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If you started, say, an engineering program at one given university, could you switch partway through to a Chartered Accountant prep program instead in the same university's business school, and quickly get all the credits you need to graduate in a mere year and a half? One of the regular CA 'commentators' on the blogs and forums, sardaukar - who does an excellent public service in opening people's eyes to the "hell years" that await them as CA students, incidentally - did just that, and people wondered how this is even possible. Since I'm not really into Sudoku, and this is just the sort of "puzzle" I enjoy solving, I'll answer the question for the writer of comment #427. The funny thing about this exercise is that when you review the list of courses needed - I include links at the end of this article - many courses will count for "3 hours" even though they're full year, or half year. That means you can't divide 51 by 3 and...
If there's one question students in university may find hard to ask - even though it echoes in their mind all the time - it's "how much am I going to earn if I get hired by a CA firm?" If you're bold and outgoing and have friends who are already employed, this can be easier to find out. Otherwise, hopefully you'll stumble across either this post or the next forum as you turn to the all-knowing internet for answers. Stefano at mycasite took it upon himself to contribute to our collective knowledge by conducting a public survey - you can see the results here and comment on the outcome in this dedicated forum . He reports that the range of median salaries runs from $29,300 in Winnipeg to $45,000 in Toronto, with the size of the firm - big four or regional - playing less of a role than some might expect. A fair question you may ask, though, is why there's a 50% increase just for moving over one province. This is explained by the fact that regional pay depends...
I once alluded to instances of ignorant rants being granted precious space in newspapers. The most recent guilty party was written by a Toronto Sun columnist who misunderstands what "smart meters" are supposed to accomplish. Before you ask why I bothered with the Sun, I must explain that I'm willing to read pretty much any newspaper if you give it to me for free. It's in some ways a bad habit, although I've learned to fight it by skimming over the worst whiners. I'm exposed to enough poorly thought out thought processes as it stands when I travel by air. Who was, after all, the genius who designed this sign at O'Hare? Closer to home, an angry letter writer lauded this column , blasting the provincial government of Ontario for having the audacity to try and get people to conserve energy for all the right reasons. The angry protests about forthcoming doom caused by power prices going up by a fraction of a penny was simply too much to take. Let's not talk...
The sad news I broke ten days ago about "layoffs" hitting writers coming back from the UFE is being discussed in greater detail at mycasite.com . Click here to go to the article and read more details about the unfortunate "welcome back from the exam, pack your desk up right away" terminations. What's most troubling about all this is the fact that the website of the firm in question (which one of the unfortunate former employees identifies here ) actually has, as of writing, a job posting for a CA articling student . Uh, what, sorry? If I was drinking something at the time, I probably would've done a spit take all over my monitor on seeing that. It's more bizarre than anything I saw at Nuit Blanche. Well, with the possible exception of the young father who wanted to smoke up instead of returning to his lady and child. That was even weirder, but only by a small degree. And this wasn't bizarre at all, just cool. In the firm's defence, their website...
I've finally added a link to the ACS forums, but given that it took me over the past three years to do that, I won't be hurt if you don't post there. But if you, great. In the meantime, I'm seeing new forums popping up. Big 4 Bound was tired of relying on Red Flag Deals and just set one up too - you can find it here . But until a critical mass shows up there, I don't see anything wrong with pointing at the giant crimson gorilla and its relevant discussions. A complete lack of time dissuaded me from wandering in earlier, and I don't plan on sifting through all the posts there - so feel free to point out relevant discussions. It's what we do around here. Most relevant to people currently employed - and those wondering what future salary brackets are going to look like - is the rampant trench of speculation known as the salary increase discussion thread . As many discussion boards as varieties of donuts at Lee's! The RfD thread is in a holding pattern at the...
Too many CAs? Isn't that like saying "oh no, that's too many roast potatoes?" Absolute madness, clearly. Another interesting point I caught in the interview with Anonymous Partner discussed yesterday , was the claim that we're heading towards a glut of CAs, which seems to contradict the demographic data staring us in the face. "You simply cannot ignore economics. There is supply and demand. The supply of CA’s will keep getting higher at this rate, and demand will lag behind. This means that we have to start seeing a much larger demand for CA’s or we will have much lower supply." This stands out since it runs counter to the claims that with the wave of baby boomers retiring, we face, if anything, a shortage of CAs. Add that to the institutes fretting about not enough students enrolling for their apprenticeship programs, and this all becomes a bit of a mess to think about. Of course, at the moment all I have is competing claims dancing around my head - but...
I haven't found myself in this position, thank goodness, but there's an article that provides a surprisingly candid look into the world of credit card debt. If you're paying tons of interest and penalties on your original purchases for things you weren't able to afford in the first place, are you in trouble? Yes, but you can lessen the trouble. How? I'll summarize in case you're too lazy to click that link: Haggle. Like. Crazy. Your purchase was a bad idea. Find a way to cope rather than making things worse. The more likely you are to go bankrupt, the more likely the collections agency will be worried about never getting money back from you. Before you start asking for them to cut you some slack and decrease the amount of money you owe them, read the Times article to learn about how they've set themselves up: to guilt you into paying back more money than they even expect you give them! Though the article doesn't explicitly say how this works, it's probably...
Ah, the American dollar. Speaking ill of it, will, in some circles, earn you a sterner response than outright blasphemy against Jesus. Or maybe it's because the banks arguably own the government . Americans are sensitive about their currency, which should be yet another obvious revelation to anyone paying attention to the ennui gripping the US as the federal deficit climbs to ever-greater levels . The observation arose not while studying a macroeconomic treatise, but while sorting out a pile of coins: I'm taking a short trip to the US today and after my last adventure in March, I'm taking a lesson to heart: you don't mess with their money. In Canada we treat coins from Canada or the US at par. The 10-20% difference in currencies is so minor, in Canada only the greatest scold would care where your penny, dime or nickel came from. The line is often drawn at quarters, as vending machines usually reject the foreign coin, but up to ten cents, it's generally fair game. Not...
One of my good friends once asked me for my full mailing address. Soon, I found myself receiving a gift in the mail - The Great Crash, 1929 . Ah yes, the economic crash. That wasn't too long ago, really, and watching the continuing implosion of the markets, it's fascinating - if not absolutely disconcerting - to see huge parallels between what happened 80 years ago and what is taking place now. Pointing out the similarities is also ridiculously easy to do. The Wikipedia article I linked above led me to the following quote about the book and the eerie echoes of the present situation: So I buy and read the Galbraith book and almost wish I hadn't. It's all in there — every freaking thing that's going on right in front of my eyes, from the death plunge of overleveraged brokerage juggernauts to the assurances by the leaders of government and business that we've turned the corner and aren't really speeding our way to the poorhouse. So what do I have to add that hasn't...
I'm tempted to quote an entire Scott Adams blog entry verbatim, but instead I'll summarize it: what's up with colleges and universities calling you up to ask for more money once you have graduated ? It's amusing to read the "donor reports" from some such schools which list out the percentage of graduates from each graduating class who are supporting the school. Those who are now retired philanthropists make the classes of the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s look good: "participation rates", meaning the number of people who are donating from that graduating year, are typically anywhere from 20% to 60% or even higher. It stands to reason as people get older, they're both wealthier, and more likely to give away some of their wealth in the form of donations. Say what you will about the School of Accountancy, but at least they don't ask you for more money once you're gone. What's bizarre is the universities' attempts to get cash from the younger...
So. Will you ever get to enjoy job security? There's only one pair of answers that can adequately address that sort of question: "...short answer: "Yes" with an "If," long answer: "No" -- with a "But."" - Rev Lovejoy, 4F07 I write that, inspired by comments in response to one of Francine's popular blog posts on big four layoffs, this time with a tail of comments over 300 postings long and counting, including the following question : "Is at-will employment fairly common for 1st years? When can I expect to gain some sort of…security?" I couldn't help but quote the Simpsons in response to that question because in many ways you can give a simple "yes or no" response, but what you say, your words will be empty without some kind of explanation. If you want to treat "job security" the way classic unionist types look at it, not only is there no such thing in this field - a job for life - but the idea of...
Just yesterday I wrote about an example of extreme price discrimination . As cool as it was, I didn't actually spend money because as good as Josh is, I'm not a big fan or anything. I just thought the story was cool. Last November, however, I wrote about the new album coming out for a band I do care about - Metric! Before we get into the sales - there's even a freebie. An acoustic version of the new single "Help I'm Alive" is available as a free download. It's very different in its own way - listening to the 'real' version I can imagine the missing echo of the acoustic version's supporting vocals. Interesting. They've been offering pre-ordering for a while now - turns out the digital download copy of "Help I'm Alive" is about a minute longer than the radio edit people have heard so far. But now comes the musical marketplace's version of shock and awe: The name of the album has been confirmed - they announced it's called...
Price discrimination is the economic concept where you charge some people more if they value your product more than others. Charging more for hardcover books which come out first versus softcover books that get released down the road is one example. The high initial prices of computer games followed by the discounted prices are another: you charge more to the people who want it first. That's all well and good, but there are much more interesting extreme versions of this concept. Next time your economics professor drones on and on about a textbook example of price discrimination tell him he's boring and you have a much better story. It might not be "perfect price discrimination", where the seller gets the exact highest amount each person is willing to pay, but it gets close. It features Josh Freese former drummer from Nine Inch Nails: "I’m not sure whether he’s joking or is this for real, but what he’s offering to his fans is definitely funny as hell. Here goes (courtesy...
I'm shaking my head. You might be shaking your fist too, after reading this , in response to the plan to limit executive pay to a cool half million dollars US as part the American economic bailout plans: “That is pretty draconian — $500,000 is not a lot of money, particularly if there is no bonus,” said James F. Reda, founder and managing director of James F. Reda & Associates, a compensation consulting firm. “And you know these companies that are in trouble are not going to pay much of an annual dividend.” Mr. Reda said only a handful of big companies pay chief executives and other senior executives $500,000 or less in total compensation. He said such limits will make it hard for the companies to recruit and keep executives, most of whom could earn more money at other firms. I completely understand his logic. And it fails miserably. If you're experiencing boom times there are still problems with executive compensation, but at least you can try and argue that they're earning...
The internet is full of lively conversations about Canada's proposed federal budget. @krisjoseph Tomorrow morn Jack Layton will pitch the burial of C Party leadership as a shovel-ready infrastructure project As with most parliamentary democracies, the government's budget must be approved by the elected officials in Parliament before it is accepted. If it is rejected - a risk in minority government scenarios such as the one Canada finds itself in - the government falls. The opposition can try to assemble a coalition government. Failing that, an election takes place. It must have been a little annoying to be a young CA tax professional with the thought in mind "this may never end up actually becoming the country's budget if the government falls tomorrow," while rushing to complete an astute summary of the budget to share with all the firm's clients and the general public. Knowing that everyone likes a little publicity, the firms promptly posted their highlights...
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