fresh-faced 22-year-olds into bitter honest-to-god accounting professionals. This just means you’re going to have to think a bit more creatively than the junior accounting major who phones in a Meet the Firms event once a semester. Again, it’s not impossible. You can always try contacting the accounting department chair at your nearby big university to see if they’ll let you drop in at a campus recruiting event. Hey, what do you have to lose? There are also recruiting firms you can use, accounting firm websites themselves are stacked with job openings, and networking is always a good idea, you can join professional organizations and associations and you’ll be rubbing elbows with accountants in no time.

Is your background in technology? Well yay, you’ve already got a leg up. Everyone around these parts knows the coming robot revolution in accounting is a huge deal, but in the last few years we’ve gone from joking about robots taking over your job to seeing automation come into play in a much more tangible way. This push toward tech-literate CPAs is further exemplified by the CPA Evolution project, an ambitious, tech-focused rehaul of the CPA exam that launches in 2024. What began as a discussion about changing CPA exam content to better align with real-world accounting applications in 2020 is now being realized into a modern, future-forward exam that will (hopefully) better test entry-level CPAs’ skills and technological expertise.

Excepting the CPA exam, the barrier to entry in accounting is fairly low (at least when compared to other professional careers like law). And as far as we’ve seen in the 13 years since this website was founded, demand for qualified accounting professionals is high in times both turbulent and calm. Well, on second thought, things have been fairly turbulent since 2009. Sort of like how terror alerts since 9/11 are always orange, just varying shades of turbulence. Whatever, accountants will always be in demand.

There are a million specialties and certifications you can pursue as well, but this article has already run longer than anyone around here has the attention span for so we’ll end there. If you’re dying for even more information, check out our Definitive Guide to Accounting as a Second Career which covers the most in demand skills for accountants, what to expect in your accounting program, the plethora of job options you’ll have with a degree in accounting, and some myths you may have heard about a career in accounting. If you are an “outsider” looking to break into accounting and have a specific question for our team of accounting profession rejects, go ahead and get in touch.

The post Just How Difficult Is It to Break Into Accounting As a Second Career? appeared first on Going Concern.

1. Polish your resume.
2. Start looking for a new job, or don’t.
3. Think back on all the people you’ve met since senior year who might be able to help you find a new gig.
4. Decide on a date to leave, preferably one that doesn’t wildly inconvenience your team, but if it does, so what.
5. Tell the firm you’re leaving.
6. Get the fuck out.

Easy peasy, right? For today’s post, you’re kinda sandwiched nicely between steps 5 and 6, which if you were an alcoholic would mean you’ve acknowledged your innumerable wrongs and are completely open to the idea of your higher power cleansing you of these defects of character. Leaving your public accounting job can sort of be like addressing your alcoholism (obviously these two issues often run concurrently, but we’re not here to Dr. Drew you out of the drinking habit you picked up somewhere between FAR and signing your full-time offer) insomuch as you have to “let go and let God,” as they say, and hope there’s something better on the other side once you accept that your life is unmanageable.

Back on topic. Depending on how long you’ve decided to stick around, your final weeks at the firm can be just as bad as your first, or you could just skate by scrolling Reddit and watching mukbang videos the entire time. A lot of this depends on A) your team, B) your firm, and C) how much you give a shit.

Side note: If you’re going the “watch mukbang videos and don’t give a shit” route, may I humbly suggest the following:

Oops, got off topic for a sec there. Again. So how much effort should you put in those final weeks? Well, that’s up to you. Colleagues who lack the testicular fortitude to leave might resent you regardless, so don’t worry too much about them, but by all means do be considerate of your team’s workload and how you fit into it. If you’ve been an asset to your team up until now, continue doing what you’ve been doing up until to the end. Unless of course your firm is one of the weird ones that makes this really awkward and wants you to stay the hell away from your clients once they know you’re leaving because they’re afraid you’re somehow going to poison the well.

Fuck that well. You’re leaving. You don’t care about that well. Obviously we’re not going to encourage you to poison it, but if you get treated as though you might be a not-so-stealth poisoner at every turn in your final weeks at the firm, then why not go ahead and skate through your final weeks and days. Your main goal at that point is staying under the radar and trying to maintain a decent relationship with superiors who are hoping maybe you will be a decision-maker at your new industry gig and come to them for audit services. Or something like that.

Regardless of circumstance, the best piece of advice we can offer is this: Keep your head down and just try to stay invisible. You’ll be gone in no time, no reason to make waves.

One last piece of advice: You’ve read and absorbed the steps, you’ve plotted your escape, you’re determined to make a go of this. All that is fantastic and we support you all the way on your journey from grass to slightly more lime-colored grass, but just consider this before you go: If you’re still dead-set on going, then God be with you. Or whichever invisible deity you may or may not believe in.

Hopefully with good preparation and planning, you don’t even need God or God-like intervention to help you into the next best thing. Here’s hoping that grass is hella green.

The post Get Me the F*ck Out of Here: So You Put in Your Two Weeks, Now What? appeared first on Going Concern.

Before we get to the “what not to do” column, let’s first talk about quitting etiquette. Now, some salty old partners out there will tell you that it’s customary to give a completely open window of time and buttloads of notice before you decide to leave your current gig, lest the firm find itself in a bind because they are dipshits who thought you’d stick around eternally to take their shit. As a former co-worker of mine used to say, “poor planning on your part doesn’t constitute an emergency on mine.” I know he didn’t coin that phrase but let’s just say I came to admire the snail’s pace with which he’d fulfill my frantic requests once I realized it was my fault they were frantic due to my tendency to blow everything off until the last minute and then get crazy overwhelmed when shit inevitably gets stressful. Yeah, I’m working on that. Anyway, don’t let the firm guilt you into sticking around through [insert event here]. As long as you give them a couple weeks and tie up what loose ends you can while you’re still around, you’re good.

Obviously you’re kind of a dickhead if, say, you’re an auditor who drops your two weeks notice on Dec. 30 or in tax and absolutely must get out two weeks before April 15, but other than the truly “busy” periods and/or important clients, don’t let the firm’s understaffing guilt you into sticking around longer than you have to. Remember: it’s their problem they try to bill as many hours out of clients with as few hours from staff as possible, not yours. While you’re mustering up the courage to say “I quit!” maybe you can imagine a scenario in which your sudden absence sends the firm into a tailspin, rendering them wholly useless as they scramble to replace you. I mean, that won’t happen but hell, imagine it anyway.

So how should you give notice? Unless you want to end up forever immortalized on these hallowed pages for writing an epic farewell letter that somehow went firm-wide, resist the urge to make a splash. I urge you to consider that the majority of the farewell emails we have shared over the years have been heavy on the cringe rather than the glory, but you do you, if that’s how you want to go out then who am I to stop you?

For the rest of you, a simple email will suffice. Inform the firm A) you are leaving and B) of your projected last day. AND THAT’S IT. Although a mention about how you appreciated your time at the firm and the valuable knowledge you gained that you’ll carry throughout your career blah, blah is more than acceptable, but don’t bother explaining where you’re going or why. For starters, they don’t care.

Additionally, and this applies to those of you who are at your wits’ end about to inspire the 2019 reboot of Falling Down if you stay in that cube even one day longer than you have to, the more you get into emotionally-charged goodbyes, the more likely it is you’ll say some dumb shit that could potentially cockblock you from opportunities later on down the road. Just go gracefully and save the verbal diarrhea for semi-private forums like Reddit where you can spazz out all you want and no one will judge you. Well, they’ll judge you but you’re hiding behind a screen name so it’s all good.

If you’re in the camp that feels an email is too impersonal, you can always set up a meeting with your superior. The advantage to this is that it’s slightly more professional than shooting a couple bytes of “fuck you, I’m out” through the abyss of the Internet. The disadvantage is that you may not be prepared for the begging and pleading to come. If you’re halfway decent at your job, expect to be asked what it will take for you to stay, along with a barrage of questioning that will make you feel like a greasy-haired extra on Law and Order with Stabler’s hot-ass breath on your face.

Whichever route you choose, a printed and signed letter just to CYA isn’t a terrible idea.

While you’re on the way out, it’s a good idea to make it known that although you’re getting the fuck on up out of that shithole, you’re a professional at the end of the day and therefore intend to help with the transition however you can. Don’t be surprised if your soon-to-be-former colleagues treat you like you’ve got the plague once it’s known you’re on your way out, but if the firm is smart, the people who matter will appreciate your offer to help as well as your professionalism.

The last point is this: people quit all the time. The firm is used to talented folks like you putting in their time and getting the hell out of there at the first opportunity. That’s how this thing works. So don’t psyche yourself out and start feeling bad because you know your team needs you. The harsh truth is that you are 99.9% replaceable and a new warm body will be along any minute to fill your chair.

Oh, I almost forgot. What NOT to do. This. And this. And this. And definitely this. This is OK tho.

The post Get Me the F*ck Out of Here: The Art of Saying Goodbye to Your Crappy Old Job appeared first on Going Concern.

So one early Monday afternoon not too long ago, I must have had too much coffee because I came up with the bright idea on our weekly editorial conference call to launch a short series on how to quit your job in public accounting and, more importantly, set yourself up for opportunities moving forward. That last bit is the important part. You don’t need a drawn-out guide on how to quit, you’ve got that down (if anything, you definitely know what not to do when quitting your public accounting job). It’s what comes after that is always a little scary since you don’t always know where you’ll land.

Over the next couple weeks, we’re going to break down the process step by step, which if I’ve calculated this correctly and don’t get too drunk and forget the point in the meantime, will culminate in accepting that dream job offer. Or any job offer. Whatever, it’s a step-by-step guide, that’s the goal here.

To get started, we’re going to look at first steps once you’ve come to the realization that your inner monologue has gone from the occasional “man, this job sucks” to a never-ending stream of “if I don’t get out of this hellhole I’m going to lose my mind.” When exactly this happens varies for everyone; I distinctly remember when it happened in my last job, down to the day of the week and the exact task my supervisor was undertaking when I realized how punchable his face was. Here’s the thing: it’s best to start on this process before you reach the point of wanting to punch your colleagues. So if those feelings of angst are starting to eat away at you and your nightly habit of drinking the pain away is starting to eat into your budget, now is the best time to take the first step. No, not getting sober, fuck that step. We’re talking about working on your résumé.

You don’t even have to decide you’re going to leave to take this step, just buffing up your résumé can be a great stress-reliever while you’re fighting back the urge to pour hot coffee on that chick in the cube next to you who never shuts up and draws out her S sounds too long like a snake with a lisp. Working on your résumé will not only distract you from the innumerable annoying things going down around you at all times, it’s also a necessary step if you’re going to progress through this process of getting the hell out of there.

For some people, résumé writing comes easy but I’m the first to admit: I’m a professional writer as well as a confirmed narcissist and even I struggle with this sometimes. So don’t be afraid to hire a service to do this for you, or at least to critique your work and offer suggestions. Or you can take the alternate cheaper route and ask Reddit to dissect your life’s work, people do that on /r/accounting all the time. Or hell, do both. Whatever, this isn’t an exact science.

If you’re still lost on this step, here’s some old ass advice from us on writing a grown-up résumé, whether you’re early in your career or looking to change your career trajectory in accounting. Here are some do’s and don’ts from that post if you’re too lazy (or busy working on your résumé) to click through:

• DO not use run-on sentences or paragraphs.
• DO list your performance rankings.
• DO highlight accomplishments.
• DO NOT use firm-specific acronyms.
• DO NOT refer to yourself with “I” or “me.” This is your résumé.
• DO list your clients as they are relevant to the employers you are applying to. If you are paranoid about this, use a description of your client.
• DO NOT be paranoid – your clients will be discussed in interviews.
• DO keep your punctuation consistent; end every bullet point with a period or do not – just don’t mix and match.
• DO not use present tense when describing your previous employer experience: use past tense grammar.

If you’ve timed things correctly, you’ll have some time to work on this first step before moving on to the next: the job search. Question is, do you give notice first and then look? Or look, get an offer, and then jump? We’ll visit that in next week’s edition of Get Me the F*ck Out of Here. In the meantime, crack open GDocs and get to polishing up the turds you’ve collected over the last however many years or months of your miserable existence at your current gig. You got this.

The post Get Me the F*ck Out of Here: First Steps For Quitting Your Job In Public Accounting appeared first on Going Concern.

Look at any firm’s career site and you’ll see a carefully written commitment to diversity. Read enough of them and you’ll soon realize that diversity statements all sound the same. The profession can’t even come up with diverse ways to talk about the diversity it doesn’t have.

Therein lies the problem: Everybody uses the same (safe) language because most firms are describing the same types of programs that, hello, aren’t really solving the problem.

Here are three ways new accounting graduates can figure out what’s really going on at a firm, the better to see if its values are in line with yours:

1. Count names and/or faces

Get your fingers out and start counting the actual number of women and minorities on the firm’s management committee and, if they show photos at their website, among its partners and principals.

What you’re looking for is an accounting firm that at least meets, and hopefully beats, the overall averages for women and minorities in top spots. After all, if the programs and culture the firm describes on its career page actually work, they’ll have results, right? At the very least, the firm should report steady improvement, right?

Not usually. Precious few firms actually show their work, explaining what their diversity goals are and if they’re achieving them. So you get to count noses. Don’t worry, you won’t run out of fingers.

Most “best places to work” lists won’t help because most of them just blather on about workplace benefits and amenities, not programs that actually hold leaders accountable for retaining and advancing diverse staff.

I’d know: I run the “Best CPA Firms for Women” list, sponsored by the Accounting & Financial Women’s Alliance (AFWA). It is based on the Accounting MOVE Project, an annual benchmarking report that shows firms how they are doing in terms of advancing women and diverse staff, and how they can do better. (Full disclosure: The project is supported by founding sponsor Moss Adams and national sponsor CohnReznick.)

Our goal is to be unironic, which is basically an endless battle, given that many of the winners for local and national “best places” lists also are in the news for festering pay gaps and chronic discrimination complaints.

It doesn’t help that there’s plenty of inequity to analyze.

The harsh reality is that women comprise 51% of CPA firm employees but only 26% of partners and principals. That’s according to the soon-to-be-released 2019 Accounting MOVE Project report (check out the 2018 report and archives for the inequity backstory).

If women are scarce in leadership, minorities are practically absent. White people hold 94% of partner and principal positions at firms. All minorities, together, share the remaining 6%. (That’s according to the 2018 Diversity & Inclusion Report for CPA and Advisory Firms, and here’s more full disclosure: The sponsor is Grant Thornton.)

2. Look at a firm’s leadership pipeline

Now you’ve got your benchmarks and you can see how the firm under consideration compares.

But what about the pipeline, you say? Isn’t it just a matter of time before women and minorities automatically move up, as baby boomers (finally) wither and scroll off?

Don’t confuse succession planning with conveyer belts. Only 52% of firms have formal succession planning. Without a plan, chances are slim that women and minorities will wait around for opportunities that haven’t materialized for others. Therein lies the retention problem.

Here’s how to glimpse a firm’s pipeline. Go to the news section of its site and look at the makeup of the last few “partner classes.” A firm with a real succession plan will have a healthy—even an increasing—proportion of women and minorities. If the firm is just promoting more of the same, its leadership will continue to be more of the same. You will have to piece together the pipeline. Very few firms hold themselves accountable and disclose their diversity process in a clear, consistent way. One that does is Moss Adams, through its annual diversity report.

3. See if women are heading up new practices

Here’s the last strategy for cutting through the haze of happy talk: Look at who is opening new markets and leading new practices.

Some firms, like Novogradac, Rehmann, Plante Moran, and MCM, open new offices with women in charge, elevate women to practice leadership, or both. Why does that matter? Because running an office or a practice is a microcosm of running a whole firm. That’s how partners qualify, eventually, to be the top dog.

The accounting profession won’t have more women and minorities running firms if women and minorities don’t get a chance to show they can make money on a smaller scale.

There you go, BS detector tuned up and ready for job-hunting season. Have fun!

[Ed. note: The 2019 Accounting MOVE Project report (along with the Best CPA Firms for Women and Best CPA Firms for Leadership Equity lists) will be released in early June by the AFWA.]

About the author:

Joanne Cleaver is a communications consultant and author who works with associations on projects that measure and support the advancement of diverse talent.

The post How New Accounting Grads Can Tune Up Their Diversity BS Detectors appeared first on Going Concern.

Now that Generation Z has entered the workforce, colleagues at a single employer may range from those who came of age faxing to ones who posted their prom pictures to Instagram.

“We have five unique generations in the workplace,” said Lindsey Pollak, a multigenerational workplace expert and author of the forthcoming book The Remix: How to Lead and Succeed in the Multigenerational Workplace. “You could be working with someone 50 or 60 years older or younger than you.”

I mean, yeah, technically I guess you could have bright-eyed Gen Zers cozied up to some relic from the Silent Generation, but come on, let’s not be dramatic here. There’s no way some kid who was born in a world without the Twin Towers who’s working closely with someone born before World War II ended is in any way the norm.

Really, as is the case with most articles like this, it’s about “the olds” versus “millennials,” the latter of whom will start to turn 40 soon by most metrics but really encompasses anyone under the age of 40 who understands memes. Hopefully old people can figure out to communicate with us whippersnappers before we start pulling Social Security, assuming they leave any for us. For argument’s sake, however, the article uses the Pew Research Center generational boundaries as follows:

• Generation Z: born after 1997
• Millennials: born between 1981 and 1996
• Gen X: born between 1965 and 1980
• Baby Boomers: born between 1946 and 1964
• Silent Generation: born before 1945

Looks about right. Personally I don’t mind getting lumped in with millennials, although it’s kind of funny considering I have back problems, a heart condition, and rapidly graying hair. I digress.

How different are they? “One co-worker may remember when the color TV came out; the other one may only have known Netflix,” said Jason Dorsey, a Gen Z and Millennial expert at the Center for Generational Kinetics, a generational research and thought-leadership firm based in Austin, Texas.

This matters because the technology that’s popular as we grow up tends to shape our communication styles for life, Dorsey explained.

“There is no one perfect way to communicate across generations. They all have different norms,” he said. “These communication differences are really causing a lot of problems right now because they are so pronounced.”

No shit. And? I guarantee you the fact that a colleague grew up with Atari and I the original Nintendo doesn’t affect our ability to communicate with one another; assuming, of course, that we’re not completely socially inept and therefore completely incapable of carrying on conversations in a professional capacity.

The article goes on to suggest that communication protocol should be established to prevent awkward situations, such as a rowdy Gen Z employee blowing up the group chat with dank memes. Well duh, that should kind of always be the case. Additionally, it recommends to consider the individual rather than the generation, and figure out how each person in the office best communicates. OK, we’re still doing good here. Moving on.

Don’t try to sound like you’re older or younger than you are. “If you are a very formal Baby Boomer, don’t talk about being ‘on fleek,'” which is another word for perfect, said Pollak. “It’s just weird.” If you are 22 and you’re very informal, don’t use phrases like ‘It has come to my attention,'” she added.

JESUS LORD who is this written for? Please tell me there isn’t a 60-year-old professional alive who is unironically referring to anything as “on fleek?” TBH I don’t know anyone of any age using that phrase unironically, but maybe I don’t hang out with enough youngsters. No one in the twilight of their professional career should need to be told not to speak like an imaginary youth.

Look, this is all well and good and Lord knows accountants aren’t known for being cunning linguists, so of course a little advice on communication is welcome, but come on, stop overthinking it. Be professional, don’t be a jackass, don’t text people at 8 p.m. when they’ve long left the office and expect an immediate response. There, done. Ur welcome lol.

The post Here’s Another Article Advising Dumb-Ass Old People On How to Talk to the Youths at Work appeared first on Going Concern.

I could waste a lot of characters here describing it, but you know what? Sometimes it’s better to just get to the point.

It is hard to think of a reasonably lucrative endeavour that is easier than being a CPA. The number one source of stress is not workload compression. It is envy. Unless you are in some odd specialty, you know that you will never be as wealthy as your wealthier clients. And then you sometimes see other professionals getting big checks, like the CLUs. And when you think about it how much better are their lives than yours?

Oh shit, shots fired. Y’all are miserable not because you’re worked like dogs but because you’re jealous that you have to work at all. I mean obviously all your clients were just handed large bags of money and didn’t, I dunno, earn that money or anything. Nah. You haters.

You might not have that kind of envy yourself, but half of the stress of tax season can be coming from decision makers who do. They continue to retain abusive clients and dream of people in other countries who will do the work that you do for a pittance and focus more energy on seemingly more lucrative work than the business at hand.

So not only are you jealous, but you have to put up with clients who would replace you with a guy in India who calls himself “Patrick” and charges half a cow and a dime to do their entire, complicated return. He ain’t wrong about that; no doubt clients would much rather you not exist at all than be required to use your services because you know shit they don’t.

At the end of the day, I think that most CPAs actually like tax season. It adds drama to what is in reality a really soft job. You work indoors, with access to plumbing facilities and face no risks to your health and safety that are not the common lot of mankind. You are largely insulated from the seamier side of life. And somehow for part of the year, a lot of people think you have it hard. Let them maintain their delusion, but stop kidding yourself. You’ll be happier. Believe me. I know.

On the one hand, I get what he’s saying, but on the other, this isn’t 1885. A lot of people in the first world enjoy cushy-ass jobs, but it doesn’t mean we can’t complain about them. So you aren’t ditch diggers or septic system drainers, that doesn’t mean you lost all right to bitch about work the moment you pursued a white-collar profession. And what the fuck do toilets have to do with this? Yeah, so some random Senegalese dude in a remote village halfway across the world has to shit in a ditch during his sheepherding shift, but what in the hell does that have to do with CPAs complaining about busy season?

Let’s keep in mind that Peter J. Reilly is one of y’all, so really this feels like a whole lot of projecting where a bit of disclosed self-reflection might have gotten the same point across. Do y’all whine about busy season a little more than you should? Maybe. So what, who is it hurting? Well, he’s right that maybe all that complaining is in fact making you just as miserable as the thing you’re complaining about, but so what? Jesus, let people have something to unite them.

If you take away busy season, there’s always something else to complain about. It’s what people do. I guarantee you Abdoulaye over in Senegal sometimes feels like a whiny little bitch for complaining about how hard he’s got it knowing somewhere in the world there’s someone who doesn’t even have a ditch to crap in. No need to beat yourself up over it.

The post This Forbes Columnist Thinks You’re All a Bunch of Whiny B*tches appeared first on Going Concern.

Given that love is on everyone’s minds this week, the following article from the NASBA Center for Public Trust couldn’t be any more timely. Forget the foreplay, let’s get right to it.

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and the feeling of love surrounds us, rendering us hopeless romantics, even if for just a moment. When you think about your special someone, who is it that comes to mind? If you are currently in a consensual relationship, planning the day can be exhilarating, from coordinating dinner plans to purchasing that extra-large box of chocolates. However, if you have romantic feelings for a co-worker, making your move in a professional business setting can be a bit more complex. Before you approach your crush in the office, please review the below tips.

Let me stop you right there. This article shouldn’t go any further than one word after the above paragraph: DON’T. You ever hear the phrase “don’t shit where you eat?” Most grown adults and their pulsating loins know what that phrase means but for those of you who need things broken down: DON’T FUCK PEOPLE YOU WORK WITH. I mean, do whatever you want but you’re only asking for trouble. There are approximately 7 billion people on the planet, meaning if you’re straight, that’s 3.5 billion potential sex partners, so why the hell would you choose someone you work with?

I mean, we understand why workplace hookups happen. One day you’re at the client site trapped in the closet with just your laptop and workpapers, the next day Becky or Todd starts looking kinda cute and the next thing you know you’re banging it out at the client’s. It happens.

OK back to the NASBA CPT article. Let’s check out these tips, just the tips.

Understand Workplace Policies. The Code of Conduct in your workplace may include variations from your previous place of employment, so be aware of the rules and regulations of your current workplace.

When in Doubt, Speak to HR. If you are unsure of whether sending a care package, romantic note or pursuing an individual is appropriate, do not hesitate to discuss the matter with your HR Department. It is best to air on the side of caution before engaging in any relations.

Do Not Make Someone Feel Uncomfortable. If you decide to ask someone on a date, be sure to give them the space to decline or modify your invitation, if they should so choose. Whether the answer is no or yes, keep your attitude and approach professional. If the answer is no, be sure to respect your co-worker’s wishes and do not ask again.

Think Long Term. Consider whether your love-interest is someone that you can see a future with, or if the attraction is purely chemical. This is important because should the relationship end, you will still see this individual around the office. Be sure that this relationship is worth pursuing prior to making your move.

Good Lord, what kind of awkward weirdo needs advice that boils down to “don’t be a giant creeper” and how did this person make it all the way through college without getting kicked out for inappropriate sexual behavior toward classmates? How bout just leave your colleagues alone and go hump a leg in the real world?

If you absolutely insist on hooking up in, around, and/or at the workplace, just keep in mind that you could end up a Going Concern story one day. But hey, doesn’t matter, had sex.

The post Let’s Talk About F*cking Your Coworkers appeared first on Going Concern.

If you already have solid work experience and have developed expertise in certain areas, adding accounting knowledge—and a Master of Accounting (MAC) degree—can put you in an especially strong position, whether you want to advance in the field you already work in or leap to an entirely new career. It can even help you unlock some really interesting career paths!

>> Take our quiz: What “cool” job could new accounting skills unlock for you?

Here are a few ways accounting can transform your professional prospects and open new doors for you.

It delivers financial savvy and technical skills

One of the most common reasons people pursue MAC degrees is to jump ahead in the company or industry they already work in.

For example, you may already have a successful career in sales, but now you’d like to leap to a sales management job or a strategic role helping your company get the most from its sales efforts.

The deep accounting knowledge that a MAC degree provides can be a big help, giving you the financial savvy needed for forecasting and providing you more insight into how sales activities affect the bottom line. You’ll understand how commission incentives, sales competition, and price discounts really impact your company’s profits.

By adding advanced auditing skills, you could harness your insider knowledge of how your company operates to become a trusted internal auditor. Internal auditors bring a systematic, disciplined approach to all sorts of organizational practices, from risk management to financial controls. They can identify little problems before they grow out of control and ensure the company is ready for external scrutiny from regulators, investors, and others.

It can take you beyond the numbers

Some people wonder if an accounting career will focus too much on numbers and finance. While those are an important part of accounting, accounting skills pertain to much more than just money.

For example, some accountants apply their auditing skills to nonfinancial information. An auditor working for a pharmaceutical company, for example, might evaluate the company’s manufacturing supply chain to ensure the drugs the company makes are safe, effective, and high quality.

Or an auditor might tackle cybersecurity—one of the biggest risks facing business today—to make sure the company is protecting its employees, data, and customers.

Sustainability accounting is a relatively new field that focuses on rigorously measuring the economic and environmental impact of various business practices, such as switching a corporate fleet from gasoline-powered vehicles to hybrids and electric cars. If someone asks whether making business “green” is worth the investment, accountants specializing in sustainability can provide the answer.

Allison Elia works as the director of operations for a nonprofit organization that provides after-school care in inner-city Columbus, Ohio. She also holds a Master of Accounting degree. Why? Because, as Allison notes, “At the end of the day, a nonprofit is still a business,” and businesses thrive on the efficiency that accounting principles unlock.

It can open up unique and unexpected career paths

If you tell your mom you’re going to become an accountant, she’ll be excited about the prospect of a secure job. But your close college friends? They’ll be supportive, sure, but maybe not excited. Here’s why they should be.

Accounting can lead you to some pretty cool jobs. For example, did you know that the FBI employs accountants to help bring mobsters to justice and trace terrorist financing?

Forensic accountants are often hired to solve monetary mysteries, such as figuring out how financial crimes were conducted. Day in and day out, these accountants solve tricky puzzles, often uncovering truths that someone tried to hide.

Other accountants are involved in products and industries you might never associate with them. They help develop financial software, ensure Oscars go to the right winners, or work to integrate bleeding-edge technology like Bitcoin into existing business practices.

Or, you could just be an accountant (which isn’t bad either!)

Of course, all employers need people with accounting know-how. Government economists predict the number of accounting jobs will grow significantly in the next few years. And those jobs will pay well. New accountants often hit six figures after just a few years, especially if they have an advanced credential like a MAC degree.

So yes, deep accounting knowledge—and a MAC degree—will provide a solid boost to your career prospects. It can also be the gateway for a more interesting job and ultimately a great career. 

Next step: Find out what’s next for you?

Find out what unique job you could unlock if you added deep accounting knowledge to your current skills and interests in the “Cool Jobs” quiz developed by the Master of Accounting program at the University of North Carolina.

What’s your next career move? Consider the #1-ranked online Master of Accounting degree from the University of North Carolina. With flexible schedules, evening courses delivered by world-class faculty, and a career services team dedicated to the needs of working professionals, the program can give your career the boost it needs.

The post How Deep Accounting Skills Can Help You Unlock Cool New Jobs appeared first on Going Concern.

The consequences of not taking the actions outlined in this article can be dire. If a client feels he’s been wronged and wins a lawsuit against you, the court could empty your bank account and force you to liquidate your assets, including your house and car. And if you accidentally violate any tax or financial regulations, you could face fines or even jail time.

You might think nothing like that can happen to you, but remember that everyone makes mistakes. And even if your accounting practice is truly error-free, you could still rack up legal fees battling a frivolous lawsuit.

So be sure to take the recommendations in this article seriously. And don’t stop there. This isn’t meant to be a comprehensive list, so you’ll want to sit down with a lawyer or CPA even after you’ve done the things we’ve outlined here to make sure you’ve got all your bases covered. (And yes, we know you yourself are probably a CPA, but it’s still smart to get an outside opinion.)

1) Form an LLC

Creating a limited liability company (LLC) is the first and most important step you should take before signing up clients as a freelance remote accountant.

LLCs do just what the name implies–they limit your liability. Without one, you and your accounting business are considered the same “person,” so any action taken against your business will be taken against you as well.

An LLC ensures that your business and personal finances are separate. It sets up a “box” that contains all the money you make from clients. If someone decides to sue you, they can only sue for what’s in that box, not for your personal finances or possessions.

LLCs also separate your personal debt from your business debt. If your freelance practice falls on hard times, debt collectors can’t go after your private assets. And if you rack up too much personal debt, no one can force you to use the money in your corporate account to cover it.

The best way to set up an LLC is through a lawyer or CPA. But if you’re pressed for time and cash, LegalZoom is an increasingly popular option. LegalZoom documents don’t always hold up in court as well as those drafted by your own lawyer or CPA, but they’re certainly better than nothing.

Some CPAs choose not to form an LLC for tax reasons, fearing that their earnings will not qualify as pass-through income and will be double-taxed. But in most cases, LLC revenue still qualifies as pass-through income and is taxed accordingly.

The new GOP tax cut bill has sections that are purportedly meant to help small businesses. It’s possible these changes could make a sole proprietorship more advantageous than an LLC. But it’s hard to tell what the real impact of the bill will be, so for now, we recommend going the LLC route. You can always break it up later.

2) Purchase an Accountants’ Professional Liability Policy

Now that you’ve got your finances separated, it’s time to protect your business cash and assets.

One way to do that is by purchasing insurance. An Accountants’ Professional Liability Policy is a popular product for freelance remote accountants and can be obtained through insurance and risk management company CPA Mutual.

Policies differ in the amount of protection they provide and the types of things they cover. And like with all insurance, you’ll get what you pay for–the higher the premium you’re willing to pay, the more expansive your coverage will be.

But in general, an Accountants’ Professional Liability Policy will provide some level of safeguard and relief for you in the these areas:

• Civil or criminal fines, penalties, sanctions, or forfeitures;
• Punitive or exemplary amounts, including attorneys’ fees;
• Amounts claimed for the return or reimbursement of fees for your services;
• Amounts for which you are not financially liable or that are without legal recourse to you; and
• Liquidated damages, fees, costs, attorneys’ fees, litigation expenses, or other amounts payable under any contract or agreement.

3) Purchase a cyber liability policy

“In this day in age, data is almost as valuable as cash,” Nick Pasquarosa, founder and CEO, Bookkeeper360, said. “Your critical client data needs to be secured. The purchasing of cyber insurance is something to strongly consider.”

Juniper Research reports that global costs of cybercrime will reach $2.1 trillion by 2019. Certainly much of this money will come from large corporations. But if you think your freelance remote accountant practice is too small a fish for hackers to go after, think again.

Cybercrime affects businesses of all sizes, and you may actually be more at risk than larger companies because you won’t be able to afford the most sophisticated security software. And even if you could, you wouldn’t be able to regularly update it to protect against new and evolving methods of attack.

“Independent contractors are ripe for fraud,” Bill Thompson, president, CPA Mutual, said. “Your clients’ confidential data is at risk. The last survey I saw said the notification costs alone are almost $300 a record. It can add up to a lot of money.”  

Again, every policy is different, but look for cyber liability that offers the following:

• Protection from cybercrime, including wire transfer fraud, telecommunications fraud, and phishing attacks;
• Replacement or recovery of lost or stolen data;
• Expert breach response services, including legal, IT, and PR support; and
• Coverage for income loss resulting from interruption of your computer system.

“Many policies, including ours, offer forensic services, too, so you’ll be able to get an IT person in to see if the crook is still lurking around your server. Also, you can see how they got in and gained access,” Thompson said.

A final note about bonding

This is probably a consideration for later on in your freelance remote accounting career, but if you eventually hire employees, you may want to acquire a fidelity bond to protect against theft, embezzlement, and other on-the-job employee malfeasance. There are many different types of fidelity bonds, so be sure to do your research to see what is covered and the maximum amount the bond will pay.

Find more freelance remote accounting work through Accountingfly

We hope these tips help protect you as you build your career as a freelance remote accountant. Again, this is not meant to be a complete list of legal and liability recommendations, so your best bet is to consult a lawyer or CPA.

In the meantime, if you’re looking to grow your client list, check out the jobs listed on Accountingfly. You can use the “Filter by Job Type” menu on the bottom right of the screen to only see contract and/or part-time jobs. Accountingfly is 100% free for job seekers, so you’ve got nothing to lose.

Find freelance remote accounting jobs >

The post 3 Legal and Liability Tips Freelance Remote Accountants Must Consider appeared first on Going Concern.

And if you’re anything like me, you’ve reached your second, third, maybe fourth year only to find you’re restless in public accounting. The learning curve is steep at first (and much steeper if you prove capable of handling the very worst projects). But, eventually, you start to think that the skills you’ve gained might be surpassed by the fact that the reason you’re good at your job is that you know who to ask to get what you need.

So, you start to look around you. You look to your partners to see if that’s the life you want. You look to old managers who’ve moved to industry but are discouraged by the number of people coming back or taking cozy, predictable (see: not exciting) roles where they can buy a house and settle down. You eventually decide to answer the daily cold calls from recruiters who tell you how the bodega on the corner is hiring for a once-in-a-lifetime position. You seriously consider this. Finally, you look to your peers. All of your friends have switched jobs, if not careers, at least once already. It’s far more rare for this to be false than true.

For me, this was a crossroads and a critical point of inflection. On one hand, you can ride out a career you’ve invested a lot into and have a virtually guaranteed good life. There are, most definitely, roles in the industry where you can adapt your skill set to do something new and exciting. For instance, a number of friends took their public accounting experience and rolled the dice on trendy startups or tested out firms’ in-house consulting arms. Thinking through the options was something I did nonstop.

On the other hand, I found that no matter what the company was, I’d end up doing the same work I did in previous jobs. I considered the path I’d need to take to reach a rewarding end goal. Sure, it’d be fantastic to be a CFO, but I couldn’t stomach six years as a senior manager or director until my superior retired or got fired. For as much as I appreciated the relationships and personal development I took from the Big 4, when I left I never looked back.

This is why I considered getting my MBA. A quick Google search led me to believe that I could flip the script and be well-prepared for positions I would’ve otherwise never known, such as banking, consulting, operations, or buy-side roles. While this was true to a degree, it was necessary for me to believe when facing multiple GMATs, school visits, essays, recommendations, and (even more) student loans.

See, an MBA, in particular, is directly at odds with your life as a CPA. None of your peers have one, they don’t want or need one, and, as a result, you have limited inroads to actually get one. On top of this, upon leaving public accounting, you learn very few people can grasp what you did while you were there. For as many times as I explained it, my own family couldn’t have told you if I did audit or tax, even while I was doing it. This proved true throughout the MBA process as well.

In transition, the reactions I’d get were both frustrating and amusing: an accountant can’t possibly have a personality, an accountant can’t possibly be creative, an accountant can’t possibly be an engaging classmate … which is not to say that I am! But amid my ups and downs—giving up nights and weekends for over a year of testing and applications—I believed in my background and was focused on finding what I knew was right for me.

This, in a nutshell, is my biggest takeaway as a CPA/MBA. Nothing is handed to you, and the path is unmarked. But assembling the right profile of test scores, extracurriculars, advocates, and a thoughtful pursuit of schools can and will bear fruit. The thing that helped me most (which was, obviously, the most difficult) was crafting my story as it pertained to my goals. If you’re anything like me, you’ve worked on 20 different clients across as many industries and can sort of speak to what’s going on in each of them at any given time. This makes you a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none.

For those who have found this article for the very same reasons I was looking for it years ago, let me say this: there is no bigger reward than finally figuring it out and landing in a place where you are, unquestionably, willing to do what it takes to finally reach that end goal. This is the paramount pursuit—a millennial’s Super Bowl, if you will.

As busy seasons have come and gone, I’ve found that one way or another, the midnight Starbucks runs I took with my teams to and from windowless conference rooms is something that will help guide me forever.

About the author:

Chris Jung is a mentor for BeenThere Technologies, a Wharton/Kellogg MBA-founded startup providing application mentoring services to potential MBA applicants. He previously worked at KPMG and KKR before Columbia Business School. Chris has spent the past six months working for Casa Verde Capital, a venture capital firm investing in the ancillary cannabis ecosystem.

The post Take It From a Former Public Accountant: Having a CPA/MBA Makes Sense appeared first on Going Concern.

And the response you want to give them, the honest answer, is: “Because I have to make a living.” But Client A doesn’t want to hear it.

So you’re left with two options. Fire Client B out of the blue to satisfy Client A, knowing that Client A now no longer trusts you and may be looking to replace you no matter what you do. Or fire Client A and enrage them even more, risking that they will slander your name all over the industry in retaliation.

Neither option is desirable and both hurt your wallet and your business. So the best course of action is to avoid conflicts of interest as a freelance remote accountant in the first place. But how do you do that?

We talked with two industry experts to shed some light on the issue. Representing the legal and liability side is Bill Thompson, president, CPA Mutual. And for the perspective of someone who started as a freelance remote accountant and grew his practice into a proper accounting firm, we have Nick Pasquarosa, founder and CEO, Bookkeeper360. Read on for advice on how they say you can best avoid conflicts of interest.

Be upfront

Having a concrete conflict of interest policy in place that you review with a business before taking it on as a client can help prevent issues from occurring later.

“Accountants should include in their engagements a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) which gives the client the peace of mind that their information will not be shared with competitors,” Pasquarosa said.

You can actually use the potential threat of a conflict of interest as an advantage here. When onboarding new clients, let them know that conflicts of interest are extremely common for freelance accountants. If they’d like to avoid such an issue, they’ll have to pay you a higher rate that includes an “exclusivity fee.”

In conjunction with hammering out your own approach, you’ll also need to keep yourself abreast of the client’s own policies on conflicts of interest and non-disclosure.

“Follow your clients’ conflict of interest rules and regs,” Thompson said. “You don’t want to be perceived as using info that you acquire from one client and giving it to another.”

As your business grows, keeping existing clients informed of your new client dealings can further help you ward off a dust-up. Depending on the size of the client and the nature of your relationship, it might be smarter to ask them for permission than for forgiveness.

“Before engaging with new clients that you may identify as a competitor of an existing client, it may be best practice to disclose this information,” Pasquarosa said.

Be careful how you advertise yourself

As a freelance remote accountant, successfully marketing yourself and your services is critical to landing new clients and expanding your business.

Social media will likely be a key avenue for you. But keep in mind, social media is the high school cafeteria of marketing channels–information travels quickly, and there are no secrets.

“Be careful sharing information about who your clients are, especially on social media,” Thompson said.

That’s not to say you should keep your client list entirely private, however. Showing your client list to a potential new customer could be pivotal to landing them, as it demonstrates your level of experience and sophistication.

So while you don’t want to brag about whose books you’re doing to anyone who’ll listen, you may still want to share that information on a limited basis. Many freelancers do this by password-protecting all or parts of their portfolio sites. This way you can hide your client list behind a password that you only give out to potential new clients if and when you determine they need to see it.

While you’ll need to be careful about broadcasting your actual client list, advertising that you specialize in a particular industry is fine–and probably a smart move.

“You can certainly put on your resume or your advertising materials that you specialize in industry X,” Thompson said. “We work with some CPA firms that specialize in auto dealers and they’ll take on both the Chevy and Ford dealers in town. That’s just part of the business.”

Accept that some degree of conflict of interest is unavoidable

As Thompson said, conflict of interest is “part of the business.” No matter how much you do to avoid it, it’s going to happen. And that’s OK. Other freelance remote accountants have survived it, and so can you.

One of the reasons conflicts of interest are so common is that most freelancers naturally develop a specialty. They’ll land one client in an industry, word travels, and other clients in that same industry want to work with them as well.

The players in that space are limited, so eventually someone talks to someone and finds out his competitors are using the same accountant that he is.

“The problem is a lot of these accountants, especially independent contractors, will wind up specializing in a niche,” Thompson said. “Let’s say their specialty is franchises. They’ll do McDonald’s, and they may have such a great reputation that Burger King will want them too. That happens all the time.”

Find more freelance remote accounting work through Accountingfly

We hope these tips help you avoid conflicts of interest as you build your career as a freelance remote accountant–and mitigate the fallout when they do.

If you’re looking to grow your client list, check out the jobs listed on Accountingfly. You can use the “Filter by Job Type” menu on the bottom right of the screen to only see contract and/or part-time jobs. Accountingfly is 100% free for job seekers, so you’ve got nothing to lose.

Find freelance remote accounting jobs >

The post How to Avoid Conflicts of Interest as a Freelance Remote Accountant appeared first on Going Concern.

What Is Meet the Firms?

As the name so obviously implies, Meet the Firms is an event for accounting students to, well, meet with firms and other companies looking to hire accounting majors. It’s essentially a career fair for students to get to know potential employers and firms to scout out potential interns/hires.

Because Meet the Firms is generally held at the beginning of the fall semester, it’s a great way to introduce yourself to firms without the immediate pressure of interviewing because you’re still in school. It’s also an excellent way to set yourself apart (ahead?) of your peers by making a good impression on the people who matter, which is why we’re putting together this guide.

The elevator pitch

If this is your first Meet the Firms, have your personal elevator pitch ready. I understand that for many people who aren’t raging narcissists like myself, talking about yourself to strangers can be a bit awkward, but you can do this.

The key to giving a good personal elevator pitch is drafting it ahead of time. So take the time to ask yourself who you are and what makes you different from the 7 billion other two-legged bags of meat in the world. Once you’ve meditated on that a bit, you’re ready to answer the question “tell me about yourself.” Remember, this isn’t the time to mention your Fortnite addiction or your coveted legacy Shadow Claw Gengar. Stick to the professional stuff.

Start by writing down your thoughts, then refine them into a 60-second pitch. From there, refine down further until you have around 30 seconds of pitch. Include your graduation year and any goals that might be meaningful in the context of your career (e.g., “plan to pass the CPA exam by 2020”). Check out The Bean Counter for suggestions on actual pitches to help you draft your own.

Once you have your pitch written down, it’s time to practice it. It’s important that it feels genuine, as whoever you’re talking to is more interested in your communication skills than the content of your pitch. Practice in a mirror and/or with a friend if needed, watch your body language, and make sure you aren’t unintentionally giving off bad vibes.

Remember, the worse your GPA, the more important it is to have a personality to make up for it. You can get an offer over someone with a higher GPA if you can demonstrate exceptional communication skills, as that makes you a valuable asset. Let’s be honest, an engaging personality is probably a rarity among most of your peers, so use it to your advantage if you’re one of the lucky ones.

Do’s and don’ts

Alright, let’s talk about some quick do’s and don’ts.

DO: Shower beforehand.
DON’T: Take a whore shower with wet naps and Axe body spray.

DO: A quick breath check in the car, and use mints/breath strips if needed.
DON’T: Chew obnoxiously on a giant wad of gum.

DO: Wear a professional outfit appropriate for a business setting, tailored if possible.
DON’T: Wear a Canadian tuxedo.

DO: Make eye contact with the person you’re speaking to.
DON’T: Make eye contact with your shoes.

Start with firms you don’t want to work for

You may be compelled to go straight to the firm you want to work for. Don’t. Start with smaller or less desirable firms, as this gives you a chance to practice your pitch and get a feel for the event. Obviously, don’t tell them you have absolutely no intention of working for them. You aren’t guaranteed an offer from your top desired firm, you know, so it could come in handy that you diversified your connections. But mostly, it’s good practice for the big dogs and might help loosen you up if you’re super nervous.

Don’t bother with recruiters

You’d think recruiters are the most important people in the room at Meet the Firms, and you would be wrong. The people you really want to talk to, if available, are staff. Remember that recruiters are in recruiting; if you’re hired, they won’t have to stare at your ugly face all day. But staff are the ones on whom a good impression may mean the difference between your resume ending up in the NO pile and getting an interview, as they’re asking themselves “would I want to share a cube with this clown for the next two years of my life?” Your words and your actions when interacting with them should serve as an enthusiastic YES.

Of course we’re not suggesting you avoid recruiters completely; they might be the only ones available to talk to. But make sure not to miss out on great potential conversations to be had with staff and even partners if they’re hanging around eager to tell you about their work. Not only is it important to make a good impression on these people, but they’re far more likely to give you more honest impressions about the job and the firm.

Ask questions

Even if you don’t have questions, ask them. Keep the conversation going by asking questions such as “why did you choose [service line]?” Try to keep it natural or else you’re going to come off as an awkward clam. If you need advice on maintaining a brief conversation with a stranger … well … I’m sorry but that level of instruction is above my pay grade.

The aftermath

During the event, you should have asked for business cards from each person you connected with, and follow up with an email thanking them for their time no later than 48 hours after the event. Keep it short, sweet, and personal. Do not blast everyone you met with a mass email, as tempting as that may be to save yourself some time.

If you’re hungry for more tips on recruiting season, check out the Public Accounting Recruiting Guide [Google doc] from /r/accounting.

The post Here Is Everything You Need to Know About Meet the Firms appeared first on Going Concern.

But at some firms, fast partner tracks that include training and mentorship programs can get you there sooner. If making partner young is important to you, you’ll want to consider these types of offerings when making your next career move.

We sat down with Carli McDonald, partner-in-charge of R&D tax credit services at Aprio, who made partner at age 32. We wanted to see how she pulled off such an unlikely feat–and how Aprio helped her along the way.

If you want to be like Carli and take advantage of the fast partner track opportunities available at Aprio, a full-service accounting firm operating out of Atlanta, scroll down to the bottom of this article to see a list of current job openings.

Education credentials for making accounting firm partner

Going Concern: So where did your journey toward making partner start? What’s your educational background?

Carli McDonald: I went undergrad for premed, and at some point along the way I was sitting beside a female neurosurgeon at a conference and she was telling me how she gave birth and took her finals in med school the next day. She said to me, “You’ll be a female doctor and you need to make sure you find a husband who will do everything at home because you’ll need to be available for work all the time.” I thought she was right and I thought that lifestyle wasn’t for me.

I ended up with an English literature degree at Vanderbilt and I got done a semester early and was having a crisis with not knowing what to do anymore. I took two years off essentially doing different jobs at a law firm, performing client service management at a voice-over IP firm, and doing fundraising for the Boston Children’s Hospital. During that time I took the LSAT and decided to go to law school.

I wanted to do immigration adoption law. I got into that and realized that it’s a very emotional job. You have to do things like give babies back to their birth mothers if they request it within 10 days. We had to facilitate three or four of those and I realized I didn’t want to actually do that.  

During that time I was also taking tax classes and it clicked. I understood the numbers. The business part of it made sense to me. Accounting was something I could see myself doing for a career that didn’t have that emotional component.

In addition to my law degree, I got a Masters in Taxation. At that point I knew I didn’t want to work at a law firm. I was going the accounting firm route.  

The first steps toward making accounting firm partner

GC: What was your accounting firm experience like, and why did you decide to move to Aprio?

McDonald: My path was unconventional. I started at an accounting firm in the R&D tax credit practice.

My job involved interviewing subject-matter experts and talking to the client a lot. It’s one of the very few areas in a CPA firm where you have to write a technical report and give it back to the client. And it also has that numbers component. I thought it was an area where I wouldn’t get bored because there are different tasks every day.

I was there for a couple of years, and due to various reasons, I decided to make a switch. One of those reasons being I was traveling all the time. When you’re traveling, it feels like a 70-hour week because you’re doing client dinners at night and then writing emails when you get back to the hotel. Part of the reason I moved to Aprio was because I wanted to have balance in my family life.

I saw the opening at Aprio as an opportunity to take control of my career and make it everything that I thought a job should be.

Going from accounting firm employee to manager to partner

GC: How did you make the transition into management and ultimately to partner?

McDonald: The director quit after I’d been here a little over a year. We were right on the precipice of being a high-gross team and I could feel the momentum. My supervisor asked me if I needed to hire someone else to fill the director position or if I could take it on.

There are these moments in your career where you make choices. I’ve talked about not being a doctor, deciding to go to law school, and deciding to go into the R&D field. I could have said, “Let’s just bring in someone else.” But I thought I could do the job. I think sometimes in life you have to take a leap of faith and trust yourself.

Probably a week before I decided I wanted to give the director position a try, I found out I was pregnant with my daughter. I thought, “I’m not going to get this opportunity again, and I can do this. I can be pregnant and run this department.”

I got promoted to senior manager two weeks before I went on maternity leave. Then I got a midyear promotion to director, which is not traditional. And then two years later I made partner. That was after about six years total in the accounting industry and just four years working at Aprio. I never asked for these promotions either. Aprio was really good about proactively rewarding me.

We have grown exponentially every year since then. We are the top growing department in the firm. I’m really glad I decided to take that leap.

Guiding accountants on the partner track

GC: How did Aprio help you develop the skills you needed to be a partner and give you the confidence to take on such an important role at a young age?

McDonald: Aprio invests in training for their superstars and that’s something that I thought was really nice. I had mentors and sponsors at Aprio who saw things in me that I maybe didn’t see in myself. I work really hard, but part of the reason for my success is I have an amazing group of people here who really wanted me to succeed. They had an open door and open phone line policy with me. They’ve coached me on everything so that I would be ready and I wouldn’t fail.

I don’t think there are a lot of accounting firms like that. I think a lot of times what we see in the industry is that cutthroat component. The mentality of, “I might want you to succeed but not do better than I did.” I haven’t experienced that at all since I’ve been at Aprio.

In some places to make partner you have to bring in your own business. The other partners aren’t going to give you their revenue. But at Aprio, there’s a very collaborative environment.  Partners will willingly give up their revenue to the up-and-coming partner. That’s very unique for an accounting firm.

The life of an accounting firm partner

GC: What’s a typical day at Aprio like for you?

McDonald: My days are so varied. This morning we had a massive tax practice group meeting. I also oversee the special ops division at the firm that includes international tax, tax consulting, and local consulting.

Running my practice area is a massive time commitment that includes technical review, the reports in the credit work, visiting with clients, and being here for my team so they can ask me questions.  

Along with that there’s the HR component, including performance reviews and compensation decisions. We have over 25 people in my department, or 35 if you include special ops. I’m the first line of defense, and if someone has a complaint, they will come to me.

Business development is also something I do a lot of. I’m really involved in going to prospective client meetings and delivering proposals, and I run a couple of sales initiatives.  

I do limit my travel to once a month now, with a max of four days on a trip. I make time for the things that are important to me, and Aprio is very supportive and wants people to do that. We have a very flexible work environment, and I give my team a flexible environment because I want one.

I write articles and do some research. I’ll get involved with acquisitions and educating prospective clients. Any day could have something from all these different things. My days are never the same.

How you can get to accounting firm partner fast

GC: What advice would you give someone who wants to join a firm and make partner quickly?

McDonald: Work very hard and don’t be afraid to ask for what you deserve. Seek out tasks and activities that push the boundaries of your comfort zone because that’s where you’ll find growth. Ask people in the firm to mentor and sponsor you and make it be known that you want to be partner.

Get on the partner fast track at Aprio

Want to be like Carli and take advantage of Aprio’s career-nurturing culture and professional growth opportunities? Click on one of the links below to apply for an open position now.

Atlanta, Georgia accounting job openings

R&D Senior Associate (work with Carli!)

Senior Finance Manager/Controller

Transaction Advisory Director

Audit Senior Associate

The post How Accounting Firm Aprio Helped an Employee Make Partner at 32 appeared first on Going Concern.

Coworking spaces suck: Everyone does their own thing, so there’s not much “community”

It’s not easy to become part of the community at my coworking space. I was lucky that I had a couple of friends already there, so I was able to feel comfortable right away. But I still haven’t said a word to 90% of the people I share a space with. I feel like cowork spaces push the idea of community and even “family,” but it’s not something that comes naturally just from sharing a space. It’s hard to find the time to meet the other people.

Sometimes the idea of “community” or “family” goes a little far at my coworking office. And some members don’t respect your space. In a large open office, some members forget that it’s not OK to just walk up to you and start talking. There are no enforced rules about how to interact with other members, so anarchy reigns.

Coworking spaces are awesome: You’re surrounded by sources of advice and help

I joined a local coworking space because I wanted to be around others of my same discipline. It’s definitely been a good move because I’ve already gotten good advice from a few of my peers. There are experienced people there who I can turn to if I have a question or need help with a project. Using coworking spaces for accounting can provide free help for software you don’t know that well or even give you someone to double-check your math.

Coworking spaces suck: They can be just as distracting as working from home

It’s easy to get distracted in the open environment of coworking spaces. There are distractions at home, but there are probably just as many at a cowork space. Most coworking spaces have perks to draw you in, but if your attention is easily diverted, it’s just as bad as being at home (read: ping-pong tables). That’s why it’s a spot I don’t go to every day, but rather a supplement to working in the main office or from home.

Coworking spaces are awesome: You can invite your friends!

I chose my local cowork space because I already had a couple of friends there. Those friends have introduced me to others in the facility which has helped expand my network a bit. It’s fun being able to work next to and hang out with people I know from my real life rather than being home alone. And it definitely beats trying to force a “friendship” with an office coworker who I’d probably never talk to in any other social situation.

There’s one drawback though: If my friends don’t come into the coworking space on a given day, I’ll usually just work from home.

Coworking spaces suck: Artificial socialization is awkward

My coworking office organizes social activities, like happy hours and meetups, which seem a little forced. I wish there was a more organic way to meet the others at my space. People go there to do their work, not to socialize, so it can be hard to find a time and place to introduce yourself.

And, as a father, the cowork events don’t always line up with my parenting schedule. There needs to be a more natural process to help us all get to know each other without the forced interaction of happy hours and lunches (no one wants to talk with food in their mouths).

Coworking spaces are awesome: Despite the drawbacks, being with people usually beats being alone

Overall, I’m glad I joined my local coworking space. The positives outweigh the negatives, and I generally prefer it to the solitude of working from home, especially when my friends are there. I found this article on Lifehacker that says working around other people makes you more productive than being alone, and I believe that’s true, for the most part at least. I think coworking spaces for accounting are generally a good thing.

Plus, there’s a ping-pong table.

Looking for a remote accounting job you can do from home or from coworking spaces for accounting like Kyle? Accountingfly has the largest active database of open remote accounting jobs on earth. Browse available positions or post your resume now.

The post Why Coworking Accounting Spaces Suck and Why They’re Awesome appeared first on Going Concern.

If you’re lucky, you work for an employer that embraces remote work and flexible work-from-home policies. If you’re tragically unlucky, your company is resisting the remote trend and forbidding work outside the office completely–a la IBM.

But more than likely, your firm is somewhere in the middle. There are some full-time remote employees at your company, but most accountants are largely stuck in the office during work hours. Work-from-home policies exist, but they’re restrictive.

And worse, those accountants at your firm who often work from home are privately viewed as lazy by coworkers and management, which can cost them promotions or, in extreme cases, their jobs.

So for this post, we’re not just going to give you some tips on how to fleece your firm into giving you a few more work-from-home hours. We’re here to answer a larger question: “How do I get my boss to let me work from home–without hurting my career?”

Build some anecdotal evidence

Google it all you want, but as far as we can tell, you won’t find a solid statistic on how many accountants currently work from home–part-time or full-time. So if you’re looking to shove a “60% of accountants work remotely”-type figure into your boss’s face, you’re out of luck–for now, at least.

You can try this, an article from Harvard Business Review that claims remote employees are more engaged than their in-office counterparts, but be prepared for your boss to point out that it’s six years old and light on proven facts.

To build the most effective work-from-home case, your best bet is probably to resort to some good old-fashioned anecdotal evidence. Find some remote accountants in the industry performing similar duties to your own. Ask them how they stay on task, what types of communication and productivity apps they use, and try to get some proof they they’re doing their jobs well.

Look for examples within your firm, as well. Are other employees working from home or remotely? Are they finishing projects on time and providing quality work?

You’ll want to be careful when presenting your boss with the present status of remote work at your firm. The last thing you want to do is sound like a jealous younger sibling begging for the cushy work-from-home hours big brother gets.

But if you can put together some statistics on how much remote work is currently done at your firm and frame it in a way that doesn’t sound whiny, you should have a better chance of convincing your boss to give you more hours outside the office–or at least as much as the average worker is getting. 

Cite virtuous motivations

If your desire to work from home is driven by aspirations of nine-to-fiving it in your pajamas and playing more Xbox, you probably don’t want to mention that to your boss.

But if you have some virtuous reasons for wanting to work from home–or if you can credibly make some up–those can help your case. Perhaps your long commute is causing you to miss valuable time with your children. Or maybe you have an aging parent or grandparent who needs your personal care and attention.

Your own health is a consideration, as well. You don’t want to look like the kid who brought in a doctor’s note to get out of gym, but if long office hours are causing you legitimate joint/back issues, carpal tunnel syndrome, or high blood pressure, the argument of “this job may literally be killing me” could buy you one or two days a week of working from home.

Use sick days to prove you can do it

If you really want to be a Boy Scout/Girl Scout/junior forest ranger/whatever, you could wait until you’re actually sick to do this, but is there anyone among us who hasn’t abused the privilege of a sick day here or there?

Regardless of whether you’re truly sick or just malingering, your sick days are your opportunity to prove to your boss you can work from home effectively. Make this one of your most productive days of the year. Check in with colleagues and superiors regularly, finish multiple projects before they’re due, get a head start on projects that haven’t kicked off, and lend a hand on work that isn’t even your responsibility.

Log everything you do during your sick days down to the quarter hour, including breaks. When your boss asks, “How can I trust you to be productive if I let you work from home?” you can point to these logs as proof you’re even more effective remotely than when you’re in the office.

Brand it as “an experiment”

If you feel like the negotiation is going nowhere, you could ask for some work-from-home time on an experimental basis. Tell your boss you’re willing to keep track of everything and be completely honest about your productivity and the results. Assure him that if it turns out you actually are more productive in the office, you’ll give up your remote work dreams and never mention it again.

As you’re probably all too aware, office experiments can sometimes become permanent when no one’s paying attention–not because they work, but because managers are too busy with other things (or, let’s face it, too lazy) to change things back. Your “experimental period” may wind up running for a year and a half before your boss remembers it was an experiment to begin with.

If you’ve discovered any other strategies that help convince managers to let their accountants work from home, let us know in the comments.

The Accounting News Roundup newsletter is back! Every Friday you’ll get a recap of recent content posted on Going Concern, On This Date in Going Concern History, list of hot remote and hybrid accounting jobs, and more. Sign up here today.

The post How to Convince Your Boss to Let You Ditch the Accounting Office and Work From Home appeared first on Going Concern.

If that sounds appealing, FloQast may have a position for you. The company is looking to hire an Accounting Technology Consultant for its office in Sherman Oaks, Calif.

FloQast is close management software made by accountants for accountants and is growing wildly popular in accounting departments across every industry.

We sat down with Lilith Karageuzian, head of customer success at FloQast, as well as two current senior accounting technology consultants, Alex Nordin and Debbie Byrne, to get the full scoop on this opportunity.

A senior what now?

The work you’ll be doing as part of the Customer Success team will push your accounting and communication skills to exciting and unexpected places.

As an Accounting Technology Consultant, you’ll join FloQast’s small but growing Setup team. You’ll work with controllers, accounting managers, and CFOs from a wide variety of industries–everything from professional sports teams to real estate to technology. You’ll help these accounting professionals identify their needs and develop a plan for integrating the FloQast application into their existing accounting systems.

“Since we’re a small team, you’ll get the chance to shape where we’re going and what we want to work on. You can have a big impact on the company,” Nordin says.

You’ll then train clients on how to use the system, answer any questions they have, and troubleshoot any problems that occur during the setup process. Once setup is complete, you’ll pass the client over to the Account Management team, who will handle ongoing maintenance, retention, and upsell.

“We are the power users of FloQast,” Nordin says. “We have to get an understanding of the client’s environment and show them how they’ll use FloQast to complement their process. So it’s important to have the accounting knowledge and the knowledge of FloQast.”

Knowledge of the FloQast software isn’t a prerequisite to get the job, however. You’ll need some general tech skills, but if you’re willing and eager to learn, your teammates and managers will work with you so you can master the software quickly.

Startup lifestyle at an established company

FloQast has been around for five years, and at its current level of growth and development, it won’t be going anywhere any time soon. But while it offers the stability and prestige of an established company, FloQast prides itself on maintaining the flexibilities of the startup culture.

“We do have a startup lifestyle; however, we don’t have the initial risks of most startups,” Byrne says. “We’re growing at a steady rate and I feel confident in the direction that we are going.”

Working at FloQast also offers you the opportunity to influence the shape and trajectory of the company in ways you wouldn’t be able to at other businesses.

“We have an ever-evolving process in place,” Karageuzian says. “Our employees can create change and new ideas are encouraged.”

And like at any good startup, it doesn’t have a strict dress code and is light on formalities.

“We have an open office workspace. If you’re looking for that startup vibe, this is definitely a good fit,” Nordin says.

Charting your own career

The Accounting Technology Consultant role exposes you to many different industries, introducing you to the challenges and language of each. You can use the knowledge you gain and the contacts you make at this job to send your career on just about any path you want it to go.

“Three years ago, what I was doing at FloQast is totally different from what I am doing now,” Karageuzian says. “I’ve been able to build out my career the way I’ve wanted at a company I believe in.”

If you’re dedicated to a strict, level-by-level promotion schedule like you’ll find at the Big 4, this may not be the job for you. But if you’re someone who wants to chart your own course, this is a great role to break you out of the rigors of public accounting.

“I make the joke that I lost my 20s to the Big 4,” Byrne says. “Now I’m done with the 80-hour workweek and all the mundane tasks that come with public accounting. But I can still keep the prestige of my CPA license.”

Helping people

The biggest advantage the Accounting Technology Consultant job at FloQast offers over traditional accounting work may be this: You get to help real people, not just their books.

“Clients love to hear from us. They reach out to us to help them with questions all the time. You’re helping people versus in the accounting or auditing world where you’re bugging them for audit support,” Karageuzian says.

Interact with clients from virtually every industry. Live the startup lifestyle without the startup risks. Gain the flexibility to send your career on a variety of paths. And truly help people instead of just their balance sheets.

If those last few sentences sound like the qualities of your ideal job, click the link below to apply for the Accounting Technology Consultant position at FloQast now.

Apply for the Accounting Technology Consultant position at FloQast

Understand what FloQast can do for your close in one minute. You can read more about Going Concern’s partnership with FloQast here.

The Accounting News Roundup newsletter is back! Every Friday you’ll get a recap of recent content posted on Going Concern, On This Date in Going Concern History, list of hot remote and hybrid accounting jobs, and more. Sign up here today.

The post Get an Accounting Job with Startup Perks–Minus the Startup Risks appeared first on Going Concern.

By now you’re more than familiar with the typically-cited benefits of working remotely. So we’re not gonna write that article, because you can read that anywhere.

Instead, we’re gonna grab our trusty football bat, gather up some three-dollar bills, and get weird. Here are some of the stranger reasons to ditch the office and work remotely:

1) Develop stronger relationships with your local food delivery people

Working from home affords you the schedule flexibility to go grocery shopping more often and prepare delicious, nutritious meals for the entire family every night. Or you can have a leisurely lunch at a nice restaurant, taking your time to enjoy yourself rather than grabbing a sandwich and rushing back to the office.

But if you’re like me, you won’t do either of those things. One of the greatest benefits of working remotely is not having to leave the house. And why would you ruin all of that nice-not-leaving-the-houseness by leaving the house to get food?

Instead, you’ll order delivery. A lot. And you won’t be alone. Some company called Cowen predicted a 79% surge in the total U.S. food delivery market by 2022, from $43 billion to $76 billion, for whatever that’s worth.

DoorDash, Grubhub, CitySpree, Eat24, Jimmy John’s, and whatever pizza and Chinese joints are close to your house–these are your new best friends. As you use them more often, you’ll begin to know the delivery drivers by name.

This can lead to new friendships or, if you’ve got game like Jesus Shuttlesworth, a blossoming romance. Just invite them in to play Xbox and see where it goes. Hopefully not toward a restraining order.

2) Work at whatever trendy nonsense desk configuration that is supposedly good for you without anyone laughing

First it was the bouncy ball seat, but we all know what happened to that.

Now there’s the standing desk which, according to the experts at Healthline, decreases your risk of weight gain, lowers your blood sugar (and that’s … good?), shrinks your risk of heart disease, prevents back pain, improves your mood and energy levels, boosts productivity, and even makes you live longer.

I mean, whatever. They could say standing at my desk all day would make 1,000 swimsuit models magically materialize in my room, and I’d still be too lazy to do it.

I’ve seen someone using a standing desk exactly once, and my reaction was, “What a courageous guy. Here’s a man who’s so dedicated to his health and virility, he’s taken the trouble to jack up his desk and is willing to stand all day no matter what his coworkers think.”

Just kidding. My first thought was, “This guy looks like an idiot.”

But when you work from home, you don’t have to worry about judgmental glares from jerks like me. You can work while standing up, doing the crab walk, or hanging from the ceiling like Tom Cruise in that one movie that was OK but really confusing, but at least it spawned a great series of sequels. And no one will ever know.

Except you. You’ll know. You’ll always know.

3) Play the afternoon game of HQ Trivia

I can’t find any current user stats about the smartphone app phenomenon HQ Trivia. Best I can do is this article from January 2018 about them breaking their record with 1.2 million users in a single game. I know from personal experience they’ve since shattered that number, with more than 2 million playing in some of the higher-dollar games.

While mostly known for its prime-time 8 p.m. show featuring the Quiz Daddy, the Trap Trebek, the Host Malone, the Quiz Khalifa, Scott Rogowsky, the service also runs a daily afternoon show at 3 p.m. ET. If thinking, “They used to have an afternoon show but they got rid of it,” you’ve just been eliminated–while HQ Trivia took its tea time game off the schedule for awhile, it’s back now (and dumber than ever, with easier questions and just eight answers required to win).

It’s safe to say that the greatest problem facing the American office worker over the last several months has been the inability to play the 3 p.m. HQ Trivia game, at least not without hiding in the bathroom for 15 minutes.

But when you work remotely, the trivia world is your oyster. You can play every day, racking up prizes of literally singles of dollars. Perhaps enough to tip your food delivery driver, if nothing else.

4) Avoid long lines at the movies

There’s a clip from “Seinfeld” where Jerry says this better than I can, but I can’t find it so here goes:

I hate saving movies for people.

The idea that you’re supposed to wait until a friend or loved one is available to go with you to see a movie is appalling to me. I just don’t have the patience for it. When I’m ready to see the movie, I’m ready to see the movie. If someone else is available to go with me, that’s great. But if not, I’ll happily go by myself.

I’m not totally without a sense of social shame, though. When I go to the movies by myself, I like to go in the afternoon. That way there’s less of a chance of being spotted by someone I know.

When you work from home, you can see movies during the day. You can avoid long lines and big crowds and truly enjoy the movie. And if you did promise to wait to see it with someone else, you can always lie to them and go see it again.

5) Abuse your home office privileges to avoid spending time with your family

Many remote workers with families set strict policies about their in-home working space. When Mommy or Daddy is in the office with the door shut, no one is to come in unless it’s an emergency. This allows you to concentrate on your work without the fear of constant interruption.

But there’s nothing in the rulebook that says you can’t go into the office, shut the door, and play Candy Crush for four hours. That’s mostly because a remote work rulebook doesn’t exist yet, but semantics.

The point is, having an in-home sanctuary from the rest of the family offers benefits outside of work. Whether you choose to take advantage of those benefits depends on your moral compass (or lack thereof.)

What are some weird reasons you enjoy working remotely? Sound off in the comments to let us know.

The Accounting News Roundup newsletter is back! Every Friday you’ll get a recap of recent content posted on Going Concern, On This Date in Going Concern History, list of hot remote and hybrid accounting jobs, and more. Sign up here today.

The post 5 Weird Benefits of Ditching the Accounting Office and Working Remotely appeared first on Going Concern.

So I have to open the interview with THE question. One of those questions you dread asking because the answer is so obvious and self-evident. But you have to ask it to ensure a full, healthy discussion.

I swallow my pride, choke down a sigh, and let ’er rip:

“What is a homebuilder?”

And, like clockwork, Scheiderich responds with THE answer:

“Someone who builds homes.”

Thankfully, she elaborates.

OK, so what EXACTLY does a homebuilder do?

“PulteGroup is a consumer-driven company that builds consumer-inspired homes to make people’s lives better,” Scheiderich says. “We try to build houses to match the way people live and the way they want to live, so they can be a part of the American dream.”

I stop holding my breath and let out that sigh. This is going to be a good interview after all.

Later in the discussion, Scheiderich points to the self-evidence of the “homebuilder” title as a benefit rather than a hindrance.

“Everyone knows what you do when you work for a homebuilder. My dad didn’t know what I did in accounting, but now he gets it. It’s very relatable,” she says.

Making dreams come true

According to Scheiderich, homebuilding is less about boards and nails and more about helping families fulfill the full promise of their lives. If you work at a homebuilder like PulteGroup, you’ll be part of that mission.

And you’ll enjoy a closer level of interaction with your customers than you will in other industries.

“We get to see our customers a lot more,” Scheiderich says. “We get to help them achieve their dreams, whether it’s with the designers who help them pick out what their house is going to be, to our field managers, to our closing coordinators who will finally hand them the keys.”

This stands in sharp contrast to other industries that may seem similar on the surface.

“Homebuilding is a lot bigger in scale,” Scheiderich says. “With real estate and construction, you don’t have that level of interaction with the customers. I get to tour models, pick up design ideas, and so much more.”

The accounting side of homebuilding

So as an accountant or financial professional, what does your day look like at a homebuilder like PulteGroup?

According to Scheiderich, you’ll get a holistic view of the company, with your decisions impacting every aspect of the business.

“You get to understand what the industry is, what things cost,” she says. “You learn why things are affordable in certain areas and aren’t in others. You’ll review the costs of building a house, from lumber to asphalt, shingles, and even land. You really get a soup-to-nuts view of how the industry works.”

Building communities, not just homes

While PulteGroup is a homebuilder at heart, its true vision is larger: building communities that foster teamwork, friendship, and better quality of life.

“At PulteGroup, you get to see how we think about our cities, how we live versus how we should live, and how to make the best use of land,” Scheiderich says. “Most people want to own a home–it’s very relevant to your life. I find it very exciting.”

In short, when customers turn to PulteGroup, they’ll find a partner that’s just as concerned with how they live as where they live. And if you work for PulteGroup, you won’t just be building homes–you’ll be helping families build happier lives.

Ready to be a homebuilder?

PulteGroup is currently looking to hire corporate auditors for its Atlanta office. If you’re searching for a fulfilling position that lets you help people make their American dreams a reality, this might be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for. Click the link below to apply now.

Atlanta, Ga. positions

Corporate auditor

The post What Is a Homebuilder, and Why Should Accountants Work For One? appeared first on Going Concern.

Obviously, interning with PwC will give you a leg up on the competition, as Fenlon told CNBC that a majority of the firm’s hires this year will have completed an internship.

And the application process takes not one, not two, but five steps to complete. In the United Kingdom, for example, the third step of the application process includes a full-day event at an assessment center that candidates must attend, which typically includes “two or three stages of group exercises, interviews and additional exams. Only once this day is over will candidates be granted the opportunity to interview with a PwC employee.”

But one thing PwC management is looking for in prospective hires is how fit they are. No, they won’t be grading college grads on their mile time, how many pull-ups they can do or how long they can dead hang from a pull-up bar, or their sit and reach (at least I don’t think they will; I don’t know for sure). PwC wants candidates to demonstrate “digital fitness,” Fenlon told CNBC.

“Every single role in our firm requires digital fitness, whether I’m an executive assistant, whether I’m working in our HR organization, in marketing and sales or if I’m serving our clients in tax services or consulting,” says Fenlon.

Specific technical skills that PwC is interested in include data analysis and visualization as well as artificial intelligence and automation. Fenlon says that understanding how to manipulate data in Tableau or Alteryx can make a candidate stand out.

Beyond these particular skills, however, it’s important for applicants to demonstrate that they are able to learn new technological skills. “Tools change and we are in an environment where the cycle time for that is shortening,” explains Fenlon. “But I think there are certain tools that provide an advantage to students to hit the ground running.”

The article also notes the five specific qualities a potential employee should have to be considered a “PwC Professional.” If you possess all of these traits, I’m sure you’ll have a great career ahead working at the House of Ryan.

[CNBC]

Image: iStock/RyanJLane

The post You Must Be Digitally Fit to Land a Job at PwC appeared first on Going Concern.

We put up with long hours with 85%-90% billable utilization quotas during the day. CPA Exam review is a post-work pastime to relax. It can be debilitating after a while of sleepless nights and long workdays. Relationships start to suffer. You begin to gain weight. We’ve all seen it. Then it starts to happen to you.

You think, hey, I’ll take a mental health personal day to catch up on Hulu or Netflix. But wait, is that just the equivalent to playing hooky? Gasp! Type-A, perfect attendance record-holders (aka, most CPAs) don’t play hooky—even the thought is likely to cause more anxiety. You’ll no doubt be worried you’ll end up answering emails anyway.

The whole experience can be brutal once you graduate from intern to associate and beyond.

Stress pressure-cooker

Back in 2012, Greg Kyte commented on public accounting’s mental health struggles. And it’s come up at various other times. With some high-profile suicides in the news recently, it’s worth circling back on the topic of mental health in public accounting and ways to keep your psychological well-being a priority.

Anyone who’s worked in the profession for more than a couple months shouldn’t be surprised that financial advisors and accountants made the top 10 professions for depression, and financial services (which includes auditors) have high suicide rates. A lot of it gets swept under the rug. Many people have a very calm and polished look on the outside, but who knows what’s happening under the surface?

Inability to unplug

Beyond clinical anxiety and depression that is the result of a medical condition, even accountants and auditors without medical issues, and who work in public accounting, have a hard time decompressing during their downtime. Every email is marked “urgent” or “high priority.” In fact, there is an unwritten rule that you have two to three hours to respond to emails, or else.

Thank goodness for the “Do Not Disturb” feature on the iPhone. Otherwise, with the workaholic culture and constant notifications, no one would sleep through the night! But even with quiet hours at night, you have the compulsion to check it first thing when you wake up or are stricken with nomophobia—the panic you feel when you are separated from your mobile phone.

What do you do? How do you start to combat the impending burnout?

Yeah, yeah. Work out. Eat better. Sleep.

Easier said than done. There’s got to be something more helpful.

There is. Get a mentor.

Find a mentor already

While there’s no substitute for professional help, and lifeline operators are available 24 hours a day if you’re in a crisis (1-800-273-8255), sometimes you need a better work support system when you start feeling like you are drowning at work. You wouldn’t need to see professional help in every case if you had someone who understands exactly what you’re going through to talk to about it.

And, no, we’re not talking about an assigned mentor who is required to go to lunch with you on a quarterly basis. A real one. The kind you’re going to have to put in some effort on your end to build a relationship with. The kind that you can be yourself around and ask questions to candidly. Maybe a senior if you’re an associate? Unless you’re really lucky, you can’t be open or honest about what keeps you awake at night with an assigned mentor. Look outside the office, too. Go to networking events and state association meetings.

The goal is to make a genuine professional connection. A mentor should be more of a coach, friend, and cheerleader. Someone you’d call when you’re not sure what to do next or how to tackle a big problem. Oh, and they must be willing to tell you if you look like a complete idiot.

As with anything, you need to consciously allocate time to this relationship, even if your day is overbooked already. Schedule lunch (everyone has to eat). Carpool together. Spend a work break walking the stairs of the office building together for some cardio and a venting session. Get creative.

Oh, and try to befriend someone who isn’t in charge of writing your performance review—and you can bribe with coffee.

Image: Unsplash/NeONBRAND

The post You Won’t Need a Therapist if You Have a Mentor appeared first on Going Concern.

However, if you’re making a go of an accounting career, specifically as an auditor of public companies, there seem to be pitfalls all around you. It’s strange, though, because these pitfalls should be pretty easy to avoid. A few rules of thumb:

• Don’t share material, non-public information with outsiders;
• Don’t use confidential PCAOB information to help you plan for inspections;
• Don’t have intimate relationships with clients;
• Don’t audit when you’re not supposed to be auditing; and
• For the love of God, don’t improperly alter audit workpapers.

I mention that last one because the PCAOB issued a couple of disciplinary orders last week where auditors obviously couldn’t help themselves and went ahead and improperly changed audit workpapers. In each case, the person who did the improper altering was fired.

This is unfortunate because getting fired is not fun, but it’s especially unfortunate because it’s entirely avoidable! Here’s the order against Adam Sanderson, formerly of Deloitte UK:

Come on, man. Don’t do that!

Likewise, don’t do what Elliot Kim, formerly of KPMG, did:

Oh. Oh, no.

To make matters only slightly worse, “Kim did not correct Senior Manager B or otherwise disclose that the screenshot was inaccurate,” when PCAOB inspectors asked about it. The firm found out later that that was the case, and they fired Kim.

Both of these guys succumbed to the temptation to try to fix an error. But why? The PCAOB has already explained that not doing something is probably better than doing something:

The consequences of providing improperly altered audit documentation to PCAOB inspectors or investigators may in many cases be far more severe than would be the consequences of the PCAOB staff identifying the audit deficiency that the revisions to the documentation attempt to obscure.

I suppose it’s possible that in each of these instances, the impropriety may not have been discovered, the inspection result would have been slightly worse, and Sanderson and Kim would not have been fired. But why take the risk? It seems to be way less risky to accept the fact that a mistake in documentation was made, let the PCAOB discover it, add it to their list of infractions, and keep your job. Similarly, if they felt pressure from their superiors, it seems like any repercussions wouldn’t be as serious as getting fired. Sure, it might result in a lousy performance review, but chances are you were going to get a lousy performance review anyway.

Image: iStock/marchmeena29

The post Reminder: If You Improperly Alter Audit Workpapers and Are Found Out, You Will Be Fired appeared first on Going Concern.

Advancements in technology have enabled exciting career opportunities for individuals with an accounting background. As such, a natural course for CPAs who have spent their early years in a traditional firm is to explore the world of cloud accounting.

For accountants like Cecilia Gordillo, a career in cloud accounting has been life-changing. Cecilia began her career as an accountant at a traditional firm in Argentina. Fast forward to today: Cecilia is one of the founding partners of Flow CPA, a full-service CPA firm that operates entirely on the cloud. Cecilia and her founding partner, Natasha McLaren-Doerr, were honored as one of Hubdoc’s Top 50 Cloud Accountants of 2017, and Flow CPA recently received the Emerging Partner of the Year at the Xero Awards Americas.

With all of these accolades, it’s hard to believe that Cecilia and Natasha launched Flow CPA in January 2017. Since entering the exciting world of cloud accounting, Cecilia has been able to spend more time with her family, travel, and pursue her hobbies – all while operating her own firm and being her own boss.

Cecilia provided three key ways that a career in cloud accounting can change your life.

Cloud accounting enables greater flexibility

With the ability to connect with clients using tools like Slack and Zoom (not to mention the elimination of paper-based processes), cloud technology is enabling a greater degree of flexibility for accountants. Many accountants now have the ability to work remotely – some firms are even moving out of their office space.

“Last year, I was able to go to Argentina,” says Cecilia. “I work from home everyday because there’s no need to see my clients in person – there’s flexibility with video chats.”

If you’re looking for a career in which you can also pursue a passion project, travel, and start a family, joining a cloud accounting firm is one path to consider. “It’s not like you work less, but you can enjoy your lifestyle more,” says Cecilia.

A career in cloud accounting is an incredible learning experience

“Working at a Big 4 firm is a good learning opportunity, but each role there exists for a very specific task. You’re not exposed to the whole business cycle,” says Cecilia. At a cloud accounting firm that works with small business clients, you’ll have more insight into how businesses operate and how accountants provide value with advisory services.

Joining a cloud accounting firm also provides some degree of flexibility in your career trajectory. For example, as you learn how to use more cloud accounting apps, you’ll be able to gain experience managing technology as well as advising clients. In addition to offering more robust advisory services, many firms are also opening up opportunities for roles in technology operations to ensure their tech stack is functioning optimally. Cloud accounting can open up your career options from advisory to operations and everything in between.

Cloud accounting tech skills will future-proof your career

Accounting jobs are often listed as being the most at risk for being replaced by robots. While it’s true that automation is taking over a lot of administrative tasks, Cecilia argues that the role of an accountant isn’t going to disappear – it’s merely going to shift.

“In a few years, bookkeeping and record-keeping will all be done by technology and the role of firms will be to advise,” she says. “Working with cloud technology now will provide more job security and help to future-proof your career.”

So, how do you get hired at a cloud accounting firm and experience all these benefits? What if you’ve never worked with cloud accounting tools like QuickBooks Online, Xero, and Hubdoc before?

According to Cecilia, she (and many other cloud accounting firm owners) are less concerned about your prior experience working with certain tools, and more interested in your soft skills (i.e., your ability to talk to clients) and your willingness to learn.

“This industry is booming – everyone is hiring! If you’re interested in getting cloud accounting experience, just reach out and email your resume,” says Cecilia.

An exciting career in cloud accounting awaits you – what are you waiting for? Start your job search here.

Victoria is the Content Marketing Manager at Hubdoc. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto’s Semiotics and Communication Theory program and has 5+ years of experience in digital marketing. Follow her on Twitter – @victoriahoffman.

The post How a Career in Cloud Accounting Can Change Your Life appeared first on Going Concern.

Should CPAs run for office? According to this gushy post at the AICPA, the answer is a resounding: YAAAAS.

When you’re a CPA, you have a solid understanding of the many issues that power government: taxes, their assessment and collection and the rules that govern them; small business challenges and needs; financial literacy and responsibility; and myriad details of budgeting, responsible record keeping and the impacts of financial decisions.

CPAs’ expertise gives them a distinct advantage over other candidates, making them uniquely qualified to serve as thought leaders in government. As the country ponders the effects of the first major tax overhaul in more than 30 years, now more than ever, there’s a need for tax and fiscal expertise in our public servants. Who better to serve the community and protect the public interest than CPAs?

Oh, brother. Yes, CPAs understand taxes and spreadsheets and stuff, so that’s nice, but that does not equal MR. SMITH, CPA GOES TO WASHINGTON.

In case you haven’t noticed, the vast majority of the 535 people who make up the U.S. Congress don’t seem to care one iota about tax or fiscal expertise. They passed a sweeping, fiscally destructive tax law at breakneck speed, making parts of the system vastly more complicated that even the most knowledgeable CPAs are struggling to understand. Does any sane person think that a couple more CPAs in the House of Representatives preaching financial prudence will turn this whole thing around?

Not to mention the fact that “I’m a CPA and I’ll bring fiscal responsibility back to Washington” is a lousy platform to run on. The average American voter, while laughably gullible, is not falling for that shit anymore. If you’re a CPA and you want to run for national office, by all means, make this the theme of your campaign if you would like to lose.

Qualifications at the national level boil down to this:

1. Republican candidates should support Donald Trump.

2. Democratic candidates should oppose Donald Trump.

Now, if you are a CPA and you do fall into buckets 1 or 2, can vote how you’re told, and don’t mind grossly neglecting your family, you may have a future in national politics. Those are the essentials. Sure, your acute tax knowledge might fit nicely into arguments for either camp, but the parties already have the talking points figured out. Anything wonky will be overkill and a snoozefest.

CPAs who are serious about running for office should only consider it at the state or local level. This is where your fancy tax brains may actually come in handy and the dog and pony show is milder. Or, hey, here’s an idea — if you really want to perform a public service, go work for your local city, county, or state government. You won’t need to ask a single person to vote for you and your life won’t be ruined. If that doesn’t adequately satisfy your ego, however, then you’ll want to revisit points 1 and 2 above.

I’m glad we had this talk.

[AICPA]

Image: iStock/shironosov

The post Let’s Cool It With All the ‘CPAs Should Run for Office Because Taxes’ Talk appeared first on Going Concern.

Are you fantasizing about quitting your public accounting job?

It’s finally March. Busy season will start to wind down soon and those miserable hours will begin to taper off. You may catch yourself daydreaming about finding another job with more balance, less travel, and a higher salary. But, forcing you back to reality is that fact that even the thought of leaving makes you feel like your tumbling into an unknown abyss headfirst? Quitting a job is terrifying.

The doubts start circling like sharks in your mind:

• Am I making the right decision and is the timing right so I don’t burn any bridges?
• Will I regret it later that I didn’t stay longer? To senior? To manager? To — gasp — senior manager?
• Do I have enough experience to venture out without the public accounting safety net?

Relax. Asking questions is good. Being prepared before you make a big leap is also good. If you’re super stressed about it, check out this advice from controllers on how to make the leap from public accounting to industry. There is a lot to consider, of course. Quitting feels like failing in any job. The profession chews lots of people up and spits them back out; it has nothing to do with you.

When you’ve decided it’s time to take the plunge, here’s what to do:

Step 1: Giving notice

Keep it short, sweet, and vague. While writing a letter of resignation can be very therapeutic, don’t spill your guts out. Keep it professional. Something like this will do:

April 15, 20XX

Mr. Bill Lumbergh

XYZ Accounting Firm

1234 Independence Avenue

Anytown, NY 12345

 

Dear Mr. Lumbergh,

I am writing to notify you that I am resigning from my position as Senior Associate with XYZ Accounting Firm. My last day of employment will be April 30, 2018.

I have enjoyed all of the incredible opportunities I have experienced at XYZ Accounting Firm, as well as your mentorship and support. I have nothing but respect for this firm and our outstanding team.

I intend to assist with the transition and will work with all of my engagement teams to ensure transfer of duties is completed without difficulties.

Very respectfully,

Signature

Sticking around two weeks is standard. If you’re lower level staff, resist the urge to stay for a month or two to assist with the hand-off of clients and engagements duties. I promise, once you start winding down your engagements, you don’t want it to drag on forever.

Decide when it would be a good time to break the news. Don’t drop it on the team right before a big client meeting. That’s just rude. Be considerate. If you’re never in the office, and rarely see your manager, emailing your letter will do in a pinch. Of course, setting up a time in person is always better. Just be sure to send it with a read receipt, or it may drive you crazy wondering if your manager got it or not.

If you’re emailing the letter, be sure to print and sign the hard copy. A handwritten signature is always best.

Step 2: Your superior begs you to stay

Your superior has likely had training about what to say in these situations. Expect some bargaining. Maybe you just need some space and time off? Your manager will try to think of alternative ways (within their authority) to keep you at the firm. Don’t expect this to get you a big raise or anything crazy, however.

One thing that your supervisor is guaranteed to ask, one last time, is “Are you sure?” Be prepared to hold your ground if you’re serious about making the job change. Once your supervisor notifies HR, you’ll start the formal out-processing checklist and get a landslide of emails to make it official.

Step 3: Elation or sleepless nights

After you rip the band-aid off, you can feel many emotions: Pure elation; relief that you never have to step foot into your least favorite client’s office again. On the flip side, it can shift into fear and a feeling similar to buyers remorse. All those thoughts you had before you quit are not louder than ever (especially when you get ready to go to bed at night), namely “Was this a good decision?” and “Did I leave too early in my career and now it’s too late?”

Try to be helpful as you wrap things up, and leave the team member taking over for you lots of notes. It’s better to have a graceful departure than metaphorically setting a fire and walking away. Don’t forget to send out an email to your co-workers letting them know how to keep in touch. Your team may even have a going away lunch on your last day to send you off in style.

Step 4: Finding a new job

It’s always advisable to line up a new job before you hand in your notice, but it doesn’t always happen. That’s OK. I will say, however, having another job lined up will help combat the feeling you’ll be living in a cardboard box, unable to pay your student loans if you quit.

Either way, recruiters like working with people who are leaving public accounting (easy payday for them), so it’s relatively easy to assemble a team of them to help you. When your office phone rings with a cold call from one, don’t hang up right away. Ask them to send you an email. It can’t hurt to build some relationships (or at least get their contact information) before you’re ready to leave, so you know who to call when the timing is right.

Alternatively, go it alone and start searching the web yourself. As a good place to start, Accountingfly has some great remote accounting jobs available from full-time to freelance. The nice thing about freelancing is that you have the power to say “no,” if you need to take a month off to care for a loved one you can do that and jump right back into work when you’re done.

Step 5: What’s next?

We grilled 14 controllers on what they remember about their time in public accounting and all of them had positive things to say. I’m sure all of them did have “fond memories of their time in public accounting, and some envisioned they’d spend their entire careers there.” At least that’s what I would say too. No one wants to hear about your sour grapes… unless it’s anonymously on Reddit or in the GC comment section. All that to say, one day you will look back on your time in public and feel that same nostalgic appreciation, we promise. On your way out, remind yourself why you’re leaving but also of all the things you learned and people you met. You did good, kid.

Once you turn in your laptop and have your new job offer in hand, don’t forget to space out your last day at the old job and first day at the new job (if you can swing it financially). It’s the perfect time to take a vacation without worrying about someone from work interrupting your much needed time off. Enjoy a mojito for me and good luck! You’re gonna do great, I just know it.

Image: iStock/SeventyFour

The post A Field Guide to Quitting a Job in Public Accounting appeared first on Going Concern.

But why?

Surely if you factor in all of the international teams, we have plenty of people to do the work. Why are we still working ourselves ragged? The hours are terrible. The “set for life” reward of becoming a partner isn’t quite what it used to be. So then, why do we feel the need to burn the midnight oil even if we’re not paid overtime and not on the partner track?

Harvard Business Review ran a recent piece called “If You’re So Successful, Why Are You Still Working 70 Hours a Week?” The research suggests that:

Our tendency to overwork and burnout is framed by a complex combination of factors involving our profession, our organization, and ourselves. At the heart of it is insecurity.

Insecurity. Interesting. Going Concern first covered this in ANR and reported that:

Laura Empson writes that after performing 500 interviews, she concludes that, “A professional’s insecurity is rooted in the inherent intangibility of knowledge work,” and these insecure overachievers, “still believe that they have autonomy and that they are overworking by choice.” Sound like anyone (or everyone) you know?

It made me think of when I wrote about imposter syndrome in public accounting back in 2016:

Public accounting culture is a prime environment for young professionals to feel impostor syndrome. High turnover cultivates a “sink or swim” culture. The profession is full of recent grads with little to no prior work experience. It is a recipe for unease.

Maybe that is the underlying thread. Feeling inadequate and insecure, we work harder to keep up with our peers. Freshly hired associates all start on the same day, and maybe that’s not only because it’s more convenient for training. Just maybe it also encourages competition and a keep up with the Jones’ mentality. The HBR article says:

They [professionals in the study] do not talk honestly to their colleagues about their problems, thus perpetuating the myth of the invincible professional, which encourages their colleagues to feel inadequate in turn. If they suffer burnout, they think it is their fault. Their organization and its leadership are absolved of responsibility, so nothing fundamental changes.

The advice the author offers is all right, but not very practical:

Work exceptionally long hours when you need to or want to, but do so consciously, for specified time periods, and to achieve specific goals. Don’t let it become a habit because you have forgotten how to work or live any other way.

I remember a friend at training once suggested managing expectations by not working as fast as possible to get something done. If you take your time when a manager gives you a project, you don’t set a precedent and need to work that fast every day. You’re billed by the hour after all.

It’s too bad the culture of public accounting forces this behavior. The tendency for eating hours and over and underbilling is something we’ve talked about before, and it’s not likely to change overnight.

The problem is, as researcher Laura Empson puts it, you think it’s your fault for not being able to keep up. You feel like quitting is failing and because you’d be washing out of a prestigious profession. Well, until you realize it’s not just you. It’s the work ’till you drop culture celebrating how little sleep you got last night. The performance metrics that encourage skipping lunch so you don’t have to stay late to get your billable hours in for the day.

You know burnout is about to claim another victim when a co-worker quits, and you start eyeing the door. And unfortunately, the system isn’t changing anytime soon since there’s no incentive to improve it. There are plenty of hungry new hires, and the legal system doesn’t think overtime is appropriate, according to a CPA Journal article from December:

Attempts to seek compensation through class action lawsuits do not seem to be prevailing on the basis that staff accountant duties are free from discretion and routine in nature. If firms continue to prevail in these class actions, it seems unlikely that they will be forced to reevaluate their compensation plans and staffing model.

So that’s it. Grin and bear it, or get out. But remember if you’re feeling burnt out, that’s normal. Just don’t ask your coworkers if they’re sick of the rat race, especially after their third caffeinated beverage.

Image: Photo by Andrea Tummons on Unsplash

The post Insecure Overachievers Will Always Have a Place in Public Accounting appeared first on Going Concern.

There’s an accountant in your life. He or she may be a relative, acquaintance, or someone who foolishly answered your terrible icebreaker “So, what do you do for a living?” honestly.

It dawned on you that tax season will soon be upon us. You have probably received documentation informing you that a precise amount of income has been reported to the IRS. You may be remembering, just now actually, that you haven’t filed a tax return in three years. No, four. No, no, no. Five years. Yes, that’s it. You meant well; things just get overlooked; you were busy.

You have a duty to file a tax return, perhaps several, as it happens, and you could really use some help. You may be thinking, “Maybe this accountant would be willing to guide me on this important and perilous journey. They’re an accountant, a CPA as I recall, don’t they have a duty to help taxpayers in need? I am a taxpayer in need. They would probably love to help me.”

I’m sorry to have to break this to you, friend, but this accountant does not want to help you prepare your tax return. For starters, he or she may not even prepare tax returns. I know this runs contrary to your feeble understanding of what an accountant is or does, but it’s true, some accountants do not prepare tax returns. Not even their own! Yes, it’s true.

In fact, most accountants would rather do a number of other terrible things other than your tax return, including:

1. Give up coffee.
2. Spend all of busy season using a dial-up Internet connection
3. Quit using Excel
4. Quit using acronyms
5. Fill out their timesheet
6. Fill out their co-worker’s timesheet
7. Eat one hour for every hour worked
8. Sit for the CPA exam again
9. Work at H&R Block
10. Work at KPMG

You are not an accountant, and therefore may not understand why some of these tasks or sacrifices are so awful, but I assure you, any accountant worth their salt understands. I invite you to share this list with your accountant friend or perfect stranger and see how they react. I think you’ll find that he or she will agree that everything on this list is preferable to dealing with your stupid-ass tax return.

“Now, wait,” you might be saying, “I know a great guy who DOES prepare tax returns and he’s helped me out in the past.” Let me break something to you: He hates you, pal. You’re wasting his time. Do him and everyone else a favor and take your shoebox full of receipts to the Statue of Liberty doing acrobats down the street.

So, to all of you thinking about approaching that accountant. Don’t. Leave that accountant alone. They’re busy. They’re tired. But Godspeed on your quest to find someone to deal with your tax return. Truly.

Actually, no. Hopefully, the IRS kicks down your door and drags you off in the middle of the night.

Sincerely,

A guy who knows that most accountants are too nice to say anything

Image: iStock/Malkovstock

The post An Open Letter to Anyone Thinking of Asking the Accountant in Their Life for Help on a Tax Return appeared first on Going Concern.

Yes, a tax accounting job can be fun

Even for those of you who get legitimately excited about tax accounting, we know the business can be a bit of a drag. That’s why picking the right firm is so vital—and we’ve found one that makes the process fun and rewarding.

If you’re looking to join a San Diego-based tax firm, you may have found your new home—because Gatto, Pope & Walwick is hiring now.

Different clients, different challenges

GPW keeps tax accounting interesting by taking on a wide variety of clients across a number of different industries. That means you’ll encounter a variety of tax issues you might not at other firms, keeping the work interesting and challenging.

“You will never get bored working here. There’s always something new to learn,” says Brent Gastineau, Tax Partner.

Rocket to the top of your accounting career

GPW also provides a clear career trajectory for every employee. They give each worker a voice, regardless of seniority, placing every team member in an action group that helps advance initiatives and solve critical problems for the firm.

“You don’t have to work here 20, 30 years to make partner,” says Barnes, Tax Manager. “As long as you put in the hard work the managers really do a good job of rewarding us.”

Tax Accounting with a Conscience

And if you’re looking for a firm that places importance on giving back to the community, you’ve found it.

“We hand out meals, package meals for kids, clean up the beaches,” says Brad Gastineau (Brent’s twin brother), Tax Partner. “We have lots of team activities that make us feel like a family when we’re back in the office.”

Work/life balance? Opportunities for growth? An environment that makes tax accounting fun and challenging? GPW checks all the boxes.

Open Positions at Gatto, Pope & Walwick (GPW)

Drop off your resume for a future open position here.

The post Why Working at San Diego-Based Gatto, Pope & Walwick Is a No-Brainer appeared first on Going Concern.

FloQast is a startup in the conventional sense, and they’re growing rapidly. They just raised $25 million in series B funding, and they’re looking to share some of that collateral with qualified new recruits like you. (You can read more about their partnership with Going Concern here.)

Watch the video below to learn more about FloQast and why it’s a great place to work. Then scroll down to see current job openings.

Your clients will love you

If you’ve done time in public accounting, you know client service is a big part of the job. FloQast is no different, but with a notable exception: clients love to hear from them, because their software makes customers’ lives easier.

Technology with accounting its heart

FloQast is a private company, but one perhaps like no other—accounting is at the center of everything they do, and a knowledge and enthusiasm for accounting permeate every department, from sales to software development.

And like we said, they’re growing like mad. They’ve already landed a number of high profile clients, including Indeed, Zillow, GrubHub, and the Golden State Warriors.

The best accounting jobs in technology

FloQast employees are passionate about their product, accounting, and each other. If you’re looking for a fun working environment with a startup feel and enterprise resources, it might be the place for you.

A better way to close the books

Interested in exactly what FloQast’s software does? In brief: it makes closing the books faster and easier for accountants.

The application enables customers to close books faster with a streamlined accounting team process. They can eliminate manual ticking and tying with automated tie-outs. And they’ll hit deadlines with fewer snags and less micromanagement.

FloQast jobs open now

The post Love Technology & Accounting? This Company Wants to Hire You. appeared first on Going Concern.

I think most people fall into one of two camps when it comes to office politics. There are those people who think it shouldn’t matter much when it comes to getting ahead. And then there are those people who think that it’s the only thing that matters when it comes to getting ahead.

As usual, the truth is probably somewhere in between those two poles. Those who believe in the pure meritocracy are deluding themselves. And the group of people who think only the Machiavellis of the world get promoted will eventually trip up on one thing or another.  

Early in my career, I thought my smarts, hard work, and collaboration would propel me forward in my public accounting career. I wanted to rise above political BS and get ahead based on merits. It’s not that I didn’t socialize or try to build relationships with people, it just wasn’t a big priority to me. My work would speak for itself, and I’d get recognized for it.

I’m thinking about all this because I read this Harvard Business Review article on the topic. This is a good passage:

“Everyone can see how hard I’m working,” we tell ourselves, or “Everyone knows how good my work is. All you have to do is look at the results.” Believing in a just world feels good. […] “I didn’t want to play office politics or be perceived as a brown-noser, self-promoter, or someone who rose because she was buddies with so-and-so. I was always told that the cream would naturally rise to the top.”

A few years after I left accounting, I had a Big 4 executive tell me that politics didn’t matter, that the best people always find their way to the top. I reacted incredulously, and even today I don’t think that’s altogether true, but I do believe that how people build relationships and communicate has a lot to do with getting ahead. I wish I would’ve learned that sooner.

My attitude — that politics didn’t matter and those who played the game were slimy, disingenuous phony baloneys — was probably one of the biggest mistakes I made in my public accounting career. I thought politics meant brown-nosing and playing games to earn undeserved recognition and favor, but really it’s about communicating with the right people in the right way. It means communicating effectively with people that you might not like or who you find repulsive. It means learning how to manage up. It means getting way outside of your comfort zone sometimes. These are all hard things to learn! And that’s probably why so many people dismiss “politics” — it doesn’t feel like it should matter but in reality, it matters a lot. Better get used to it.

The post How to Get Ahead: Embrace Office Politics appeared first on Going Concern.

But, having more choices does not equal greater happiness. In fact, I argue that too many choices make you less happy and more overwhelmed. I remember when I started looking for jobs after I left public accounting, recruiters bombarded me. I was dumbstruck that so many people were looking for CPAs. I know, it doesn’t seem like it’d be a bad predicament to have, until you live it, and have to go to all the interviews and try to decide what to do with your life.

Even within public accounting, the options are daunting. Once you start to question if public is right for you — usually midway through your first busy season — the floodgates of indecisiveness open. Do you stick with audit, tax, or advisory? What about random subcategories like risk consulting or mergers and acquisitions? If you transfer departments, will your life get better? Will you enjoy going to work more?

There’s some evidence to support that choice overload is a legit problem. In one study, shoppers were judged on whether they purchased jam more often when there were 6 or 24 jam options. Here’s what happened:

At times, the display showed 24 varieties. At others, it included only six. Iyengar found that, yes, 60 percent of customers found themselves pulled to the large display while only 40 percent stopped at the small one. But with 24 possible options, consumers questioned themselves and only 3% made a jam purchase. At the small display, nearly a third of consumers who stopped by bought a jar of jam.

Psychology Today cast some doubt on the concept of choice overload, pointing out the flaws in the research. Regardless, I think we’re onto something here. My “first job after college” hunt got a lot easier when I decided to go all-in with public accounting recruiting and eliminated industry roles right out of the gate. I even remember getting the advice to narrow the list of firms down to three or four, and then apply to only those firms. That way, when offers come around, it’s less intimidating to make a choice. (Of course, that assumes you get more than one offer, so take that advice with a grain of salt.)

Bottom line, all this choice leads to a bunch of restless accountants, ready to job-hop for a raise and better work-life balance (the unicorn that it is). So is the grass greener on the other side? And which pasture do you choose if there are 10? Or 20? Or 30? Who knows! But happy hunting. And may the odds be ever in your favor.

Image: Photo by Letizia Bordoni on Unsplash

The post Accountants Suffer from Choice Overload appeared first on Going Concern.

His advice is rooted in his experience as both a father of three and a former president of Midland University, where he was taken aback by a culture of passivity.

He was particularly unnerved, he writes, when some students from the athletic department were tasked with setting up and decorating a 20-foot Christmas tree in the lobby of the basketball arena. The students only decorated the bottom seven or eight feet — the branches they could easily reach. No one bothered to look for a ladder.

“I simply couldn’t reconcile the decision to leave while the work was still incomplete with how my parents had taught me to think about assignments,” Sasse writes. “I couldn’t conceptualize growing up without the compulsion — first external compulsion, but over time, the more important internal and self-directed kind of compulsion — to attempt and to finish hard things, even when I didn’t want to.”

I don’t believe for a minute that no one in the group realized they needed a ladder to get to the top. Someone must have had the necessary critical thinking skills. Maybe they were just tired of the project?

The truth is that there always have been, are and will be different generations—different viewpoints and ways of doing things—in the workplace. One of the reasons there’s so much noise about millennials is that they’re such a large cohort. Another is that there was less change between the baby boomers and Gen X than between those generations and the millennials. The Internet and all that came with it accelerated the pace of change to the point that many of us can’t even remember when we didn’t have a smartphone or when formal dress was correct for any business meeting. Of course things changed. And Gen Z will bring even more changes.

Whatever happens, though, everyone needs their own ladder, their own way of getting help. As you progress in your career, who are the people who will help you climb higher?  Who are you networking with so you can get the right help when you need it?

No one person can be your ladder for everything. Most of us need someone we can rely on for technical advice, another for soft skills, a third for dealing with difficult situations, and so forth. Some of these people are likely to be from older generations and others from younger ones. That’s not important. We all can learn from each other. The important thing is creating a ladder that works for you. One that doesn’t have any missing steps.

The post While Climbing the Career Ladder, Know When Steps Are Missing appeared first on Going Concern.

Let’s get something straight: I hate networking. I suck at small talk. The idea of “working a room” makes me wanna hurl. The word “schmoozing” disgusts me and you will never hear me utter it. The whole concept of being in a large room filled with people for the expressed purpose of meeting other people makes me incredibly uncomfortable. If you are my friend and we are together, we will have distress signals for bad conversations, and you better be paying attention at all times. If you know someone and don’t bother to introduce me, I will kick you in the shins. Have I mentioned that I hate networking?

Early in my career, I refused to network and resented people who made it look easy. I would try to loosen up with a drink or two, but in those days, I really liked to overdo it and that turned into drunk blathering rather than meaningful conversation. That’s not good for anybody.

My attitude about networking started to change when I was thrown into situations where I had to meet people. Early into my blogging career, I ended up at conferences where I’d been tasked to meet potential advertisers. This is hard! Walking up to a perfect stranger to strike up a conversation is awkward. But then I thought, that’s what these people are doing, waiting to be talked to! Naturally, I was very bad at this at first, but like anything, the more people I talked to, the easier it became. After a couple of years, I discovered that I didn’t have to go out of my way to talk anyone if I didn’t want to; I always ended up meeting new people anyway.

These days, I look forward to events. Don’t get me wrong, I still hate networking, but in a bizarre twist, I enjoy it, too. I think it’s the serendipity of it. Like, I have no idea who I’m going to meet, and that’s kinda exciting. Sometimes I meet cool people and other times I meet boring people, but the latter are increasingly rare.

The other thing I learned is that if I’m at an event and I don’t meet anyone new or interesting, it’s not a big deal. I think lots of people put tons of pressure on themselves to pick up X number of business cards or some other arbitrary measure. Relax! Have a drink, but not more than two. Laugh at someone’s bad joke. Tell a bad joke. People will laugh! If you don’t know any, learn some. Get better at small talk. Lots of times it can lead to medium talk. Be honest and awkward without being creepy. Creepy is never good.

For example, the easiest way to break the ice with someone is to flat out tell them, “I’m bad at networking,” or “I hate these things,” chances are, they’ll probably tell you that they are too and then you’ll be bad at networking together! Except you just met someone new, dummy, and now you’re a little better at networking.

I guess what I’m saying is, just try, you’ll figure it out somehow. Whatever works.

The post How to Get Ahead: Whatever It Takes, Learn to Network appeared first on Going Concern.

It’s easy to get lost in your day-to-day obligations and not take the time to think about what you’re missing. I touched on that a bit in my recent blog about goal setting, but here’s a checklist of five questions that will help you expand on the concept. This list isn’t meant to be definitive; it’s meant as a start point for thinking about what you want from your job and your career:

How would you feel if you had to report to a different manager?
It’s not unusual. You report to someone who gets you and your quirks. You’re loving life. Then there’s an organizational shift or that person leaves and suddenly you have a new manager, and that person may work differently than you’re used to. Maybe he/she is a micromanager and that isn’t something you’re comfortable with. Perhaps the person is less open to delegating, which may lessen your opportunities to learn and grow.

Are you feeling vulnerable in any way?
It’s a given that a lot of firms hire extra help to get them through tax season. Some of those people are pretty good at their jobs. Did you feel, even for a moment, that you might be replaced by one of them? If you did, it’s time to take a moment to think where these feelings came from. Were they were amorphous feelings prompted by being unsettled by layoffs in general? Did they come from a gut feeling that things aren’t going right for you? Something else?

Are you getting the training opportunities you want?
Most firms provide technical training to their staff. Soft skills and leadership training are different. Often, these trainings are reserved for rising stars. Others might get some minimal training, but not the whole enchilada. Are you satisfied with where you stand?

Do you want to change your specialty?
Suppose your firm/company is short-staffed and you’re assigned work you don’t normally do. Then, surprise, you like it and want to do more in that area. Is there a way for you to do that or are you forever in the group you started with? This is something to really focus on, especially since employee retention is such a big part of what business leaders are worried about these days.

Does the feel of the firm align with you?
Firm/company culture starts at the top and works its way down. It makes no difference what the vision or mission statement says: it’s your daily experience that counts. Gossip is a good example of this. Is that the way firm news—good or bad—is shared, or does it come directly from the C-suite? Is that an okay atmosphere for you or does it make you feel disconnected?

There are a million scenarios and exponentially more ways to think about them, but the core issues remain the same: How are you affected and what do you want to do about it?

The post Ask Yourself These Questions to See If You’re Really in the Right Job appeared first on Going Concern.

As exciting as this time of year is, it’s anti-climatic since promotions in public accounting are very prescribed and follow a consistent timeline:

1. You must work at the firm X number of years (typically 3) to get promoted from associate/staff to senior.

2. You must trudge it out another X number of years and be rewarded with a promotion to manager.

3. And so on until partner.

Some firms say they offer early promotion. I never saw it happen in my time in public accounting. Never. Especially not for a campus hire. No manager wants to set that precedent and have a single lucky first-year staff leapfrogging another staff to senior for fear of discord within the ranks.

Sure, experienced hires might be promoted without waiting for the normal time to elapse. But again, I never saw it.

Mix that with a high turnover rate and — the result — you see auditors and other advisory/attestation professionals who perform the role without the title (or the commensurate salary). Since I didn’t deal with tax teams very often, I’m not sure if their promotion cycles line up the same way, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

For example, it’s common to see lower level staff auditors listed as the “in-charge” staff. This auditor has to take on the role of a senior without the official title to jazz up their resume. It’s already a thankless job to be a senior, even with a title. No one really wants to be stuck being the main point of contact for the client, to lead the status meetings, or to have to review workpapers from the global resources (aka the outsourced client work). It’s much easier to just show up and color with your red pen.

Am I the only one who thinks this is ridiculous?

Many people think titles, especially without an increase in pay, don’t mean anything. I disagree.

Do job titles really matter?

The short answer is yes. Why is everyone telling you to stick around until senior or manager before quitting? Lifehacker has some sage advice:

Your title only makes a significant difference when distinguishing a regular employee from a manager and when you leave your job and have to stick it on your resume.

In public accounting, most people are varying stages of getting ready to jump ship. If you haven’t thought about it yet, you will. So, which title you have when you leave public accounting matters and hiring managers will judge your dedication — and ability to endure busy seasons — by looking at that title. It may not be fair, but it’s a fact.

Fine, you commit yourself to staying until [insert job title here] before you kiss busy season goodbye and look for greener pastures. One problem, firms figured this out too and are capitalizing on it.

Performance review season retention gimmick

Dangling the promotion — i.e. announcing over the Summer but not actually awarding it until the Fall — is one of the Big 4 firms’ sneaky retention tactics. I recall that my performance at KPMG was measured from my start date in September through sometime in April. My performance review took place in July and promotions were announced. Any titles and raises were not doled out until the new fiscal year on October 1.

All “soon-to-be-promoted” auditors end up working above their title for the next couple of months until they are actually promoted, and their pay caught up. My beef: the job duties and responsibilities don’t transition abruptly as the end of the fiscal year, so you’re stuck doing higher level work for less money and no title.

Plus, the performance from May 1 – September 30 of the current year didn’t get acknowledged until the following year. Theoretically, if I did “outstanding” work on an audit in June 2017, it wouldn’t factor into a promotion until October 2018. It’s really hard to be a “high performer” and be eligible for larger percentage increases in base pay with that type of lag.

Again, am I the only one who thinks this is bogus? And, do you think the title you resign with matters when you leave public? Discuss.

Image: iStock/AndreyPopov

The post Promotion Games: When Your Responsibilities Don’t Match Your Title appeared first on Going Concern.

Two of my favorite people, twins, a boy and a girl, graduated from college this spring. Lauren is graduating from Michigan State and Andrew from Indiana. I had no idea what to get them as graduation gifts. After a lot of thought, I settled on books. As I reread the blurb of a book I chose for Lauren, Noelle Hancock’s My Year With Eleanor, the quote from Eleanor Roosevelt on which the book revolves resonated:

“Do one thing every day that scares you.”

Think about that regarding your career and your future. Especially if you’re starting a new job. Whether it’s your first job or you are switching positions, everything is scary until you learn the job’s rhythms and routines. Even figuring out what to wear on your first day can bring on anxiety.

Scare yourself by being yourself

One of the things you may be thinking about is how you’ll be perceived. Introverted? You may worry that others will think you’re aloof or disinterested even though that’s not at all the case. Extroverted? You may be concerned that others will think of you as too brash or a know-it-all.

It can all be scary and overwhelming. So maybe you tackle your new position one “fear” at a time. What to wear? Look at the career section of the firm’s/company’s website. If there are actual photos rather than stock art, you can get an idea of whether you’ll be at a suit-and-tie firm or a laid-back wear-what-meets-the-day’s-agenda company.

Scare yourself by asking questions

If you’re worried about how you’ll be perceived, step back a bit at the beginning. Talk to one person at a time until you feel more comfortable. Look around and assess whether this is a company that encourages people to ask questions and speak up or one that expects conformity. Then, either way, conquer your fear, raise your hand and say what’s on your mind. Chances are others had the same question or a similar suggestion. It’s quite freeing. And it helps you create a positive personal brand that others will recognize.

Scare yourself by being vulnerable

Concerned you’re working too slowly? It may be that you’re having a hard time grasping a particular concept, but it’s equally possible that the person teaching you isn’t connecting with the way you learn. Sometimes, using different words to explain the same thing is enough. Talk to yourself. Restate what you’re doing in your own words. Say it out loud. That may be enough to help you to discover where you’re going wrong. If not, tell your supervisor (aka your teacher) the steps you’re following. Conquer your fear of looking stupid in front of others. Everyone has times where they struggle to understand something.

The one caveat here is this: be tactful and thoughtful. Don’t get defensive and confrontational. It’s your career and your future.

The post How to Get Ahead: Scare Yourself Regularly appeared first on Going Concern.

It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day of life. Stopping to think about the bigger picture is put aside in the crunch of doing work and attending to other obligations. But you may not be doing yourself any favors. After all, who wants to wake up after spending five years at their job and realize they haven’t learned much since the day they started? That’s what happens to far too many of us.

There are ways to make sure you aren’t in that position. Take that step back, look at where you are and set goals and benchmarks to make sure you’re headed where you want to go.

These three questions will help you focus on what you need to do to fulfill your career goals:

1. Do you go to work smiling every day or do you dread going into the office on Monday morning?

Pat yourself on the back if you’re smiling. It means you’ve found a fit that works with your goals and ambitions. If you’re experiencing Sunday Night Blues, it’s time to examine what about your working is causing the dread and see what you can change about it.

2. When was your last promotion? Are you at the level you expected or were you left behind? Are you still working with the people you were hired with, or have they moved on?

Think about whether you’re listening to the verbal and nonverbal clues your colleagues and managers are giving. If it seems you’re being passed over, take a moment to think about why. Ask for a meeting with your manager or your mentor to talk about the reasons.

3. Are you being trained in the technical and soft skills you need to achieve your career goals?

Whether you want to make it to partner ranks, the C-suite or nothing close to either of those, training is key to the next step in your career.

These questions are a starting point. As you answer them, you’ll think about other things that have happened and will impact your future.

Your next step is deciding what the answers mean and using them to set goals. Perhaps you discover your technical expertise is lacking. A good goal would be to ask for advice on bringing them up to speed. That will serve you well even if you ultimately decide to move on to another company or firm.

Maybe you find out your firm has “quotas” for promotion because they keep an informal ratio of the number of managers to staff. Maybe you decide that’s not a cultural norm you can support. Your goal might be to move on to a new position.

Setting goals is a good thing, but it requires some time to be in your own head. Think about where you want to go, and then figure out how to get there.

The post Good Goal Setting Takes Introspection appeared first on Going Concern.

Afterward, we think of all the different ways we would have handled the situation better to make the company/department/team improve. The worst part about it is that the majority of the time, all of these great ideas stay in our minds. Why is that exactly?

Here are a few common thoughts that many people have:

• I am not experienced enough.
• People will think that my idea is terrible.
• It’s not part of my job description.
• I’m too busy.
• Who would I even talk to about this anyway?

Here’s the problem. When we talk ourselves out of saying or doing anything, everything stays the same. Over time, you end up feeling frustrated because nothing ever changes. This leads to burnout and feeling disengaged, which happens a lot, since 67% of U.S. employees say they aren’t engaged at work. Plus, your company missed out on a potentially great idea that you had. It’s lose-lose.

Many firms are catching on to the fact that millennials want a voice at all levels. In my opinion, this cannot happen fast enough. Whether it means having a flat hierarchy or believing that good ideas can come from anyone, the firm of the future looks and acts different. Not only is having a culture that is open to all ideas effective for employee retention and engagement but it is essential to building an innovative firm. During this period of technological expansion, accounting firms must revolutionize the way they do things. It’s that simple. So why not get ideas from everyone?

Maybe you want to help your firm go paperless, develop a staff training, streamline a compliance process, or organize a focus group to provide a way for all employees to contribute ideas. The opportunities are endless. By seeing the potential for improvement and speaking up, your company could benefit in all sorts of ways.

I know what you are thinking. “Ok, that’s great. But how does it benefit me? I work enough already.” For starters, it’s a great addition to your resume. But more importantly, you spend a lot of time at work. By improving your firm, it will help you feel happier, more satisfied, more productive, more impactful, more purposeful…the list goes on. It’s that whole “Be the change you want to see in world” thing.

What do you want to see changed at your firm? Speak up! The future of the accounting industry depends on it.

The post How to Get Ahead: Speak Up When You Want Something to Change appeared first on Going Concern.

First, narrow down what you want to do next by answering these four basic questions:

What kind of work do you want to do?

Stay in public accounting, but at a firm that is:

• larger and you’re taking on a new role or service area
• smaller but you have a clear career path
• the same size, you just need a change of scenery

Maybe you’re ready to go into private industry, such as:

• a big, public company
• a mid-sized company that’s becoming mature
• a startup that’s just getting off the ground

And you may even want to focus on:

• climbing the ladder in a familiar industry to keep
• starting fresh in a new industry
• working in government or nonprofit to serve the public or a particular group

Where do you want to work?

• Maybe it’s time for you to relocate.
• Or you just putting some roots down.
• 100% remote—work from home or anywhere you like.

Should you be full-time, part-time or temp?

• Full time — What else do you have going on?
• Part-time — I have some side projects, so I don’t want to be tied down.
• Temporary — You ready to go indie and work when and how you want.

What’s the scope of your search?

• Keep your search confidential
• Put it all out there

Whatever your goal, answering these questions is the first step in forming a plan that will put you on the right path toward achieving it.

The next step is planning how you are going to find the best opportunity for you. There are a number of ways to look for a new employer, including:

Networking

Networking is the ideal place to start. According to a recent article in U.S. News and World Report, referred candidates are more likely to get hired, perform better and last longer in jobs.

If you expect to stay in public accounting, check out the online career section at firms you are interested in. Then, make a list of the people you know at these firms and connect with them on social media. Choose one or two and ask to meet with them.

Explain what you’re looking for in a new position and ask whether there is anything available at their firm. When you meet with them, be sure to bring a copy of your latest resume. Afterward, yes, send a personal note thanking them for their time. And don’t forget to follow up often enough so they know you are still interested but not often enough for them to think you’re a pest.

Networking can be effective if you are looking in private industry or government, too. The main difference is who you are reaching out to.

Online resources: social media and online job sites

Online search has completely changed the nature of job searches. According to a 2015 Pew study, the Internet is a top resource for most of today’s job hunters. The study reports that 79% utilized online resources in their most recent job search and 34% say these online resources were the most important tool available to them.

Available jobs are listed on most employers’ websites. Many allow you to apply immediately, and some give you the option of being notified when a new listing matching your skills and experience comes up.

There also are many online recruiters where you can post your resume or apply for a job. They range from more generic job sites like Monster to and Indeed to niche sites like — promo alert — Accountingfly. All of these sites allow users to apply filters that narrow their search and most allow for confidentiality.

In addition, social media has become an important way for job seekers of all ages and levels of experience to research opportunities, as you can see in the following graphic.

Pay attention to the date the job was listed. Sometimes postings stay on line long after the position is filled. If there is a contact name in the posting, a good way to respond to an old listing is sending a short note simply asking whether the job is available and stating your credentials. You may be pleasantly surprised with the result.

Temporary jobs

Temporary jobs can be attractive, especially if you’re looking for your first job, unsure about whether to relocate or want to try a new type of job. Temporary work allows you to test whether your goals are workable for you in the real world.

Online recruiters often have “temporary” as one of their filters. Alternatively, there are a number of temporary staffing agencies specializing in accounting and finance.

Tax season is prime time for finding temporary jobs. If tax is not your thing, though, there is year-round all kinds of specialties. Using a temp position to show off your technical and critical thinking skills can lead to a full-time position.

Recruiters

Enlisting a recruiter to help with your job search is yet another option. If this is one of the tactics you plan to use, find one that specializes in accounting in your target industry — from public accounting to craft beer — and location. Also, be aware that recruiters sometimes have strong relationships with particular firms, but not necessarily all of the firms or companies you might consider.

Your job search plan may incorporate a number of alternative sources. The most important thing is having a plan at all. Be clear about whether you want your search to be confidential. Most online sources have a way of maintaining your anonymity and trustworthy contacts and recruiters will respect your wishes. It is up to you to let them know that is what you want.

The post What’s Your Job Search Plan? appeared first on Going Concern.

Included in the spontaneous text were an urgent deadline 48 hours away (“They have to leave Tuesday OR ELSE”) and some long sob story that far exceeded the 160 character limit of a normal text message.

Without even thinking about it, my involuntary reaction was to tap out “I’m sorry but…” Here I was being asked for a huge favor — finding a place to put two cats who are someone else’s responsibility on a moment’s notice isn’t easy, even for veteran cat ladies such as myself — and then apologizing for the fact that I couldn’t drop everything and take this on. What the hell is wrong with me?

Many years ago, someone older and wiser than me gave me a piece of advice I’d like to pass along to you: Stop being sorry for everything.

The issue of apologizing for things that you really don’t feel sorry for is particularly common in women (but men do it too), and I’ll spare you the pathetic hand-wringing over why that might be. Perhaps we’re afraid to be assertive. Perhaps we really do feel sorry more than men due to our squishy pink brains. Who knows, but we do know it’s a problem. In fact, there’s even a Chrome plug-in to help you eliminate phrases that “undermine” your message.

A Fast Company article from 2014 addresses why all this being sorry is so bad for the apologee:

Apologizing unnecessarily puts women in a subservient position and makes people lose respect for them, says executive coach and radio host Bonnie Marcus. Sylvia Ann Hewlett, founder of the Manhattan-based think tank, Center for Talent Innovation and author of Executive Presence: The Missing Link Between Talent and Success, says using “sorry” frequently undermines our gravitas and makes them appear unfit for leadership.

In other words, saying you’re sorry makes you appear pathetic. I’m sorry, but that seems only a tad extreme. Oops, I just did it, sorry.

The problem is so bad there are even articles about how you should feel bad for telling women to stop saying they are sorry. That’s right, you better tell them you’re sorry for policing their communication, you sorry bastard.

The Fast Co. article continues:

Marcus suggests keeping a log of when you “sorry,” what the situation was, and how you felt. Sometimes, “sorry” is just a verbal tic, but some usage patterns may indicate a situation or person who makes you feel insecure, she says. Being aware of those triggers and how they influence your language can help you be more vigilant in “changing your communication so you’re coming from a position of strength and equality,” she says.

Trusted friends can help you break the habit by quietly letting you know when you’re using “sorry” inappropriately, Cramer says. Knowing that you’re under another’s watchful eye is also going to make you more aware of your speech, she says.

Can we be real here? If the goal is to be more confident and less wishy-washy in your communication, I’m not entirely sure asking someone to call you out for no-no words is the way to go about it. Then again, we all know women are completely incapable of even visiting the bathroom without the assistance of their friends, so it makes sense that someone would recommend they lean on friends to tell them to knock it off with the sorrys.

There is something to be said for a little self-reflection here. If you say “sorry” 20 times a day, it’s highly unlikely you mean sorry in its dictionary form. You can be sorry if you were running late and made your kids wait 20 minutes after school to be picked up, you shouldn’t be sorry if a colleague asks you the status on a project that isn’t due for a week and you haven’t finished yet. You can be sorry for failing to deliver on a promise you made, you shouldn’t be sorry for asking the barista at Starbucks to fix the latte they screwed up.

As for those cats I was expected to find a foster home for at the last minute? I gave the owner some resources and suggested if that doesn’t work, she should surrender them to the animal shelter and hope for the best. I never did hear back.

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1073881myguitarzz/Wikimedia Commons

The post How to Get Ahead: Sorry Not Sorry appeared first on Going Concern.

So it’s a good time to assess what you learned. Doing that can give you a picture of how your firm managed the stress of filing season—and, more importantly, how you did.

Here’s a checklist of nine things that will help you measure what busy season taught you and how you can use the information to further your career.

Busy Season Assessment

• Training. Were you given adequate training, if it was needed so that you could work as effectively and efficiently as possible? If you were struggling, were you able to ask questions?
• IT support. Were issues resolved quickly? If not, did you have to take matters into your own hands? How did that work?
• Exposure to clients. Did you have the opportunity to meet with clients, or were you mostly in the background? If it was your first busy season, keep in mind that you can learn from even the most mundane tasks.
• Data mining. Were you able to learn from clients’ data? Are there opportunities for initiative? How does that change how you look at your assignments?
• Overall “firm feel.” What was the atmosphere like at the firm? Were you able to take the time you needed to handle personal or family business during busy season? Did the firm do things to make your life easier, like bringing in lunch or dinner or sponsoring fun events?
• Firm leadership. Were firm leaders visible or absent? Supportive or snappy? Was help offered if needed?
• Practice and procedure. Did you find any ways for the firm to implement a better practice or procedure? If so, how was your idea received?
• Opportunity. Did you spot any opportunities for you to grow and learn? Any areas of special interest? People that you’d like to have as a mentor?
• Future planning. Did you come to any conclusions about your future? That may mean looking for a private industry job, so you never have to face another busy season—or that busy season wasn’t so terrible, and you like public accounting.

Whatever the stage of your career, it’s always valuable to step back and assess where you are. Looking at a busy season in a way that focuses on something other than long workweeks allows you to focus on how you want your career to move forward.

More:
How to Cope With Post-Busy Season Depression

The post Now’s the Time to Take a Long, Hard Look at Busy Season appeared first on Going Concern.

Writing is part of my job, so I take it pretty seriously. I write every day. I read well-written articles from a variety of sources. I like to read about writing as a craft. I work at it (i.e. practice). I try to be cognizant of my mistakes and bad habits and use editing tricks to avoid them.

Writing well is hard work, so it’s understandable that most people don’t write well. However! It’s amusing to learn that most people think their writing is fine while everyone else’s writing sucks. Josh Bernoff wrote in Harvard Business Review about the findings from a survey he conducted, saying, “We all think that problems of writing quality are somebody else’s fault”:

One simple question revealed our self-delusion. I asked: “On average, rated from 1–10, how effective is the material that you read?” My respondents rated the average effectiveness of what they read at a pathetic 5.4. By comparison, they rated the effectiveness of what they write at 6.9.

This doesn’t surprise me. Writing is a chance for people to show off how smart they are; they like to use fancy words, long sentences and tend to go on and on and on. In our heads, we sound brilliant, but when someone else reads it, they’re all like:

So if we can all get over ourselves and admit that we (I include myself!) need to work on our writing, Bernoff has some good suggestions for how to do just that. I’ll share what he wrote a give some brief commentary of my own.

Challenge yourself to be more concise. Whether you’re writing an email or a report, ask yourself if you’ve made it too long, failing to get to the point quickly enough. If you chopped out a sentence or two — or eight — would the reader notice it was missing?

Ironically, Bernoff could’ve been more concise here. My advice is to 1) Use simpler words: 2) Write shorter sentences; 3) After you’ve written something, try to delete at least 20% of the words. If you can’t, you’re not trying.

Identify your bad habits. Learn to recognize jargon, passive constructions (“something must be done!”), and imprecise language as bad habits that make it harder for others to get the meaning of what you’re saying.

I’ll offer a few concrete examples: 1) Don’t use adverbs. Just don’t. They’re throwaway words that rarely add to the meaning of a sentence. Delete them all! It’s as easy as Ctrl+F for “ly,” and you’ll see how many you’re using. 2) That imprecise language he’s talking about? Those are words like “this” and “that” and “it” and “something” or “anything.” 3) Another bad habit a lot of people have is pleonasms — that is, redundant words. A good example is starting a sentence like this: “Every year we hold an annual meeting…” Once you get used to recognizing them, pleonasms will stick out like sore thumbs.

Pair up with another writer. People tend to have complementary problems: Maybe you write too long, while your colleague has problems organizing ideas. The job of an editor or a peer reviewer is to show you what you cannot see. That’s why two flawed writers can make each other better.

Nothing to add here other than, a fresh set of eyes on anything you write NEVER hurts.

Build disciplined feedback into writing processes. When good writers are whipsawed by contradictory reviews, it leads to bad results. With sufficient notice and carefully organized review cycles, you can fix problems and keep your writing coherent.

Two suggestions here: 1) Limit the number of people who review your writing (you don’t have all the time in the world); 2) Look for consistent feedback. If two people note the same flaws in your writing, that’s evidence of a fair critique. Focus on improving those noteworthy things first and consider the rest of their comments on a case by case basis.

Finally, a few tools that have helped me:

• Word Frequency Counter — This will help you spot repeating words and phrases.
• Hemingway App — My old favorite. It helps you spot hard-to-read sentences, passive voice and yes, adverbs.
• Grammarly — My new favorite. There’s a free version for basic analysis but I sprung for the premium version that helps with style, detects plagiarism, analyzes for different writing genres (creative, academic, etc.), vocabulary enhancement, and more.

Now get out there and work on your writing. We’re all tired of reading your drivel.

The post How to Get Ahead: Work on Your Writing appeared first on Going Concern.

Hearing and listening are not the same. The distinction is very important. What do you hear when your manager says “Great job, Tyler. I especially liked the bond you created with the client. Next time, though, see if you can get your report in by noon instead of 5 pm.”

Do you pat yourself on the back and walk away satisfied—or do you start thinking about how you can complete the same quality work a little faster? If your answer is the former, you probably tuned out after “great job.” If it’s the latter, there are ways you can up your game. You can:

• Take a 50,000-foot view of the project with the purpose of critically assessing your performance.
• Set up a meeting with your supervisor to discuss ways you can be more efficient.
• Talk to a mentor or coach about how to approach the situation.

Good listening is a skill you can learn, and one that will be important to your career growth. The above example is pretty simple; real life situations often require more intuition. That’s especially true when you’re looking for business development opportunities. They can easily slip away if you don’t know how to read between the lines.

It takes practice, but it’s possible to become good at listening. Here are a few tips:

• Don’t multitask. Stay in the moment; resist the urge to check your phone.
• Show the speaker you’re listening. Body language is important. Maintaining eye contact, leaning forward and nodding as appropriate are common ways to do this. (Don’t forget to watch the client’s body language. It’s as important to the outcome as your own.)
• Don’t interrupt unless you need clarification. Let the person finish his/her thought before saying anything—unless you aren’t sure you understand what’s being said. Saying something like “I’m sorry to interrupt, but is this what you meant when you said….” Then, restate what the person said in your own words.
• Silence isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes it’s a sign that the person is thinking about what’s been said. It may feel awkward, so don’t let it go longer than about 30 seconds before restarting the conversation.
• Keep track of things that are significant to the other person. People often drop tidbits of information along the way, like birthdays and anniversaries, favorite restaurants and hobbies. Keep track of these things in your contacts’ details. They can be good conversation starters at your next meeting.

The post Work on Your Listening appeared first on Going Concern.

That, in a nutshell, is how lots of Big 4 associates talk about their career. For some of them, it’s a fine plan. In a way, it’s an extension of what many accounting students believe: get into a Big 4 firm and use that as a springboard to a career in private industry.

But there are pros and cons to everything, and this is no exception. The illusion of a well-paid job with set hours is not often the reality. In truth, the initial salary bump is usually followed by small annual increases; every accounting department has a busy season (or seasons), and the position that looks so promising can turn into a routine job.

Before you make the leap to industry, it’s worth thinking about extending your career in public at a mid-market accounting firm. Here are some considerations:

• If you like serving clients and helping them make their businesses better, a mid-market firm may be a better choice for you. When you’re working at a company, you only have one client.
• If you like learning and doing new things, consider whether an industry job will pigeon-hole you. Will you be satisfied if you’re only responsible for doing only a few tasks? Will you become bored doing the same thing over and over?
• If you crave work/life balance, start a firm and make your own hours. You can automate the practice and work from anywhere. 
• If you want to make a difference, a mid-market accounting firm may be the place for you. As an advisor to clients, you can impact how they perceive a wide variety of personal and business decisions.
• Helping others can be exciting. And not only do you serve as an advisor to your clients, but you can also impact the culture of your firm as well.
• As firms move away from hourly billing to value or project-based pricing, the culture of the profession is shifting. At a firm, you can help lead the change.
• If your goal is to earn a high salary, consider how much you’ll be making after 5 or 10 years in an industry job. Sure, you may have a higher salary than your public accounting cohorts at first, but according to Payscale an accountant’s pay increases somewhat for the first 5 to 10 years, but additional experience doesn’t have a big effect on pay. If you become a partner or owner, you can earn 2-3 times what senior finance people are making in-house.
• Speaking of becoming a partner or owner, how many CFOs are there at a company? It’s not a trick question: There is only one. At firms, there are many partners/owners, which gives you a greater opportunity to advance in your career.

A mid-market accounting firm is a great option for people who are entrepreneurial, like learning and want to help others. But you are the only one who knows what the best decision is for you.

Earlier:
Before You Leave Public Accounting, Consider This

The post Consider a Mid-Market Accounting Firm Before Taking a Job in Industry appeared first on Going Concern.

Happy Tax Day everyone! Today is the day for alcohol, sleep, and breathing a big sigh of relief. Another busy season complete! Today is also the day to start career brainstorming for potential post-busy season job hopping, ladder climbing, and startup launching.

So it’s also the perfect opportunity for me to call bullshit. Yeah, you heard me. I’m calling bullshit. Why do you ask? For every person (myself included) who answered the questions, “What is your career goal? Where do you see yourself in 10 years?” with the following response: “Oh, I want to be a partner.” or “CFO.” That canned response means you:

A) Still have no idea what you want to be when you grow up,

B) Are so burned out that you are actually asleep right now, or

C) Secretly know that you definitely do not want to be a partner or CFO but say it anyway because it is the socially acceptable response to the question.

I am guilty of all three.

I remember a little over a year ago driving home from work, listening to Scott Dinsmore’s TED talk “How to Find Work you Love.” At first, I scoffed at the idea of being able to do work that I loved that also fit with what I was good at. Then, I started to do research and met other CPAs who were fired up about their work. Then, I realized I could do something with all of my ideas and it wasn’t so crazy after all.

It can be overwhelming to think about other options, next steps, and putting together a plan. It can be scary to do work that you really want to do. Especially if you are struggling with burnout and have no idea where to start.

So I’m challenging you right now. Ask yourself the following questions to start the brainstorming process and write down your answers:

• What do you really want in your career?
• Why are you doing the work that you’re doing?
• What’s working for you right now and what’s not?
• What do you want to see changed at your company?
• What ideas do you have on how you would do things differently?

The accounting industry is changing and honestly, we will be the ones that continue to change it. By 2020, millennials will form 50% of the global workforce. Yup, that means you and me, everyone! Imagine the impact we will have if we can escape the burnout and become more innovative. It’s our ideas that will continue to move this industry forward.

That’s why today, on April 18th, 2017, I’m calling for a Millennial Accountant revolution! No more canned career aspirations, no more burnout, and no more status quo!

Okay, maybe that’s a bit dramatic…but seriously, are you going to live a life of quiet career desperation with your cliche career responses? Or are you going to take the time to think about the career that you really want?

Back to your regularly scheduled happy hour programming.

The post I’m Calling BS on Your Cliched Career Aspirations appeared first on Going Concern.

It’s easy—and therapeutic—to identify what you dislike about your job and whether it’s time to make a move. What are the things you actually do like? What about your job makes you feel fulfilled and happy? Identifying both the bad and the good will help lay the framework for your next job search.

Sounds like the answer should be easy, but it might not be. After all, we all are used to living according to the old it’s-the-devil-you-know theory of life.

When you break it down, though, and really think it through, how happy are you about going to work every day? Not that playing hooky once in a while isn’t appealing, but going to a workplace where people are friendly and not particularly stressed (except maybe for busy season) goes a long way toward liking your job. So take a step back and really think about it.

Six Areas to Assess Your Happiness Level:

1. Are you learning? Learning is a big deal when it comes to job satisfaction. Have you asked yourself lately whether you feel like you are growing or stagnant? Are you responsible for tasks that are a little outside of your comfort zone? When you feel like you can phone it in, your job can become a means to a paycheck rather than something you look forward to.

2. Does your personal life matter? We all have lives outside of work. This question concerns whether your firm recognizes that. Are you able to telecommute or take time off when you need to without worrying how you’ll be viewed?

3. Do you have a voice? Is the workplace collaborative or hierarchical? Are your ideas respected, even if they aren’t implemented? Feeling like you have an important role in your firm’s or team’s success is a key to being happy at work. It makes you feel like part of something bigger that’s working toward success.

4. Do you have friends? Having a confidante at work makes the day go better. A friend’s support can help you get through a bad day. It makes you feel like you have a work family you can rely on.

5. Do you feel valued and appreciated? Are you given increasingly complex work or are you stuck doing the same thing day after day? Do your managers thank you for doing something extra or pointing out a possible problem? Is there opportunity for growth and promotion?

6. What is the overall feeling at the firm? This isn’t a tangible. It’s much more intuitive than that, for example:

• If someone makes a mistake, are they berated or made to feel terrible?
• Do you have easy access to managers and partners?
• If you have an idea, say for a process improvement, do you feel comfortable making the recommendation?
• Do you get depressed on Sunday about going to work on Monday?

Take the time to assess your happiness level. The results may make you rethink your post-busy season plans.

The post Is Your Job Making You Happy—Or Is It Time for a Change? appeared first on Going Concern.

Do you think about thinking? Like, are you ever blown away by the monologue that occurs inside your brain and how it seems to have multiple personalities? I think most people have about a handful, at least two or three, different voices in their heads. There’s usually the egomaniac, a cheerleader/biggest fan, the mischievous devil, the worrywart, the parental figure, an asshole and maybe even a few others that I’m forgetting.

This will surprise no one, but I tend towards the cynical. When I have something important coming up, I can’t help but think about all the things that can go wrong. It’s my most common defense mechanism that usually results in over-preparation and, more often than not, a successful outcome. For me, this kind of negative thinking is a positive. I’m sure there are some of you out there in Internetland that do this, too.

Sometimes, though, my defensive worrier goes full-blown jerkstore. This is more likely to happen when things, in general, don’t seem to be going right. And when things seem bad, it’s easy to fall into a spiral and it’s even harder to pull out of it.

The problem is, work doesn’t care which personality your brain brought to work today. There are plenty of days where all you can do is tell yourself what a phony or a loser you are, but you need to get things done anyway. So, how do you manage it?

My favorite tactic is to give that jerk a name. I got the idea from this Harvard Business Review article that talks about managing the various voices you hear.

The truth is, we all have a Joey and a Vicky inside, and they can both be useful. Joey might seem unkind, but his high expectations and low tolerance for failure can be helpful in driving us to be our best. On the other hand, sometimes we need empathetic support. To some, Vicky may appear soft. But her comfort and reassurance can be useful, especially during times of stress.

Here’s the key: Be strategic and intentional about who you listen to – and when – even if the voices are inside your head. In fact, especially if the voices are inside your head. Those can be the sneakiest. It’s pretty easy to call Joey a jerk and ignore him; it’s much harder to dismiss the voice in your head because, well, it’s you.

In my case, my jerk’s name is CJ. And sometimes he is a jerk, but other times he just has high expectations and/or reminds me of all the things that can go wrong so that I’m ready for anything. He doesn’t care what I’ve accomplished in the past and rarely takes a day off. When he’s pushing me, I get motivated, but if he’s beating me up, I try to stick up for myself and tell him to shut up.

We can all recognize unnecessary negativity when it’s been lobbed our way. So when that bully who lives in your brain starts going hyper-critical, remember, sometimes he (or she) is just a loudmouth.

The post How to Get Ahead: Learn to Deal With the Critical Voice Inside Your Head appeared first on Going Concern.

But your goals are the same: you want to work at a place that feels comfortable culturally and puts you in a good position to grow professionally. Essentially, both parties want the same things from the relationship.

You need to do everything possible to present yourself in a positive light, from using good body language to having a polished resume. But you also need to realize that you are interviewing the firm as much as they are interviewing you. So let’s look at some things to think about during your interview:

Respect. This is a big topic. It ranges from the obvious to the subtle. Your interview should start on time, for example, unless there is a compelling reason the interviewer is running late. If that happens, someone should explain the reason rather than just letting you sit and wait. Once the interview starts, the person you’re meeting with should focus on you, not incoming emails.

Here’s the takeaway: the person interviewing you should treat you as a valued employee from the moment you meet. You should come away thinking the person is someone who is thoughtful, asks appropriate questions and follow-up questions, and has an overall demeanor you can relate to. To paraphrase Goldilocks, someone who is not too distant, not too overbearing—someone who is just right.

Time. Often, interviews are scheduled for a certain amount of time, especially if you are meeting with more than one person. That isn’t always a hard and fast rule, though. Sometimes interviews are shorter than expected—which is generally regarded as a bad sign—and other times they are longer. Trust your instincts when it comes to this. A quick interview may simply mean someone is signing off on you as a good candidate.

Who’s around. As you’re walking through the office, take a moment to look around. Does it seem like everyone is new or is there a mix of older and younger employees? Do they seem stressed or happy? If diversity is important to you, look for that too.

What’s around. What will your workspace look like? Do you think you’ll be comfortable working in an open space, cubicle or whatever the particular layout. Is there a kitchen or a lunchroom with coffee, etc. available? You’ll want to be in a comfortable environment when you’re working on site.

Questions. Look for the attitude of the person you are speaking with as they answer your questions. Are the answers straightforward or do they seem follow the party line? You’ll want to know things like why they’re hiring, how high turnover is, what they value most in their staff, what kind of training you’ll get, how personal goals are set and how feedback is given.

You’ll get some of these answers from direct questions. For the rest, you’ll have to rely on your instincts.

The post Important Observations to Make When Interviewing appeared first on Going Concern.

Sooner or later it happens. Your company gets acquired, the division is closed or senior management announces a reorganization. Welcome to the “New Normal” where loyalty is a negative. You are back to your first day at a new firm.

Adjusting can be tough, but with effort, you can get through it and build your reputation in the mean time. Here are some considerations.

Don’t dwell on the past – Immediately apply yourself to your new role. Don’t praise the previous regime. The old division no longer exists. You might think it’s a good trait to relive how well things were done before. Bad move. It’s not seen as loyalty, but a lack of commitment to the new order. Consider yourself serving in the Navy and you’ve been assigned to another ship.

Learn about your new boss – When two companies merge, they usually have double everything they need, especially staff. Layoffs often follow. Soon, your new manager may get instructions to, “Choose the 50% of the staff you want to keep.” You want to be a name and a face, not a number.

Cultivate their No. 2 – You aren’t a fawning toad, yet you want to be recognized by the person who knows your new manager. Often they bring a key staff person with them, because they want to be surrounded by people they trust.

Learn how the new manager interacts – Few things are more annoying to a person who interacts by text and email than being pestered by someone who wants face-to-face meetings. No. 2 can tell you how to address this.

Don’t stick out — First impressions matter. Don’t be the person who is looking for extra vacation time, comes in late or is the first to leave. Don’t be the complainer either.

Recruiters will call – Most people in large organizations dislike change. That’s why they aren’t starting their own businesses. Recruiters will call to lure you away to a competitor using the rationale, “It’s not your old firm anymore.” If you have a door, don’t forget to close it. Tell no one. Human sacrifices are still practiced in large organizations.

Mentors vs. Managers – Your former manager, assuming they are still employed, is probably not in a position to provide much help. Your new manager is busy putting their own stamp on the place. You have more history and a greater connection to your mentor. They are likely higher placed and can put a few words in the right internal ears. Out of crisis comes opportunity.

Understand the metrics – Everyone’s performance is evaluated on metrics. Is it the number of hours billed? Business brought in? Profitability of the department? Learn what rings the cash register. Align your efforts. Learn what’s expected of you. Be measurable.

Understand team dynamics – You may be alone in a new group. Some of your former teammates may have transferred over. Everyone has a fear of the unknown. If you don’t know the players, you don’t know the internal dynamics. Do everything it takes to be a team player, but don’t rush to take a leading role.

Your new manager may be someone on the fast track. They kept their job, your former manager did not. They typically surround themselves with people they can trust, a scrum that moves from division to division as they get promoted.

This brings us to point 10.

Deliver – Everybody is expected to pull their own weight. You will have tasks assigned. Put in whatever time, effort and connections it takes to get it done. The person who surrounds herself with people she trusts is looking for people who can deliver in the areas where her performance is measured.

The post Reorganization – What to Do When You Get a New Boss appeared first on Going Concern.

I’ve never been water-boarded (I keep begging my wife…), but I’m guessing it’s a lot like busy season. I’d say just about anything to make it stop…like, “maybe I should get my MBA?”.
Should you? Maybe (probably not). It truly depends on a series of questions you need to ask yourself before making such a stark financial and time commitment.

What’s your motivation for obtaining an MBA?

I’m generalizing an MBA-seeking CPA’s motives into four buckets:

•    Professionally Acceptable Time-Off
•    Higher Salary
•    Switch Industries
•    Entrepreneurial Aspirations

Let’s explore each as to whether an MBA makes sense.

Motivation #1: Professionally acceptable time off

This is stupid. Don’t borrow money to explain away a two-year gap in your resume. You’re better off quitting and freelancing for three months a year. Then you just say you started your own company on your CV when you decide you want to run VLOOKUPS for the man again.

Motivation #2:  Higher salary

The median salary for an MBA with 5-9 years of experience is $75k a year. This is one of those odd statistics that makes you rather proud to be a CPA; a first year manager in public accounting makes more than the average MBA. So if your motivation is purely financial, an MBA may not be the best career move.

Motivation #3:  Switch industries

Where do you see yourself post-business school? Do you see yourself in private equity, marketing, anywhere but public accounting?

Generally, if you want to be an investment banker or work in private equity, an MBA from a top institution is most likely required. An MBA could also set the foundation to become a CFO; yet those skills could still be obtained within the accounting realm.

If you want to work in just about any other industry, it may be beneficial to take an entry-level position to learn on-the-job. It could make sense to get an MBA to advance within a field at a later date, but at least you’d have clear direction.

And if you just want the hell out, leave. But don’t get your MBA yet. Take some time off, travel, and freelance as a CPA to learn about different industries and networks that may interest you.

Motivation #4:  Entrepreneurial Aspirations

In your most private moments, you see yourself as the next Zuckerberg.  But as I can relate, you’ve been working in public accounting for four years and feel like you have zero real-world skills.

“You’re telling me the CEO doesn’t see value in my audit risk assessment tool I copied from last year’s file?  What an idiot!”

I completely understand the notion that an MBA could provide the know-how and the network to succeed running a start-up.

But should you really spend two years of your prime risk-taking years learning how to start a company in theory, rather than actually doing it?  There are thousands of free resources to guide you along the way and even more networking opportunities to build the right team.

That’s not to say a top MBA program doesn’t come with benefits – just look at the VC money thrown at founders from the top institutions.

How are you going to pay for it?

Obtaining your MBA isn’t cheap – der.  It’s a function of tuition, living expenses and unearned income. Top schools can cost more than $150k, which doesn’t even factor interest on loans and the opportunity cost of foregoing a salary.

So let’s assume an MBA is the prudent career move for you, and you don’t have a gender-neutral sugar-parent to foot the bill. Are you willing to postpone your marriage to pay back loans for the next 6.5 years?

No? Well luckily as a CPA, you can work on your own timeline during school as a 1099 to help pay bills.

You could support an accounting advisory firm in the summer and bill $60+ an hour, or file taxes during busy season for twenty hours a week at the same rate. Plus, the entrepreneurial aspect of working for yourself will build your network and diversify your skill set when applying for jobs or starting a different company out of business school.

Which schools can I realistically get into?

This MBA admissions predictor can identify the programs to which you may be accepted.

Once you’ve determined your post b-school pathway, figure out the credentials you need. Connect with someone on LinkedIn or attend an industry meet-up. This will give you the insight you need to understand if the institution you can realistically attend is commensurate with the requirements of the job you want.

In summary, if you want to work in private equity or advance in a specific industry, are comfortable with the cost, and own the credentials for a top MBA program, an MBA may be for you.

But maybe not…

Josh Tarica is a co-founder of Beech Valley Solutions, the premiere network that connects CPAs with freelance opportunities in advisory, assurance and tax.  Beech Valley consultants enjoy higher pay for every hour worked, the flexibility to accept or reject projects, and the ability to diversify their skill sets.

The post Considering an MBA? 3 Key Questions to Ask Yourself appeared first on Going Concern.

I heard this brilliant piece of advice as a young and naïve tax associate fresh out of school from one of my managers. Seriously. Now that I am older and at least a little bit wiser, I am calling bullshit. This pits the staff against each other in terms of who had the most hours, a sick and competitive game. It ingrained in the staff a culture of the more you work, the more successful you will be. And this culture, of course, is what the company wanted because it resulted in each full-time employee working more hours. But the problem with the whole “more hours, more experience” BS is that it is categorically untrue.

According to a study by John Pencavel of Stanford University, research results found that employee output falls dramatically after a 50-hour workweek, and falls so much after 55 hours that there is actually no point in working anymore. Let that sink in: NO POINT IN WORKING ANYMORE. You aren’t gaining any more experience when you work to the point of exhaustion for weeks at a time. So print out this study, take it to your manager, and say that there is no point to working this weekend. I’m (kind of) kidding.

The main problem with this already terrible advice nowadays is those pesky millennials don’t want to work at least 10 – 12 years all day and night for a partner spot. This has led to increasing difficulty in recruiting staff at the senior and manager level. According to a recent article titled “The Ongoing Crisis in Recruiting” on Accounting Today, an Institute of Management Accountants survey found that, “two-thirds of polled senior finance professionals cited recruiting Millennials as a ‘challenge.'”

This “challenge” is actually a “paradigm shift” as referenced in a recent article on CPA Trendlines by Hitendra Patil. Patil shows that the first two categories in the hierarchy of needs of staff at accounting firms is actually “work-life balance” as well as “learning opportunities and early mentoring.”

Is anyone surprised? As millennials continue to saturate the job market and technology sweeps the industry with changes, we can expect to see more of a cultural shift and as a result, a shift away from the “more hours, more experience” mentality.

Would more work-like balance, value based projects, and learning and mentoring be so bad? The firm of the future will embrace these changes and the old school firms will not. Let’s see who survives.

I invite anyone to top my favorite BS line that you have heard in public accounting in the comments

The post The Best Line of BS I Ever Heard During My Time in Public Accounting appeared first on Going Concern.

The truth is there are many components. You are communicating every time you speak with or write to anyone whether in person, on an online platform like Skype or GoToMeeting, via email, text or social media. Communication is pretty much all encompassing, but the rules change according to the way you’re communicating.

Working from home? Stay in your PJs all day if you want to.

Going to the office? Dress appropriately.

Speaking on the phone? Doodle away. But be careful if you’re on a platform where you’re visible to the other party.

Email? Good grammar and spelling. All the rules you learned as far back as elementary school apply.

Texting? There’s a line between personal and professional texts. If you are texting a friend, or maybe even a peer, it’s perfectly okay to ask “where r u,” for example. But you may need to be more formal if you’re texting a colleague who is joining you at a meeting: “I’m about five minutes away. How far away are you?” Know your audience. The difference is how your text is perceived by the other person. Using social media acronyms or emojis is not considered good business practice in professional correspondence. And it’s just common sense not to text anything that might be construed either as confidential or professional advice.

Social media? By this time, the warnings about how you represent yourself are ubiquitous. The goal is developing an authentic voice while being careful about what you post.

Other kinds of communication are more subtle, such as etiquette. If you are having a meal with a prospective employer or client, have you ever wondered about which bread plate is yours? (Here’s a simple tip for that: Form your thumb and forefinger into a circle. Then look at your middle finger as the stem of a letter. You’ll have a lower case b on your left and a lower case d on your right. The “b” is for bread and the “d” is for drink.)

Handshakes are another type of nonverbal communication. Strong but not hand-crushing; definitely not limp.

Body language offers clues, too. If you are smiling while you are speaking, it will come through in your voice. Try it some time while you are on the phone. There are lots of other indications, as I wrote about in a previous column.

Whatever method you’re using to communicate contributes to a collective impression of who you are. Keep in mind that professional communications are different than personal ones. They all combine to become part of your persona—the general perception of who you are.

The post Verbal + Nonverbal Communication Skills = Your Persona appeared first on Going Concern.

I see lots of résumés from accountants. Less than a third are presentable.

When the perfect candidate has a résumé that fails, I get cranky and I call to suggest a fix. Hiring managers don’t do that.

Where to start?

Résumé experts tell us a résumé is a marketing document. They are wrong.

OK, maybe a résumé is a marketing document for marketing jobs, but not in the accounting profession. For accountants, the résumé is more like a two page audit summary: factual, brief and to the point.

Hiring managers have very specific requirements in mind. If those aren’t clearly addressed in the résumé presented, it’s “What else you got?”

So, your mission is to build a résumé that will survive the first 5-second pass. I’ll go slow and loud for the people in the back.

Résumé fundamentals

Use one font that is easy to read and scan; no borders, no graphics. Do not use a template. All that formatting ends up distorted while traveling through multiple apps. What you send is not what they get. Templates are great for nice printed and mailed résumés though. I just don’t know anyone who does that today. More likely the hiring manager will be reading your résumé on a tablet or phone.

Contact information

At the top of the first page, provide your full name and contact information. Recruiting is location driven. At least tell me your city of residence. If you are applying for an opportunity out of state, note your willingness to relocate. Do not put your name in all caps bold, please. Include a personal email address you check regularly. Cell phone number and LinkedIn profile address are helpful.

Objective or summary

A two to three sentence objective or summary sets the tone. Make sure it fits the requirements of the job you’re applying for. If it’s an Audit Manager opportunity, don’t send a résumé with a goal of Tax Manager. Approach it as a cover letter for this specific job in 50 words or less. Please don’t include a 4 column “skills matrix.”

Education

Include degree, major, school and year graduated. Yes, I know what the books say. Include the year graduated. List certifications with year attained. Don’t list all completed courses. Keep it brief. Include GPA if it’s really great and recent.

Experience

The experience section is in reverse chronological order, current first. Include company name, dates of employment (month and year), a brief (20 words or less) description of what the company does, industry, revenue, staff size, and any other information to provide scope and context. Public accounting firms have multiple services, so note client industries, projects and practice specialties.

Provide the job title along with a brief description of work performed in outline format.

If you have multiple employers in similar roles, use care in describing work experience. Don’t cut and paste the bullets from a previous job. Instead of 6 years experience it looks like you have three years experience, twice.

Compare the word count to time on the job. Résumés often get lazy updates; earlier experiences aren’t revised, which reduces available space for more recent and relevant work experience. A non-accounting job while in college shouldn’t take half a page to describe. Keep in mind, you only get two pages. One, if five years out of school or less.

If there are eight employers in six years, list them all. The bad news is you seem to have a short attention span; the good news is people keep hiring you. So focus on the contributions that allow this mobility.

Few partners consider short tenure attractive. Firm loyalty is real. Tenacity is a character trait. It’s best to know that going in.

However, they might consider being employer number nine if the skills are there, you have a great story about solving client problems and the career goal of wanting to settle down (as you noted in the summary at the top of page one).

Technology skills

A separate section for technology skills is critical. List the applications you have a solid user or expert level skill. Microsoft Office is good, but not a differentiator. Excel is worth a mention. Oracle, PeopleSoft and SAP for industry work. For the industry specific platforms, include a brief description.

List the public firm platforms: Thompson Reuters, Dynamics, ProFX, Sage, as well as QuickBooks Online, Xero, Intacct, Skype, Docs, Hangouts for those cloud accounting jobs. Did you include certifications in the education section?

Please don’t mention references. We’ll get to all that later.

Before you hit send…

Proofread your résumé. Make sure the From – To dates in the experience section flow. If they overlap, have an explanation. If there are gaps of more than a few months, have an explanation. Check everything.

You can’t believe how fast a hiring manager can find a gap in employment dates. Make very sure your résumé and the job posting details line up.

If the job posting is the question, is your résumé the answer? If not, revise your generic résumé to highlight those key skills and experiences required.

Conventional wisdom says that if you don’t have the specific skills, don’t apply for that job just to be rejected. These days, however, lots of experts suggest applying if the circumstances are right. While many hiring managers don’t look at a résumé and ask themselves, “How can we use this person?” it’s not unrealistic to think that they could. Especially in a job-seekers market.

Responding to a job posting is different than networking for future opportunities.

And lastly, only send your résumé to good places that will treat it confidentially, follow your direction on privacy and treat you professionally.

The accounting talent market is accelerating and there are great firms and employers that get it.

I hope to see your new résumé soon.

John P. is a confessed borderline curmudgeon. His excuse is 40 years advising individuals on career moves and firms on talent acquisition, performance and growth. A Talent Advocate for Accountingfly, John is helping both make great choices. He can be contacted, with fair warning, at Johnp@accountingfly.com.

The post Accountants’ Résumés Are the Worst appeared first on Going Concern.

It’s almost like these bosses relish in the thrill of the stress. Maybe they secretly wish they were skydiving in the Alps for a living. Now they have to settle for waiting until the last minute to file that Arizona state extension request. That is exhilarating. Yeah, not really.

When you are a staff or senior associate, having a fire drill boss sucks. It’s frustrating because you are trying to stay on top of your to-do list and be proactive. You try hard to get things done efficiently so you can, I don’t know, have somewhat of a life outside of the office?

We all understand that things come up, client emergencies happen. With proper planning and lots of communication, these last minute emergencies could potentially be avoided. So here are a few ways your boss causes busy season fire drills and what you can do about it. I’m coming from a tax perspective, but these apply to most situations with any kind of deadline

• The Friday afternoon emergency — Like when your manager says they forgot about the 30 state extensions that are due tonight. Not fun. The best way to remedy this situation is to understand what your deadlines are during busy season. Reach out and schedule a meeting to discuss important deliverables for the next month or two. Instead of the Friday afternoon emergency, you would have approached your manager on Monday about the 30 state extensions so you could get started ahead of time.

• The ASAP turnaround. When your manager says they promised the client a draft of the tax return tomorrow morning and are just reviewing it now. And then he asks, can you stay to make any changes that I have?  Annnnd it’s 6 pm. The most important thing to do here is to check in regularly to make sure you understand client deliverable dates which are typically different from federal and state due dates. Sometimes the ASAP turnaround can’t be avoided but at least you can know your due dates and check in with your boss about them.

• The return that sits for 2 weeks. This is a goodie. Your manager tells you that you need to rush to get something done and then it sits on her desk. The return sits for weeks until, “The client needs this ASAP.” Classic. A great question to ask is, “When do you plan on reviewing this?” or “When is a draft due to the client?” ahead of time. This way everyone is on the same page with the timeline. If the return is sitting, check in and ask why.

At the end of the day, it really comes down to a few key items. Understanding deadlines (including government, client, and internal), active communication all the time, and checking in on status so you can be proactive and helpful. That should help keep your busy season (relatively) fire drill free.


Image: iStock/shironosov

The post 3 Ways Your Boss Causes Busy Season Fire Drills appeared first on Going Concern.

• Where you are in the firm’s pecking order: Are you a staff accountant or a manager?
• Are you new to your firm?
• Do you feel recognized or overlooked?
• Have you developed special skills in one of the firm’s core niche or service areas?

Whatever your circumstances, you may be scrambling to find a way to distinguish yourself and show your value so others think of you when it comes to interesting projects and training programs.

Here’s something to think about: be consistent. In the quality of your work. In your reliability. In completing the tasks you commit to.

Consistency can be learned

You can argue that consistency is a trait and not a skill, and there are some aspects of it that are. But if you view consistency as always getting your work done before the deadline, volunteering for new projects, attending optional trainings or being part of extracurricular activities like charity days, it becomes a skill that you can learn and become good at. It’s a lot like developing a good habit.

That means you need to be aware of what is going on at your firm—watching to see whether a new niche is being developed, the types of training that is being offered, etc.

Perhaps the most important aspect for you, though, is that this consistency allows you to enhance your technical competence and develop better interpersonal skills. These are the kinds of talents that become part of you—and part of your résumé.

Consistency gets people’s attention

Over time, as others at the firm realize how consistent and reliable you are, these activities get you noticed. Along the way, you may even find a more efficient process or new procedure for doing something that adds firm-wide value and is sure to get you noticed.

Getting your work assignments done on time and to the best of your ability is simply a given. It’s part of your job. There is something to look out for, though: you definitely don’t want to become the dumping ground for jobs no one else wants to do. Which makes learning how to navigate the skill of knowing how and when and to say “no” quite important.

Navigating the more intuitive part of what it means to be consistent is more challenging. Sometimes you have to do the grunt work, especially if you are low man on the totem pole. And don’t forget to pay attention to the details. People may not notice when you do, but they sure do notice when you don’t.

Maintaining consistency is a skill too

Volunteering to be part of new initiatives, work-related or extracurricular, is where the value in consistency can work to your benefit. Taking charge of some aspect of the effort shows leadership. But be careful: don’t over-commit yourself to the point where it affects your consistency and reliability. That means considering your workload (especially during busy season) as well as any personal obligations.

You need to assess how to balance all of this with new, more difficult work. You need to be learning to grow professionally, but you also need to understand your strengths and weaknesses so you aren’t overwhelmed.

The important thing about showing consistency is being consistent. That’s not a typo. It’s a rule to live by.

The post How to Develop Consistency as a Skill appeared first on Going Concern.

My question is a little bit of a twist on the internship question. As an older accounting student, I struggled to get any real offers or opportunities. Right after I graduated, I interviewed with PwC for an audit specialist job at their Service Delivery Center (or SDC) which is the US form of audit outsourcing. I noticed over 150-200 of us got hired with contracts, but only 50 or so fulltime offers are available. My contract ends in February, and this seems like dismal odds. Normally, I hear at a PwC internship you are very likely to get an offer…but now I feel I was lied to and that there isn’t opportunity available. Should I stick with it? Look for a job on the down low? Maybe combine both strategies? Should I talk to anyone in PwC about what to do?

Should I stay or should I go now?

It’s understandable that you would feel frustrated about your full-time prospects when you are seeing “dismal odds.” Most in your situation would feel the same way. There are two parts to this situation that I believe will be helpful for you: 1) Advice on how to navigate the internship stage of your accounting career and 2) How to handle career frustration and make it work for you.

First things first: navigating the internship stage. Specifically, the internship stage when your shiny full-time offer is not yet in your hands. Just as a rule of thumb, it is NEVER a bad thing to network with other accounting firms and hear about different opportunities. 3 reasons why this is important:

• You are not putting all of your eggs in the PwC full-time opportunity basket. Especially since it sounds like your gut is telling you (and the 33% retention rate that you calculated) that your full-time offer is not guaranteed. The same way we are told to diversify our investments, diversify your job prospects so you don’t wind up disappointed and unemployed.
• You may meet a different firm that may be a better fit. I would be curious to hear why you hesitate to talk with other firms. At the internship stage, it is expected and you deserve to work at a firm that you enjoy. If you view this as an opportunity (more on this later), then the results would be a win for you (full-time offer, money, glory!) and a win for your future firm (engaged & loyal employee).
• If you receive multiple full-time offers, then you have negotiating power. Oh, the power of negotiation with supply and demand. For every position, there is a salary range. Do you want to be at the bottom or the top of that range? If you show that you and your skills are in demand, then you can better negotiate the result.

The internship process is like a cattle call; it’s the opportunity for accounting firms to hire the best of the best when they are fresh out of school. It’s also an opportunity for you to play the hiring game to show why you are unique and why you are a good fit. Which leads me to point number two — how to handle career frustration.

Right now, you are viewing this situation as a problem. With the words “dismal,” “lied to,” “isn’t opportunity available,” it makes sense that you see this situation as black and white. “Should I stay at PwC or should I go?”

What if you challenged this thinking? What if you saw this situation not as a problem, but as an opportunity? Let me spell this out for you.

Person A (problem thinking): Ugh, my full-time offer isn’t guaranteed. I’m stressed and nervous and I can’t believe that PwC lied to me. I feel frustrated and can’t do anything about it.
Person B (opportunity thinking): I know that my full-time offer isn’t guaranteed so I want to do my research, attend job fairs, and utilize my network. My goal is to receive a full-time offer from at least 2 firms that would be a great fit so I can choose the best opportunity for me.

One more thought to leave you with…yes, it is true that there is 33% chance of you receiving a full-time offer. If you start thinking about this as an opportunity and feel confident about your ability, then who wouldn’t want to hire you? People will start to notice, including PwC and those other firms that you are going to network with. Instead of worrying about the future unwanted result — not receiving a full-time offer — focus your energy today working towards the goal that you really want — full-time offers, money, glory!

Image: iStock/StockFinland

The post Intern With Uncertain Future Wants to Know If It’s Time to Stay or Go appeared first on Going Concern.

I am currently working at one of the big four firms. My service line is tax. I still don't have an idea on what will I do in the future. I'm also interested on pursuing a law degree. I also want to experience C tax advisory (TAS) but I'm not sure if it's helpful to my tax related background. May you give me an advice on what will be my possible career path after leaving the firm if (a) I will still pursue the tax service line, leave the firm, and be a lawyer. What possible jobs will I get after one /2 year/s experience on that firm? I want an exciting and challenging job not just doing tax returns,etc and then I'll get promoted, I'll review the same documents. (b) I'll transfer to another service line which is the TAS after experiencing 1 year on the Tax Services Line. How can I use my background on tax at the same time utilizing my knowledge on TAS? Is there a position on the outside that has that job? Thank you so much in advance on your reply.

Dear Too Many Options,

It sounds like you have a case of the “What do I want to be when I grow up?” syndrome. This is cute when you are 12 years old. Not so cute now that you are out of college and trying to navigate your career on your own. What if I make the wrong choice? What if I make a change and end up hating it?

This type of thinking can be paralyzing. By being so worried that you will make the wrong choice, you are shooting yourself in the foot in finding true career happiness. It sounds like you have already started thinking about what you like and don’t like about your current job. You want different “exciting and challenging” projects and to not review the same tax returns every year. That’s a great start.

Here’s my main piece of advice: You are jumping the gun the bit. First step for you is to focus on you. Not on this or that career path, this or that next job title, department or company. Focus on just you. Put career strategy and career background and practicality aside just for a little bit. What do you really want? What do you want your impact to be? It’s time to turn inward and spend some time getting to know yourself instead of looking at every different job title on Indeed.com. 

It’s nearly impossible to make a good choice about a next step if you have no idea where you are going and where you want to end up. Without a clear vision, we either end up staying on a mediocre path that we know isn’t working or we just make a choice aimlessly and hope for the best. Neither option is promising. So here is some homework for you.

• Write down your career vision. What do you want to be doing in 5 years? In 10 years? In 20 years? What do you want to be remembered for at retirement? For each milestone, really try to imagine that you are there in that moment in the future and write in the present tense. Try to be as detailed as possible such as who you are working with, what you are doing, what strengths you have, what’s important to you, and what impact you are having. Focus less on what your job title will be and more on what type of work you are doing. For example, I am doing “exciting and challenging” projects in a fast paced environment for various tax transactions. Or I am researching tax policy by myself, writing a memo, and delivering the results to my supervisor. Really focus on what you want to be doing and what makes you unique.
• After you have your vision, write down your short-term options. How do these options fit with your overall career vision?
• At this point, you can research your options to gather all of the facts and see how each option would fit into your vision.

Now you can see that it all comes back to the career vision. The great part about this vision is that once it is written down you can make adjustments and changes to it as you change. It sounds like working for TAS would be exciting for you. What makes it different or better than what you are doing now? How does it fit with what you want in the future? Perhaps you want variety, to work with multiple teams, to run projects. Whatever it is…it is unique and specific to you.

The point is approaching your career as you would any other tax return or audit report. Strategically and step by step. Once you have the overall goal in mind, it is so much easier to know what your next step should be. So time to get writing that career vision. 
 

The post How to Overcome the Problem of Too Many Career Options appeared first on Going Concern.

I'm looking for some advice about returning to public accounting in a small firm setting.  I graduated with a BA in Accounting in 2008 and have been a licensed CPA since 2010.  I worked as a staff accountant for a very small CPA firm (4 accountants) for 1.5 years and didn't mind the work or the hours– at such a small firm I would put in 55-60 hours a week max during busy season.  I worked in both tax (personal and small business) and audit (small companies, not-for-profits, governmental, etc.) and didn't really have a preference for one over the other.  The pay was terrible, but I didn't mind the job itself.  I left for small private industry for circumstantial reasons that didn't have anything to do with disliking public at the time. 

For the past five years, I have been in a stagnant role at a small, old-fashioned private company, and I need out.  I've stayed because my starting compensation was excellent, but it has hardly increased in my time here and this dead-end job is no longer worth the pay (approx. $70K per year).  I work 45 hours per week and get 9 vacation days per year, and I only have maybe 5 or 6 hours of "work" to do each week. Although I was hired as an "accountant," the "work" is mainly monotonous secretarial bs with some A/P functions thrown in.  I answer phones and make coffee and am so BORED here; it's a joke.  Career suicide.

I'm strongly considering returning to public in a small firm setting (maybe 20 or so accountants).  I miss the challenge and variety that comes with public accounting work.  I'm completely burnt out with my current job, so I'm worried that my judgement is off right now.  Can anyone give me any advice about returning to public accounting given my current situation and my work history?  I know I would probably be starting at the bottom no matter where I choose to work, so I anticipate a pay cut.  Other than that, I really don't know what to expect.  My biggest concerns are career satisfaction and work-life balance; I am a mother to two small children that are my priority.  Right now, with a 45 hour work week, I technically work 260 hours of "overtime" each year anyways plus only have 9 days of vacation– not sure how much worse working at a small firm could be.  Could you provide any insight about whether or not going back to public is a smart move?  Or any other advice you can give would be so appreciated.  Thanks in advance!

Dear Bored and Stuck,

Your situation is the worst. Seriously the worst. And the longer that you let it keep going, the harder it is to get out of it. It’s like a vicious cycle that zaps your energy, makes you think you are on a one way path to “career suicide" and some days makes you want to drink lots of wine and binge watch Game of Thrones. (Not that I know from experience or anything)

You say you want career satisfaction (challenge and variety!) and work-life balance. You say that your kids are a priority. That’s awesome! You know what you want! Now, to make all of those things actually happen…like yesterday. Ok, how about next week?  

The main thing that you keep bringing up is your value. “I know I would probably be starting at the bottom no matter where I choose to work, so I anticipate a pay cut,” and “monotonous secretarial BS” and “dead-end job." You have hit the nail on the head: Your judgment is off right now. It’s totally normal that you would feel like this when you have been bored out of your mind for so long.

When you believe that your work isn’t valuable then no one else will believe that you or your work is valuable. This will come through in your resume, your interviews, and honestly, how much you will get paid. Tough to hear but it is true. So what can you do about it?

It’s time to shake it off. Like Taylor Swift? Kind of. It’s time to focus on you and why you are so awesome. A great way to do that is by learning something new this week. By trying something different. Maybe…

• Finish that book that has been sitting on your dresser since February 2015.
• Join a mommy and me class or try meditation.
• Learn how to cook the most amazing banana bread.

Whatever you want to do that is different and fun! Wow, that feels refreshing just thinking about it.

I know that learning something new has nothing to do with your résumé ‎or your Linkedin profile. But I will tell you why. Once you learn that new thing and spend that time on you, you are giving yourself an energy boost. You are telling yourself that you are vibrant and valuable. Yay for making yourself feel better! Ok on to the next step… 

With your newly reinvigorated self, take a look at your résumé ‎. Does it scream “I’m in a job that I hate and don’t think any of the work that I do is valuable?” If yes, here’s a tip. If 80% of your job is mindless, coffee getting, paper copying work, focus on the 20% of your job that is cool.

And if even that's a stretch, focus on the 10%. You get the picture. Make your first bullet the most amazing, results-oriented, bullet that you can muster. Read through the rest of your résumé ‎and with each bullet, ask yourself, “So what? How does this show that I am awesome?” Because in case you had forgotten, you are awesome.

And next, for the love of wine, focus on how much you are worth. You definitely do not need to start at the bottom, wherever you choose to work, and you definitely do not need to take a pay cut. You have 7 years of experience, you have a variety of skills (both public and private), and you are a hard working mom with 2 kids. Wow! You have accomplished a lot even if you don’t think so right now. Remember that confidence is contagious. Your interviews can go like this:

“My job sucks right now, I haven’t learned anything, and you should hire me at the bottom for less pay.”

OR…DRUM ROLL PLEASE…

“I’m ready for a new challenge because I’m such a go-getter. I would be the perfect fit for this non-entry level, higher-paying job (with challenge and variety) that has work flexibility because I care about kids. I have these strengths and I’ve learned these things (and I even just learned how to make a really great banana bread! Want a piece?)”

Confidence is contagious. You got this.

Image: iStock/cyano66

The post Learn Something New When You’re Bored and Stuck at Your Job appeared first on Going Concern.

To get your career conundrums addressed, email Rachel at rachel@rethinkninetofive.com and your question may be featured on Going Concern.

Oh glorious November, you are so sweet to me. You give me a time of low billable hour goals, clients on vacation, and tons of admin hours. In a world of crazy deadlines and overtime, this month is like public accounting nirvana. 

Being the overachiever that I am, I would usually take this time to rack up the extra billable hours so I could have a buffer before busy season. This way I would stay on track when the busy season billable hour goals went up like crazy town. And believe me, hitting the billable hour goals was a huge competition in my office. I enjoyed the billable hour race, probably a little too much. 

By having high billable hours in November and December, I thought I was doing myself a favor. In fact, I was on a one-way train to burnout. When we are used to working so fast paced all the time, down time can feel unsettling. You actually have time to think. To think about how busy season went and what you missed.

So I would stay plugged in to avoid it. The funny thing is that there will always be more work. No one is going to tell you to slow down so I’m going to recommend some things to help you out.

Take a lot of time off

Yes, taking time off during the holidays is a given. But Americans are notorious for not using all of their vacation time. A new study by Project Time Off found that “The average worker took 16.2 days of vacation last year, down from 20.3 days in 1993.” This is almost a full workweek! And if you work for a company with unlimited vacation time, for the love of sanity, take at least the days you had before the policy change. I’m looking at you Grant Thornton employees. You deserve the vacation and you know that you’ve earned it. When you schedule your vacation time, I challenge you to take an extra day and if you are feeling especially daring, take two extra days.

Unplug from email

I know what you’re thinking — “Shut the front door, lady. I can’t do that! What if there is a client emergency?” Just listen for a minute. I know that it can be hard to not check your email when you are so used to it every other day of the year. It becomes habitual with the smart phone. According to a recent poll by NPR, 30% of employees do a “significant” amount of work while on vacation. But by not checking your email, you will actually be more productive when you come back to work by feeling more recharged. Trust your colleagues and put up that out of office message with the email addresses and phone numbers of the colleagues on your team. If there actually is an emergency, tell your colleagues to call you. Now shut off your email alerts and go enjoy your vacation!

Make a plan

Now is the time to make a plan for your busy season and how you are going to try to maintain some semblance of balance. What is important to you? For me, it was being home for dinner with my kids each night and doing work later in the evening. I also worked from home once a week. For you, it may be going for a run or making time to read a book. It’s so easy to put ourselves last with work and kids and activities especially during busy season. So make a plan now on how you want to make busy season work better for you. No one will set boundaries for you. Make a plan and try to stick to it.

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If you haven’t realized yet, learning doesn’t stop with a degree or even with a CPA license. Continuous learning is a part of your career. In fact, Fast Company editor Robert Safian says “the most important skill is the ability to learn new skills.” With the pace of change, this skill has never been more important. Luckily, most organizations will train you in the things THEY think you should know. They will train you for your CURRENT job responsibilities. But it’s up to you to go above and beyond, learning outside of your current responsibilities, in order to grow and succeed in your career. In this presentation you will learn why it’s so important to learn outside and beyond the required “CPE” and some tools you can use to do it all while balancing everything else in your life.

Presented By: Rebekah Brown, CPA
Manager, Membership Development & Engagement
Maryland Association of CPAs

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Buying into the myth –- They hold a great job with perks provided by the firm.  When traveling on business, a black car picks them up at home and drives them to the airport.  They can expense expensive meals if they are entertaining clients.  They assume they are born to this lifestyle and spend similarly in their personal life. Too bad that when these services are used in their personal life, they are paid with after tax dollars.

Confusing wealth with cash flow -– They have a great salary along with bonuses, stock options and deferred compensation.  They maximize contributions to their 401(k) yet don’t realize the asset base they will need to support their lifestyle in retirement.  They assume the good times will never end but without savings, they are “wealthy” only as long as they are collecting a salary.

Ignoring the difference between before and after tax dollars -– They are paid well, but a large amount of that money doesn’t reach the bottom line on their pay statement.  They are living a lifestyle based on the top line number, not the actual amount they earn.

Not repricing services –- Reviewing contracts, putting out requests for proposals (RFPs) and squeezing vendors is all in a day’s work.  Many people buy homeowners or auto insurance once and keep paying the escalating premiums year after year.

Underinsured -– They carry insurance through their job.  If they are killed by an exploding cappuccino maker on a business trip, their family will be comfortable.  That insurance may disappear if they leave the firm or are between jobs.  Staying away from cappuccino makers is only part of the solution.

Ignoring budgeting –- Lots of people's lives in the office revolves around comparing actual vs. targeted numbers on spreadsheets.  At home, impulse shopping is the norm.  That’s what credit cards are for.  Why don't more people think about running their personal life as a business, considering the savings they put away as their net profit?

Carrying revolving charge card balances -– The easiest way to get a 17% return on your money is to pay off a credit card charging 16.99% on outstanding balances.

Keeping up with the Joneses -– Why would competitive Type A personalities be any different in their personal lives?  If the neighbors got a new car, we need one too.  Oh, the kitchen is five years old?  It’s time to replace it.

Eating Out vs. Eating In –- It’s been said the grander the home kitchen, the less likely it’s ever used.  In April 2015 Bloomberg reported Americans now spend more eating out vs. eating in. Combined with the old restaurant adage that “The material cost of the meal served should not exceed 25% of the price," it’s easy to see money is being wasted.

Saving pennies not dollars -– People will shop for the best price on gasoline while spending far more than they should on goods and services.  Grocery shopping is an exercise in commodity market pricing, yet many people buy familiar brands regardless of cost.

Not realizing what things cost -– Paying by credit card instead of counting out currency disconnects people from the reality of what things cost.  Need proof?  Let’s assume you use an Easy Pass when driving.  What’s the toll on the highway?  The bridge?  You have no idea, do you?

Accumulating overhead costs -– It’s easy to pay for big purchases over time.  It’s the rationale behind mortgages.  People often choose to lease, not purchase cars.  They sign up for the deluxe bundle of cable TV channels.  If they were downsized, they are left with a group of built in expenses, many of which cannot be simply cancelled.  If you can’t afford the item without financing over time, should you be buying it at all?

Reward yourself –- Work hard, play hard makes sense.  The cruise industry is great at promoting tiers of accommodations that insulate you from the general population or surround you with luxury.  The persuasive argument these providers use starts with:  “Because you are worth it.”  Yes, you deserve a break.  Compare costs and benefits between entry level and top of the line accommodations.

As long as money keeps coming in, many successful people think the good times will never end.  The habits they have developed running a successful business don’t carry over into their personal finances.

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The Enrons and Worldcoms and Wells Fargos hurt the careers of innocent bystanders. It's a nasty and persistent reputational ripple effect that can be incredibly hard, and sometimes impossible, to counteract.

Wells Fargo & Co., where bank employees tried to meet quotas and earn bonuses by opening sham accounts for customers without their knowledge, is the scandal of the hour. And it is executives in financial services firms that suffer the most from guilt by association, an article in the September Harvard Business Review suggests.

Initial compensation at these executives' next job is about 10 percent lower than for that their untainted counterparts, the authors found. Across industries, job functions, levels of seniority, and regions, executives with such companies on their résumés took a cut of 4 percent in total compensation. Women were dinged 7 percent to men's 3 percent.

One expert suggests "addressing it head-on, both to headhunters and to anybody they’re meeting in an interview context," so don't be shy about opening with, "Hi, I'm Larry and I didn't have anything to do with those idiots."

[Bloomberg, HBR]

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Family — Blood is thicker than water.  Keep it in the family.  Cultures on other continents often identify themselves by tribal connections.  You got in by either birth or marriage.  Age and wealth are secondary.  You are one of us.

What does this mean for me?  Push business and you come across as desperate.  Just be sure everyone knows what you do and how you help people.

Another major common denominator —  You attended the same university.  You belong to the same local religious community or even country club.  There’s an exclusivity factor binding people together.  An older alumnus will want to help a younger one advance their career.  Relative levels of wealth don’t enter the picture.

What does this mean for me?  Taking advantage of your alumni connection is obvious. The local alumni luncheon club is a good place to start. You don’t need to run the place, just get involved and raise your visibility. 

Shared experiences — For example, the Federal Government’s list of Certified Government Contractors can be sorted on several social criteria including veteran-owned business.  Vets may prefer doing business with other vets because of the shared military service connection.  You’ve seen the USAA ads on TV highlighting the respect they give former service members.  Vets assume other vets will have an understanding of structure and discipline.  Respect stands over age and wealth.

What does this mean for me?  If you don’t have military experience, probably not much.  But it could be an opportunity to raise your professional profile if you belong to a diverse cultural community.  Major cities have chambers of commerce for different cultural backgrounds.

Business opportunities — An older, successful business owner will include young people (and not just relations) in their circle of friends and acquaintances.  They made their money in the consumer sector with a keen understanding of how people buy and process information.  They establish ties with the younger generation to understand their buying habits.  They also want to understand the communications channels they use and how they make buying decisions.  Seniors buy on brand reputation.  Baby Boomers rely on personal referrals.  Millennials often prefer online reviews.  Richard Branson is 66 years old.  He has 9.4 million followers on LinkedIn.  They aren’t all his age.

What does this mean for me? You probably belong to several business or professional groups along with large cultural organizations that hold events.  After attending a few get-togethers you have a pretty good idea who the “older but lively” folks are.  Get to know them.  They are probably influencers too.

Consider the context — If you lived in a nursing home in Florida, surrounded by people of the same age you would understand why these places are considered “Waiting Rooms for Death.”  Taking a step back, if you are older and all your friends are the same age, it’s easy to develop a “We are keeping our heads above water” or “Our best days are behind us” mentality.  You probably know plenty of cynical people.  When they include younger people in their social group, they pick up on their enthusiasm and vitality.

What does this mean for me? You don’t really need to do much.  The motivated folks will seek you out.

Mentoring —  As people get older, some wonder about their legacy.  What am I leaving behind?  Who have I helped?  A retired CPA might meet the son of a friend with a burning desire to start a firm or business.  They step into the role of mentor and guide.  They have connections that can turn into summer jobs or internships.

What does this mean for me? This might be a bonanza.  An older person you admire may have a reputation for helping others climb the career ladder.  Get on their radar screen.

People who have earned their way to wealth and success understand the need to constantly keep learning.  Insecure people erect barriers around themselves.  Confident ones cast a wide net.

Do you have a story about a good business or social connection that transcends the barriers of age or wealth? Share it below.

Image: iStock/monkeybusinessimages

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