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Before getting into some commentary that won't appeal to most readers, I'll start by doing a super Q&A right now for those of you starting on your summer internships: I invite you to send me more questions about either getting into the CA program, what it's like when you're already there, or any other random questions you have. There's a handy "e-mail me" link here or you can send mail to my gmail account. It's "acsblog". What should I expect to be paid during my internship? If you're doing an internship for a newspaper or other publications, quite possibly zero. But you probably knew that already. If you're working for a CA firm, on the other hand, your average paycheque will be close to if not very similar to that of newly hired "full-time" staff. I am not just writing that to rub salt in the wounds of my friends studying English. But I am aware that this is a side effect of stating those facts. What should I expect during...
Layoff talk is particularly interesting to hear when you're not on the receiving end. Otherwise, it sucks hard. Fortunately I'm sitting contentedly in the latter category, as are pretty much all my friends. The same can't be said for others, though . Playing tennis with some other CAs I found myself in a little "Big 4" mini-conference with reps from three of the firms participating. It's always an eye-opener to hear news from another company's perspective: Player 1 : "Your firm snapped up all the best employees. They asked everyone from their competitor how much they were offering, and immediately gave them a big boost on top of that." Player 2 : "Oh yeah, and your company stole a bunch of people from my group." Player 3 : "What happened?" Player 2 : "We laid off a bunch of people, and your company hired them all." Player 3 thinks - that sounds more like "picking up" rather than stealing. Ah, career moves in...
My RSS feed didn't send me the news that Neil has taken his blog offline . And, having realized it's offline, I'll twist a classic phrase and tell you that I've come not to bury his site, but to praise it. I've known Neil since a little time before the School of Accountancy, where we got to meet face to face - and we coincidentally ended up sitting a row away from each other during the UFE - and his site has always been a great beacon of professionalism that anyone writing about their job should be keen to emulate. I hope he can bring his archives back up at some point in time. His insights and observations were worth reading, and I think they still will be even if he doesn't talk about the Day Job. This is Krupo engaging in idle speculation, but when you work for industry the rules might understandably be totally different when it comes to how they want you writing publicly, especially when your full name is attached to everything you put out there for public consumption...
I'm not really in the mood to argue. I mean, I've had some excellent food lately, which should really put anyone in a good mood. But I'm still shocked and appalled. And I really should've replied to the news that photography is banned from the station with a chilly, "what for?" You see, according to the best guess of the Montreal train station's security, I apparently must look like a terrorist. Wow, they should've seen me when I was all scruffy and bearded in university. One of my friends from back then thought I was a History, rather than a Commerce student, for that simple fact. This is the second time in two months that I've been witness to an instruction from security to stop taking photos in a government-owned facility. And it's so stupid I wish I got drop the hammer on someone the way America's Henry Waxman does two and a half minutes into this video . Waxman is understandably annoyed with the stonewalling he gets from the EPA about...
This is funny if you know a few basics about quantum physics, simply because of the instant joke that stems from it: Quantum Cryptography Broken, and Fixed . The joke is in the comments to the article - " It was actually broken AND fixed at the SAME TIME! " It's an easy one - an earlier series of comments is even better: > Quantum stuff is so illogical to us mortals that you'd expect attempting to break it would just make it stronger. Which is precisely what happened. It continues along these lines, becoming progressively more incomprehensible to people who aren't interested in this sort of thing. Which of course is a sign that I should probably get back to studying for my exam. Ironically, however, reading articles like these at /. (slogan: New for nerds, stuff that matters) is technically a form of studying if you focus on security issues and ignore the non-essential nerd stuff, like HP's deal to buy EDS which is important for many reasons - perhaps you own...
I find myself in Montréal once more. One of my friends immediately asks by e-mail: And what are you doing there now? Business again? Or yet another in your endless string of vacations! I should have become an accountant, though it may not be too late to change that. My friend, you see, is studying for his doctorate in finance. Awesome. I just rode the metro to buy 6 bagels , had a proper dinner of smoked meat with pickles at Schwartz's , then walked 'home' to the hotel - which was a good idea since spending the entire day auditing people generally isn't the best way to get some exercise. The walk from Fairmount to the deli was healthy enough (check out the funky google "walking map") - going all the way home was an excellent idea. And of course, on the way home I saw horses, which weren't pulling one of the typical Old City carriages, but which were, rather, decked out in medieval regalia. A movie shoot for a TV mini-series set in New York city, of course...
Last week I left town to go on vacation. I checked my voice mail to see if I missed anything important - e-mail can wait until I return! - and found that, yes, the world continues to spin without my assistance, which is good news of course. I was, of course, intrigued to see so many messages from head hunters and recruiters though - I wasn't even looking for a new job and still am not, so to hear from so many unsolicited callers is always amusing. So in terms of my day job, I don't have anything, really, to worry about. In terms of posting things here, I'd love to post more photos, but I'm on an epic road trip which leaves me barely enough time to write e-mails to friends and family, let alone to post on here. Ironically, I already have a photo in my collection of the tallest totem pole in the world, in Victoria, B.C. I saw that on, last Thursday, and now I'm already in California. I'll be in the Grand Canyon in less than 48 hours. I find it hard to believe, especially...
In a bid to increase diversity, a major Fortune 500 company hired a group of cannibals to work in their offices. At the new-hire orientation session the kind HR representative explained that, "you're all members of our high-potential top-performing team. Although this office environment will be a shift to what you were accustomed to in the past, we will give you all the challenges and opportunities as the rest of our staff get. But please, remember to use the cafeteria and to not eat any of your new co-workers!" After four weeks the managing director of the office invited the cannibals into his office for a meeting. "Look, you're all working very hard and your group's productivity figures are higher than ever - everyone up to corporate HQ has noticed this, and we're proud of you. We noticed, however, that one of our secretaries disappeared in, mysterious circumstances. Do any of you know what may have happened?" The cannibals looked at their feet, shook...
A happy event I alluded to earlier has finally come to pass - people have started sending me things with the hope that I will give them some word of mouth attention. Having been a student journalist, I'm an exceedingly easy target, I must admit. My plan was that I wasn't going to write about it right away, but it's a slow night and I had fun playing with it already - which is a coded way of saying I'm a sucker for anything with a blinking blue light. What you see there is a portable iPod charger. Note the clever alignment which allows you to use the audio plug while charging. To design it any other way would, of course, be insane. My relationship with that piece of Mac hardware is a funny one. I got the iPod for free, and now I got my first ever accessory for it for free too. I think the accountant in me would've said, "but your cell phone can also play mp3s for you" is what kept me from ever actually buying the player. That, and the fact that it seems like...
Unfortunately you won't learn how to pass most exams with this knowledge, but applying the rules or tips in Dave Pollard's "When not to use e-mail" posting will make you a much better communicator. This list applies to all people, but there are specific insights for auditors. Especially when you're starting out, and you find yourself thinking, "this is great, I can just e-mail everything and wait for answers to come back." Although it can, funnily enough, often work in spite of Pollard's list, it's important to know how this can and will fail. Above: there are media other than e-mail which you can use for communication, more successfully too Remember, that time is precious, and e-mail can unfortunately waste it. Consider these two 'rules'. 3. When you are seeking information that is not simple and straight-forward 4. When you're sending a few people complicated instructions The rules are tightly linked - the more confusing something gets...
Now here's an interesting accounting-world related question - don't roll your eyes at the sight of "accounting-world" and "interesting" in the same sentence - if you were to almost reduce the sales-side of the equation and focus only on the cost of delivering audits, with a small profit margin to keep things running smoothly, could you deliver quality audits? Of course, it happens all the time with smaller firms that have lower overhead - which is why sole proprietor CAs can serve many small clients and charge lower fees to scoop up business from entrepreneurs. I wonder, though , if this approach is applicable to big firms too ? I haven't given this too much detailed though but the big thinkers are all over this all the time it seems . Something that definitely deserves some more attention and information. Like knowing what proportion of revenue is used to cover sales and administrative costs, for example It'd be interesting to see what would happen...
Last fall I was ready to write up a little article about the lack of glamorous in business travel. Well, then I got busy, put writing on hold, got to travel to Europe for a couple of weeks of work, and found the idea had shelved itself but quickly and quietly. Having said that, check out Gelato baby's account of a 36 hour trip home from Helsinki with an emergency stop in Glasgow to see how quickly things can go sour. It's a very amusing article. It also reveals how quickly travel can go wrong. All you need is one big missed flight to throw you for a loop. Which segues to the fact that it's been almost a year since my last vacation. It's about time to start planning the next one. This time it's going to be the West Coast. I'm not done going through the list of friends who have put down roots out there, but at the moment it's looking like I'll be able to see 15 or more people in 7 cities over a 10 day period. Wait, I just thought of another three. Make it...
Would you like to: go to work and meet people who smile at you and are genuinely pleased to see you, or show up at work and find people ducking and hiding when they hear you approach? Unless you suffer from some odd psychological condition, you'll probably pick #1. Now if you're an auditor, ask yourself - which of those scenarios describes how people treat you? Anonymous Accountant abandoned writing over a year ago, yet there's an incredibly long discussion on how much "audit sucks" and how miserable people feel in the audit profession. Sounds like there's far too many offices where: Staff receive too little guidance; Petty office politics rule the day; Every day feels like agony; Accounting students run away from your company before even applying; and People are either leaving as soon as they can, or have already left. Reading sites like that is eye-opening. Although I hear horror stories from some of my friends, I can't personally vouch for living all those...
You no doubt already heard about the big KPMG overtime lawsuit . But if you haven't, and you used to work for KPMG in Canada in the past few years, then you do now! That's because you recently received a letter disclosing what your share of the settlement is going to be. If you were an administrative staff person supposed to work 40 hours a week, no more, no less, the letter will indicate some dollar figure, your share of the almost $10 million settlement . Intriguingly, you'll get that letter even if you weren't an administrative person - that is, a young CA student or similar 'overtime exempt' professional employee. And what will the letter will tell you? It will say that your share of the settlement is zero dollars. Wow. Thanks for your service, this doesn't apply to you, have a nice day. I wavered between thinking "well, that makes sense", and "that's completely insane, why would you rub salt in the wounds of someone who presumably left...
Above: taxis at Charles de Gaulle early on a Saturday morning in January. How to tell you’ve been on the road too much I walked up to my house tonight and got ready to open the door. I quickly rustled through my pocket and pulled out my wallet, opened it, and paused. Wait a minute, how exactly am I going to open my front door with a bank card? Oh yes, perhaps I should look in my other pocket for my house keys. Ironically I wasn’t even staying for my entire recent trip in a hotel which used magnetic swipe access cards. Most of the hotels I stayed in used old-fashioned metal keys. This momentary collapse in thinking led me to think of a few other signs you’ve travelling for work a little too much. And a few other random travel experiences to keep the list interesting. The ability to actually visit your friends in person is surprising. I got to visit friends who were living abroad, but being reconnected with your old friends is always positive. Travelling with a co-worker definitely generates...
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