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A few people have written to me looking for help either getting a job with the Big Four, or with SOA/UFE exam preparation tips. I'm unable to offer any one-on-one services to help people with these exams as I'm fully booked helping colleagues at work and writing here. I will address specific requests that I'm able to write about here, but if you're a repeat writer I can't offer a complete set of diagnostics and advice via e-mail or phone calls. Among many reasons, there's the fact that if I'm going to respond with advice, I'd like to share the tips here, because that's the whole point of writing here in the first place is to help as many people as possible. I am, however, not one to turn away someone looking for help, so here are a few tips to keep in mind so if you didn't pass the SOA this year or are unlucky on the UFE on any year you can do better next time: Figure out what went wrong . This is the single most important piece of advice, complemented...
I have, not surprisingly given my little writing-break, an extensive backlog of topics to write about. I'm going to do two things right now: shine the spotlight on an aspiring CA , and answer someone's question. Judging a book by its cover, " Second Rate CA " has an excellent dark sense of humour, and the wicked good funny writing there supports that view . The writer is going through the difficult process of getting that all-important start on the road to having a CA. I wish lots of luck towards anyone in that challenging position, and especially those who are writing and sharing their thoughts. It's a valuable service. I myself did some extensive travelling and worked at a place best described as "anything but an approved CA training office", until I accomplished all I could there, and at the same time successfully landed my current job. Travel is always an option; it can be surprisingly affordable too. The question to answer, on the other hand, is from...
Another one of my intelligent comments to the PwC blog got blocked . This is getting a bit annoying . This time, I had some free job application advice to share. The pumpkins sum up my feelings about this shabby treatment rather succinctly. Here's the advice, for those of you looking for tips on how to prepare your resume and cover letter for that CA student position you're trying to land: "For most candidates the one page cover letter is a good call, but I've said before and had success personally with the mythical two page cover letter. It only works if you have very strong writing skills and know you're actually going to deliver a solid message - that means, no buzzwords or filler, but strong selling points that show why you're a good candidate. Maybe one out of a hundred candidates can pull it off, so make sure you know what you're doing if go down this route. Checking with your university career centre is a very good idea no matter what - but sharing your...
I found another CA blog out there - the first French Canadian one I've come across . If you have trouble reading Julien's French, run it through Google Translate. The translation's not perfect, but it'll do. The newest posting caught my eye ; in the spirit of hyper-critical UFE prep, here's some analysis. His writing's pretty good - the post about travel is a good read , and it's amusing to note that he looks forward to the chance to perfect his English in his travels, whereas I could say the same about improving my French when I'm sent on the road to the francophone parts of the world. Going back to his newest post about the UFE process, however, Julien talks about two factors that he claims make his program unique compared to those experienced at other firms - any message like that delivered on an official blog deserves closer scrutiny since new recruits are going to put some weight into what they're being told. Special Educators The first claim is...
I try to help people, they turn me down. That's about par for the course, I should say - auditors are used to not getting much respect. With the exception that other auditors usually listen to what we have to say. If I offer help to someone, they're usually happy to get it. My UFE mentees are a prime example. They listen carefully to my suggestions, and pass their exams. It's a strong symbiotic relationship - I'm happy to share knowledge. With that in mind, imagine my surprise when, while stationed a day's drive north of the city, I checked my mail in the morning to find an unusual e-mail from another writer. What I received was a polite e-mail from PriceWaterhouseCoopers explaining why my commentary isn't welcome at Nisha's PwC blog , part of the new "PwC Connect" recruiting site that's gradually rolling out. That they don't want to permit my voice to be heard at their site doesn't concern me too greatly as I have - oh, my own little soapbox...
I just wrote about getting the CPA designation - a relatively easy task for someone who already has either a Canadian or Australian CA at this time. You might ask - "so does this mean that's the next step for Krupo?". Well, probably not.I feel like I have enough designations at the moment. The CA is great, more than enough really. But thinking that Neil was going to write in June - trickery! - I wanted to be just like all the other cool kids - peer pressure is alive and well - so I went ahead and registered. Bonus points to the first person who leave a comment which correctly identifies what's in the above photo. Fast forward to a few days ago - dateline last Tuesday - I received confirmation this week that I passed the June CISA exam. With no false modesty, There was never any serious doubt I wouldn't. I mean, I walked out of the exam hall in under three hours. It's a four hour exam. Some argue that the exam is subjective : You will not know how you did when...
Part three in the series of "vacation question" posts. Click here for part two . Another reader's question: Is it common for juniors to take extra unpaid time off to study for CKE, SOA, and UFE? If so, on average how many unpaid days/weeks do people take for each of those tests? Using paid time off (PTO) is both common, and essential. Most companies will give you some paid time off to study, in addition to your vacation time. So you're looking at anywhere between 20 and 50 paid days off to study - most likely a number somewhere in the middle of that range. At the upper end, 50 days translates to 10 5-day weeks. Most juniors take a week or two off for the CKE - the Christmas holidays help you save some of that precious PTO. I never knew the joy of travel during my UFE writing year. But then I didn't show up to work for an entire month the following spring - guess when I took this photo? - so I feel like things balanced out nicely. The SOA is the next big 'sink'...
This is part two, continuing a series of three posts. Previous post . A reader asks: I assume it's next to impossible to take vacation during the busy season, so that leaves April to October, and maybe mid-late December open for vacation requests? But as a junior staff accountant, how hard is it to get vacation during this period, with so many things going on (CKE/SOA/UFE exams)? From your experience, are there any legitimate "tricks" that would maximize one's chances of getting vacation requests approved (e.g. submitting requests at a certain time)? First off, if you're going to take time off during your first year, it means unpaid time off unless you have the Most Generous Employer Ever . I'll explain why tomorrow in part three, but in a nutshell, all your vacation time will be "spent" on study leave, so if you want to take a vacation it's doable, but it'll cost you. If you insist on submitting a vacation request for your first year, do it...
I just wrote about the importance of taking your vacation time - and got some great comments and questions in response. In fact, I'm running a three-part response. This is part one. One of the comments I received points out that the mere ability to think about going on a decent vacation depends on where you live: It may sound insane to not take as many paid vacation days as possible, but it is a common practice in Asian countries, notably in Japan and Hong Kong. Even though employees are entitled to vacation days on paper, most of them do not take them. It is a given that employees should work just as hard as their bosses. This is not only done to impress the bosses, but also because this kind of brutal work culture is so entrenched in the society that this is simply "the way it is." That's a good point. And is yet another reason why I'm not to keen on working out there. Visiting, sure. Transfers, no thanks. Smoking is not a recommended way of dealing with the stress...
Shortly after writing about how to get hired to work in audit , I got another question from another reader: "when can I transfer out?" There are two issues - how do you transfer, and when do you transfer? The when is relatively easy: anywhere after about a year after joining the company you're at. But let's get specific. Most people stick around until they write the UFE. Note I didn't say "pass", just write One of my friends took off before the results even came out! Most, however, will wait until they find out if the passed. If they did, it's easy to pick between departments, though most will wait another year or so - once you're a "senior" or on the verge of hitting the rank for those with two years of experience, many more doors begin to open. They stay open as you become a manager too - so there's no rush either. If, unfortunately, you fail, you'll be more likely to stick around for another year to attempt to write. Some companies...
A reader wrote to ask: is it fairly easy to get hired at CA training office in Toronto? How difficult it is, what do they look for while hiring new interns? Good question. The short answer is no, it's not that easy, unless you have top marks in your accounting and audit courses and some strong supporting interests on your resume, like participation in student groups, part-time job experience or something else that helps you stand out from the crowd. If all you do is put together a resume and blindly shoot of resumes to every firm in sight, your chances of getting hired - either full-time or as an intern - are going to be 'average' at best. But you want to fly around the world doing audits - how do you stand out? It's not too hard. It starts with planning. And to plan, you need to set some goals. Your goals are as follows: Know what you're doing. This includes knowing when you should apply for the job. Show potential employers you know what you're doing. This includes...
If you're not familiar with CA firms, you may be a little surprised to know that there's such a thing as "recruiting season." Employers will come around university and college campuses during set times of the year - both in Canada and the US - to interview potential employees en masse . The phenomenon of ‘campus visits’ is especially pronounced in the US where there’s a plethora of colleges to visit - smaller campuses often miss out on visits from the Big Four and students who want to get noticed with an in-person interview end up having to travel to a campus visit taking place at another larger school. A reader asks what to do if you had the misfortune to miss out on recruiting season - or were simply unsuccessful in the hunt for a position . Above: Non-big-four recruiting poster in Buffalo's airport. Photo credit: Krupo (as usual) I'm grouping both scenarios together because the methods of dealing with either scenario are ultimately the same. Figure out what...
One reader asked a clever question to one of my recent posts about the market's job situation: Just out of curiosity, how much lay offs are there in the accounting firms? What is causing all these lay offs? I thought the CA firms had a shortage of workers and they were hiring like crazy? I’m not really in the accounting field, so I guess I’m behind on the new… Layoffs are caused by an excess supply of employees, and an insufficient demand for their work - same as in any company. How many layoffs are there and what's causing them? The short answer to both is, "it depends." If you live in a region where there's lots of work, layoffs aren't happening. If you're in a region where some or all audit firms lost business, you'll be looking at 2 to 20 people in a given city's office. Yes, I can't give you a hard number, just some ballpark estimates, and that's because it's all spread around. So much so that when someone hazards a firm number, hecklers...
The TTC's workers are threatening to go on strike again next month, the CBC reports . The rather angry comments left in response jive with me to some extent, though my reaction is muted by the fact I've seen how much idiocy the drivers have to put up with. Part of the TTC union's campaign is to divide the public transit service's economic value by the number of employees and to settle on the result as the employee's value added. Before the economists in the audience bust a gut laughing or just have an aneurysm explode all over their monitors, this quote from the above page's comment list nails the fault in that logic: Do the TTC employees honestly beleive that they are each worth a million dollars? Who are they kidding? I work for a company that has revenues of 346 Billion. With 40,000 employees, does that make me worth $8,650,000.00? Well put. Having said that, some of the TTC's employees do a hard job while still showing customers a polite and friendly face...
Bill Kennedy wrote an amusing post posing the question, are there any good accounting games out there for Xbox? Being a partisan PC gamer of sorts, my answer is, "are there any good games out for Xbox?" Seriously, you'll have to pry my mouse and keyboard out of my cold dead hands. If you're trying to interest your kids in business, the AAA "Tycoon" titles are, however, where it's at, as are titles like Simcity. Anything where you manage some sort of economy is the current pinnacle of 'awesome'. You could make an intelligent case for the original Railroad Tycoon and Simcity pushing me down the road towards my CA. Railroad Tycoon, and it's two strong sequels RRT2 and RRT3, have you in the role of a tycoon trying to make a fortune with railroads - had you guessing there, didn't I? Originl RRT, being a vintage 1990 game, was relatively basic, but the strong gameplay was there. You needed to make more money than you spent, had to decide on financing...
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