For This Accounting Grad, It Sure Beats Being Homeless

Posted on by Adrienne Gonzalez

It's about time we get a feel good story about overcoming life's obstacles and making your dreams come true:

Patricia Tracey grew up with alcoholic parents, was kicked out of her house and spent some nights on the street, had to fend for herself and her brothers and, after shuffling from school to school, never finished high school.

Today she graduates, at 31, from Jacksonville University with a 4.0 GPA in accounting. She was also named co-winner of the top accounting student award.

Paging all armchair psychologists: Is it any wonder then, after that turmoil, that confusion, that she finds refuge in the cool certainty of accounting?

After all, “it always works,” she said. “It always makes sense.”

According to the article, Patricia's next move is to tackle the CPA exam and eventually go on to become an accounting professor.

I guess Patricia wasn't around to weigh in on our conversation about why you became an accountant, and saying "because my parents were a bunch of drunk deadbeats" doesn't sound nearly as cool as "because I like to make rich mofos richer."

Aww, just gives you warm fuzzies all over, dunnit?

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Job of the Day: Ready to Roll Up the Sleeves at Fortress?

Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for hire me2.jpgThat’s part of the “skills required” for their Senior Accountant position that they just created. Since most of you are used to that sort of thing, landing this gig should be a snap.
Get the details after the jump.


Company: Fortress Investment Group LLC
Title: Senior Accountant
Location: New York City
Minimum experience: 5 years
Description: This is a new position reporting to the CAO of Fortress. The person will be exposed to the accounting, regulatory and business issues surrounding the company’s diversified investment portfolio.
Responsibilities: Assist the CAO and Accounting Policy Senior Manager with the oversight and documentation of the accounting policies of Fortress and its sponsored funds; Liaison with the controllers of the various funds on accounting, controls, and regulatory issues; Assist the CAO and Accounting Policy Senior Manager with accounting research/issues; Assist the CAO in the preparation of quarterly and annual financial statements; Prepare schedules for internal management reporting; Assist with various special projects
Required Skills: The ideal candidate will be a CPA and hold a BS Degree (or equivalent) and 5-8 years of finance accounting experience. Public company and/or private equity fund accounting experience is a plus.
See the entire description over at the GC Career Center and visit the main page for all your job search needs.

The Role of a CPA in an IPO: Open Thread

Back with another edition of “Accounting Career Couch” a undergrad senior wants to hear about some experiences the working stiffs of accounting world have had with initial public offerings.

Need advice on your next career move? Want to educate some rubes without coming off like a total jerk? Looking for a way to broach your co-workers body odor problem while not making it too personal? Email us at advice@goingconcern.com and we’ll help you let everyone done gently.

Meanwhile, back on campus:

Hello Caleb,

I am an undergraduate senior, and I have a presenta Special Financial Reporting Topics course. My group chose “The Role of a CPA in an IPO”, and I was wondering if this topic has been discussed on your site before, if not, could you make a post so I can gather related information, issues, success/failure stories, and personal experiences in order to complement my research? It seems this topic does not get a lot of coverage, and I believe it would be interesting and beneficial to all your readers.


To our recollection, this is a topic that has not been discussed on GC, so our reader’s inquiry makes for a good jumping off point.

If you’re not familiar with initial public offerings, then you can get the wiki cliff notes here and the SEC’s own fast answers under “I.”

Form S-1 outlines (check out the gory details below) everything a company needs to submit in order to register its securities and there are plenty of ways a CPA can assist a smooth and pleasant experience. If you’re client has less than $25 million in revenues and isn’t registering more than $10 million in securities, Form SB-1 can be used in lieu of the big boy.

Generally, when a company files its S-1, the SEC usually has lots of questions about the financial statements and the accompanying information. The back and forth can be grueling and if your client isn’t organized or financially savvy the temptation to strangle someone and everyone can be high. But hey, if you manage to stick it out with them to the filing date, there’s usually a pretty good party and your client should be grateful for your service.

So at our reader’s request, anyone with recent (or not so recent) experience working on IPOs is invited to share their war stories – the good, the bad, etc.

S-1

How Can a Prospective Intern Relate to a Partner During an Interview?

Welcome to the International Women’s Day edition of Accounting Career Emergencies. In today’s edition, an accounting major at UI and prospective Big 4 intern is having trouble relating to partners in his interviews. Can we help this future coffee gopher come up with some better ice-breakers?

Recently been fired? Need a contingency plan? Worried about backlash? Email us at advice@goingconcern.comSigh:

Hi GC,

I am a junior majoring in accounting at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign set to graduate in May 2012. I am in the process of applying to our school’s MAS program to get my 150 hours to sit for the CPA in the state of New York. Last fall, I had an office visit with PwC in NYC for their Summer 2011 Audit Intern. I was not given the job. A few weeks ago, I interviewed for Deloitte for their Winter 2012 Audit internship in NYC as well. I moved onto the second round but my second round interview was a 30 minute phone call from a partner. I thought the interview went well with him but I was not given an offer. I am now 0/2 in second round interviews with the Big 4. What am I doing wrong? I read somewhere about the facial hair article that partners generally do not come into contact with associates much and I am only interviewing for an internship. How can I connect with a partner who seems disinterested in interviewing college kids? I connect easier with HR and managers that do first round campus interviews but it’s hard for me to establish rapport with a partner. I do have another office visit scheduled in mid April for NYC EY-FSO so maybe the third second round interview will be the charm. These are the questions I usually ask managers and partners:

• Where did you see yourself 5, 10 years down the road when you first started?
• Did you take it step by step or did you know you wanted to become a partner?
• What has been your most rewarding moment or biggest accomplishment here?
• What are your plans for the next 5 years and what about the firm’s goals?

[Thanks!]

Dear Intern with no Ice Breakers,

Rather than complain about your lack of partner relations, you should simply be thankful that you’re not a grad assistant at UI. Since you didn’t ask for perspective I’ll let your lack of gratitude slide and address your query directly. Here goes.

You listed four questions that you ask of managers and partners and frankly, they’re terrible. They are trite, predictable and shallow. Plus they’re nearly identical, as they all are related career path. There are other things to consider, after all. Partners and managers want to know that you’ve really got something going on upstairs, not if you’ve read all the listicles on the Internet that have job interview tips. Also, partners are human (well, most of them) so asking them strictly business questions make you seem stiff and impersonal. If you can demonstrate an ability to relate a partner on a personal level, he/she will see you as a team player and someone who has interests outside accounting. You do have interests outside accounting, don’t you?

If you don’t have interests outside accounting: A) GET SOME and B) ask a question that isn’t about career path. What about work-life balance or volunteer opportunities sponsored by the firm or studying for the CPA exam and working OR what he/she likes best about their job? ANYTHING other than re-asking the question you just asked.

So next time you go into an interview and it comes time to ask a partner or manager questions, ask a diverse set of questions. If your questions are one a single track, your interviewer will think your brain is on a single track.